Rabbi Schneider - The Effect of Antisemitism
God bless you and Shalom, beloved ones. My name's Rabbi Schneider. Welcome today to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. We are continuing our journey in exploring how Judaism as a movement and Christianity separated from each other. I really want to encourage you, go get this entire series. It's really enlightening and important information. I'm not gonna review right now. I'm just gonna launch right back in to where I left off last week. We're talking about how anti-Semitism caused Christianity and Judaism as movements to separate from each other.
Now when I say, as movements, because the term Judaism isn't in the Bible and the term Christianity isn't in the Bible. Neither of those terms are actually biblical terms. So when we say Judaism, that is a term that is meant to describe those that follow what we call the Old Testament, but what Jewish people call the Tanakh. So Judaism is a term that represents the community of religious Jewish people by and large that are relating to God entirely through the revelation of the Tanakh, okay. That's a very, very general statement. So let me say again, the term Jew is a biblical term. You know, salvation's from the Jews, Jesus said in John, 4:22. But Judaism is a term that is not a biblical term but is a term that is used to described the religion of the Jews; not all Jews, 'cause I'm a Jew.
I believe in Jesus, okay. I'm not following traditional or Orthodox Judaism. I'm following the One that I believe to be the King of the Jews. So in traditional Judaism I am looked at as someone that is a heretic because I believe in Jesus, even someone, they say, that's no longer Jewish because I believe in Jesus. And yet we know that Jesus came as a Jew, lived as a Jew, celebrated Passover. His disciples were all Jews. Did you know that at the end of the Book of Acts, Paul said about himself, that he said, I am a Pharisee, Paul said, the son of Pharisees. So Paul saw himself as totally Jewish. He still saw himself as a Pharisee. He never saw himself as someone that was no longer Jewish, someone that was a Christian and not a Jew. He saw himself as a Jew that was following the King of the Jews, the prophesied Messiah, Jesus, ok.
So I just got done saying the term Judaism is not a biblical term but it's just an expression that man has used to describe the religion of the Jewish community in general. And the word Christianity is also not a biblical term. But the word Christianity is used to describe the belief system of those that have put their faith in the CHRIST. And the word Christ obviously is used in the New Testament. It is a term, it's a Greek term, and it means the Anointed One. So when I say that I'm a Christian it really has nothing to do with being Jewish, because being Jewish is something that I was born into.
In other words, I was born a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jewish boys, right, according to the Word of God, according to the Torah, Paul said this about himself in the Book of Philippians, Jewish boys are circumcised as Israelites or Jews, get it now, the eighth day. So you see, being a Jew or being an Israelite, doesn't have to do with our belief system. It has to do with our ancestry. People are circumcised the eighth day, boys, when they're a physical descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So if you were born a Jew it's being born into an ancestry. But being a Christian is not about ancestry. You're not born a Christian. You become a Christian when you decide to pick up your cross one day and follow Jesus.
So the word Christ is in the New Testament, and the word Christian is in the New Testament. It's used three times, and it describes those that are following the Christ. But the word Christianity as a term is not in the New Testament. But the word Christianity like Judaism is a general term that is a man-made term, that is used to describe those that are following the Christ. Well I hope that makes sense. We're talking about how these two movements of Judaism and Christianity separated from each other. And one of the elements that I began to touch on last week that has caused a separation and a divide between the two movements is anti-Semitism. In the 300's, the emperor of Rome, Constantine, said he had a vision of a cross. And he inferred from that vision that he was to conquer in the name of Christ. And he unified his kingdom under now what he believed to be Christianity because he saw a vision of the cross.
So here now the largest Christian, quote, I'm using that term loosely now because it's under Constantine, the largest Christian influence in the world, listen now, was an anti-Semitic movement because Constantine was an anti-Semite. He actually made it illegal for people under his government to work for Jewish people unless the Jewish people had become Christians. And so think about this; Constantine becomes "the leader of Christianity". I'm not say, beloved, in a spiritual sense, but I'm saying in an earthly sense. Here now the leader of Christianity in the known world, Constantine, who is also an anti-Semite, he's breathing anti-Semitism into the people that he is calling to Christ. And so what happens? An anti-Semitic spirit is birthed now in a huge way into Christianity.
We already talked about some of the other influences earlier; the influence of the Pharisees that persecuted Jesus, and their influence in all this. But this is a different type of, of, of influence. This is anti-Semitism coming from the greatest first leader of "the church", not the real church but in loose terms the church. And so Christianity becomes an anti-Semitic movement. This mindset of anti-Semitism that Constantine breathed into the church becomes so evident as time goes on. For example, one of the continual leaders of the church, one of the forefathers around Constantine's time was a leader by the name of John Chrysostom. And there are still churches today within Catholicism that are named after John Chrysostom.
