Posted on 02/21/2009 6:09:00 AM PST by kindred
This is a curious statement. There is no consensus among messianics[1], living or dead, on the matters you have raised. Not all messianics would interpret Hebrews 3 and 4 as Mr. Stern (and apparently you) wish to interpret it. Not all messianics believe in this day-year theory you have proposed. Not all messianics give as much weight to Jewish tradition as other do. Some messianics worship in traditional settings, on Sunday, using the means given to the Church long ago. Some messianics chose to not circumcise their children upon coming to faith in their Messiah, nor have they chosen to continue following the traditions of their fathers.
The Church has had access to the same 3500 years of Jewish tradition that you speak of. Most of the Reformers, for example, where far better Hebrew scholars than anyone living today. Sometimes they have found those traditions useful in studying the Word of God. Sometime they view them as a tradition to be avoided (cf. Titus 1:14). As messianic Alfred Edersheim wrote: He who has thirsted and quenched his thirst at the living fount of Christs Teaching, can never again stoop to seek drink at the broken cisterns of Rabbinism. Discernment is the key. The Church historically has exercised a great deal of discernment, albeit not always perfectly.
While no doubt anti-Semitism has existed in the Church at times, that is no excuse for folks today to ignore the teachings that have been handed down for centuries. It is unnecessarily arrogant for anyone to slough off the Churchs teachings by invoking a blanket statement of bias. The standard is still the Word of God, and neither messiancs nor gentiles have a monopoly in that department. Even your friend Mr. Stern is capable of biases that limit his ability to come to a proper interpretation of the text. E.g., Stern says, Christians often assume that the New Testament does not require Gods people to observe Shabbat and go on to claim that Sunday has replaced Saturday as the Churchs day of worship. Stern probably also knows that most theologians have a sound biblical basis for their views regarding Sunday. They simply do not give a much weight to Jewish traditions when interpreting the texts related to the subject, and they discount the overall bias of the more hard-core messiancs on the relationship of old covenant to new covenant.
Bottom line: its not being a messianic or studying messianic ways that gets you to the proper interpretation of the Bible. It is by being indwelt with the Holy Spirit and hearing the Word spoken by the Spirit to our spirits. Faithful Christians have been managing this way for centuries. There is no genetic trait that will assist you in this department.
Usually, when someone gets to this place in their argument (and invokes the A-word) its pretty plain they have run out of steam. A simply observation like the fact that the millennium of the futurist is not a place of peace and rest is met by silence, or by diversion.
The phrase Messianic Jew or Messianic Judaism is but one species of one genus of the larger family. Many folks who claim to be part of the Messianic movement are not, in fact, Jewish at all.
“Actually this supports my contention, that the dispensational axiom drives the interpretation.”
I owe you a response on this - I haven’t forgotten.
I can wait.
I can only suggest that you are deceived. Amillenialism is a heresy supported by liberal Christendom who have rejected the Word of God and disdain the prophecy of the scriptures, much as the religious rulers of Christ Jesus did at His first advent so it is now that those who deny the literal meaning of Scripture and hide under religious ceremony and traditions and contradict the clear meaning of the Holy Bible will be caught unaware and left behind.
The Body of Christ (the bible believing Christian Church will be translated (raptured in one moment in the due time) and the rest of Christendom will attend their respective sectarian church's the next Sunday, or Saturday, as the case may be. This is the spewing out of the Laodecian lukewarm church warned of in the early chapters of revelation. Let God be true and every man a liar in order that thy saying may be true and thou may overcome when thou art judged.
And you are entitled to your opinion, misinformed as it is.
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