“O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee (Israel) from the ends of the earth, and shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.” Jeremiah 16:19
While traveling the world, my husband and I were at times almost in unbelief at what we were hearing from congregations in different places on different continents. On our ministry journeys, we obtained a bird’s eye view of what the individual Christian’s understanding of Jesus and His People was in different cultures. It soon became clear that most Christians had formed a Jesus from their own imaginations…or a picture in their minds. Rather than shepherds teaching about His manhood, His childhood education, Jewish culture and beliefs, it does not seem to be too important, and centuries of ignorance developed. As a result, “Jesus became whatever they wanted Him to be for the intended audience in whatever era and culture they lived in.” (Dr. Tom Bradford, Torah Class) When we spoke about the Jewishness of Jesus, some of our precious Christian brothers and sisters came to us in tears, some in shock, and others could hardly believe their belief was in a Jew! This is how we discovered the confusion in the church of who Jesus really was – as if a surprise – something they really had not thought about before or never had been told. We were amazed as we had not expected to encounter this cluelessness of the One and Only Redeemer of our souls.
It was not until we learned about the apostolic warnings in the Writings of the Apostles (New Testament) of “not to follow another Jesus” (2 Corinthians 11:4) other than the One they (the Jewish Disciples) taught us, we developed a loving concern for all to know the truth. The entire Bible is centered around and based upon Israel,Jesus,and His People. As serious students of God’s Word, we must take time to ask questions and not be fearful to study Jewish and Christian history to find answers to our queries. If what we learn shows us we have erred, or about things we did not know, we can talk to the Lord God about it, admit we did not realize certain things we had come to believe or perhaps apathy towards His Manhood which did not line up with the Word of God. We just pray, humbly ask for forgiveness and move forward. We can then seek to learn about our foundational teachings with an open heart. Many today, in this generation, are eager to learn about our “Missing Link” which will show us if we are standing on bedrock or not. We must build on the foundation of the (Jewish) apostles and (Jewish) prophets and from which they taught – from the Torah. (Ephesians 2:20-22) There is never a time when it is acceptable to God to be separated from the faith of Jesus. If our house is built on sand it will fall; however, Jesus told us that the home of a wise man is built on solid ground. “He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.” (Luke 6:48) We cannot just have faith in Jesus. We must know who Jesus is and to know Him we learn about where His beliefs originated. The foundation of our faith is without a doubt, of Jewish origins and the Jewish Scriptures.
Correcting Unbiblical Wrong Teaching
It all began when a Jewish orthodox friend named Moshe, popped his head into our CFI ministry door asking me “Sharon! Why didn’t the Christians follow the Judaism of Jesus?” Then he left me – as I was unable to respond to his question. I had no answer at that time. Now I know. As I am accountable to God to share truth with you in order that we may help others we love to discover how some wrong doctrines have emerged in our churches, I believe Jesus will open up a journey of understanding about just how deception slipped in to centuries of places of worship and was not noticed. First, we have to realize there was no religion called Christianity when Jesus was on earth. He did not create a new religion nor faith other than what He taught. The Bible never tells us that He was the founder of a new religion. The cover photo of our magazine was graciously permitted for our use by the Nahum-Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv to help you understand what took place in church history. The photo depicts Chrysostom, a church father waving his arms in a state of hysterical upset at believers in Jesus who were worshipping in Jewish synagogues for centuries where the faith of Jesus was taught and from where His teachings emerged. The synagogue was His root source.
We’ve chosen just two examples of how church fathers took many into error. One such person was Chrysostom, labeled “golden mouth” because of his ability to teach elaborate oratory. As we dive deep into deeper waters of church history we will gain a better understanding of his erratic behavior in Antioch, an anti-Semitic city in the fourth century. Chrysostom protested strongly for believers to separate themselves from anything Jewish. They must find another place to worship other than with Jews. In other words, they were saying, “We will take your Messiah and faith but you Jews – we don’t want you!” Until today Chrysostom is “listed as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches as well as in some others” (Wikipedia). Chrysostom’s last words were “Glory to God for everything!” (Orthodox Observer News, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 11/12/20) I conclude this short history lesson about Chrysostom now knowing the answer to the question my Jewish friend asked me in our early years of living in Israel. I rest my faith in Jesus founded on Biblical Judaism and the Sacred Scriptures from the early days before Christianity developed. A church father separated believers from having anything to do with the Jewish people which is in defiance of Isaiah 56:3.
