{"id":117680,"date":"2024-12-28T17:05:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T15:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=117680"},"modified":"2024-12-26T14:27:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T12:27:01","slug":"14-05-114","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=117680","title":{"rendered":"Shabbat for Protestants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Shabbat for Protestants<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n


\nMaggie Phillips<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

As part of a growing trend among American churches, an evangelical congregation in Dallas weaves elements of Jewish ritual and liturgy into its Christian service<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

A congregant blesses two loaves of challah during the Friday night service at Gateway Christian Church Jeff Wilson<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Just outside Dallas, kippot outnumbered cowboy hats on the evening of Oct. 4 at Gateway Christian Church in Southlake, Texas. At the main entrance of the enormous campus, greeters smiled and said, \u201cShabbat shalom.\u201d Inside and all throughout the church\u2019s spacious wraparound foyer, diners of various ages and races were gathered around large circular tables, engaged in lively candlelit discussions. Others clustered at a table selling menorahs, \u201cI Stand With Israel\u201d bumper stickers, and Star of David jewelry; it appeared to be doing brisk business. In the clamor of voices, I heard a Southern accent try out a \u201cShana tovah<\/em>!\u201d At the buffet, a constant stream of waitstaff returned empty serving trays from the buffet tables to the bustling kitchen and emerged seconds later with replacements. A busy indoor playground was reminiscent of nothing so much as a McDonald\u2019s PlayPlace. In a place of honor, with an Israeli flag posted behind it, a table had been set with empty seats, and pictures of Oct. 7 hostages stationed at each plate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This was dinner before Gateway Southlake\u2019s monthly Shabbat service, presided over by Pastor Greg Stone, who spearheads Gateway\u2019s Jewish Ministry. The son of a Jewish couple who told me he was bar mitzvahed by the president of the American Jewish Congress, Stone grew up in a Conservative synagogue but became a Christian in his early 20s while serving in the U.S. Air Force, 40 years ago. Despite his own journey, Stone insists that Gateway\u2019s Jewish Ministry is not out to convert Jews, nor does it represent an attempt to erase the distinctiveness of Jews or Judaism. \u201cWe do not ever do anything that is blatantly evangelistic,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to offend people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

So if a Jewish ministry isn\u2019t a ministry for <\/em>Jews, what is it?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Primarily, it\u2019s a ministry about<\/em> Judaism for gentiles, specifically nondenominational Protestant Christians. Through Gateway\u2019s Jewish Ministry, those attending the October gathering were invited to participate in a \u201cJesus\u2019 Jewish Roots\u201d Havdalah on Saturday, to take shofar lessons, and to build sukkahs for a \u201cCamping with the King\u201d event scheduled to coincide with Sukkot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Southlake Shabbat represents an increasingly visible movement within U.S. Christianity that is discovering Jewish practices, and familiarizing Christians with Jewish belief. Its origins are difficult to pinpoint. By some reckonings, it began in the late 1960s; by others, the late 1990s.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The contemporary evangelical Christian interest in Judaism (and usually, but not always, Israel) doesn\u2019t quite have a name. Like many trends, it lacks a coherent thesis or genesis, and can take on different characteristics depending on who is adapting it. Many evangelical churches, organizations, and groups engaged in studying (and even in some cases observing) Jewish law will use the same terminology, but inflected with different meaning. Evangelical Christianity is popularly associated with support for Israel based on the belief that Jews must return to Israel and convert, so that Jesus can come back. But at Gateway, which by some metrics is measured to be the ninth-largest evangelical Protestant church in the U.S.<\/a>, the October Shabbat service contained no mention of Armageddon. This seems to reflect a larger shift in U.S. evangelical Christianity away from end times theology explicitly linked with Israel. The loose confederation of Christians who are interested in Judaism today goes beyond the simple \u201cChristian Zionist\u201d label that has been a feature of American political life for half a century. In some instances, it touches the Messianic Jewish movement that came out of the charismatic Christianity of the 1970s (Jews for Jesus being perhaps the best-known example). Other groups\u2019 preoccupation with Judaism is something much different.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Protestant Christianity was interested in Jews and the concept of Israel almost from its very beginning. Starting with the Reformation, many Christians were reading the Old Testament in their own language for the first time. These early Protestants were thinking about the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish people\u2019s role in history in a new way. Some Reformation theological figures began to espouse the belief that biblical prophecy required the return of the Jews to the land of Israel (a theology known as \u201crestorationism\u201d), and that the conversion of the Jews was another precondition for Christ\u2019s triumphant return. Others, notably Martin Luther<\/a>, came to a much darker conclusion about Jewish-Christian relations that many would say set the stage for Hitler five centuries later.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

