Cut Off From God's Tree

Hi Wilbur,

I agree with you that Christians' treatment of Jews over the years has been reprehensible. God does too. The Bible does not say that we should hate the Jews because they killed Jesus. As you pointed out the Romans actually killed him. But that isn't the point either. We don't hate Romans because they killed Jesus either.

As an aside Romans and Italians aren't the same group. When you go to Italy and ask the folks if they are Romans, Italians get rather upset at you if they aren't Romans. There seems to be a pretty strong distinction between Romans and Italians. I was kind of surprised. But then, even in the first century, there was a huge difference between Romans and everyone else, even those living in what became Italy in the 1800s.

But I digress.
The bible tells us we should hold the Jews in high esteem because it was through them that the Law and the Gospels come. It was the Jewish prophets who brought the truth of the Law and God's messiah to light. It was the Jews through whom the Messiah came. We are to hold the Jews in high esteem because they were God's chosen people.

On the other hand, because of a lack of faith and reliance on God, they fell away and were cut off from God's tree. Not all of them, but as a nation they were divorced and were no longer his beloved. The Gentiles were grafted in to the tree where the branches of unbelieving Israel were cut off. You can read about this in rthe Letter to the Romans chapters 9-11. When Jesus was killed, the Bible tells us, Israel was also killed. When he was raised from the dead a new Israel was raised with and in him. The new Israel included both believing Jews and Gentiles, one new man. This cutting off of unbelieving Israel is still not a reason to hate Jews. Rather the context of Romans 11 tells Christians to take that cutting off as a warning that if we don't continue in reliance on the Grace of God, we too can be cut off.

So to recap: Christians are not to hate Jews. Rather they are to love them and have a special place in their hearts for them. Those Christians who, through the ages, have persecuted and killed Jews were in sin for doing that, and for thinking that way. God will hold them accountable.

Now what about you? You say you are half Jew. Are you a good Jew? A believing Jew? A consistent Jew? I believe the most consistent Jew is one who becomes a follower of Christ. This is because, as Jesus said, the Scriptures point to him. That is what we call the Old Testament points to Jesus. It prophecies about his particularly, but it also points to him typographically. The nation of Israel was supposed to be the savior of the world, but she was supposed to do it in a certain way. The salvation of the world was tied to the covenants made with Abraham, Moses, and David. But Israel as a nation disobeyed God and followed after other gods, just as they do today. And God did what he said he would do in last several chapters of Deuteronomy.

But God promised that though Israel would fall away, he would come to earth and be the savior in their place. He would be the ultimate sacrifice for sins and take the sins of his people on himself. It follows after the sacrificial system laid out in Leviticus, which is also a type pointing to Jesus. The guilt and sins could be taken away from the people in the blood of bulls and goats, but even in the Old Testament it was temporary. But in Christ's death the sacrifice is one death for all men for all sin. But it follows, exactly, the Law of God set out in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Jesus is supremely Jewish. He is The Jew. More than that he is supremely human. He is The Human. It is in him alone that we find life.

So, be a Jew, not just one genetically, but one spiritually and completely. Study it, take some time, look up what I'm saying.

About your questions about evolution. I believe that God created the world to work in a consistent way. What you call natural law, I call nature. God created it to do that. Sometimes the word 'law' implies that things work the way they work according to something external to them, which is true when we're talking about God's creation. but the way scientists use it is backwards. They observe things happening and call it 'law,' but if they were going to be consistent and say that everything happens by chance, they cannot use the word 'law.' Again, they borrow from Christianity to deny Christianity.

I believe God created man as man and monkey as monkey. I do believe there are changes within a species like brown bunnies turning white in the winter and then back in the spring. But I do not believe that bunnies turn to kangaroos.

The Bible doesn't say anything about light speed or relativity in the Einsteinium sense. Though I've heard that folks are discovering that Einstein was wrong about a lot of his theory of relativity. I would be interested to know how projects, based on the theory of relativity, done by a creationist scientists would look different in 20 years from those done by evolutionist scientists.

The thing about theories is that they are theories. They aren't necessarily facts. That's why they call them theories. If there is another, better, explanation for a thing, we should go for it. The problem with evolutionists is that there is a better explanation, but because of their presuppositions against God, they can't entertain the idea that there could be another way. So, they forget that evolution is only a theory and pretend that it is fact.

Have a great weekend.