British Christians are being urged to return to their Jewish roots.
by Charles Gardner.
A call for Christians to return to the Jewish roots of their faith is being given a fresh impetus.
The Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ), one of the Church of England’s oldest missionary societies co-founded by William Wilberforce in 1809, has announced a new focus on Restoring the Roots.
This has come in response to what CMJ UK director Rev Aaron Eime calls a resurgence of an ancient heresy distancing the faith from its Hebraic foundations. Known as Marcionism, it has made a comeback after 1,800 years and has apparently embedded itself into most of Britain’s Bible colleges.
CMJ UK director Rev Aaron Eime
In rejecting the Jewish Bible – what Christians call the Old Testament – as divinely inspired, Marcion of Sinope succeeded in poisoning the minds of early Christians by separating Jesus from his Jewish roots.
Following the exponential rise of antisemitism since the latest Gaza War provoked by the massacre of 1,200 Jews on October 7, 2023, missions like CMJ are struggling to win a hearing at churches all over the country in view of the ‘hot potato’ Israel has become.
Invitations to speak of God’s calling to share the gospel with his ancient people are being turned down due to fear of causing division among congregations.
Rev Eime says we are witnessing much teaching that might sound very plausible to Christians, but which is in fact a very dangerous form of antisemitism that pulls Jesus away from his Jewish context, adding that the heresy has taken over most of our Bible colleges.
CMJ has branches all over the world, but is especially thriving in Hong Kong, a contributing factor being that “Asians have never persecuted the Jews”, Aaron pointed out.
Restoring Jewish roots is vital, especially now, because of the significant part played by Jewish people in the Bible’s end-time prophecies – for example, the fact that Jesus will not return until his chosen people are back in their own land where they will eventually be in a position to welcome their Messiah home (Matthew 23:39).
The Bible clearly speaks of the return from the four quarters of the earth of the Jewish exiles in the last days (see Isaiah 11:12) which will be noted for increasing tension and violence over Jerusalem in particular, but Scripture is also adamant that Jews will turn to Jesus in great numbers as the Second Coming draws near (Zechariah 12:10, Romans 11:26).
If, however, we accept the world’s verdict on Israel as the cause of all our troubles, we are hardly likely to invest in their future by sharing the gospel which they graciously passed down to us in the first place. We are thus left to join the forces of antisemitism as the world spirals into godlessness.
CMJ and others are simply urging Christians to take up their God-given role of standing with our long-persecuted Jewish brethren for whom the gospel is their only hope for the future, as it is for us!
For the Bible tells us that they will not only return to the land, but also to the Lord himself as their hearts are newly warmed to his love. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) A truth echoed by the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 36:24-26).
And as Jeremiah makes clear in the same passage partially quoted above, the Lord has certainly not finished with Israel. “This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is his name: Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” (Jeremiah 31:35f)