Jewish Evangelism?
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:19 NASB
Go – John Piper wrote the introduction to Avi Snyder’s book, Jews Don’t Need Jesus . . . and Other Misconceptions. In his introduction, Piper says, “Before I knew this book was being written, I had said to the content team at our web-based ministry, desiringGod.org, ‘I want us to do more for the cause of Jewish evangelism.’” [1] Frankly, that’s all you need to read about Piper and Snyder. Both are quite mistaken.
Piper notes that “Jewish people embraced Jesus in the early days of the Christian church;” and “the first and greatest Christian missionary, a Jew himself and former Pharisee, the apostle Paul, . . .” Piper’s replacement theology defies his emotional affirmation of Jews. Like most evangelicals, he reads Scripture with the eyes of the Greek church fathers and he concludes, as they do, that the Jews rejected the Messiah, that the followers of the Messiah are Christians and that the Jews must convert to Christianity or face the judgment of God. There is nothing new here. We might as well be reading Justin Martyr. It’s just a shame that 2000 years of anti-Semitic teaching is still in place in popular ministries.
Piper ignores that fact that Paul does not call himself a former Pharisee. He ignores that fact that the term “Christian” is never used as a self-identification appellation by the followers of Yeshua. He ignores the fact that “Jesus” is not the name of the Messiah. He ignores that fact that the word translated “convert” is never applied to any Jew but only to Gentiles. He ignores that fact that the Jerusalem counsel of Acts 15 did not struggle with the question of how to make Jews into Christians but rather what to do about Gentiles who were coming into the Jewish community. And he makes no effort to understand what the commission of Matthew 28 really says. Piper is a proto-typical Christian evangelical. He believes he has the answer and no amount of lexical or historical analysis is going to change that.
“Go,” says the evangelically biased translation. But the word is poreuthentes, an aorist, passive participle. It is not an imperative (a command). It is rather a description, something like, “As you have been going along.” In other words, this is not a commission. It is an instruction about how to act in the ordinary course of your journey in life. Evangelicals desperately want “Jesus” to tell them to convert the world, but Yeshua doesn’t say that. He says, “While traveling the road, disciple others.” When a rabbi talks about discipling others, he is not speaking about conversion. He is speaking about training the mind and the body in the ways of the Father. The emphasis is on the life-long training, not the once-is-good-enough conversion. Piper likes Snyder’s book because Snyder is a Jew who is no longer Jewish. But that doesn’t mean Yeshua is a Christian. As Heschel notes, “A Jew without Torah is obsolete.”
Topical Index: go, poreuthentes, Piper, Snyder, Matthew 28:19
[1] All citations are from a reprint of Piper’s introduction to the book.
I love the way you (& Rabbi Bob) help me “see” what the text DOES say and what it DOES NOT say. These are very small yet EVER SO CRUCIAL to the text!!!! Thank you Brothers (& Sisters!!)
Thanks Skip, you don’t know how much this affirmed my approach. Now I have a couple of questions, where do baptism and communion fit it to the whole show?
Having entered the christian arena via Campus Crusade for Christ, I was immersed in the evangelistic mode constantly. It was always forced, artificial, stressful and awkward. For me, anyway. Upon listening to Skip’s offering regarding the so called “Great Commission” verse, I immediately identified with the intent, character and force of it. Real, natural, living! I live my life, and as I do, I lean in to relationships that allow for the discussion and ‘discipling’ of others in the ways that I am learning in regards to Torah. Simple, though challenging, of course, but, nonetheless, having a sense and feel of real life. Thank you.
Skip, My issues with the NTand the “roots” movement are many. isBut in this case,regarding the NT ,we do not know who wrote it, in what language it was written, or when it was written. Was it the nascent church, Rome o0r the apostles that were named in the second or early third century.Am i truly to spend my time concerned over whether the verb is an aorist passive participle or some other category just seems to be a waste of time….So many issues with the”roots” movement. Love d
I have so many issues with the obsession of putting tags and labels on everything. Why is seeking to understand what is really in the text as it was written to the people of that day such a difficult thing to understand?
I guess the fact that most of us have been raised to think like the Greeks is problematic. We don’t even know we do it. It takes someone like Skip (and others) to help us see outside our familiar paradigm and begin to ask questions like “why do I believe what I believe?”
Translation matters very much. Almost nothing that modern institutionalized church teaches is anything that the apostles or Yeshua would recognize. We have a duty to search the scriptures diligently and do our best to understand what the text truly says.
All labels aside-really 🙂
+1
I heard that a Hebrew mindset is ,that the in their walk ,the past is in front of them and future is behind. Greek thinking is future in front of them past behind but both agree you must keep walking. It seems like Judaism stops in there walk not seeing future changes and transformation and Christians want to change everything about past transformation. No wonder religions miss who Yeshua truly is .Ah what beauty and splendor he is in revealing Yahweh Elohim’ to us. I may not fully comprehend oneness but I see the most wonderful results of it.