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"Messianic Judaism"; or Judaising Christianity
Part 7 - The Practice of Jewish Observances by the First Believers By DAVID BARON |
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| The practice of Jewish Observances by the first Believers. (5) These modern Judaising teachers never tire of pointing to the fact that the first Jewish believers "remained in unbroken continuity with the Hebrew nation," and that they attended the temple and synagogue worship, and kept the Sabbath, the Jewish festivals, etc.; in proof of which they appeal to the book "in which the historical records of Hebrew Christianity have been kept—the Acts of the Apostles." † † "The Hebrew Christian and his National Continuity." By Philip Cohen. Now it is quite true that the Acts of the Apostles, especially the first twelve chapters, may from one point of view be regarded as a record of "Hebrew Christianity," but as the record unfolds we can trace already the divergent principles which would make the continuance of the "unbroken continuity" between church and synagogue an impossibility. And that it was the synagogue which always took the initiative in breaking the "continuity," by driving from its midst, and persecuting even unto death, those of their number who took upon themselves the Name of Jesus, we also see from that book. But what these brethren overlook is, that in relation to this and other matters the Acts of the Apostles introduces us to a transition period and describes conditions which most evidently were not intended of God to be permanent. As to the adherence of the first Jewish disciples to the national customs and traditions, and the observance even by the Apostle Paul of certain rites and ceremonies, we have to remember the peculiar circumstances and conditions. But whatever doubt and perplexity a Hebrew Christian might have found himself in as to what his attitude to the "national" observances should be, so long as the Temple with its original divinely appointed ritual and ceremonies still remained, things were altogether changed in this respect when the forty years' probationary period of God's long-suffering after the Crucifixion of Christ, during which the Temple ritual, with its national worship and ceremonial, was allowed to drag on, came at last to an end. When this additional time of grace, given by God to Israel nationally in the hope that through their now empty ceremonies they might yet perchance recognise in Jesus the true Redeemer, and repent of the great national crime of having handed over their own Messiah to the Gentiles to be crucified, was allowed by them to pass, and the heart of the nation only hardened itself against Christ, and hastened to fill up the cup of its iniquity by adding to the apostasy from the Father and the Son resistance to the Holy Ghost, by attempting to hinder the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles—then the long-threatened judgment of God at last came. The Temple which was not only the symbol of fellowship with God but of the national unity of the people, was destroyed, the land laid waste, and the people scattered; the observance of the ritual and "national" customs, including the observance of the Passover and all the other festivals, according to their divine appointment, made impossible; and Jewish nationality suspended until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled, and the Lord shall once again arise and have mercy upon Zion. |
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