John Chrysostom that lived from like 349-407 A.D. preached what is known today as ten sermons against the Jews. And these sermons issued forth such hatred against the Jewish people causing division between Christians and Jews. He just spewed out such hatred towards Jewish people. It's leading to a huge separation between Christians and Judaism and Jewish people. I mean, people my father's age, beloved ones, would walk down the street. They'd be called the Christ killers. They'd be called all kinds of dirty names. Why? Because of the anti-Semitism that was breathed into the church beginning with Constantine, then continuing on with John Chrysostom, and perhaps the one that you're most familiar with that's responsible for this is, believe it or not, the saint, Martin Luther.
Martin Luther, listen now, who is responsible for birthing the Protestant Reformation, right; Martin Luther's the one that rejected some of the Catholic practices, for example, of selling salvation which is known as indulgences, and keeping revelation from the people. Martin Luther rebelled against this, and he said it's only Scripture. Salvation's by grace through faith alone. And his leadership birthed the Protestant Reformation. Well Martin Luther that was responsible for so much good, was also, beloved, he became eventually an anti-Semite, and he said that the Jewish people synagogues should be burned, and their rabbis should be, should be flailed or beaten. And this influence of Martin Luther spread through the Christian world and it became so predominant that during the holocaust in Europe, Hitler's picture was hung in many churches there. Why? Because the church was so anti-Semitic.
You know, without anti-Semitism having taken such a foothold in the church, the holocaust of 6 million Jews through Nazi Germany could have never happened. It's no wonder today that Jewish people are afraid or leery of is probably a better word, of Christians that say they love them because so much damage has been done to the Jewish people through "the church" because of the all the anti-Semitism, beloved, that was in the church and obviously this led to a huge separation between traditional Judaism and the movement of Christianity. Again, Christianity was immersed with anti-Semitism. And this anti-Semitism is further evidenced in what we call today a theological term, it's known as replacement theology. And perhaps some of you have been exposed to this in your own church.
Replacement theology says this: that the promises that once belonged to Israel no longer, they say, these promises belong to Israel, they teach, because they say, because the Jewish people rejected Jesus. And so what the people that teach anti-Semitism, replacement theology teaches that the promises that once were given to Israel have been taken away from Israel, they teach, and are now given to the church since the Jews rejected Jesus. It's just a form of anti-Semitism because what the New Testament tells us in the Book of Romans, is that the gift and calling of God upon the Jewish people is irrevocable; that they're still beloved of the Father.
But again, much of the church has been taught anti, replacement theology. Much of the church, again, has been taught this replacement theology that God has rejected the Jewish people, that God's done with the Jewish people, that God no longer has a destiny for the Jewish people. Much of the church has been taught this replacement theology because of anti-Semitic roots that began with Constantine, continued on through the church fathers like John Chrysostom, went as far as Martin Luther, the founder of the reformation.
I remember the first time I went to Israel, I went with a group of pastors. And I won't even mention what denomination this one pastor on the group with me was from, but he was part of one of the mainline churches in the Western world; the denomination that you're all familiar with. And he knew I was Jewish. And we're sitting down to eat one day, and this pastor says to me, Yeah, Paul met Jesus and he came away with pork on his breath. I mean, such an offensive thing to say to me as a Jew. Whether I keep Kosher or not, it's just a replacement theology, anti-Semitic type of comment that he would have to say such a thing. It's again this concept that, you know, God no longer has anything to do with anything Jewish. He's taken that all away. God's done with all that. He's all for the church now.
And I pray, beloved ones, that if you have been taught that, that Father would deliver you from that right now. God still has a special call upon the Jewish people. He still has a special call on the nation of Israel. And we have to respect that and honor that. Paul told us that in the Book of Romans. He says, don't become arrogant, Paul said, against the root that supports you because the Scriptures come from Israel and Jesus, Himself, is a Jew. So we shouldn't be arrogant against Jewish things, but we should be appreciative and honor that which is come to us through the Jewish people, the nation, and the nation of Israel. Even heaven's gonna be a Jewish place, right. The city of Heaven is called the New Jerusalem, whose gates are inscribed, the Bible tells us, with the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve Jewish apostles.