British evangelical Christianity may represent the true beginnings of what we think of as Christian Zionism today. Lord Shaftesbury, the 19th-century British social reformer and politician, is frequently pointed to as first to translate a religious belief in a biblical home for the Jewish people into tangible foreign policy goals, advocating for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In America, as biblical fundamentalism took hold in the first half of the 20th century, this notion would become married to a theology called dispensationalism, which says God relates to humanity in different ways in different eras known as \u201cdispensations.\u201d British evangelical clergyman John Nelson Darby developed this theology from existing Protestant traditions around God\u2019s role in history<\/a>, and propagated it throughout the Anglosphere in the mid-19th century. Darby\u2019s dispensationalism dealt with the futures of both Jews and Christians, but it is perhaps best-known for popularizing the idea of the \u201crapture,\u201d or a sudden disappearance of God\u2019s faithful before a time of tribulation that would prefigure the return of Jesus Christ. Dispensationalism grew in prominence in the United States in the first part of the 20th century, and developed its own distinct character.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In his book Walking on the Pages of the Word of God,<\/em> author Aron Engberg provides<\/a> a thumbnail sketch of evangelical Zionism\u2019s history. While there was certainly a dispensationalist movement that grew up alongside biblical fundamentalism in the U.S., Engberg is careful to distinguish between the way the twin movements influenced American churches (they were not formally that theologically dominant, he writes), and how they prevailed culturally among lay Christians (quite a bit). A popular, loose association between dispensationalists and Bible-focused evangelicals developed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Engberg outlines the way that a particular idea\u2014the restoration of Israel to the Jewish people as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy\u2014took hold in fundamentalist evangelical circles as the 20th century progressed. Two events in the late 1960s form a useful starting point for when evangelical Protestants began adopting Jewish religious practices into their worship and worldview: Israel\u2019s victory in the Six-Day War, and the Jesus movement coming out of the West Coast.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Staff lay hands on Pastor Greg Stone during a pre-service huddle<\/em><\/span>
\nJeff Wilson<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In the second half of the 20th century, after what many evangelical Christians saw as the miracle of Israel\u2019s victory in 1967, two novels supercharged the cultural prevalence of a particular form of restorationism that presaged the end of days. These works of fiction were Hal Lindsey and Carol C. Carlson\u2019s The Late Great Planet Earth<\/em>, and the Left Behind <\/em>series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Together, Engberg said, these novels \u201cdid much to establish the identifications between Zionism, Bible prophecy, and biblical literalism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Lindsey gained a following at UCLA as a Campus Crusade for Christ minister in the late 1960s, where he blended apocalypticism with an au courant aesthetic that attracted young spiritual seekers<\/a> of all backgrounds. A dispensationalist, Lindsey taught that Christianity was itself a dispensation, a temporary \u201cchurch age\u201d that God brought about in response to the Jews\u2019 rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. The final dispensation\u2014Jesus\u2019 triumphant return, ushering in 1,000 years of peace\u2014would be presaged by turbulence, as well as the Jews\u2019 return to the Holy Land to take control of Jerusalem. Although Lindsey was not a member of the Jesus movement himself, his novel became its \u201ctextbook,\u201d according to a 2017 article in the National Endowment for the Arts journal Humanities<\/em>,<\/a> noting that The Late Great Planet Earth<\/em> appeared \u201cnext to the Bible in almost every movement commune, church, or coffeehouse, and was responsible for drawing in converts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was also around this time that Nashville\u2019s Belmont Church<\/a> on Music Row shed its square Church of Christ reputation (buzz cuts, button-downs, no instrumental music) to become a nerve center for the Jesus movement. Christian pop star Amy Grant emerged out of the vibrant cultural scene that surrounded Belmont. By 1982, Grant was garnering praise for her recording of the Christian song \u201cEl Shaddai,\u201d which featured a chorus in Hebrew, while lamenting \u201cthat the people could not see what Messiah ought to be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The first Left Behind<\/em> book was published in 1995, and the series gained popularity throughout the late 1990s. \u201cBasically everybody was talking about it,\u201d said Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, when I interviewed him for a Tablet article<\/a> on his organization, a Christian group dedicated to fighting antisemitism. After the turn of the millennium and the aughts came to an end, the series\u2019 popularity died down. Moon described a sort of collective apocalypse hangover among his fellow evangelicals. \u201cThe series ended,\u201d he said, \u201cand everybody was like, \u2018yuck, I don\u2019t want that, that\u2019s not what I think.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Today, Engberg writes, \u201cdispensationalism is no longer a particularly common self-identity among Evangelical Zionists and only a clear minority would be able to explain the dispensational system in any detail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

