by Gary Berg-Cross
The Messianic community is
in a bit of an uproar. The spark was
George W Bush’s talk at a fundraiser today for Messianic Jews sponsored by Messianic Jewish Bible Institute (MJBI)
– headquarters of the apocalyptic cult “Jews for Jesus”. The MJBI faith-driven, evangelical goal is “to bring
Jewish people into a personal relationship of faith” with Jesus. There’s the rub. The Jewish community does not
believe that Jesus represents the true word of God. They have received that
word and Yahweh’s speeches were done a while ago. To the born-again Christian community this is
an error correctable by simply getting Jews to recognize that Jesus really is
the promised Messiah. Now of course Muslims believe that even Jesus was
not the last word on this subject and well Mormons have introduced yet a more
recent rendezvous with God and an updated Book.
Disparaging, assimilating
and replacing other & older religions is often a core principle of religious
faith. It is implied in commandments to put down other gods and shun practices.
It seems reasonable to believe that
UR-born Abraham lived in an environment filled
with
remnants of Sumerian mythology and religious practices. The moon God Sin and his daughter Inanna were the patron deities of Ur
and the names given to Abram’s family members seem to reflect homage to
this Akkadian/Sumerian pantheon. Some speculate that this is the reason God changes
the names of Abram and Sarai after they enter into covenant with Him (YHWH). Sumerian myths had been integrated
& blended into nearby Akkadian culture& the original Akkadian belief
systems (which have been unfortunately mostly been lost to history). It’s an understandable story of older (Sumerian)
deities developing Akkadian counterparts. Abraham claimed
new contact with HIM/God and began a prophet’s job of converting people to his
belief. The ancient Hebrews continued in
this line of faith selling and converting into modern times if you believe the argument made by Shlomo
Sand in THE INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE :
As summarized in Wikipedia, Professor Sand:
“began his work by looking for
research studies about forcible exile of Jews from the area now bordered by
modern Israel, and its surrounding regions. He was astonished that he could
find no such literature, he says, given that the expulsion of Jews from the
region is viewed as a constitutive event in Jewish
history. The conclusion he came to from his subsequent investigation
is that the expulsion simply didn't happen, that no one exiled the Jewish
people from the region, and that the Diaspora
is essentially a modern invention. He accounts for the appearance of millions of Jews around the
Mediterranean and elsewhere as something that came about primarily
through the religious
conversion of local people, saying that Judaism, contrary to popular
opinion, was very much a "converting religion" in former times. He
holds that mass conversions were first brought about by the Hasmoneans
under the influence of Hellenism, and continued until Christianity rose to dominance in the
fourth century CE”
...Judaism used to be a proselytizing religion like Christianity or
Islam, and that
consequently many of today’s Jewish Israelis are
descendants of converts, without an ancestral link to Eretz-Israel.
Inversely, many of the Palestinians may just be the descendants of the
large Jewish community who remained to toil the land, even after the
destruction of the Temple and the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt
in the first and second centuries, respectively — and who gradually
converted to Islam in the centuries after the Arab conquest. (NYT Interview with Sand)
In more recent times there has been somewhat
of a gentleman’s agreement, a respect of both views (but not others) between
Jews and Christians not to poach too hard on tempting conversion territory. Well converting other religions is OK and
well Mormons may not abide by this silent truce since they have gotten the true
word more recently. Who to poach on can
make for some awkward confrontations. Indeed Humanists and Secularists are
perhaps the enemy since they can see all religious groups as fair game for poaching. Of course tactics for free thinkers may be as
simple as starting a rational conversation and not beating the evangelical
drum.
But for Born
Againers it isn’t so simple. Religious beliefs
have consequences. Those who do not accept Jesus as Savior are going to lose
their soul and wind up in hell! (yes the Sumerians had a place like that as
well as an Eden). We have to save them like we saved the Native Americans.
These unfortunate souls include a long list - non-Messianic Jews (which is the
vast majority of Jews), Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, deists, atheists,
Nones,
Secular Humanists etc.
It’s fair game to
go after all who reject the idea that Jesus was the son of god and died to save
humans from sin. Jews seem an easy target to some since they are only 1
prophet removed from the Truth to the groups like MJBI and to G. W. Bush.
Converting Jews is completely in line with his
end of days religious beliefs - t
hink about the Rapture and the apocalypse in order to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s a matter of faith among the born-again
Christian community.
However
with the truce broken more than isolated religion seems at stake here to non-Messianic
Jews. Converting the people of a strong
faith, well chosen is offensive disrespectful.
The conversion of the Jews, and their
restoration to Jerusalem, was apparently vigorously pursued by English
evangelicals in Victorian times to fulfill Biblical prophecies. Unpleasant
biblical eschatology is a driving force behind the rabidly pro-Israel stance of
the American Christian Right. The irony for Jews is that they love Israel from
a biblical perspective, but sees Jews as going to hell unless saved. For a scholar like Shlomo Sands there is a tricky conversion
story already in the Jew-Israel topic. He sees the claim that the large
majority of current Jews are the ethnic offspring of the biblical Jews as a
convenient Zionist myth.
Even without motivating prophecy
stories and mythic basis for religion and ethnic identity it is perhaps true that
all efforts at conversion are also about what we identify with and whether it
evolves and survives. Rob Eshman expressed
the Jewish survival concern this way in the Jewish Journal:
"Bush … is helping to raise money for a
group whose reason for being is to stop there being Jews. It sounds alarmist,
but there it is. Success for the group Bush supports would mean no more
Jews."
Yes, no more Sumerian religion or identity. It's the same
imperial mentality that's ravaged the holy land for ages driven by faith
rather than an evolution of provable ideas or the tolerant but relativistic idea that everybody’s philosophical religious beliefs are their own, and by definition in modern times nobody’s philosophical religious beliefs are better than anyone else’s. Sure, we may be able to improve on naive relativism and imperial absolutism. That a longer conversation, but tolerance is good for everything but intolerance. Unfortunately we have lots on intolerance in these messianic battles.
