Jewish Christians and Jewish culture

In its haste to convert the world, the church has not had too much success with the Jews. At various times Christians have sought to save the Jews by embracing them, forcing them, or even killing them. Even when they are converted, the Jews are expected to con form to, and blend with, the standards of the church.

This raises some basic questions: Can Jews retain their culture and customs and at the same time be Christian? Should the Christian message be culture bound, or should it be all things to all people? How can Christian missions transfer the Christian message to other cultural forms?

Ideally, the Christian message should be culture-free. Jesus asks us to come as we are, but often the missionary seems to say, "You can come, if you talk like me, dress like me, sing like me, and pray like me. If you will accept my value system as yours, then you will receive salvation."

"Christianity," says Samuel Garcia, "is frequently presented in missionary religions by foreigners . . . often in a language foreign to the one being ad dressed and, what is worse, in a Western dress which has very little in common with the person to whom the message is directed."¹

This situation is particularly untenable when we know that the Bible presents God as one who communicates Himself to humanity within the context of its varied cultures. God's revelation to Israel was within her culture. Christ ministered in a manner that people understood. Likewise we must allow God to speak today in our culture and language, and this implies every culture and language, not just the Western or American.

God works through all cultures

Without consulting the Western believer, God can reach so as to work through any culture any place in the world. Charles Kraft defines the issue well: "If God can work in the milieu he finds man in and uses his culture bounds to communicate his message, then why can we not as God's messengers do the same thing? Many Western missionaries fail to recognize that Western culture is but one of the many usable by God." ² That means "non-Western converts must be allowed to develop their own type of cultural Christianity," just as Western Christians have adopted the message that originally came in Hebrew garb.³

If we are committed to Scriptures, then the only important change we need to accept is the one that comes by accepting Jesus as the Christ. If we insist on changing our culture as well, then should we not all be bound by the cultural setting of the Hebrews/Jews? Absurd, of course! Then why expect other cultures to confirm with what we have established as cultural norms?

Consider Kraft again: "The message of the Judaizers was repudiated in the first century. Its twentieth-century counterpart must be repudiated by the twentieth-century church. The same freedom must be allowed to Africans and other non-Western converts to Christianity, to develop non-Western styles of Christianity, as were allowed our Roman and Greek forebears to develop non-Jewish types." ⁴

I agree with Kraft on the need to disown our archaic thoughts and develop more on the lines that Christ Himself was not only willing to, but able to work with. Our spiritual roots are not in Greco-Roman world, but in Jesus Christ and the Hebrew heritage. Let us not forget that the Gentile Christians are grafted into the Vine. This is not to insinuate that Gentile Christians are not partakers with Christ in all things, for all that accept Him "are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:29, NIV).

A Christian synagogue

But the real issue today is this: Can the Gentile church that is the dominant force in Christianity today feel secure enough to allow the development within it of a strong Hebrew-Christian church/ synagogue? Or should a person or group be forced to march lockstep to heaven according to White Anglo-Saxon Protestant customs and culture?

Ellen White states: "The work Christ came to do in our world was not to create separating barriers and constantly thrust upon the people the fact that they were wrong.... Nor does Paul proclaim to the Jews a Messiah whose work is to destroy the old dispensation, but a Messiah who came to develop the Jewish economy in accordance with the truth." ⁵

I once asked Gottfried Oosterwal, the foremost Adventist missiologist, why Jews are expected to surrender their culture when they become Christians. Dr. Oosterwal felt that the Christian church has not played its role sufficiently well, and there is the tendency to blame the Jews for the death of Christ. Moreover, the church has not really done anything meaningful for the Jews. "I do not see," said Dr. Oosterwal, "any reason for the Jews to give up their culture."

To believe that Christ came to do away with a culture that He established and developed is to deny the validity of the Scriptures. Yet the church for 2,000 years would have every Jew silently dis solve into the massive ocean of Gentile Christianity in which there could not be any identification of their Jewishness. Is this a punishment handed down by the church for the charge of deicide? Ellen White has so eloquently rejected this position. "Those who live in this day are not accountable for the deeds of those who crucified the Son of God." ⁶ Let us not forget that it was sin that caused the death of Christ. It was sin that was defeated by the death of Christ. Not the Sabbath. Not circumcision. Not Judaism. Not culture.

Would the absorption of the Jews into this milieu be a strengthening of the church, or would the church today expect Jews to denounce their Jewishness? Does God want Jews to capitulate by accepting Gentile norms as their own, and view everything Jewish as bad? Or would He want them to be a strong viable force a living witness that would be self-perpetuating in working for the salvation of their people?

