Re-Judaizing Jesus

[Alonzo E Thornton, D.Min.]

Re-Judaizing Jesus

According to Time magazine 2008, one of the top 10 ideas that are changing the world is the Re-Judaizing of Jesus. For over at least 2000 years, every ethnic group that has come to know Jesus as the Messiah has perhaps improperly removed this Jewish Rabbi from His Jewish culture and background. Below are some thoughts within this article that are some reflections of the importance of Re-Judaizing of Jesus:

“For centuries, the discipline of Christian “Hebraic’s” consisted primarily of Christians cherry-picking Jewish text to support the traditionally assumed contradictions between the Jew-whose alleged dry legalism contributed to their fumbling their ancient tribal covenant with God-and Jesus, who personally embodied God’s new covenant of Love. But today seminaries across the Christian spectrum teach that if you get the [Jewish] context wrong, you will certainly get Jesus wrong.”

Some of the things that this article didn’t address that are truly important are the multiple Christians who are now celebrating the Biblical feast of the Lord. Also, there was no mention of the rise in number, all over the world of the Messianic and Nazarene believers, as well as the various Hebraic-root movements attempting to restore the faith of Messiah closer to its origin. This is done in an effort to distant itself from the Roman and pagan influences that Hellenized Judaism, thus birthing Christianity after the reluctant parting of the two.

The core of this brief article really is how God is moving in the lives of Jewish and non-Jewish people, in His effort at establishing a united body of believers in the Messiah. It is within this context that in these modern times, within the universal church, massive numbers of Jewish people now are accepting the Messiah as their personal savior within their own Jewish traditions and culture. The impact of this miracle is revolutionary in how this movement has transcended the commonly orthodox of both Judaism and Christianity.

As a student of the Hebrew Bible, I was very excited and very hopeful that many others like myself will perhaps review, rethink, and reconstitute one’s theology as this matter of Re-Judaizing of Jesus will most likely, not just be a passing trend. With this in mind, I would like to engage you, in an open discussion forum, the subject of Re-Judaizing Jesus and the revolutionary impact positively and negatively within our culture.

Charis-Shalom

Brother Alonzoe'

Sharing the Light of The Messiah...until He Returns

[Dr. Henry, President of the AOCI]

Again, another well written, well researched, stimulating, and interesting blog Rev. Thornton. I absolutely agree with studying the Bible from a Jewish perspective since our Lord Himself is Jewish. Jesus never denied his judiac lineage or heritage. He went to synogoge and practiced Judiasm. It has been this separation of some of the "replacement theologians" that have contributed to the roots of our faith being judiasm from infiltrating into the gentile orthodox christian believers mind. The funny thing is you can explain Judiasm without christianity but you can NEVER explain Christianity without Judiasm. In other words, Judiasm DOES NOT NEED Christianity, but Christianity NEEDS Judiasm. I also believe that G_D did NOT break covenant with the Jews. When the LORD makes a covenant with human beings, he keeps it forever. Therefore, the Noahitic and Abrahamic Covenant is still in-force with the Jewish Nation! If this was not so, then how can we as believers in the "New Covernant" know that God has not broken it? How do we then know that our covenant is valid? The answer is Adonia keeps his covenant forever with His people! (both Jews and Gentiles) We need to get back to our roots. We serve a Jewish Messiah!