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Israel’s Lost Theocracy
A common belief held by Jews, as told to me by one of them in his words,
is, "Christianity has done the most to destroy the Jews for 2000 years."
But Christians have not tried to destroy Jews but Judaism.
In the last 2000 years those who have done the most to destroy Jews were
the ancient Romans and the modern Nazi’s. And persecution toward the Jews
by the counterfeit Catholic church has been no more severe than their persecution
of true Christians. The truth is, from the very beginning Christ and his
disciples have been trying to save Jews! The mission of Christians
is to save life and not destroy it .
The only thing Christians try to destroy is sin, because, "the wages
of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). And one form of sin is false religion;
which includes Judaism, because the religion that God gave the Israelites
through Moses no longer exists, for God himself destroyed it.
Now, it was about 4000 years ago when God said to Abraham:
Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of
a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name
shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and
kings shall come forth from you. And I will establish my covenant between
me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations
for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after
you. And I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land
of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;
and I will be their God (Genesis 17:4-8).
But we know from the Bible that neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob (later
named Israel) actually possessed the land of Canaan. It was several hundred
years afterward that their descendants took possession of the promised
land, and it was done in a most astonishing way. The children of Israel
had multiplied greatly but were slaves in the powerful land of Egypt. Then,
through many great signs and wonders, the mighty hand of God defeated the
power of Egypt, freed the people from slavery, and led them out to the
wilderness of Sinai. There, at the great mountain, in preparation for entrance
into their promised land, God gave his people—this new nation—a great new
law and a great new religion. At first, God spoke to the people directly
from the mountain, but they became so terrified at the demonstration of
his power that they pleaded with Moses, saying, "You speak to us, and
we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19).
What God created was an earthly theocracy designed to last until the coming
of his only begotten Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Moses,
himself, told the people that the law and the religion that God gave by
him was only temporary because, he said,
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
among you, from your brethren—him you shall heed—just as you desired of
the Lord your God at Horeb [Mount Sinai] on the day of the assembly, when
you said, "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this
great fire any more, lest I die." And the Lord said to me, "They have rightly
said all that they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like
you from among their brethren; and I will put my word in his mouth, and
he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not give
heed to my word which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require
it of him" (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).
Moses was chosen to be God’s spokesman in order to teach the people about
their new law and their new religion. But Moses also told them to look
forward to the future when God would chose another prophet who would replace
Moses as God’s spokesman. This new prophet would teach the people new words
from God which would not be the same law and religion given through Moses,
for the prophet Jeremiah said,
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like
the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though
I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put
my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33)
The spokesman for God that Moses spoke about was the Christ, and he came
centuries later. It was he who revealed God’s new covenant about an even
greater law and a greater religion for a new and eternal nation of God’s
people—a spiritual theocracy known as the "Kingdom of Heaven" or "Kingdom
of God." The Old Testament prophet Daniel wrote a little about this (e.g.,
Daniel 7:27). Now regarding this new nation, Jesus said, "Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). When understood only
in an earthly sense, the idea of being born again is fantastic. But Jesus
went on to say,
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must
be born again. The wind blows where it lists, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but can not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes: so is every
one that is born of the Spirit (John 3:6-8).
Hence being born into the kingdom of God is not an involuntary biological
process, but a voluntary process involving a mysterious spiritual transformation
within us, as well as the physical act of immersion (born of water). It
is a process whereby God’s Holy Spirit enters into us, for Paul said, "Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells
in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
And this new nation from God is not a worldly organization, for Jesus
said to Pilate, the Roman governor, "My kingdom is not of this world"
(John 18:36). And earlier he had told his disciples, "The kingdom of
God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo
there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20b-21).
Hence, the kingdom of God on earth consists of men who have sought God
by faith for an inner transformation to holiness by God's own Spirit; and
these citizens of God's kingdom have no separate land or domain, but are
scattered throughout all nations, like leaven in a loaf ,
yet united in spirit with God; and although they are subject to human government,
their souls are ultimately under the dominion and government of God's own
Son, who will one day gather them together with him for eternal life in
Heaven.
The word "church" means a gathering, or an assembly, or a congregation.
