Just Published! Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity

Today ScriptureSolutions  published a new booklet written by Louis Lapides. This brief  book can be found for Kindle at Amazon.

Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity by Louis Lapides

It came to no surprise to me that when I first became a Jewish follower of Yeshua, I was going to have a cultural crisis trying to fit into a Gentile Church.  I lasted a few months before I started asking inevitable questions, "I'm Jewish. Jesus is Jewish. His first followers were Jewish. The New Testament was written by Jews and a lot of the concepts they discussed have a powerful Hebraic background.  Then why is Christianity so "not-Jewish"?

Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity provides the reader with some of the findings I came upon as searched for answers to my questions. For me a lot of the issues were resolved when I studied the origin of most of the terminology used by Christians when describing their beliefs and practices.  When I was growing up attending Hebrew school in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah I never expected that Rabbi Printz would tell me that the mass practiced by the Catholic Church across the street from our temple was actually based in the Jewish Passover.  Nor was I told that baptism has it's origins in the Jewish practice of immersion or mikveh used when Gentiles would turn from their paganism and convert to Judaism.

Attending a church for me at age 23 was a shocker as I describe in my opening chapter.  Here is a sample section from that chapter that will give you an idea of what Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity is all about.

Here’s a shocker . . . Jewish people don’t feel at ease in a Christian church. The first time I attended a Protestant congregation, a Southern Baptist one, I couldn’t avert my eyes from the 10-foot tall stained glass mosaic of Jesus looming behind the pastor. I imagined for a few moments the man from Galilee was about to step out of the window, float over to my pew and ask whether I noticed the “Jews Not Welcome” sign at the church’s front door. “Of course,” I would respond, “But Jesus, aren’t you . . . .?”

Upon further reflection I figured out why I experienced the heebie-jeebies on my initial visit. As a Jewish seeker of truth, I was convinced I was cheating on the God of Israel. Why did worshipping in a Gentile Christian church make me feel like I was unfaithful? Was I cheating on my Bar Mitzvah? Was I betraying Abraham or Moses?
Was it the pastor’s perfectly pressed suit and tie graced by his Southern Baptist grin? It could have been the Sunday morning promise of that evening’s Lord’s Supper that did not turn out to be the smorgasbord I anticipated. I left the service feeling spiritually fulfilled; however, I was famished.
I slowly discovered my discomfort stemmed from the culturally alien environment of a Gentile church. I couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t their fault they were not Jewish. Yet it didn’t feel like I was at Temple Bnai Abraham, the house of worship I attended as a child in Newark, New Jersey.
Each time I entered a church building all I could see were crosses, wall-to-wall beaming Gentiles and hearing the words “Christ” and “Christian” sprinkled into every conversation. I later heard that such church-talk is labeled “Christianeze,” and all Christians learn the lingo quite quickly.
I did not fit. Church did not feel Jewish. The jargon was not Jewish. The terminology caused me to cringe, asking, “What have I gotten myself into?” When the pastor referred to me as a Baptist kid, I knew it was time to delve deeper into this Christian faith that was launched 2000 years ago by courageous Jewish followers of Jesus. I needed to know what happened to a messianic movement started in Israel that now feels more like it was birthed in Nashville, Tennessee (and I happen to love Nashville and its music).

I would love for my readers and friends of ScriptureSolutions to read  Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity and gain from this book what I learned on my safari through Christianity not looking for the "lost ark of the covenant" but simply the "lost Jewish roots" of Christianity. Check out the book and please let me know if it was helpful.

Just Published! Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity

Messianic Leaders Respond to "Christ At the Checkpoint" Conference

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Messianic Jewish Alliance of America:

As representatives of the international Messianic Jewish community, we raise deep concerns about the anti-Israel and, indeed, unbiblical nature of the Christ at the Checkpoint conference soon to be held in Bethlehem.

The Messianic Jewish community has noted the growing opposition to Zionism and the state of Israel within some elements of the Evangelical Christian world. Such opposition ignores the profound and ancient connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and the modern history of the founding of the state of Israel. Equally troubling, this opposition is often linked to a resurgent supersessionism, the doctrine that the church replaces Israel as God's covenant partner. This theology, which has led historically to anti-Semitism and the tragic oppression of the Jewish people, appears to permeate this entire conference.