"We have yet to learn that the whole Jewish economy is a compacted prophecy of the gospel. It is the gospel in figures; for from the pillar of cloud Christ Himself presented the duty of man to his fellow man. In Christ's words to His appointed agencies, both in the Old Testament and in the New, the Christian virtues are plainly brought out. Christ scattered the precious grains of truth through all His teachings. All will find them to be as precious pearls, rich in value, if they will practice the principles plainly laid down. The Old Testament is the ground where practical godliness was first sown. This was represented in Christ's words to His disciples." ⁷

Can we, should we, dare establish a Hebrew-Christian church/synagogue, a house of worship for Jews, without encumbrances imposed by a Gentile majority? Can we give them freedom to develop a liturgy that would be their own? Can we allow Jewish Christians to witness to other Jews, unhampered and unrestricted by local control? Can we develop a living, working congregation restricted in membership to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel"?

"We are to preach the gospel to the Jews, as well as to the Gentiles. The glorious message of the power of God unto salvation is to be made known to all men. We are to bring far more simplicity and Bible goodness into our work for the Lord. There is to be no erecting of barriers, no depending on human agencies for wisdom. Our work is to be given freely to the Jews as to the Gentiles." ⁸

Salvation changes what?

Christianity is incompatible with any customs, practices, ideology, belief, habit, or anything else that may come between a person and the Saviour. All Jewish customs that do not come between Jews and their Saviour are either neutral or beneficial.

The desire to retain one's customs and to preserve one's culture is not wrong. In fact, it is proper, and it benefits society by creating stability between generations. To label this desire on the part of Jewish Christians as "Judaizing or Ebionizing" is unjust.

Perhaps it's time to examine our preconceived ideas in the light of our past heritage. It's time to remember that the original branches were broken off by unbelief; but not all were stripped from the Vine. The grafted branches are able to draw life and sustenance from the same Vine. The original branches (Jews) and the grafted branches (Gentiles) are sustained by the same life-giving force, and enabled to grow, mature, and bear fruit. A gradual change took place, the graft becoming dominant and the original hardly noticeable until it was not noticed at all.

The thought that all must conform to a set pattern is a distortion of the original plan. "There seems to be an urge among some Christians to denationalize the Jew as soon as he is saved. They seem to find pleasure in stamping out every bit of Jewishness in him as though Jewishness were synonymous with sin. Many Christians fail to distinguish the fact that when God saves us, He removes the differences which separate us in love from each other, but He does not remove the distinctions with which we are born and will retain until the day of our death." ⁹

The church needs to ask itself whether Christ has demanded that Jews relinquish their culture so rich and steeped in history that to abandon it would mean a loss of identity. Would not the church benefit from a retention of Jewish culture by Jewish Christians? They would then be able to share the riches and treasures of Christ with their Jewish brethren, and the riches and treasures of Judaism with the church in a way that would be re warding to all involved.

Where Jewish Christianity has been allowed to develop and flourish, it has produced a large harvest. Ellison cites an example. "Joseph Rabinowitz (1837-1899), the grandson and great-grandson of rabbis, was baptized. . . . [He] organized a Jewish/Christian synagogue in Kishineff; his group numbered a thou sand. They kept the seventh-day Sabbath, practiced circumcision, celebrated the Pascal feast as a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt. He was in short practicing Judaism. And was accepted as a Christian throughout Europe by leading theologians." ¹⁰

Jewish Christianity desires and needs to develop its own forms and practices that would strengthen its outreach and witness in Jewish communities. The problem is not with the Jews, but with the church as an institution. Until such time that the church moves to change its position, it will continue to cause much anguish to a people whose only need is to worship their Lord within their cultural milieu.

A flexible approach

In the United States there are some Pentecostal and Baptist Jewish churches/ synagogues. They are not autonomous, but controlled and directed by boards that are mostly non-Jewish. Some are funded by their denomination (Jews for Jesus, Baptist). While this may be desirable for the church's structure, it is not ideal. I do not expect a total hands-off policy, but there should be more willingness to allow the Jewish churches/synagogues the final decision on how to work for their people.

If we as Seventh-day Adventists want to succeed in our work for the Jews, we need to adopt ways that would extend both the good news of Jesus and the opportunity to practice it within their cultural settings. We need to be flexible enough to attract Jews to become a worshiping and witnessing congregation within their national and community heritage. A Jewish church/synagogue can never be viable if forced to function under an alien cultural or structural setting.