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Greetings all!
This evening, Jews across the spectrum from Orthodox to Reform and in between, will gather together as a Community.
They are marking Yom HaShoah, Day of the Devastation, the Jewish Community’s term for the Holocaust.
As the Torah says/means much more deeply in Hebrew in Gen. 1: 5, ” …and there was (the) mingling/mix, (the) blend of two and pleasant opposites, day and night (i.e., evening) and in connectedness the distinguishing (of) day (from dawn), day, absolute compound oneness absolute one”.
As a quick but key note; the Torah does not say at the end of Gen. 1:5 “… the first day”, but rather in Hebrew “day, absolute compound oneness absolute one” (the Hebrew “one” does not translate and is difficult to render).
While we see different, even seemingly polar opposites – day and night – after all we’ve all probably used the expression about 2 things or situations as being “like day and night – in Gen. 1:5 the 2 opposites of light and day and darkness and night, are part of “one”.
Yeshua’s universal big picture effort, teaching, and atonement, were not about saving “me”, but rather “we”, and making the Biblical principle of “absolute compound oneness absolute one”, as real and concrete between the two disparate elements of humanity – Jew and Gentile – as he and the Father are one. Cf. Yochanon 17:20-23; cf. 10:16; cf. Eph. 2:14-17.
Yeshua draws directly from the Torah when he very very knowingly speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd in Yochanon 10. The first use of divinity as a Shepherd is found with Jacob in Gen. 48:15-16. We should note Jacob’s reference to the Angel, who was Yeshua, in one of Yeshua’s unique appearances to the Patriarchs or the Israelites.
Cf. Ex. 23:23 and 1 Cor. 10:4; Paul’s KG specifically identifies the subject and gives emphasis that who he speaks of is the Mashiach.
As we have repeatedly repeated, early Gentile leadership – and continuing through the “Re- Formers”, rejected the Jew and chose Athens and Greek. As we have also repeatedly repeated “separation and compartmentalization” are a hallmark of Greek thought. Cf. 1 Cor. 3:1-5 etc.
As we pointed out in part in the two blogs “How the World’s Strangest Men’s Suit Jacket Wound up on Mount Zion”, post-Biblical Gentile leadership not only rejected everything Hebrew and Jewish, but then viciously turned on and literally demonized “the Jews”.
As we pointed out; Hitler’s Final Solution was his response to Martin Luther’s question at the end of Luther’s 16th century book The Jews and Their Lies. Hitler followed step-by-step Luther’s outline for dealing with “the Jews”. Luther was open to “a better way to deal with” what he called “this damnable race the Jews”. To Hitler the Final Solution to the Jewish problem was, to exterminate them….
Luther began as a monk in an order of Augustine, the late fourth early fifth century Christian leader called by evangelical scholars “the greatest Christian theologian for a thousand years”. Augustine inherited and continued the anti-Semitism of the Early Gentile Fathers.
Augustine’s book The City of God, cemented in place what is known as Replacement Theology. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term in short it means that the Gentile Institution replaces the Jewish People.
John Calvin, the other major “Re-Former”, also was anti-Semitic. Calvin is hugely hugely influential on our Baptist, Reform Theology, and any other number of denominational based brethren.
Anti-Semitism sprung also from the de-Hebraizing and de-Judaizing of Yeshua Hamashiach, into the Greco-Roman- Western “JC”. The “Re-Formers” continued Romanism’s anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology.
In short, Hitler utilized almost 2000 years of historic Christian anti-Semitism, including being able to specifically identifying Jews and building a ghetto.
The date of Yom HaShoah is based on the Hebrew calendar date of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, in which Jewish civilians with no training, no weapons, and no food, took longer for the Nazis to defeat than the whole French Army.
For those interested in their “Jewish Roots”, a ghetto is also part of that. A ghetto was first set up in Venice in the early 1500s in order to separate Jews out from the rest of the population.
Near me, 10 synagogues are coming together in which students will read stories of Jewish musicians who were murdered during the Shoah. The list of names of family members who were murdered will be read. Shoah survivors or their adult children will share their testimonies.
In Israel at 11:00 A.M. local time this morning (4 A.M. EST), air raid sirens wail for two minutes. Israelis get off their phones and drivers will pull over and get out of their cars.
Often, Passover and Resurrection Day – both Jewish events originally experienced only by Jews – none of Yeshua’s resurrection appearances were to Gentiles – as well as Yom HaShoah, follow the same week.
As you can imagine, I have been asked many times by Christians, “Why don’t Jews/your people believe”?
I often respond, “While my Christian brethren just observed and well remember the day of the Resurrection of the greatest Jew who ever lived, that he was – and is (cf. Mt. 1:1, Rev. 5:5 et al.) a Jew, is largely overlooked”.
“So, one reason my people can’t see Yeshua, is because they can’t see past the pile of six million dead Jews in front of them that blocks their view of the greatest of all Jews who ever lived”.
Some of my dear Christian brethren try to mediate the Shoah by pointing out that there were – and there were – some Christians who tried to help and even lost their lives trying to save Jews.
However, it is really this simple: what is the predominant religion of Europe? Hinduism? Buddhism? Even Islam? How does the Shoah then, even have the remotest possibility of occurring on the continent whose major religion for almost two millennium, was Western Tradition…….
My experience is, when faced with the Shoah, followers in general say “Corrie ten Boom”, as though she were the focus of the Nazis, then as quickly as possible change the subject.
