'How much do pro-Israel Christians REALLY love us?' - [Jerusalem Newswire]

Christians and Jews (as if they were mutually exclusive) see each other's doctrines as on the other side of a wide gulf. However, they're much closer than either would like to admit, and the sins of each are also similar. While the Jews have thrown out the Messianic baby with the Gentile water, Christians threw out the Jewish baby with the legalist water.

After the anti-Semitic Constantine made Christianity the state religion, Jews and everything Jewish came under increased persecution. Anti-Semitism crept into the Christian mindset and survives even today. Usually, it's subtle, but sometimes sickenly overt. Despite the fact Messianic Gentiles (those claiming Yeshua as Savior) are grafted into the Jewish root, all things Jewish are tossed out of the common doctrine without thought. The Law given to Moses was given to Jews as perpetual statutes, yet while grafted-in Gentiles arbitrarily keep some (e.g., Ex. 20:1-17), they just as arbitrarily reject the rest (e.g., Ex. 20:18-26). Yeshua Himself said the Law was still in effect until all is accomplished. (With 50% of Biblical prophecy still unfulfilled, I'd say we're far from having all accomplished yet.) Yeshua kept the Law. Paul kept the Law. The disciples kept the Law (Biblical Law, not necessarily the rabbinical, oral tradition). These kept it not as legalists but as willing servants of the Father. The Sabbath was never "moved" to the first day of the week, nor was it made "floating" per one's personal desires. The Feasts still have memorial and prophetic value to us now. As Gentiles join the Jewish family through their relationship with the Jewish Messiah, they too may be blessed by the Law given to this family and its rich traditions. (The saved-by-legalism strawman won't be debunked here, but I welcome the opportunity, if you need it.) Were it not for this anti-everything-Jewish mentality, Christians would still be viewed as another sect of Judaism and rightfully so.

Over this same long history, Jews also further identified the Messianic sect as increasingly Gentile, thereby denying their own Messiah along with denying these Gentiles. As the only other sect of Judaism to survive the first century A.D., Pharisaism lives on in the all too common heresy of legalism among Jews. (One could just as easily claim legalism within Christendom, too. If you doubt it, just ask the average Christian about going church every week and tithing.) The plague of most modern Jews, though, even more so than the lukewarm Christians, is ignorance. Most are wholly ignorant of even their own Bible--and this includes the Orthodox. Were they to study the Tenakh (the ill-named "Old" Testament) with even a hint of openness, they would clearly see the Messiah in the person of Yeshua. They often refuse this investigation, because they've been taught that accepting the Messiah is to reject Judaism--partially thanks to anti-Semitic, Gentile Christians. By tossing out everything Gentile, these Jews toss out the Jewish Messiah and the New Covenant.

With each group generally insisting the other is "for them", we will continue to be at odds, even when we try to support each other. We continue to see the other as a foreigner to be converted, when in truth, we are brothers and sisters in the same family (each with heretical issues, to be sure). Israel needs to be supported, not because the Jews must be converted or because Christians have "replaced" Jews, but because Israel is God's Holy Land. Regardless of their flaws, God's People own that land by divine right, both those born of the Jewish root and those grafted into it.