So I hope that through this series, beloved ones, you have come to understand how Jesus never came to start a new religion. He came to fulfill the law and the prophets as He clearly stated in Matthew, 5:17-18. But because mankind messes things up, and obscures things, and confuses things, we have a lot of confusion today. And we went back to the beginning and we traced how this confusion today came. We shouldn't be confused. Jewish people should understand that believing in Jesus is the most Jewish thing that a Jew could do because Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53, that He Himself bore our sin in His own body on the tree. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each is us, each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord laid upon Him, meaning Yeshua, the iniquity of us all and by His scourging we are healed.
You see, Peter said, Jesus is the One that Moses spoke of. You see, Peter said, Jesus is the One that was revealed in the Torah, when it was written in the Torah when the LORD said to Moses, I'm gonna raise up from your brethren, Moses, a deliverer like you from amongst your kinsmen. Peter said, The One that God was referring to when He said that to Moses is Jesus. Jesus said in John, 5, He said to the Jewish people, If you believed Moses you'd believe Me for Moses wrote of Me. So my heart's desire, I'm endeavoring to help Jewish people understand that believing in Jesus is entirely Jewish because He is the prophesied Hebrew Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. Remember He said, Don't think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish but fulfill.
Then conversely I want to say to the church, don't look at Judaism as some foreign religion. You actually are birthed out of Judaism. Jesus came as a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as a Jew, hung on the cross as the King of the Jews, sits in heaven right now as the Lion from the tribe of Judah, and He's coming back, beloved ones, as the offspring of David. So honor this and appreciate the Jewish roots of your faith. Learn more. Don't, don't, don't be, be anti-Semitic. Don't separate yourself from Jewish believers. Don't... You know, so many times I think the church, because they don't have this information, they're afraid of it, and what they're afraid of they try to diminish, so there's a lot of people that talk bad about, you know, congregations that practice some of the Hebrew roots.
Out of fear and insecurity, don't be like that. I've just given you all the information. Let's embrace the truth no matter how it affects us. We need to pick up our cross, deny ourself, and follow Jesus. And what I've given you, beloved, is spirit and truth. So over the course of the last episodes, I don't know how many this is right now, the last several months, we have talked about how the Pharisees of Jesus' day rejected Jesus because of their jealousy. And that began the divide. And then we continued on and we talked about how when Jesus said He and the Father were one. Because the Jewish leadership of Jesus' day couldn't understand how a man could say He was one with God.
Again, they got so upset they tore their clothes. They called Him a blasphemer, which again began to cause division between the traditional Jewish religion of Jesus' day and Himself. And then we looked at how in John's Gospel he uses the term Jew sometimes in a negative light because he's not referring to the Jewish people in general, but he's referring there, beloved ones, to the religious Judean leadership that had rejected Jesus. And we took a look at that in John's Gospel. And then we continued on and we looked at the difference between the oral law and the written law. We looked at Mark, chapter 7, and Exodus, 24, and we shared how the fact that Jesus said that much of the oral law or some of the oral law was just the tradition of men.
And since the Pharisees of Jesus' day and Orthodox Jews today believe that the oral law came from God, and Jesus called it the tradition of men, there was even a further divide between the traditional Jewish movement and the movement comprising of those that are following the Jewish Messiah. And then we looked at the phenomenon of the inclusion of the Gentiles; that when the church began to receive Gentiles, that created a bigger division between the traditional Jews and the church because traditional Jews, we read in Acts, chapter 10, don't associate closely with Gentiles. Well God put an end to all that. But for the Jewish people that haven't received that revelation, they were further moving away from Jewish people that did because they couldn't see how associating with Gentiles could be a good thing.
And then we looked at the revolts in 70, in 66 A.D. leading to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. And then the Bar-Kokhba Revolt in 132. And we talked about how the Jewish people's revolt against the Romans led to a further division. And beloved, there were many other things in this series as well. I really would encourage you, get this entire series and study this information. It's really fascinating. And listen, if you want to study history, the best history to study is church history. And that's what we've done over the last several months.
I want to say, beloved ones, I've tried to make this as simple as possible. I hope it's been a blessing to you. I love you. And I want to simply close today by saying this. I'm Jewish. Most of you that are watching are Gentiles, although we have Jewish people that are watching too. In closing I want to say this, Jesus didn't come to start a new religion, but He came to make Jesus and Gentile one in Messiah. God is not the God of the Jews only. He's God of all humankind that He's created in His own image. And He sent us Yeshua the Messiah to bring us all to Himself. He loves you today, beloved ones, and He's coming back for us soon. I love you today. This is Rabbi Schneider saying, Shalom.