This will be an important lesson to both Christians and Jews. Many Christians have opposed the Jews over the years due to the fact that they did not want to follow the Torah. This has led up to present day conditions. The anti-Torah attitude has led to antisemitic sentiment, but one need only understand that that was heavily prevalent amongst the Romans in the first century. This attitude began with what people call the early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, the writer of the epistle of Barnabas, Ignatius, Origen, etc. Generally speaking this sentiment was not heavily prevalent amongst the first 300 years of the church, as most all followed the Torah principles. Anti-semitism of the early writers mentioned above influenced the likes of Constantine the Great (280-337 A.D.); Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335-394 A.D.); Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.); Saint Jerome (374-419 A.D.); Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-533 A.D.); Pope Innocent III (1160-61-1216 A.D.); Pope Pious IV (1499-15654 C.E.). Of principle, the most influential of the anti-semitic ideas was Constantine the Great. As stated this was the case until Constantine took over Rome in 325 A.D. At this point, the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Laodicea abolished the Torah and made it illegal to follow the Torah and for a Roman citizen to worship with the Jews. Between the time period of 341 A.D. to the 600s, the Torah was completely abolished.
One is compelled to know how this following came about. The Bar Kochba revolt which was the 2nd Jewish Revolt that ended in 135 A.D. began a principle rift that occurred between the Church and the Synagogue, but principally, this was due to the unwillingness of non-Jewish believers to suffer the wrath of imperial Rome. Jewish believers were willing to participate in the Bar Kochba Revolt, until Rabbi Akiva declared him to be the Messiah, at which point the Messianic Jews were no longer willing to fight alongside him. Of course this was lost to the Roman empire. The rise of what would be considered Orthodox Judaism by affected this. By 70 A.D., and even according to the Mishnah, it is recorded that after the death of Yeshua around 30 A.D. up until 70 A.D. that sacrifices by God were no longer being accepted. To keep some of its converts there was known as a benedition against the heretics, the Amidah, that was prayed in a few synagogues during the time period of Justin Martyr. This, unbeknownst to Roman churches were words that amounted to a curse against Messianic Jewish believers (the ones described in Acts), NOT directly aimed at the Roman church. This was taken out of context, as can be seen in the misunderstandings of Justin Martyr's dialogue with Trypho. He states "To the utmost of your power you dishonor and curse in your synagogues all those who believe in Christ....In your synagogues you curse too those who through them have become Christians and the Gentiles put into effect your curse by killing all those who merely admit that they are Christians." Already anti-semitic in nature, Roman ideas fueled other writings such as the epistle of Barnabas which states "Take heed to yourselves and be not like some, piling up your sins and saying that the covenant is theirs as well as ours. It is ours, but they lost it completely just after Moses received it...(Epistle 4:6-7). These words have fueled what is known in today's terminology as Replacement Theology. Origen took this work farther by stating that legalism applied to the Jews, and set Jews as the enemy. Funny enough, Origen was excommunicated by the church. He would later have different disciples which included Gregory, Dionysus, Hieracas, Pamphilus, and Eusebius of the Nicene age. This replacement theology did not become prevalent in the church until Constantinople in 325 A.D., as can be seen in Constantine taking the covenant away from Israel and putting it on his own church in Constantinople.
Let us take a close look at Constantine. It will be interesting to most that Constantine was never even considered a Christian. He was never baptized until he was close to his deathbed. He took his son Cripus and had him put to death. In addition his wife Faustus was also ordered to death by Constantine. Constantine set up a "Theocratic" system of government in which Caesars were to take over the throne and establish the church in Constantinople, making it the centerfold. Through purely political purposes and through his paganistic ideology, this, in addition to the death of his family was established. It is noted that he actually built the Arch of Constantine and the arch was decorated in sacrifices to gods such as Apollo, Diana and Hercules, and contains no Christian symbolism whatsoever. Does anyone know where the worship on Sunday came about? Esoteric sun worship was to be acknowledged and this was what helped in uniting the Christians and non Christians to "venerate the day of the sun." This is lost to many Christians. Constantine was not a Christian, but rather a pagan.
Later this anti-semitism would expand to various other locations. The Catholic church demonstrated several examples of this. The Crusaders (11th and 12th century) theology supported the mass murder of Jews. This has spun off into what our generation has come to know in Bosnia as the "ethnic cleansing operations".
The Spanish Inquisition still holds Spain in bondage to many curses due to the shedding of innocent blood. Both campaigns were done "in the name of Yeshua and for the glory of God."
Antisemitism did not go away with the church of the Reformation period. Martin Luther, though having some good ideas within his 95 Theses such that everyone could own a copy of the Bible, made statements in such a manner that would hurt Jews. "Set Jewish synagogues on fire for the honor of God. God will see we are Christians when we get rid of the Jews. Likewise homes should be destroyed; they should be put in a stable; they are not heirs of promises of God and deserve to die. Deprive them of all prayer shawls, prayer books and communication, revoke all passports, stop them from doing all business, everything they possess we believe they stole and robbed from us. They do not have God's blessings, drive them out of the country ... get rid of them."
Many fail to realize that this statement would influence the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler is not usually a good name to pull up in a debate. However, if you'll focus in on what Hitler states you'll see this is definitively true. "I believe that today I am acting in accordance with the will of Almighty God. As I announce the most important work that Christians could undertake and that is to be against the Jews and get rid of them once and for all. We are doing the work of the Lord and let's get on with it." Hitler stated, "Martin Luther has been the greatest encouragement of my life. Luther was a great man. He was a giant. Within one blow he heralded the coming of the new dawn and the new age. He saw clearly that the Jews need to be destroyed and we're only beginning to see that we need to carry this work on." Hitler later followed Luther's treatise on how to exterminate the Jews. Martin Luther preached his last sermon against the Jews. Nazi leader Julius Streicher at the Nuremberg trial stated, "I have never said anything that Martin Luther did not say". Thus the beat goes on, and we still have a problem within our church today.
This problem I will hope to alleviate within my writings. We should all seek to come to the Lord of Israel as one in the body of Messiah, both Jew and Gentile.
Shma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.
hamashiachagape
No comments:
Post a Comment