Thursday, January 19, 2006
Emergents and Jews Together (EJT)?
A major event in the revisionist camp of the emerging movement has just finished, a gathering with Synagogue 3000. The Associated Press released a story on the gathering yesterday, "Dissatisfied Jews, Christians Share Ideas." It reports the following:
Ryan Bolger, co-author of the book Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures, also attended the event, and has posted his initial thoughts on his blog.
Here is my question: Should Christians be sharing our missional insights and strategies with Jews? Isn't there something wrong with giving Jews more effective ways to grow and to reach others with their religion? After all, they do not have the Good News. The Gospel is only to be found in Jesus Christ. Why would those that claim to be evangelicals decide to work together with Jews to help them become more faithful? Their faith is not in the One who can reconcile them with their Creator!
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The Apostle Peter told Jews, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The only reason to attend this kind of event would be to proclaim the Gospel to those gathered, not to help them remain in their false beliefs.
Of course, I do not say these things out of hatred. I am no anti-Semite. I write this because I love the Jewish people and desire for them to recognize the Messiah--Jesus. Giving them a false hope of a renewed faith in Judaism is no help. I pray that true believers will recognize this truth and proclaim Christ and Him crucified to all people, including Jews.
Over two days, representatives from nearly 30 emergent Jewish and Christian worship groups talked about abandoning traditional worship in search of a more personal connection with God that they said they can't find in temple or church. They also shared their vision with more traditional Jewish leaders who hope this new "emergent Judaism" might help bring young Jews back at least to some style of worship.
Ryan Bolger, co-author of the book Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures, also attended the event, and has posted his initial thoughts on his blog.
Here is my question: Should Christians be sharing our missional insights and strategies with Jews? Isn't there something wrong with giving Jews more effective ways to grow and to reach others with their religion? After all, they do not have the Good News. The Gospel is only to be found in Jesus Christ. Why would those that claim to be evangelicals decide to work together with Jews to help them become more faithful? Their faith is not in the One who can reconcile them with their Creator!
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The Apostle Peter told Jews, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The only reason to attend this kind of event would be to proclaim the Gospel to those gathered, not to help them remain in their false beliefs.
Of course, I do not say these things out of hatred. I am no anti-Semite. I write this because I love the Jewish people and desire for them to recognize the Messiah--Jesus. Giving them a false hope of a renewed faith in Judaism is no help. I pray that true believers will recognize this truth and proclaim Christ and Him crucified to all people, including Jews.
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2 Comments:
But John, if we didn't cooperate with them, we would have to be in competition with them, and that would make us Constantinian (or foundationalist, or both).
Independent of my respectful disagreement with your assertion that our "faith is not in the One who can reconcile [us] with [our] Creator," I submit that your worry about "sharing our missional insights and strategies" is a bit overstated. This sounds a bit like Pepsi vs. Coke, and if anything is true of the emerging movement (regardless of faith tradition) it is the rejection of a program/product-oriented paradigm.
I could assure you that there were no conversations in the vein of "We tried X program, and it boosted attendance by 38.4% and affiliation/converstion by 12.7% in the first six months," but that would be missing the point.
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