The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-C, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 5." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
Explain why we have messianic Jewish temples? What is the need for them?
Answer
This is a question that comes in relationship to something that’s happening in our current church scene today. Are you familiar with this? Recently, there has been a surge of messianic Jewish temples. Now what this means is this: we all know that we are currently in the midst of what you might call an ethnic minority movement in our country. I would be the first one to agree that many of the minorities in our country have suffered deeply from injustice. I do not deny that. Sometimes they have suffered because of the consequences of their own perpetuated society; other times they have suffered consequences as a result of oppression.
But it’s true, when the black power movement and all of those movements began and there was great liberation—much of it deserved among the blacks in the south—and when that all occurred, there was a natural tail to come along. There became sort of a new identity if you were an ethnic. You know, before, everybody was an American and everybody was waving the American flag—historically. Have you ever seen any news reels of World War II? It’s incredible! The victory after World War II… Well, everybody’s American! You know, the melting pot.
And now, all of a sudden, because of the drive of the ethnic movement and because of the tremendous population growth and the mass faceless humanity, everybody wants to be something. So, now we’ve got movements among the brown people, we’ve got this over here--kind of a movement among these types of people—you’ve got to be something! You can’t just be you who’s an American; you’ve got to be an Irish-American, a Polish-American, a gay-American, a something! You can’t just be one of the faceless crowd, you have to be a minority because that’s the new identity.
I think in this, all of a sudden, there is this Jewishness concept. Listen, if there ever is a minority that has existed as a pure minority throughout history, it’s the Jewish people. And they have waved the banner for years because God has wanted them to maintain their dignity and their unity and their purity as a race. But what’s happened is, I think, that many well-meaning Christian people—evangelical people—are catering more to a sociological minority movement than they are to the Word of God. Because the Bible would never tolerate a Jewish church and a Gentile church. That is the one thing that the apostle Paul spent the last months of his ministry trying to resolve, trying to get those two together. When he wrote Ephesians, he said, “The middle wall is,” what? “Broken down and they two have become one, new man. My own belief is that it is ludicrous to have a messianic Jewish temple as much as it would be to have announced out here that this is the Grace Community Gentile Church.
Now how do you think that would sit with Jewish people? They would say one thing: “They’re anti-Semitic.” See? There’s no reason for that! Dr. Finberg said to me one day, he says, “I don’t know why everybody thinks because we’re Jewish Christians, we’re something special! We’re not.” Something special to God. Something marvelous to be Jewish, but not something for which you deserve an entire church all to yourself. And now they have Christian bar mitzvahs… What is a Christian bar mitzvah?
You know there were some people who filled out applications to go to Talbot Seminary and they applied because they wanted to become Christian rabbis. Dr. Finberg said to me, “What is a Christian rabbi? They’re out of their mind! They think a church wants a Christian rabbi? They think a synagogue wants a Christian rabbi? No. Neither want either so you know what they do? They start their own: messianic temple. Some of these dear people really mean well and I pray to God that they’ll win people to Christ. But that isn’t what it’s all about! That’s, in a sense, Judizing. I don’t see any need for that at all.
I praise God for the Jewish people in our church. All you’ve got to do is read Acts 13 and you read about the five pastors there: some of them were Jews, some of them were Gentiles, some of them were white, and some of them were black! Read it! Acts 13. They all pastored the same church. We don’t have the Grace Community Irish American Church—I don’t see the point.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
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