A true Christian martyr, the young Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote to Christian leadership that he had been reading part of Zechariah and Romans 9-11 and pleaded that something be done to try to avert the coming tsunami.
His letter fell on ears of stone…..
Jews who had come to Yeshua almost a century ago and who had no Jewish means of expression in their following of Yeshua, were asked to leave evangelical assemblies when they showed up on Sunday morning to “church” with the yellow star of David on their chest. Their Gentile brethren were afraid that if the Nazis started pulling their Jewish brothers out of their assembly, some of them would be pulled out as well.
Sadly, so much for greater love Yochanon 15:13….
We acknowledge and as we say in Hebrew, “may it be for strength”, the work of the modern greats of Christianity such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Krister Stendhal, James Parks, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Barth Sr. and Jr, Marvin Wilson, Francis Schaeffer and others.
They have bravely and in the face of often much opposition, and with much humility and great understanding of the debt the Gentile owes the Jew cf. Rom.15:27 etc., endeavored to put forth a much more accurate and authentic understanding of Scripture, and of the essential Hebrew and Jewish basis of following Scripture and Yeshua.
God willing more in a separate email; today needs please to be focused on the Six Million.
I have been richly blessed to have prayed the traditional Hebrew and Jewish prayers many many times at the Western Wall. Some of these prayers go back to and before the time of Yeshua. Much of these prayers are drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures. When we had an apartment a few times for a month about a 30-minute walk northwest of the Old City of Jerusalem, I would always try to pray walk my way to prayer at the Western Wall.
One morning at the Western Wall as I was preparing to pray, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small group of Christian tourists. They looked around wide eyed as though they had stepped off a spaceship from Mars. Facing the Wall if you look the left, you will see perpendicular to the Wall a two-story stone building that has very large Hebrew letters on the roof.
I heard these Christian tourists say “I wonder what that says”? “I wonder if anyone here speaks English so we could find out”? “I wonder if he does”, referring to me. I turned to my left and said “yes I speak English; you want to know what the sign says”? “Yes please”, they replied.
I said, “See those six large clear plexiglass tubes with the Star of David on top interspersed among the letters?”, I asked. Yes”. “Those six tubes represent the Six Million; those Hebrew letters spell out the form of a word which in part more deeply means “call to mind with affection leading to action”.
I continued, “What you are seeing and experiencing here is the closest thing on God’s green Earth to how things were in the first century. Everything you believe in came from here and as we say in Hebrew may it be speedily in our days, everything will return here. Unfortunately, along the way that everything you believe in came from here and is returning here was forgotten and replaced in the West. In a sentence, that’s why those six tubes and those Hebrew letters are there”.
“Thank you very much they said, we don’t want to hold you up”. “No problem”, I replied. “Spend as much time right here as you can”.
Call to mind, called to mind with affection, call to mind with affection leading to action, is exactly what Yeshua’s fellow eleven Jews of the Galil (“Galilee”) heard Yeshua say (whether in Hebrews close sister language of Aramaic, or in Hebrew) at the Last Passover Seder cf. Lk. 22:19-20. The deeper Hebrew “call to mind with affection leading to action”, is typically simply translated an English as “this do in remembrance of me”.
The Upper Room on Mount Zion where Yeshua spoke those words in Hebrew or Aramaic is a very walkable distance west/northwest from where those six plexiglass tubes with the Star of David and the very large Hebrew letters, are….
So what might my very dear Christian brethren do today regarding “call to mind with affection leading to action” regarding the Six Million?
The last two or three years has seen a disturbingly marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents particularly in the US. An FBI report recently stated that 56% of hate crimes they are tracking are directed against Jews. Jews make up about 2.5% of the US population.
The United Nations has passed more anti-Israel resolutions than resolutions against all other nations – combined!
Anti-Semitic incidents in the US are now to the point where a Jewish organization is taking out TV ads encouraging non-Jews to let their Jewish friends and neighbors know they are not alone and they are standing with them.
Given today, I’m not going into it here but suffice to say I was more than shocked at the amount of anti-Semitism I ran into when I first started in ministry to my dear Christian brethren, about 28 years ago.
So then, what can a follower of Yeshua do to “call to mind with affection leading to action”, when it comes to combating anti-Semitism? If you are not already, make a concerted effort to speak up when you hear it or read it somewhere. Don’t let it pass by unchallenged!
Let those ministries know who tee off on “the Jews” in their preaching and teaching, or promulgate Replacement Theology, that they are absolutely dead wrong to do so. Do not support them financially; there is no Biblical basis whatsoever to do so! Love them yes, but do not support them materially. Be very very leery of what they teach.
If you see anti-Semitism or negative preaching or teaching about “the Jews” online or hear it on Christian TV or radio, make a point to call or write them.
If God forbid something happens in your area, make a point to contact synagogues in the surrounding area and tell them you both condemn it and as a Christian are standing with the Jewish People!
If there is some sort of rally or vigil, make a point to attend it. If you have school age children, be sure to monitor what they are taught when it comes to Israel today.
In Mt. 25:40, “… you did it for the least of these my brothers”, many evangelical commentators feel Yeshua refers either to the Jewish People or to the Jewish Brothers, or possibly both. It must be remembered that even those commentators who feel Yeshua refers to his followers, that those – very much (!) – include your Jewish Brothers!
Jacob
assemblywithoutthewalls.org
Gen..12:3 Rom..9:1-5, 11:11 Phpns. 4:17-19