If a Jewish ministry isn\u2019t a ministry for Jews, what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Moon said that now, even the \u201crock stars\u201d of the Southern Baptist church do not preach from the Book of Revelation, an esoteric book of prophecy that many Christians believe to contain truths about Christ\u2019s Second Coming and the events surrounding it. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to be seen as being connected to the Left Behind<\/em> stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve heard a sermon from the Book of Revelation in a decade.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

To be sure, Christians were still garnering media attention as recently as last year for trying to breed an unblemished red heifer in Israel<\/a> to fulfill an end times biblical prophecy. But sitting in Gateway\u2019s stadium seating that first Friday night in October, I did not get the sense that end-of-the-world theology was at the forefront of its support for Israel. I didn\u2019t hear any talk of the end times, even though Stone is unapologetically Zionist, and much of his congregation seems to be as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although younger evangelicals are less likely to identify as Zionists<\/a>, Gateway\u2019s Shabbat service appeared to have a healthy intergenerational mix. As attendees entered the sanctuary, ushers handed them a list of prayer points for Israel and for the Jewish people. Appearing on this list of suggested prayers were the salvation of the Jewish people, and that \u201cGod would make Jew and Gentile \u2018one new man\u2019 through Yeshua (Jesus).\u201d But there was nothing about hastening the apocalypse, and they recommended praying for the salvation of the Arabs, as well. At this particular service, just days before the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, the ushers also handed out a list of the 101 remaining Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, with their names and pictures. The prayer points also invited the reader to pray \u201cfor Jewish believers in Israel to be supernaturally protected, strengthened and blessed,\u201d and to \u201cprosper spiritually, emotionally, and financially.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The service started with 15 minutes of live praise and worship music in both Hebrew and English with mood lighting and excellent sound. Guys with easy rig cameras circled around the sanctuary to record. People in the congregation stood and sang along with the lyrics that appeared on two screens that flank the stage, and in supertitles over the stage. Many had their hands in the air; some had their eyes closed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Things quieted down when people appeared on stage indicating that it was time to light the Shabbat candles, and to bless the challah and the wine. When Stone appeared onstage, he told the congregation that he was not going to talk much about Oct. 7, although he had originally intended to. Saturdays, he teaches a \u201cJewish Roots of Jesus\u201d class and Havdalah service. Although the topic is usually some aspect of Jewish belief or worship (currently Stone is teaching a series on the Jewish perspective on the Book of Daniel), the Oct. 5 gathering would feature an eyewitness testimony from a Nova music festival survivor.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For Stone, Zionism, his Jewish background, and his Christian belief exist alongside each other. \u201cIsrael is a separate, distinct group,\u201d he said in a phone interview, \u201cwhether they believe in Jesus or not. They have eternal status with God. That\u2019s very clear from Jeremiah 31. Israel has an eternal, ongoing status relationship with God. And that\u2019s true whether they believe in Jesus or not. They just\u2014they have that. But I am a believer in Jesus. And so I have that. But I also have this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The gentile evangelicals who are adopting Jewish practice and learning more about the Jewish origins of their faith are doing so in myriad ways. Across the U.S., Christians are trying to understand Judaism more deeply, usually to recontextualize it within Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