Thus, whenever a group of Jesus’ disciples assemble together in his name,
that becomes a church. But the word "church" has also been used to refer
to the scattered population of the kingdom of God. The New Testament only
records twice when Jesus used the word "church," and both times he was
referring to all of his disciples collectively. Thus, it can be said that
the church worldwide is that part of the kingdom of God not
yet assembled in heaven with him. And so, unlike the old theocracy of Israel,
God’s new nation is now an international brotherhood of both Jews and gentiles—men
and women of faith who are the spiritual children of the promise that God
made to Abraham, each one having a heart fashioned like that of Abraham
who trusted and obeyed God. And God’s temple on earth is now wherever they
are found, for his Holy Spirit dwells within them, and the ark of this
New Covenant is their hearts, and they are all priests of God. Speaking
of this, John said,
"Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from
our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,
to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5-6).
Then, forty years after this new spiritual nation was established, that
earthly one which God had earlier created, God destroyed. That temporary
theocracy, with its law and its religion which began with Moses, ended
in violence by the fierce hand of the Romans because the Jews would not
accept his new kingdom. And so that race of people which God had formerly
gathered together for himself, he then scattered, and their land was given
to others for 19 long centuries ,
because they did not listen to God’s warning through his servant Moses,
which said: "...whoever will not give heed to my word which he shall
speak in my name, I myself will require it of him." And now all that
remains of the religion which God gave by Moses is a pale mutation that
evolved out of its ashes. Where is the temple with its utensils and its
ark of the covenant? Where are the daily sacrifices performed? Where are
the members of the tribe of Levi, who alone can serve as priests? Indeed,
where are any Israelite priests, for the office of rabbi is never mentioned
in the Pentateuch or anywhere else in the Old Testament? Where are the
cities of refuge? What about the laws of inheritance? And what of the Jubilee,
and the annual feasts at Jerusalem? And what of the many other required
animal sacrifices? Where, even, are the laws of justice and morality that
God commanded through Moses? For modern Israel is more pagan than the Arab
nations surrounding them.
No, there is no longer a theocracy which is obedient to the laws and
ordinances of Moses—it is not even possible. Hopes of resurrecting that
ancient theocracy are as futile as seeking to resurrect the body of Moses
himself. And those who pursue such vanity are only increasing the hatred,
the division, and the sorrow of that unhappy land. All such efforts are
doomed to fail because God is against them. And whether in the land of
Israel, or in other lands, what is now known as Judaism is a human invention;
a device used by a people too proud to accept the fact that God is the
God of all men, and not just one small race. What they have done is to
pick and choose those few of Moses' laws they want to obey, and ignored
the rest.
This is what all criminals do; for in God’s sight they are criminals,
even as Jesus told them when he was on the earth:
"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one
that accuses you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses,
ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his
writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5:45-47).
Moreover, the prophet James, when he wrote to his fellow Jews, reminded
them that all it takes to become a criminal is to violate one law: "For
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all" (James 2:10). But modern Jews do not just violate one
of Moses’ laws, they are guilty of most of them. But in order to
justify themselves they have picked out a few of his laws, and then heaped
upon them a host of other traditions they have invented through the centuries
after Moses. But in the justice of providence, this hodgepodge of dead
laws, called Judaism, has become a Frankenstein monster which has grown
to be a tormenting yoke about their necks, a jungle thicket of statutes
and ordinances, a labyrinth of senseless trivia which does not help promote
righteousness, but impedes it. The following is only one tiny part of Judaic
law taken from the Mishnah
(which is the first part of the Talmud), the division on agriculture, the
demai section:
1:1 A. The light things
with respect to [the category of] demai produce [those kinds of
produce which are dealt with leniently and exempted from tithing when they
are demai]:
B. (1) unripe figs, and (2) wild jujuba, and (3) hawthorn
berries, and (4) pine cones, and (5) sycamore figs, and (6) unripe dates,
and (7) fennel, and (8) caper fruit;
C. and in Judea: (1) sumac berries, and (2) vinegar and
(3) coriander.
D. R. Judah says, "(1) All unripe figs are exempt [from
tithing as demai] except for those from trees which bear fruit twice
a year;
E. "(2) All wild jujuba are exempt [from tithing as demai]except
for the wild jujuba of sqmwnh;
F. "(3) All sycamore figs are exempt [from tithing as
demai]
except for those which burst open [on the tree] [or, "which are scarified"]."
1:2 A. [Second tithe
of] demai produce:
B. (1) has no added fifth, and (2) has no removal [viz.,
it is not subject to these scriptural obligations],
C. (3) and it is eaten by a mourner before the burial
of his dead relative…
Etc.
It is a fulfillment of prophesy; for consider these words of Isaiah
Nay, but by men of strange lips and with an alien tongue the LORD
will speak to this people, to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest
to the weary; and this is repose" ; yet they would not hear. Therefore
the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon
precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;
that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people
in Jerusalem (Isaiah 28:11-14).