The conference is being promoted internationally and features speakers from around the world, including prominent American and European Christians, several of whom have a decidedly anti-Israel bias. We address the following to the conference organizers as evidence of our concerns:

• Your conference title, "Christ at the Checkpoint," places the Israeli border checkpoints as the central issue of Christian concern. You frame the entire story of Israeli-Palestinian conflict in terms of Israel's alleged oppression and abuses, with no historical or political context provided, and no allegations of oppression or abuse on the part of any Palestinians or other Arabs historically or currently.
• You state a desire for "hope in the midst of conflict," and for peace and reconciliation among followers of Jesus. Sadly, both the structure of your conference, with its one-sided focus on the Israeli "occupation," and the anti-Israel record of some of its key representatives, work against peace and reconciliation.
• Your website features speakers who repeatedly raise "the grim reality" of "the occupation" as virtually the only challenge that Palestinian Christians face.
• Your conference objectives discredit Zionism alone of any political movement, thereby undermining your own talk of peace and reconciliation, which would require seeing both perspectives.
• You claim to "stand resolutely against all forms of violence and racism, regardless of the perpetrators," but the only form that you mention is Zionism. There is no mention of the violence perpetrated against Jews by Palestinians, including Hamas, which regularly attacks Israeli civilians.

In the tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there are two claimants to justice, Jews and Arabs, and true reconciliation efforts must recognize this reality. We urge you, therefore, to be true to your own affirmations and disassociate from all anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish expressions during your upcoming conference. You have taken a stand against Zionism as "ethnocentric." We disagree with this characterization and challenge you instead to take a stand against anti-Semitism, against jihad, against fascism in the Arab world, and against the cult of child martyrdom, as promoted by many opponents of Israel, including several that have hosted visits by your organizers.

We urge you to state support for peace efforts between Israel and the Arab world that recognize the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and its right to firm and secure borders, without any threat of terrorism.

We urge you to remember the terrible history of Christian supersessionism, which led to invalidating the Jewish people and their unique covenant with God, stripping away the Jewishness of the Biblical message of redemption for all through the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), and promulgating Biblical interpretation that demonized the Jewish people and inevitably resulted in centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jewish people.

And, finally, we urge you to remember the words of that famous Rabbi, Paul of Tarsus, who wrote these words to Gentile Christians concerning their relationship with the early Messianic Jews and the Jewish people:

But if some of the branches are broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root that supports you. Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. (Rom. 11:17-18)

Paul Liberman, President
Joel Chernoff, General Secretary
Messianic Jewish Alliance of America

Howard Silverman, President
Russell Resnik, Executive Director
Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations

Jeff Forman, Chairman 
International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues

John Fischer, President
Joel Liberman, Executive Director
International Messianic Jewish Alliance

CONTACT: Joel Chernoff, joelchernoff@mjaa.org, 610-304-2237
Russ Resnik, rebrez@umjc.org, 505-440-2265
www.MJAA.org
www.UMJC.org

 http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/messianic-jewish-leaders-respond-to-christ-at-the-checkpoint-139539453.html

Messianic Leaders Respond to "Christ At the Checkpoint" Conference

An Open Letter to Messianic Jewish Leaders and Congregants

I've never written a letter like this, but I believe this correspondence is a dire necessity.

I've been involved in the messianic movement since the early 70s. I've served as a messianic pastor for over twenty five years, founded and headed a messianic organization and written numerous articles and blogs on the messianic movement.  I've happily observed the messianic movement grow - sometimes to the joy of the evangelical church and other times to their chagrin.

Throughout the years I noticed the messianic movement split into two entities:  the messianic congregational wing and the "missionary" model perpetrated by Chosen People Ministries, Jews for Jesus and other lesser known organizations.  In light of this duality within the messianic movement we ended up with one segment distancing itself from the evangelical church while the other side remained within the churches to collect contributions to help further their efforts to bringing the gospel to Jewish people.

The bottom line is that the messianic movement has not had the best relationship with the evangelical church.  In the midst of this messianic two-headed whatchamacallit , the Christian Zionist movement grew its own head, wanting nothing to do with messianic Jews but instead reaching out to the Jewish community with their overwhelming love for the people and land of Israel.  Of course, many of our Christian Zionist brothers and sisters keep the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation "to the Jew first" hidden behind their backs to make their Jewish guests and dignitaries feel comfortable.

