Dear Rabbi

Dear Rabbi

   לחיים

This page is being written in response to two declarations signed by up to 50 Orthodox rabbis.

The first declared that the New Testament is a Jewish document!

  This is amazing as it shows that the rabbis have read the New Testament, the Brit Ha Chadeshah of Jeremiah 31:31-34, and examined it and found that it is not a complete break with the Old Testament (also called the Tanach, T for Torah, N for prophets in Hebrew and the gutteral ch for writings in Hebrew which is more like k but here it appears at the end of the word Tanach thus the different sound for the same letter). Online readers may know one name but not the other so both are mentioned. I would not be surprised if these rabbis know more than many Christians that the New Testament quotes the Tanach often. This is due to lack of reading the Old Testament from cover to cover to recognize the passages that are quoted in the New Testament as having the Old Testament as their source.

The second declared that G-d has a valid covenant with the Gentiles (December 5, 2015).

This is amazing because it recognizes that G-d has reached out to the Gentiles (Cornelius and Peter) (Acts 10). It also recognizes that a Gentile must not first become a Jew to come to Jesus Christ. (Acts 15:1-35)

I rejoiced too soon along with many others as we interpreted the declaration as a recognition of Jesus Christ for the Jews.

The response to the contrary seemed to indicate Gentiles have their Covenant, we Jews have our Covenant. Two nations, two covenants. Apparently, Jews are still seen to live according to the covenant of the law without Jesus Christ while the Gentiles live under the covenant of grace with Jesus Christ.

I would like to challenge righteousness before G-d as achieved by obedience to the law only. I would like to challenge that there are two covenants serving two peoples at the same time. Righteousness is by faith alone in G-d. There is only one covenant and that is found in Jeremiah 31:27-40. The law is from G-d. Jesus Christ fulfilled it for Jews placing their faith in him and for Gentiles also. One covenant, one people. Since this is not a book with many pages, I can only point the way. If you are motivated to investigate, continue reading and then click on the links above. There are strong points made below also.

The 6 pages listed below reference scriptures mentioned on each page. The pages were written over the years and updated to reflect current use without major change.

G-d promised Abram that his descendants would be as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:1-6) and also of his seed, not his servant's seed. What we ignore is that G-d counted Abram's faith in the promises of G-d as righteousness. So the first righteousness by faith is found very early, in Genesis 15:6 hundreds of years before the law at Mt. Sinai. Faith precedes the law. Faith justifies without the law!

One note. I had read the scripture Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus [as your personal Savior and entrust yourself to Him] and you will be saved, you and your household [if they also believe].”   (Amplified). Up until I committed my life to Jesus Christ I thought it was just believing, such as I believe the sun will come up tomorrow even though it is dark now or perhaps it will be raining when it comes up so that I won't really be able to see it but I believe it will come up. Then I saw other words attached to believing such as trust in, cling to, adhere to, and rely on Jesus Christ. I knew I did not do that! So I kept up my search for the truth. Now I know the same concept is in Jeremiah 29:13 (OJB). "13 Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." (Amplified)

The miracle baby that G-d gave to the too-old-to-bear-a-child couple was now to be used as a challenge to Abram's fidelity to G-d with righteousness previously imputed to Abram via his faith in what G-d promised him even before it happened.

  Once we receive a miracle, we get possessive of it. G-d gave it to me and it's mine. No, it still belongs to G-d.

G-d asked him to take Isaac up on a mountain and sacrifice him. (Genesis 22:1-19) Will you give up that which I gave you and that which you could never replace without Me? Yes. G-d spared Issac, the child of the promise. (Genesis 22:12-19)

This is eventually what G-d himself did. He went through with sacrificing his only son, not even stopping himself. Why? Because it was the fulfillment of the law and the only way to satsify G-d's holiness and man's sinfulness (unrighteousness). (Isaiah 64:6)

G-d declared Abram's faith as righteousness before the sacrifice. Abram had no Mosaic law to reference. Abram did the one thing G-d required of him, believed in what G-d said would happen, and once believed, it was attributed to him as righteousness. Is Abram (Abraham), the father of faith, your father?

The Mosaic law is a wonderful thing blessing not only the Jews but all of humankind in so far as humankind receives it and bases societies on it. The law of the L-rd is forever. You won't catch me downgrading the law. However, in Jeremiah 31:27-40, G-d takes issue with the obedience of Israel to the Covenant of Moses, the Mosaic law. Deuteronomy 28 states clearly the blessings and curses of obeying and disobeying the law. But the Jews have broken the covenant. G-d does not really want to punish punish punish. G-d really wants his people to be near his heart and be blessed by him. So He says through Jeremiah that he will give them a Brit Ha Chadeshah, not like the one they broke, and he will write it on their hearts and minds. So I take issue with the declaration that the Jews will continue under the law and the Gentiles will continue under grace, two different covenants, two different ways to be right related to G-d. Jeremiah 31:31-24.

You are continuing to make the choice of self-obedience to be rightly related to G-d while the Gentiles flock to the new covenant where we know we can't obey even a law we make for ourselves. We just give up and by faith take the grace G-d gave us through Jesus Christ, the only Son G-d has. Warning to those physically related to Abraham but who do not live toward G-d in faith believing as Abraham did: G-d can raise up children of Abraham from stones. (Luke 3:8)

You assume because you hold Moshe in such high regard that you are like him. With all due respect you are more like King Saul making excuses rather than repenting for disobeying the prophet(s). You are still the chosen people, the Apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8). Get with G-d's Word! You say you serve and obey him only but you are obeying Rambam and first century rabbis rather than G-d. How else can you explain where you are now? (out of sync with your own scripture) Yeshua said he did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17-20) If you honestly examine scripture, the Tanakh, you might be able to see that. But you would have to correct yourself and repent before G-d for having believed a man made lie rather than G-d. Fear only him. (Isaiah 8:12-15)

I know you are careful not to say G-d's name. I try to comply. However, G-d places his word above his name. (Psalm 138:2) Please stay true to his word. Your life depends on it.

Please refresh your browser when examining this page. The server will NOT automatically show you the most recent updated page! On Windows 10 this means clicking on the clockwise cicular arrow at the top left of your browser.

For extra credit!  Please read Romans 9, 10, and 11. Many Christians misunderstand this so please make sure YOU understand it. The Tanach is the trunk of the olive tree, well cultivated. The branches are those who believe and are nourished by the trunk. Gentiles are wild shoots grafted into the trunk. So many Jews are the branches broken off the olive tree by bad teaching, ignorance or incomplete understanding, trusting others (the rabbis) for their well being, etc. How much quicker and appropriate that you can allow yourself to be grafted back on to the trunk, the original branches still alive!  Get back to the tree!  Don't just watch the Gentiles enjoy what is supposed to be your heritage!

Do you have to become a Christian to become a completed Jew? Absolutely not! There are Messianic Jews and Messianic rabbis more than when I lived in Israel when the newspaper had articles such as "Death to Missionaries!" Find one!  Here is a Teddy Bear, gentle in manner, Jonathan Bernis of Jewish Voice Ministries.

* This is not to say the Jews killed Jesus. The high priest prophesied it is better for one man to die for the people rather than the people perish for one man. (John 11:50) This was G-d's plan, that Yeshua would die for our sins. It was the high priest's plan to protect the people from the Romans. The high priest said the right thing for the wrong reason. He did not know that what he said was correct. Jesus did die. But that was not the end. It may seem odd to associate John 11 with this song, however, because Jesus humbled himself and allowed his own death, G-d lifted him high up. To go up, you must first go down. I am not calling you Christ killers!

Last updated: 05/10/2017

First posted: 01/15/2017