It was on the day of Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection that the Spirit
of God spoke to them this way, offering to give them this "rest to the
weary" (the gospel, which means good news), for Luke said:
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared
to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4).
But the Jewish nation "would not hear." Therefore the word of the
Lord to them is "precept upon precept…" which is impossible to fully
keep, making them guilty. God will judge them by their own legal Frankenstein
monster which causes them to "fall backward, and be broken, and snared,
and taken." And so, alas, they are doomed. Scoffing at the true word
of God--the good-news of Jesus Christ, brought to them by their own prophets--they
have fallen under eternal condemnation.
My heart goes out to many of them. For some modern Jews (like their
Muslim enemies) are full of zeal for God, just as they were during Paul’s
time when he said,
"For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to every one that believes" (Romans 10:2-4).
But their proud refusal to accept the Redeemer that God sent to them has
hardened their hearts, keeping them blind, even as Paul said:
Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech,
and [are] not as Moses, [who] put a veil upon his face, that the children
of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing
away: but their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading
of the old covenant the same veil remains, it not being revealed [to them]
that it is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whenever Moses is read,
a veil lies upon their heart. But whenever it shall turn to the Lord, the
veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, [there] is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:12-17).
And now they do not even know that they are worshipping idols instead of
God. They are worshipping the idol of the Wall and not their redeemer.
They are worshipping the idol of what had been the promised land, and not
the creator of the world. They are worshipping legalism, and not God’s
truth. They are worshipping the idol of the Hebrew language, and not the
word of God. For the word of God is not a mass of symbols; it is a collection
of ideas which can be expressed in any language. Worst of all, they are
worshipping themselves--their race as God’s chosen people. But if they
are still his chosen people, is God so weak that he cannot care for them?
Where was God during the Nazi holocaust, if indeed, they were his chosen
ones? Can he not even bring peace and security to those he is supposed
to love the most? Christians know why they are persecuted, but why have
the Jews suffered so much? It is not because they can no longer keep Moses’
law, for that would be unjust. It is because they have rejected Moses’
replacement. For God warned by the mouth of Moses himself: "I will raise
up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put
my word in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
And whoever will not give heed to my word which he shall speak in my name,
I myself will require it of him" (Deuteronomy 18:18-19). It was Jews
like Peter who proclaimed the truth to their fellow Jews when he said,
"...there
is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
Yet, there is still hope for the Jews, for Paul told the gentiles in
Rome,
Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand
this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until
the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved;
as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness
from Jacob"; "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their
sins." As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but
as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once
disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience
(Romans 11:25-30).
And so we must continue to pray for them, and to reach out to them with
the Good-news of Christ, hoping they will soften their hearts soon, so
that the veil over their eyes can be removed, and they will believe Christ,
and the day of their salvation will come. Then God will open the windows
of Heaven, and pour out a blessing upon us all. For Paul was both a Jew
and an apostle of Christ, and he spoke of how God chose the gentiles after
his Son was rejected by the Jews:
But I speak to you that are gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an
apostle of gentiles, I glorify my ministry; if by any means I may provoke
to jealousy [them that are] my flesh, and may save some of them. For if
the casting away of them [is] the reconciling of the world, what [shall]
the acceptance [of them be], but life from the dead? (Romans 11:13-15).
Their acceptance will be like this great vision of Ezekiel:
The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit
of Jehovah, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full
of bones. And he caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there
were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he
said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord
Jehovah, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy over these bones,
and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith
the Lord Jehovah unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring
up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and
ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. So I prophesied as
I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an
earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I beheld,
and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered
them over; but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy
unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the
Lord Jehovah: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an
exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are
the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and
our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people; and I will bring
you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when
I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves,
O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I
will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have
spoken it and performed it, saith Jehovah (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
It was when those dry bones heard Ezekiel’s words of prophesy that God
brought life back to them. And when the spiritual valley of dry bones,
which is now the Jewish people, hearkens to the words of Jesus Christ,
then God will bring spiritual life back to them. And O how we will all
rejoice!
1.Although Christians support laws to punish criminals,
including laws of capital punishment.
2.Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,
which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was
leavened" (Matthew 13:33).
3.God promised Abraham that he would give the land of
Canaan to his seed for an everlasting possession (Genesis 17:8).
4.Jacob Neusner, The Mishnah A New Translation, (New
Haven & London: Yale University Press) 1988.
Copyright 1997 by Walter
L. Porter may be reproducted for non-commercial purposes at no cost to
others.
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