Could a momentous statement from Orthodox rabbis signal a vital sea-change in Jewish-Christian relations? We welcome your comments!
We live in momentous times! Everything is being shaken. Revolutionary forces have been shaking the world for 50 years – social revolution, political revolution, technological revolution – everything is changing at an ever-increasing speed! Every day something new happens that causes us to change our thinking and re-assess what we had considered immutable, unchangeable, everlasting.
World-Changing Statement?
Last month a statement was made by a group of 25 Orthodox rabbis that attracted very little attention in the media but which may prove to be an event that changes the course of world history. The statement was entitled: 'To do the will of our Father in Heaven: Toward a partnership between Jews and Christians'.1
It began with the following paragraph:
After nearly two millennia of mutual hostility and alienation, we Orthodox Rabbis who lead communities, institutions and seminaries in Israel, the United States and Europe...seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters...
The statement continues:
Now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal covenant between G-d and Israel, we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes.
As stated by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel's Bilateral Commission with the Holy See under the leadership of Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, "We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity". Neither of us can achieve G-d's mission in this world alone.
Changed Attitude to Jesus
One of the key points that the statement acknowledges is that Jesus upheld the centrality of the Torah. This was a point of contention when the apostles first began their mission in Jerusalem. In the trial of Stephen before the Sanhedrin it is recorded, "They produced false witnesses, who testified, 'This fellow never stops speaking about this holy place and against the Law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us'" (Acts 6:13-14).
In the Gospels there are many occasions when Jesus disputed with the Pharisees concerning their interpretation and practice of the Torah, but he always upheld the Torah as the unchangeable word of God. In the statement from the Orthodox rabbis this is acknowledged in a momentous passage that unties 2,000 years of misunderstanding between Jews and Christians. The statement affirms a declaration by 18th Century German rabbi Jacob Emden:
Jesus brought a double goodness to the world. On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically, and not one of our sages spoke out more emphatically concerning the immutability of the Torah. On the other hand he removed idols from the nations.
Significantly, the statement acknowledges that Jesus upheld the centrality of the Torah, untying 2,000 years of misunderstanding between Jews and Christians.
An Historic Turning Point
Since issuing this statement, it has been signed by many more Orthodox rabbis around the world, undoing two millennia of Jewish rejection and animosity towards Jesus. This is surely a notable miracle and could signal a turning point in the history of Jewish-Christian relations, as prophesied by the Apostle Paul in a letter to Christians in Ephesus. He said that the purpose of Jesus was to destroy the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. "His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace" (Eph 2.15).
Rabbi Dr Eugene Korn, Academic Director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding & Cooperation said:
This proclamation's breakthrough is that influential Orthodox Rabbis across all centers of Jewish life have finally acknowledged that...Christianity and Judaism have much in common spiritually and practically. Given our toxic history, this is unprecedented in Orthodoxy.
Another significant passage in the statement says, "Both Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, so that all humanity will call on his name and abominations will be removed from the earth. We understand the hesitation of both sides to affirm this truth and we call on our communities to overcome these fears in order to establish a relationship of trust and respect" (emphasis added).
Could this statement signal the turning point in the history of Jewish-Christian relationships prophesied by the Apostle Paul?
United Witnesses
Christian tradition that dates back to the New Testament is that the day will come when the barriers between Jew and Gentile will be broken and the two will be used by God in a powerful spiritual unity to witness truth to the world, which will transform the nations. This teaching is clearly set out by Paul in the three central chapters in his letter to the Romans: chapters 9 to 11.
Paul saw this coming together of Jew and Gentile believers in Jesus to be part of God's end time purposes for the evangelisation of the world. He believed that this would not take place "until the full number of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom 11:25). Then "All Israel will be saved" and God will reaffirm his unbreakable and irrevocable covenant with Israel.
This expectation of unity between Jew and Gentile was foretold 500 years before the time of Jesus by the prophet Zechariah, who was given a vision of two branches of an olive tree and told, "These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth" (Zech 4:14). This is repeated in the last book of the Bible, in a prophecy foreseeing the future of Jerusalem and the end of its occupation by unbelievers:
They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. (Rev 11:2-4)
Long foretold in Scripture is a coming unity between Jew and Gentile, a miraculous breaking down of barriers, through which God will reach the world.
Need to Reject Replacement Theology
Now that rabbis are reaching out to Christians, it is surely time for senior church leaders throughout the world to respond by utterly rejecting the curse of 'Replacement Theology' that says that the church has replaced Israel in the purposes of God. This has done untold harm in stirring up hatred against the Jews over so many centuries. It was this false belief that God had broken his covenant with the Jews that caused Luther to urge the German princes to drive out Jews from their lands.
Luther's teaching became influential in Hitler's Nazism that produced the bloodbath of the Second World War and the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered. This past week we have been remembering Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) the day on which the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz and revealed its horrors to the world.
Opportunity for the Church
This is an historic time for Christians throughout the world to call upon church leaders to respond to this statement from Orthodox rabbis by humbly apologising for the false theology we have propagated for centuries. We should also be humbly confessing before God that we have dared to teach that he is not a covenant-keeping God who would never ever break his promises.
It is surely time for Christians to call on their church leaders to respond to this statement by humbly apologising for the false 'replacement theology' we have propagated for centuries.
We have denied the truth that God revealed to Jeremiah when he told him "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Jer 31:31). This new covenant was only opened to us Gentiles through Jesus. God affirmed his promise with a solemn oath:
Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done, declares the Lord. (Jer 31:37)
Now is the Time
Now is the time, while God is shaking the whole world, for Christians to recognise our responsibility for so many of the tragedies of history and to reach out in love and humility to our Jewish brothers and sisters. The Catholic Church has done this: surely Protestant Church leaders should do the same – reaching out in the name of Jesus the Jewish Messiah.
It is Jesus who opened the one true God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to us Gentiles. His followers were said to have turned the world of the Roman Empire upside-down. Maybe the time has come when God is turning our upside-down world the right way up!
Read the CJCUC statement in full here.
References
1 Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity, CJCUC, 3 December 2015.
