|
-
ARE THERE TWO PATHS TO GOD ?
What
happens to Jewish people who don't believe in Yeshua?
by Messianic Rabbi Loren Jacobs
Congregation Shema Yisrael, Southfield, MI
Incredibly,
there are many so-called Christians, and even some Messianic Jews today,
who suggest that Jewish people don't need to believe in Yeshua in order
to be saved! They teach that since the Jewish people have a covenant
with God, they don't need the New Covenant of the Messiah; or they teach
that all religions will get everyone to Heaven. Little could be farther
from the truth!
Very early in human history, our first parents rebelled against God, and
sin and death took control of humanity. Instead of drawing nearer to
God, Adam and Eve ran away from HaMakor - the Source of Life. The entire
world was now cursed, along with all mankind; Adam and Eve were exiled
from the Garden of Eden, and forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life. The
whole world (which includes the Jewish people) remains dead in
trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). The whole world is perishing,
decaying and headed for destruction like a rotten piece of fruit (John
3:16).
Rabbi Paul, the great theologian sent to the Gentiles, wrote the Church
at Rome that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, "for it is the power
of God for salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and
also to the Greek." Paul made it clear that Jewish people not only
are not exempt from the need to receive Yeshua, but in fact the Good
News is supposed to go to us first! Paul went on to declare that
"all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the
Law, and all who have sinned under the Law (the Jewish people) will be
judged by the Law... we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks
are all under sin... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God" (Romans 2:12, 3:9, 23).
Simon Peter, one of the leaders of Yeshua's Emissaries, standing before
the Sanhedrin, declared to the priests, Torah scholars and Rabbis of
Israel that there is atonement in no one other than Yeshua of Nazareth,
and there is no other spiritual reality anywhere in the universe which
can bring us salvation. It doesn't get much clearer than that! John, one
of the other Emissaries and Yeshua's friend, wrote that, "He who
has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not
have the life." It's as simple as that.
The Son of God Himself said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life,
and that apart from placing faith in Him, no man could get to the
Father. Rabbi Yeshua said to a group of Jewish leaders (men who believed
in God, who knew the Torah, who went to the Temple in Jerusalem and who
offered sacrifices), "Unless you believe that I am He, you shall
die in your sins" (John 8:24). If we could be saved by Judaism,
Messiah Yeshua wouldn't have said to a Jewish man like Nicodemus that it
wasn't enough to be born once, even if one was a knowledgeable or pious
Rabbi. Even a leading Torah-teacher like Nicodemus needed to be born
again - to undergo a spiritual rebirth, in order to enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. There are scores of places in the Holy Scriptures which teach
that all of humanity (including the Jewish people) is utterly lost, and
that each and every Jewish person (along with everyone else), in order
to be saved, must hear and believe the Good News about the Messiah.
Pretending the dying patient isn't sick doesn't help the patient.
Acknowledging that he is sick, and then administering the appropriate
medicine is what the dying patient needs. Allowing Jewish people to die
without Yeshua is spiritual malpractice of the highest order!
What about those who say that Jewish people have never really heard
about the Messiah, or that an anti-Semitic Jesus was presented to them
by a corrupt church? Ignorance is no excuse. Hosea warned us that
"my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." We are
responsible for the information given to us through Moses and the
prophets. Yeshua said, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
hear them (Luke 16:29)." We have the revealed Word of God, written
by our own Jewish prophets, which clearly points us to Yeshua. Didn't
Moses specifically promise that God would raise up another great
prophet, like himself, who would speak the words of God to us, and if we
didn't listen to that prophet, God would judge us severely (see
Deuteronomy 18:15-19)? The Son of God claimed that He was written about
in our very own Torah! "The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom
you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me,
for he wrote of Me" (John 5:45-46).
No Jewish person is going to appear before God and say, "Judge of
the whole Earth, I'm not responsible for not believing in the Savior you
sent to us. I never knew." Or, "Master of the universe, I
didn't like the way Yeshua was presented to me. Besides, my Rabbi told
me not to believe in Him, so it's not my fault." These excuses
won't be accepted! We are responsible for choosing the spiritual leaders
to whom we listen. We are warned not to listen to false teachers. If the
blind mislead the blind, so that both fall into a pit, both are
responsible.
While it may be true that much of the Church has presented a Yeshua that
has been stripped of His Jewishness, many true Christians have also
shown us the love of God, often at great cost to themselves. Besides,
there has also been a remnant of Messianic Jews in every generation. For
example, there were many Messianic Jews in Poland before World War Two.
It is reported that there were four Messianic Synagogues in Warsaw
before the Holocaust, and that there were many Messianic Jews who were
sent to the concentration camps, who had a Jewish witness to the reality
of Yeshua to their fellow Jews.
There are some today who teach "Two-Covenant" theology, the
idea that God has one saving covenant with the Jewish people, and a
different saving covenant with the Church (the New Covenant); therefore
Jewish people don't need to accept Yeshua, since He is part of the New
Covenant. That's terribly wrong! The Messiah and His New Covenant was
presented first to the Jewish people! It was specifically predicted by
the prophet Jeremiah that the New Covenant was to be made with the
Jewish people (see Jeremiah 31:31-34). While it is true that the people
of Israel have had several covenants with God (the covenants made with
Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Covenant made with Yeshua), that does
not mean that an individual Jewish person can reject a covenant and
still be saved. The fact that Israel has a national covenant with God
does not save every individual Jewish person. After all, not all Israel
are Israel. Since the coming of the Messiah, it is only those Jews who
have welcomed Messiah Yeshua and the New Covenant who are saved.
There are certain theological boundaries that distinguish between
orthodoxy and heresy: Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Trinity, the
Deity of Yeshua, and the sanctity of human life in all of its stages.
The need for all people, including Jewish people, to personally receive
Messiah Yeshua in this life in order to be saved, is one of those
boundaries that separates orthodoxy from apostasy. Every true child of
God must repudiate any teaching that crosses this boundary whenever and
wherever it occurs, and call it by its true names: heresy, apostasy,
compromise and cowardice. If your denomination, Pastor or Rabbi isn't
teaching the clear truth from the Word of God on the lostness of mankind
(including the Jewish people), and the need for all people to accept
Messiah Yeshua in order to experience atonement, forgiveness and
salvation, I would encourage you to bring the truth to their attention.
If they don't listen, then seek a new spiritual leader who does teach
the truth.
Messianic Rabbi Loren Jacobs
Congregation Shema Yisrael
Southfield, Michigan
www.Shema.com
This is www.MessianicAssociation.com |