It is a perfect time for this generation seeking truth to rejoice in truth in order to clear the road to Zion – which highway we are commanded to clear for God’s Chosen People to walk without stumbling over debris on the road from centuries of wrong doing to the Jewish people. We need to fulfill the role of the church to Israel to prepare the Way of the Lord. “And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way. (Isaiah 57:14)
It want to encourage pilgrimages to Israel. Bringing a tour to see the Land and meet the peoples will help us to understand Jewish people and their God-given role to the world. Those who love the Lord are part of the Bride, but we are not The Bride, we join a redeemed Israel to be that Bride when He returns. Woodrow Wilson said, “The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.” While I realize the strength of the downward stream, I believe it is waiting to be purified to make right our relationship with God’s Chosen People: Israel. I know the Jewish people are waiting for it. This is why CFI Jerusalem staff diligently work to repair the breach in the walls (Isaiah 58:12) which Jesus had torn down between us – walls which got put back up after He went to Heaven. Our work is challenging but it is holy, and we love sharing with you what we have learned from living in the camp of Israel and educating ourselves.
We bring to your attention another church father, Marcion (ca. 90–150 C.E.), a man who in the 2nd century became an important symbol for breaking with the understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. He did so by not only pushing aside the Jewish people from their own writings, but laying aside Israel’s Creator as well. There are many facets concerning Marcion and his “take” on Israel which bear revealing, but chief among them are these – he was the first known Christian to gather and edit ten of Paul’s writings, along with doing the same to the Good News of Luke (Paul’s companion) and compiling them into a canon of texts. With these texts, he created a new theology. For Marcion, the Torah was something from the “God of the Jews – a supposedly mean, spiteful and confused Deity who Hebrew scripture spoke of and who belonged only to them. Marcion then, as the accuser, claimed this cruel Creator God was lax in his watching over Israel. He allowed them to become slaves in Egypt, and He called for the annihilation of the Canaanites, thereby causing confusion. “I create good, and I create evil”…”. (Isaiah 45:7-8) Other attributes Marcion culled together in his writing called “Antithesis” (or contradictions). Through these writings Marcion secured his place in religious history by proclaiming the theme which has become the siren-call for all who have embraced Replacement Theology. In his mind, this was to create a full complete separation; the one had absolutely nothing to do with the other. He had seen another “God” in the pages of his Bible, a God of nothing but pure love, who sent his own “Jesus” to save everyone else, but the Jewish people. He championed this new Deity who knew nothing but love, i.e. no justice, righteousness or discipline, a Hellenized, undefined “love” that removed itself squarely from the texts of the Bible. (Footnote: 1, 2) To followers of Yeshua even then (140-150 C.E.), this would have been heresy. Yet an unexpected thing occurred, with Marcion’s new theology catching on like wild-fire among the gentile nations, and Marcionites subsequently popping-up around the Mediterranean (Footnote 3), his writings, labeled “Evangelion” (Luke) and “Apostolikon”…in what is considered the real beginnings of the Replacement Theology still preached today – a theology which removes Israel from her God-given place in His plan for mankind’s salvation, and replaces her with the church. Anything that removes Israel from where YHVH planted her is clearly misaligned not only with Scripture, but the Father’s heart.
Jesus taught us the “Oneness” of God in the Shema (Hear O Israel) recorded in Mark 12:29-31. Because we love our people in the church, we search the scriptures and “find out what is acceptable to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10) and humbly expose works of darkness. (Ephesians 4:11, 25).
Thank you to all who have written to us in Jerusalem and thanked us for sharing these profound truths. It is this generation that is realizing that we have inherited some well-covered wrong beliefs. (Jeremiah 16:19) Abraham was saved by faith and to know the faith of Jesus and Abraham is highly essential to salvation. We must keep in mind it was Jesus Himself who corrected the woman at the well and helped her to see one important aspect He thought important she learn, that “salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22)
The greatest step we can take in personal growth is that we might “know Him.” (Philippians 3:10) We must remember when learning about our faith in Jesus, we should first learn about the faith of Jesus. Rejoice! Now is a time “to learn” “… a time to keep silence, and a time to speak …”. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
Note: Thank you to our Contributing Researcher-Writer, Steve Ruby, for his contribution to this article.
–Steve Ruby–
–Sharon Sanders–
1. “A History of the Synoptic Problem” – David L. Dungan
2. “Marcion – The Gospel of the Alien God” – Adolf Harnack
3. “Constantine’s Bible” – David L. Dungan