Voice Magazine

Sept-Oct 2003

What does the word imperative mean?  It means “not to be avoided or evaded, urgent”!  I’m responding to this topic with a sense of urgency.  Are you familiar with this definition of interpretation from Dr. David L Cooper?

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense,
seek no other sense, therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, … indicate otherwise”.

I believe, without hesitation, that the literal method of interpretation is the only way to understand the character of God, His Word, His salvation and His people.  Our generation reacts to feelings and emotions first and to what God said second.  If it feels good, do it!  That is the world’s motto, which has invaded the church.  Where are the believers who are the “salt” and “light” in the world?  Where is “Thus saith the LORD” being lived out in the hearts and lives of believers, churches and Bible Schools?  It is what God says, not what I feel that really matters.

Biblical Imperative

First, there is a biblical principle to which a promise of blessing and cursing is attached.  God said in Genesis 12:3that if you bless Abraham (and his descendents) God will bless you.  If you curse Abraham, God will curse you.  Has the Abrahamic Covenant ceased being an unconditional covenant?  What would be the greater way today to bless Abraham than to open the Hebrew Scriptures to his sons and daughters and show them the Jewish Messiah?
There is a biblical imperative found in Romans 11:11,

“I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through
their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy”.

Observe two very important things:  (1) Israel’s fall in rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, and (2) salvation has come to the Gentiles.  Meditate on what God said!!  You, as a Gentile, have received salvation because of their fall! Wow!  Here’s God’s imperative, you through faith in the Jewish Messiah are to “provoke them to jealousy”.  The Jew fell and salvation has come to us uncircumcised Gentiles, so that we may provoke them to jealousy in their own God that we have come to love and call our Father.

Look at the last part Zechariah 12:10.  It is one of the most gut wrenching statements in scripture; “…they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son.”  When the Jewish nation calls for the one sitting on the Father’s right hand and they realize that it is Jesus, the Messiah who they rejected, they will weep bitterly.  Why?  Because for 2000 years their fathers and grandfathers have been rejecting the very one in whom they said they trust.

Theological Imperative

We, in the IFCA, are Dispensationalists.  What does that mean?  In part, it means that we see Israel and the Church as separate distinct entities.  We recognize the dispensation of Law that God used to lead us to Messiah.  Today we live in the dispensation of Grace.  God has set national Israel aside temporarily and is working through the church, but in the future He will, through the Messiah, set Israel over all the nations.

Systematic theology has helped us get a grip on what the Scriptures teach.  But we have forgotten something.  If you take Israel out of the Scriptures, what do you have left?  Yet we ignore the foundational instrument, Israel through which God has chosen to work to bring salvation and redemption to the whole earth.   When I went to Bible College 30 years ago, we had drilled into our heads the word, “context, context, context”.  Why do we ignore God’s context?

Historical Imperative

The Jew has resisted the gospel successfully for over 1900 years, partially because the “church” has become one of the major obstacles preventing them from accepting Jesus as their Saviour.  The relationship of the Church to Israel over the centuries is not pretty.  From the Jewish mindset, you and I are responsible for all the acts of mental, spiritual, emotional and physical violence done to them through the centuries.  All of this is the exact opposite of what Romans 11:11 taught.  We who understand the love of God must bend over backwards to show the love of Messiah to His people.  There is also the misguided, biblically illiterate position that we have forfeited our right to witness to the Jewish people because of that history.  It is now more important then ever to show them the love of Messiah through His true believers by sharing the Gospel.

God’s Imperative

We all know God’s Command in Matthew 28:18-20 for worldwide evangelism and believe it with all our hearts.  But God also has a procedure as to how it is to be done, which is given to us in Romans 1:16.  In your going to the peoples of the world to reach them for Christ, in every community we are commanded to go to the Jew first.  Look at the context of scripture.  Who is intricately involved in being the agency through whom God works? Israel and the Jew!

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth;  to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Consider the debt that we owe to the Jewish people.  The authors of Scripture were Jewish.  The History of the Bible is Jewish history.  The culture and customs of the Bible are Jewish.  Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord was an observant Jew.  Your salvation is directly tied into the “New Covenant” of Jeremiah 31 which happens to be a Jewish Covenant.

Missions Imperative

The Jewish people have been the most difficult people group over the centuries to reach with the Gospel of Messiah.  Today less than 1% are believers in Messiah and less than 5% have ever had a clear presentation of the gospel that was understandable to them.

If we want world missions to have God’s hand of blessing upon it, we must place the Jew back into the center of His plan.  What is missions?  Home and foreign fields?  10-40 window?  Reaching least reached people groups?  Yes, all of this is missions.  But God said, “Go ye into all the world” and in your going follow my procedure “To the Jew first….”.  Now is it possible that in our fervor and dedication to reach the world for Christ, that we have overlooked His procedure for Missions?  Remember the underlining principle, bless Abraham and his descendents and you will be blessed.

God has scattered the Jewish people around the world.   Everywhere they are so also is the church.  Could there be a connection? Many churches practice the Great Omission of the Great Commission.  Those of you in urban centers where Jewish people have the greatest visibility, do you know how to witness to them?  Can you do so from the Hebrew Scripture alone?  Are you aware of Jewish sensitivities?  Do you make any attempts to connect with the Jewish community for the designed purpose of reaching them for Christ?  It is good to do good things to the Jewish people but the ultimate act of anti-Semitism is to just be good to them and not share the Gospel of Messiah with them.  Is your church actively involved in reaching Jewish people with the Gospel and supporting Jewish Missions?  If you live in rural America, seek them out and share your faith and support Jewish missions.

You may ask, how do I witness to them?   How do you learn to witness to Moslems, or Mormons, or Jehovah witness, or Roman Catholics?  Do you not find good books or go to seminars?  Contact an IFCA missionary to learn about Jewish outreach from those writing articles in this same issue.  Also in Irvine, CA contact Rev. Bob Morris a Jewish believer and director of HaDavar Messianic Ministries also an IFCA member as well as other ministries that advertise in Voice.

Practical Imperative

Most fundamental churches in America today are not reaching out and sharing the love of Messiah to the Jewish people, with whom we live, move and rub shoulders with individually or collectively.  The Mosaic Covenant is not a saving covenant.  Jews do not go to heaven because they are Jewish or because they try to obey the Law.  We all know and believe this, yet we send missionaries around the world to reach the lost, as we should, but not at the expense of ignoring the Jewish people.

Christians love the Land, but do they love the people of the land, the Jewish people?  We as Christians spend tens of thousands of dollars buying books by the latest prophetical sensationalist on the newest prophetic twist.  Instead we should be giving our time, energies and monies to support Jewish missions.

As I travel, I am amazed at how many Bible believing churches do not support any Jewish ministry.  Yet every time you open the pages of Scripture to witness, to prepare a sermon, to counsel, for study, or for devotions, one constant fact stares us in the face: Israel and the Jew.  Our whole faith is wrapped up in what Jewish people have done for us!  What are we doing for them that will have a positive eternal result?