This synopsis of the messianic movement and the growing Christian Zionist community forms a necessary background to what I want to say.

Brothers and sisters -Jews and Gentile followers of Yeshua - we are in the midst of a full on effort by many of our evangelical brothers and sisters to bring an anti-Israel message into the evangelical church.
This "Evangelical Intifada" has crept into the church through several major avenues:



*Theological anti-Israel thought.  Some of us are familiar with NT Wheaton professor Gary Burge and his well known publication Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians in which he claims modern Israel has no right to the land today.  In a September 17, 2011 article by CAMERA writer Dexter Van Zile, a strong proponent of Israel, quotes Burge:

More ominously, under Rev. Dr. Burge’s scriptural analysis, Jews who reject Christ have forfeited their land and risk their lives by attempting to live in it. For example, on page 176, Rev. Dr. Burge interprets John 15:6 as follows: “The people of Israel cannot claim to be planted as vines in the land; they cannot be rooted in the vineyard unless first they are grafted into Jesus. Branches that attempt living in the land, the vineyard, which refuse to be attached to Jesus will be cast out and burned.Clearly, under Rev. Dr. Burge’s analysis, Jews living in Israel are transgressing limits set for them by the New Testament. 

Another anti-Israel theologian is Vicar Stephen Sizer from the UK, whose writings attack Christian Zionism and Israel in favor of the Palestinians. Sizer is not only an author but an activist who has shared podiums with Holocaust deniers, pro-Hamas advocates and has spoken his anti-Israel messages in Iran.

What these evangelical theologians have in common is their dedication to use both Old and NewTestaments to demonstrate God's covenant with the Jewish people promising them the land of Israel through Abraham is discontinued and now the Lord's only covenant is with the church. Therefore, there is nothing divine about the Jewish people having returned to the land of Israel and establishing a Jewish homeland. God's only relationship with Israel is for them to accept Jesus and become Christians.

*Political anti-Israel thought. The list is rather long when it comes to the political efforts put forth by these evangelicals to support Palestinians, point out Israel's so-called injustices towards the people in the Palestinian territories, attack Israeli government policies in dealing with the terrorist threat, fail to denounce anti-Semitic rhetoric broadcasted by Hamas and Fatah and argue to discredit the validity of a "Jewish" state. I cannot do this aspect of the "Evangelical Intifada" justice.

These Christian political activists include Palestinian Christian as well as American evangelicals like Lynne Hybels, wife of mega church pastor Bill Hybels; Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian who advocates a non-violent approach in dealing with Israeli soldiers through his organization Holy Land Trust yet his tweets point to the fact he does not support a Jewish state and British journalist anti-Zionist polemicist Ben White who is quick to label Israel as an apartheid state as he does in his book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide (for a great response to White click here).

You can tell I've quite a list that includes organizations that claim to be dedicated to peace and non-violence yet they send out daily blurbs through tweets, Facebook posts and blogs in which they do nothing but attack Israel and try to convince evangelical Christians to not support Israel. It is only a matter of time before these anti-Zionist Christians start calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. In a recent published set of seven evangelical affirmations from the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at Bethlehem Bible College in March 2012, the seventh affirmation reads,

The Bible teaches us to pray for all in political authority. We are called to obey them, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian, as an expression of our faith in God’s sovereign rule. We are also called to be a prophetic voice, challenging injustice creatively and non-violently.

This statement clearly sets the groundwork for BDS on the part of evangelicals spearheaded by anti-Zionist evangelicals. An affirmation like this makes one wonder whether the drafters of these affirmations will ever call for boycotts against Fatah and Hamas for their terrorist attacks on Israelis.

One more examination of these affirmations will suffice. Affirmation number 6 states:

