Letters    

 TO ONE WHO BELIEVES JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT A JEW

Dear W. K. M.                                                                                                 January 4, 1988

      Having talked with you at length on the telephone on 3 past occasions, at which times I felt that my spirit bore witness with yours, I believe in writing to you, I am writing to my brother. At this point, I do not believe you worship another Christ, but rather that you do not believe rightly about Christ.

     You have imbibed false teaching. Who knows but that God who caused our paths to cross may have purposed our meeting to correct such heterodoxy in your thinking. We both cannot be right. It is all too evident from your communications that you did not learn your views on Adam and on the Jews from the Bible, but from Pastor Sheldon Emry, and that you have since gone to Scripture to validate his doctrinal tenets. This is to use the Bible as a secondary, instead of the primary source of faith.

      You are in great error; but I am a friend, and not your enemy for telling you that. Only our best friends are gut-honest with us. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."

     Like it nor not, Jesus Christ is a Jew. He was, according to the flesh, from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:2; Hebrews 7:14). Paul declares that "he was made under the Law" (Galatians 4:4). That this does not simply refer to civil, or to Roman Law, is seen from the fact that He observed the Passover Feast. He was under Jewish, or Mosaic Law. This is the whole import of the book of Hebrews.

      The only way you can cite Webster's American Dictionary of The English Language (1828) that states a "Jew" is a "Hebrew" or "Israelite"; then cite Strong's Concordance that a Jew is a "descendant of Judah"; and then concede Matthew's Gospel records Jesus was from the tribe of Judah—and then to come to the conclusion that Jesus was not a Jew is by intellectual dishonesty.

     You agree Christ Jesus was born in Judea, but hasten to add that He departed into Egypt. So what? My wife was born in Ohio. Although she has lived in Georgia for 20 years (half her life), she is still "from" Ohio. The fact that Joseph and Mary took Jesus as a child from their refuge in Egypt into Galilee, to the city of Nazareth cannot be honorably used as an argument that He was not a "Jew."

     One great fact that you evidently do not understand is that the reason the Jews called Him "Jesus of Nazareth" was to obfuscate every sign of His being the Messiah. When He was arrested in the Garden, He asked, "Whom seek ye?" They answered, "Jesus of Nazareth" (John 18:4,5). He could have said, "I am not He" because He was not: He was Jesus of Bethlehem.

    The fact the Jews called Him "Jesus of Nazareth" does not make it true: it was in fact a lie, like the one spoken by the serpent in Eden when he told Eve, "Thou shalt not surely die." Peter used this surname of the Lord simply because it was the name by which Jesus was commonly known, and under which name He was crucified (John 19:19).

     Judah was taken into captivity 136 years after Israel. In Babylon, the people became commonly known as "Jews." Therefore, Paul identifies himself as a "Jew" (Acts 21:39; II Corinthians 11:22; and Philippians 3:5). Paul says he was a Jew. Pastor Sheldon Emry comes along and contradicts Paul's word. Does he know better than the Apostle? Is he wiser than God's Word on the subject? Will you follow Pastor Emry instead of the Bible?

     You must believe God's Word, or you will have to re-translate the Scriptures. I should not need to warn you of the fierce anathemas that are pronounced upon everyone who tampers with the Word of God. ...

Dear D. W.                                                                                                    January 27, 1988

      ...Regarding the issue whether Jesus was or is a Jew: your arguments are fallacious because you do not recognize that Jewry has to do with nationality as well as with religion. Incidentally, there is not, and has never been a "race" called "Jew." You err by equating nationality with race. The Bible says nothing about "race" except the kind run with the feet. The idea of race is purely of evolutionary derivation.

      Jesus is a Jew in the sense that He is from the tribe of Judah. ...In fact, Jesus was "made under the law" as I so stated before. He observed the Passover Feast, etc. which shows that He was under Jewish, i.e. Mosaic Law. Your position is totally indefensible and illogical.

      You used the illustration that a man who left Italy 20 years ago and became a citizen was no longer an Italian. That is not true. He may be considered an American citizen, but he is still an Italian by extraction. He did not lose his Italian facial features, or ancestry; and if Italy was destroyed by an earthquake, or, as you say, "slid into the sea," yes, he would still be an American citizen of Italian descent.

      He was Jew nationally, according to the flesh, and He was a Jew religiously, even though the Jewish people rejected Him as the Messiah, or Christ, promised. He remains a Jew forever, according to the flesh, since He rose physically from the dead.

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