Paradigm Errors

“You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because the deliverance is of the Yehudim.” John 4:22 (Institute for Scripture Research translation)

Of The Yehudim – Something is happening. It’s not making the cover of news magazines or even religious journals. But it looks like a movement at the “wild flowers of the field” level. Perhaps you have subconsciously noticed the shift. Perhaps you have a rather inarticulate awareness. Slowly but surely, Christians who seek the Lord are re-discovering the God of Israel. This is a paradigm shift of enormous proportion, perhaps as fundamental as the Reformation. The old paradigm is passing away. A new interpretation of biblical reality is replacing the old; not in a step-by-step accumulation but in a sweeping movement of the Spirit. Ah, but maybe I’m being too optimistic. After all, what we are recovering here has been around for 5000 years. Why should we think that now is the time of insight and restoration? All I know are the stories of many, many Christians who were discouraged and disappointed but have suddenly discovered life in the Hebraic view of God’s Word. They knew there had to be more, but they didn’t know where to look until the Hebraic center of the Bible began to open. Now a verse like this one means something entirely different than it did just a few years ago.

The Greek text reads ek ton ‘Ioudaion, literally “out of the Judeans.” Of course, we know that the expression “Judeans” was a common idiom for “Jews.” Yeshua says deliverance (salvation) is out of the Jews. The older paradigm understands this statement to mean that Yeshua came from the Jews and, therefore, the salvation He brought to all men comes through Jewish descent. This typical Christian paradigm sees the Christ-event as the center of universal history. Since Jesus* died for all men, this statement simply means that Jesus’ Jewish ancestry is the vehicle by which God brought salvation to all men. There is no essential connection to Yeshua’s Jewish lineage. It is merely the means God used to accomplish a universal purpose. But, as we have noticed, this interpretation ignores the vast majority of biblical emphasis on the fact that it is Israel’s God and God’s people Israel who are center-stage. Only by skipping over everything between Genesis 3 and Matthew 1 do we arrive at the universal God. And, of course, Yeshua views everything about the Father and His relationship to the Father in Jewish terms as well. The old paradigm fails because it pretends that the exclusiveness of God’s election of Israel is ultimately of no consequence.

But this isn’t what Yeshua says. He tells the Gentile Samaritan woman that salvation has its source and its existence out of God’s relationship and involvement with the Jews. Salvation is not the application of some universal expiation for everyone. Salvation is directly and intimately connected to the God of Israel and if you want to experience deliverance you must be connected to this particular God! Israel’s God brings deliverance. Israel’s God brings peace. Israel’s God brings restoration. To think otherwise is to ignore everything the Bible says. Yeshua came for the house of Israel. If you want to participate in the intimate relationship He offers, then you must be connected to the House He came to rescue. Why? Because this kind of deliverance is Jewish!

“Wait a minute! Are you telling me that I have to be Jewish to be saved?” Of course not! That is Sha’ul’s point in Galatians. I don’t have to be a Jew to know God’s grace. BUT! I have to be connected to Israel’s God. I have to be adopted into that family. I have to be grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. In other words, redemption means accepting the provision that the God of Israel offers and joining His Kingdom. Salvation isn’t going to be found anywhere else because salvation is out of the Jews. If I become a member of God’s chosen people by adoptive naturalization, then I join a community that has been dealing with this God for thousands of years. My orientation toward life shifts toward the instructions God gives for His people. My paradigm moves. I delight in the difference because it is the difference God directs. Now the whole Bible becomes my book because I am part of the family. And I am “saved” into the family of Israel’s God.

Topical Index: salvation, Jews, John 4:22, paradigm

*A little note about names. I try to use the name Yeshua when we are looking at Scripture from a Hebraic perspective. I try to use the name Jesus when I am emphasizing the Christian-Church perspective. Hopefully, this will help you switch from one view to the other. Of course, “Jesus” isn’t his name, but most Christian-Church theology assumes that it is. The name itself demonstrates a step away from the Hebrew worldview.