Messianic Jews are the brothers and sisters of all who follow Jesus or Yeshua. We are one family bound together in a fellowship of love. Although diversity in political opinions as well as theological emphasis inevitably exist, we refuse to allow these views to hinder our fellowship in Jesus. Messianic Jews are welcome to attend the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference as long as we can set aside our "political opinions" aka Zionism. If that is true, then why are the conference speakers allowed to speak against Christian Zionism, the Israeli aspirations for a Jewish homeland and Israel's policies towards protecting the citizens of Israel -Jewish and Arabs- against Palestinian terrorist attempts. This sixth affirmation is a call for Messianic Jews to set aside our Zionistic commitment. Yet once the CATC is over, our pro-Palestinian brothers and sisters will spread out over the globe to broadcast their anti-Israel propaganda messages. *Anti-Israel propaganda films are also being shown in churches, Bible Study groups and Christian colleges across America: Little Town of Bethlehem, featuring Sami Awad and Porter Speakman's With God on Our Side. Both films are filled with historical inaccuracies regarding the Middle East conflict, erroneous analogies comparing the Palestinian Intifada with the Civil Rights Movement in America and ignoring Islamic Palestinian terrorism aimed at Israel. Both of these films are produced with the greatest of quality but filled with the lowest of bias against Israel. When these films are shown, a panel usually follows for the sake of discussion. The two that I am aware of did not include on the panel a pro-Zionist expert. Thank the Lord we do have several websites that address the anti-Israel evangelical crowd and we should be familiar with them: HurryUpHarry, ElderofZiyon, MEMRI, SeismicShock, RoshPinaProject CAMERA, ThinkingOutsidetheBlog and many others. In light of what I've shared, ask yourself, "Can the messianic movement afford to stay away from confronting these books, individuals, blogs, articles, tweets, films and lectures by anti-Israel Christians committed to the Evangelical Intifada?" It is time for the messianic movement to end the separatism that exists between the church and messianic congregations and come alongside our Christian brothers and sisters to unmask the deception being hoisted upon them by anti-Israel evangelical proponents. Organizations already in churches presenting "Christ in the Passover" or "Israel in Prophecy" need to switch gears and go beyond prophetic messages to tickle the ears of Christians and present substantive responses to the anti-Israel advocates. I call on messianic leaders and congregants to join in this effort to not sit still while Christians once again present an anti-Jewish message from within the ranks of Christendom. This is not new to us as Jews. Christianity has presented an anti-Semitic message from the early church fathers, has purged the Holy Land of Jews during the Crusades, tortured our ancestors during the Inquisitions, preached replacement theology in modern times and now has crafted an anti-Zionist theology to once again alienate Jewish people from their own Messiah and Redeemer, Yeshua. Messianic leaders, I encourage heads of organizations to start meeting and compose plans to deal with the Evangelical Intifada. Dialogue with anti-Israel theologians at Christ at the Checkpoint may be advantageous for a few days, but the Christians messianic Jews dialogue with at CATC are activists not merely theologians. They are on the internet day and night sending out their destructive missiles to convince the church to turn its back on Israel. I am willing to work with any group to do what I can to help any effort to form a serious, relentless confrontation using scholarly materials to usurp the falsehoods being foisted by the Evangelical Intifada on unsuspecting Christians. I close with one more example. In light of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration in 2017 a new website has been launched as a 5 year project. The goal of the project is to "promote a series of international conferences and cultural exchanges to enable participants to engage with empathy those who have been negatively impacted by the Balfour Declaration.” From Stephen Sizer's website it is clear from his own words that he is instrumental in the launching of this five-year project. I strongly doubt if Sizer and his cohorts will give a fair presentation of Israel's side regarding the Balfour Declaration or for that matter anything that occurred after the issuing of that document and the ensuring establishment of the State of Israel. Can we as messianic Jews afford to be silent while these events take place? Haven't we had enough silence when the church remained closed mouthed as our grandparents and great-grandparents were demonized by Hitler and his twisted theologians. I do not want to compare what is taking place today to the Holocaust and thereby trivializing the Shoah. However I do want to impress upon my readers the seriousness of sitting by and doing nothing while the church is once again duped by theologians with an agenda to place all the blame of the Middle East conflict on the Jews and to paint the Israelis as evil oppressors trampling the underdog Palestinians. Sadly, Christians fall for these kinds of comparisons and images. I trust this time we are wiser and that we will heed the call to activism. In the Messiah's grace, Louis Lapides

An Open Letter to Messianic Jewish Leaders and Congregants

Are Evangelicals Pulling The Plug on Supporting Israel?

Ever since I've been a follower of Jesus, life has been one long battle in standing for the truth. Over the years I've stopped trying to end the combative lifestyle I find myself in and have accepted the fact conflict comes with the territory of defending God's word against those who would try to corrupt it and deny its truths.

