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p.1 When the Church severed its ties from Judaism In Rom. 1:16 Paul writes, “the GOSPEL … is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Let’s look into the background on this topic of the gospel which is to go out to the whole world. 1 Cor. 10:32 According to God’s Word All of Humanity falls into one of these groups: Jews, Gentiles, or, the Church. A third category is made by the gospel. God’s new entity is the Church “Give no offense, either to the Jews, or to the Greeks, or to the Assembly of God.” Within Israel—among the Jews, there were and are still believers among the unbelievers. They were not saved by being born Jewish, not saved by physical circumcision required by the covenant, nor by any covenant. The remnant of Israel has ALWAYS been saved by faith. The remnant of Israel (Jews who believe) is not grafted into the Gentile church, the gentile church is grafted into the root. It is the believing Gentiles from the nations that are grafted into the olive tree along with the faithful remnant of Israel that are the natural branches. This becomes the body of Christ, both Jews and Gentiles together as explained in Eph.2:12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of Promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”The purpose, v.13 “so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, that He might reconcile them both to God in one body …”V.14 “made one”, v.15 “one new man”, v.19 “fellow citizens” … “members of the household of God” … this was Gods intention for the Gentiles spoken of in the Old Testament (especially Isaiah). The Church consists of a faithful remnant of believers beginning at Pentecost (not before), this is the called-out Assembly …those Jews and Gentiles who receive the gospel belong to the Lord, they are the body of Christ on earth. Heb. 12:1…23 also describes the present-day believers who constitute the current assembly “ are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” … This is the ecclesia, the firstborn who are “enrolled in heaven” that have gone before them. Now that we understand God’s gospel plan, which He called a mystery, let's look at the actual history of the Church. The entire early church in the first several years was made up of Jews. When Gentiles began to be saved (in Acts 10) the Jews were still the majority in the land for many years, it was Jews that headed up the first council of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15) recognizing the Gentiles were being saved. God gave Peter the privilege to bring the first Gentiles into the church (Acts 10, 11) of which Paul was later specifically called to in ministry. The Roman Catholic Church claims Peter as their first Pope; he was a Jew. We read that Peter is totally unaware that he is a pope, or that there even is a pope! Peter spoke about his brethren the Jews he was called to give the gospel to, 1 Peter 1:1“To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” James also mentions these in verse 1:1 “ To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” There are no lost tribes, only dispersed tribes. Satan does all he can to divide God’s people, he especially uses anti-Semitism to promulgate a hatred of Israel. He has one main intention, that the Church does not give the Jews the gospel, that the Gentile do not fulfill God's calling to make the Jews jealous to be saved. A number of early Church fathers who were Gentile began to distinguish Christianity from its roots, by speaking against Judaism and warning people away from it, and its people. Understandably Judaism was not upholding what was delivered to them by Moses and the prophets but instead had their ears attuned to the Rabbis interpretations that were rarely right. It became difficult but no impossible for them to recognize their messiah. Regardless of this, the (Gentile) church was obligated to treat the people of the covenant with respect. Over several centuries the church and Judaism had tensions grow, until the church completely severed itself from Judaism and the Hebrew prophecies for the Jews, which included the Gentiles. Instead of provoking Israel to jealousy, which is what the church is to do (Rom.11:11), the teaching of Replacement Theology had provoked Israel to continue to reject their own Messiah. The church did not give them the gospel neglecting to fulfill God's calling to make the Jews jealous and be saved. In history we see in the early church’s inception, the Jews who believed (the apostles), were faithful and went to the Gentiles to give them the gospel to be saved. On their many missionary journeys, in Acts 13:42-43 “ Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.” V.45-48 when the (unbelieving) Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. … Paul and Barnabas said, " It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.' " Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” The leadership at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 was Jewish and they determined the will of God was that Gentiles could become believers, and be joined in the Church. The first fruits of the faith, approved by the Jewish leadership were willing to go to the other nations by obeying Yeshua ha Mashiach to spread the Gospel. We see in history in just a few generations this was turned around on them. Roman Catholicism The earliest house churches in Rome would have primarily been Jewish as they were elsewhere. By A.D. 49 the Roman Emperor Claudius kicked Jews out of Rome and included in this expulsion were Jewish Christians. Claudius’s edict lasted 5 years until his death (A.D. 54), and the Jews started to return, still many of the Christian Jews continued giving the gospel to the Gentiles in Asia. Later Israel revolted against Rome and had battles for a few years until the 70 AD conquest led by Titus, the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple. Over 900 Jewish men, women, and children committed mutual suicide on Masada rather than surrendering to the Roman army in 73 AD. The number of Jews murdered, and starved to death were over one million out of a population of approximately two million. The Jewish community was no longer welcomed but not all left. In AD 81, Diocletian had ALL the Christians persecuted, regardless of their ‘ethnicity.’ It wasn’t until over 45 years later that no Jews were allowed in the land. The turning point was Israel’s revolt against Rome that began in 132 Under Bar Kochba, who was a false messiah. In 135 A.D. Jerusalem was established as a pagan city by the Romans, with a newly built temple to Jupiter (Zeus) erected on the Temple Mount by Emperor Hadrian. He prohibited circumcision targeting the Jews with ethnocide. The Romans destroyed 1,000 Jewish villages, killing up to 500,000 Jews, those who fled survived the thousand who stayed were enslaved. The Romans in retaliation renamed what had for more than 1,500 years been known as Israel calling it Provincia Palestina after the Philistines, Israel's ancient enemies. Those living there became known as Palestinians this included the Jews who lived there. The church legalized Jews living under pagan Rome had gained full citizenship in the Roman Empire. In A.D. 212 under the Edict of Caracalla, but they were considered second-class citizens and subject to increasing persecution emperor after the emperor. In 303 Diocletian who worshiped the Roman pantheon of deities persecuted the church for 8 years , along with his co-emperors they issued a series of edicts ordering the destruction of Christian churches, the burning of scripture, arresting and torturing of Christian bishops. Constantine (272-337 AD) became ruler of the entire empire in 323. Christianity was an underground religion until emperor Constantine saw that it would be more advantageous to legalize the Christian religion (313 AD.), than to continue to fight. He wrote, When we, Constantine Augustus and Licinius Augustus, met so happily at Milan, and considered together all that concerned the interest and security of the State, we decided ... to grant to Christians and to everybody the free power to follow the religion of their choice, in order that all that is divine in the heavens may be favorable and propitious towards all who are placed under our authority. ” He was tolerant of many religions including Christianity, but he did not make Christianity the main religion of the state. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecutions. The Arian controversy had been going on for several years. So Constantine convened a council to settle their issues in Nicaea, Turkey in 325 AD. The council was basically on the controversy within the church of Jesus being eternal or not. Which was settled in the church long before. However, this brought it out in the open as each side made their arguments and showed the proof from the Bible, not their opinion. Constantine did not rule over the council but did accept the church's decision to the doctrines debated. Approximately 1,800 bishops were in the Church at this time with approximately 120 of them of Jewish heritage. In a turn of events, the over 300 bishops that attended the council at Nicaea were all the Gentile bishops excluding the Jews. Whether this was a directive from Constantine (likely) or another or the Gentile bishops themselves, it is unclear. I believe this was mainly from Constantine’s influence because of what he wrote during this time period. God’s intention for the Church was to be formed from every nation, all tribes, peoples, and tongues. The Church was to have no distinction based on race, nation, a person’s cultural status, rich or poor, free or slave. Both Jews and Gentiles in Christ were the church, members of the household of God. In Acts 15, the Jewish believers at the Council of Jerusalem made the decision to include the Gentiles in the Church. Now, the Jewish believers were not invited to the most significant Church council since the decision to allow Gentiles to be in the church. There was nothing spoken on the Jews, or Israel at the council. The Emperor Constantine had his own opinion. At the time of the Nicene council Constantine was not yet baptized, regardless of the baptism position of the Church, according to the Bible he was Christian in name only. At this time Constantine began an increasingly ‘hostile policy toward the Jews.’ It is during this time period Emperor Constantine Augustus wrote to the churches specifically on the time of Easter not being in conjunction with the Passover. “it improper to follow the custom of the Jews of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. ... Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. ... Let us ... studiously avoiding all contact with that evil way. … out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. ... lest your pure minds should appear to share in the customs of a people so utterly depraved. ... we may no more have anything in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. ... no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews." (Theodoret’s Ecclesiastical History) Later, the Council of Antioch (341) prohibited Christians from celebrating Passover with the Jews. As the Church was now legal Constantine persuaded Christianity regardless of their root in Judaism to not welcome the Jews. This precedent was set by the emperor of Rome who claimed to be a Christian and influenced the church. Rome, once the center of paganism, embraced herself to be the Christian empire. Messianic Judaism continued to grow among many Jewish believers, in spite of the era of Gentile opposition. In 329 AD ‘the death penalty was made law for those who embraced the Jewish faith, as well as for Jews versed in the Law who aided them.’ Constantine prior to his death in 337, was the first Roman emperor to publicly declare himself a Christian. He was baptized in the Aryan belief by Eusebius of Nicomedia. He accepted Jesus was a creature, ignoring the prior decision of the Church at the Nicene council that he convened in 325 AD. According to the Bible, he was Christian in name only. Eusebius was appointed by the emperor to record what we know of today as Ecclesiastical Church History. We only have portions of what was written in the early Post-Apostolic centuries gathered by a man named Eusebius during Constantine’s reign. Any biblical commentary in this time period was filtered by Eusebius who was under Rome’s Emperor Constantine. Eusebius of Nicomedia was made Bishop of Constantinople in 339. Eusebius collected seven letters surviving this time that are considered authentic from Ignatius Bishop of Antioch (Roman Syria, 35-107 AD). The Letter to the Ephesians; to the Magnesians, to the Trallians, to the Romans, to the Philadelphians, to the Smyrnaeans, to Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. Within these letters contain topics that address a number of doctrines; the Triune nature, Christ’s deity and his Virgin Birth. We see the attitude of the Church that was predominantly Gentile as hostile toward the Jews. This diminishing relationship was set by the emperor causing a division in the church that without correction escalated over time. |
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