In my 20s  I enrolled in Dallas Baptist University as a religion major,  There I discovered my professors were all replacement theologians who believed the Church had replaced Israel and now all the promises made to Israel in the Jewish Scriptures are fulfilled in the Body of Christ.

I was confused, angry and felt as a Jewish person I had been duped into believing in a faith that caused me to mistrust God's word and those who interpreted it. How could God promise Abraham a geographical territory known as Israel, but later on reveal that His land promise was not to be taken seriously? Now the land of Israel, as I was taught, has been replaced with heaven, the true territorial goal of the Christian.

For the next few years I familiarized myself with books written by Covenant and Reformed theologians, amillennialists, post-millennialists and historic pre-millennialists (George Ladd).  During college and seminar I wrote papers disputing the replacement theological system and in the process became stronger in my belief that the New Testament makes a clear distinction between the Church and Israel, and that Israel is never replaced by the Church.

My break through came in an hermeneutics (science of biblical interpretation) class taught by Dr. Bell, a renegade graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary.  When Dr. Bell pronounced he was a "true Jew" and that Jewish people were no longer God's chosen people, I almost fell out of my chair.  I responded, "Dr. Bell, I perceive the weakness of your theology is that you totally disregard 1000s of passages in the Old Testament describing God's plan for Israel and it's those very passages that dismantle your theology.  It's as if you have a theological filter through which you interpret the Jewish scriptures that fit your theology but the passages that won't pass through your pre-conceived filter are ignored."

I made an "A" in Dr. Bell's class, God rest his theologically incorrect soul.

Today a  new element has been added to replacement theology. No longer is replacement theology or Reformed beliefs (it's all the same Israel denying theology) just a theological system but it has taken on a political dimension.

Replacement theology and their theologians such as Dr. Gary Burge, Wheaton College New Testament professor,  has now formed a clear merger with Palestinian Christians who are dead set on promoting an anti-Israel perspective in evangelical churches.

Already several Christian leaders have drunk the Palestinian Christian Kool-Aid such as Lynne Hybels, wife of mega church leader, Bill Hybels (Willow Creek Church), Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Tony Campolo and others who appear on the docket at the 2012 pro Palestinian Christians Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank.

These theologians and activists claim to be non-violent in their stance against Israel, yet they all share the common goal of distorting the history of the Middle East to make Israel the sole culprit of perpetrator of all of Palestinian ills. Sami Awad, in a lecture given at the Arvada, Colorado Vineyard, complains that the Palestinian Christian community has shrunk from 30% to 3%.  Yet he fails to go through the sequence of historical events in which the Palestinian Authority disrespectfully destroyed Christian churches and took over these holy sites as locations to engage the Israelis in battle.  Did Sami ever ponder the fact that Christians are leaving the disputed territories due to the mistreatment of his fellow Christians by Palestinians Muslims?  Oddly, the Christian population in Israel is increasing.

Bottom line: Evangelicals are being taken on a wild ride by these anti-Christian Zionists and Palestinian Christians who distort facts about Israel's involvement in the ME conflict, misuse biblical passages about God's promises to the Jewish people, claim to advocate non-violence while refusing to condemn the PLO or Hamas and focus only on Israeli soldiers and appeal to the evangelical concern for the underdog to persuade followers of Christ to play into the hands of these double tongued leaders who come "bearing words of peace."

What can be done?  If you are an evangelical -Jewish or Gentile - I appeal to you to share the blogs you find on Thinking Outside the Blog about the Palestinian Christian issue.  Read other blogs such as seismic-shock.com and ElderofZyon.blogspot and a messianic Jewish blog roshpinaproject.com. Share the articles you find on these blogs on your Facebook page.  Tweet the articles you find on my blog and others.

The underhanded work of Palestinian Christians in America's evangelical churches must be stopped. Do not be fooled by their words of reconciliation, "just cause" and non-violence.  Most of these groups such as Sami Awad's Holy Land Trust align themselves with Israel hating groups involved in divestment, boycott and sanctions against Israel and do all they can to foster an anti-Israel theology in the evangelical church.

I admonish my readers to start reading books on Middle East history so you can respond to the twisted lies perpetrated by these leaders who speak to unknowledgeable Christians regarding the recent history of Israel.  Go out and purchase Mitchell Bard's Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict for starters.

Are Evangelicals Pulling The Plug on Supporting Israel?