At Gateway, Shabbat Date<\/a> (\u201cReturn to your roots\u201d is the tagline) is a group that encourages Christians to engage in Sabbath rest from sundown to sundown one day a week. \u201cI was in a dark place in my past and need the Sabbath to stay grounded and away from the influences that come against me,\u201d reads a testimonial on their website. \u201cI take the day to seek Adonai with all my heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A video played during the October Gateway Shabbat service invited members to Sukkot 2024, an event led by Shabbat Date called \u201cCamping with the King.\u201d The video showed Shabbat Date members Matthew and Shannon Kneisler outdoors admiring a large tent, and talking about the meaning of Sukkot for Christians. A tent is a temporary dwelling, Matthew explained, or tabernacle, and Sukkot is one of the appointed times when God has arranged to meet us. \u201cWe know that Jesus tabernacled with us,\u201d he said, quoting John 1:14: \u201cAnd the word became flesh, and tabernacled (dwelt) among us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cGiving up your time in your wonderful home,\u201d said Shannon Kneisler, \u201callows us to spend moments in the quiet place of that sukkah that we can hear [God\u2019s] voice, and then he is still dwelling, he does show up. It knits us in a way to him that\u2019s unlike any other experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Kneislers then invited viewers to join Shabbat Date for three days and two nights at Twin Coves Park in Flower Mount, Texas. The camp would include activities for families, as well as a shofar class led by trumpeter James Knabe. Knabe has a \u201cSound the Shofar<\/a>\u201c ministry, where he travels around the country sounding the shofar at churches and Christian events, and giving classes. The Shabbat service on Oct. 4 kicked off with a shofar blast, which was met with enthusiastic applause.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The shofar has been a popular feature at many evangelical events for a while, gaining some notoriety in 2020 when some Christian supporters of Donald Trump began bringing them to rallies.<\/a> Shofars have become associated with conservative, Trump-aligned politics through the New Apostolic Revival<\/a> (NAR); because of the shofar\u2019s association with the victory at Jericho in the Bible, they see it as a symbol of spiritual warfare.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Matthew Taylor is a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, and the author of The Violent Take It by Force<\/em>, a book about the Christian leaders involved in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He was present this Oct. 12 at \u201cA Million Women,\u201d a Christian Yom Kippur event on the National Mall, at which he estimated in a thread about it on X that there were around 250,000 attendees. Calling it \u201cone of the most multi-ethnic crowds I have ever seen,\u201d Taylor said that \u201cthe elements of NAR spiritual-warfare iconography [were] on display: shofars, tallits (Jewish prayer shawls), Israel flags, Appeal to Heaven flags.\u201d Two Messianic rabbis were among the speakers. One of them, Jonathan Cahn, wore his tallit as a cape and, during what Taylor described as \u201cthe apex of the spectacle\u201d carried out \u201cw\/ WWF-style hype,\u201d smashed \u201ca reconstructed altar to Ashtoreth<\/a>, an ancient Canaanite goddess they claimed was a demonic principality dominating modern America.\u201d Referring to it as a biblical act, Cahn said the destruction of the altar, on which the name Ashtoreth was inscribed in Hebrew, was to be \u201ca mass-exorcism\u201d of various societal ills, such as sexual immorality, pornography, transitioning children, \u201cthe confusion of sexuality,\u201d Pride Month, divorce, and the disintegration of the family. He invited the crowd to sound their shofars while he attempted the demolition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if they know (that the shofar) is a distinctly Jewish symbol or a Judaic-Christian symbol,\u201d Dan Hummel, an expert in evangelical-Jewish relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in a 2021 Religion News <\/em>article<\/a>. The article traces the rise of the shofar\u2019s popularity among evangelicals to an evangelical ministry in Israel, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ), which organizes charismatic evangelicals to march around Jerusalem blowing shofars on Sukkot. Hummel describes their Zionism as a transactional philosemitism based on Genesis 12:3, in which God promises to bless those who bless Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The presence of the ICEJ dates back to 1980. But today, Engberg writes, even the ICEJ distances itself from dispensationalism in its official communications. It is, Engberg said, a shift \u201cfrom flamboyant apocalypticism and high-profile political radicalism toward lower-key considerations of God\u2019s covenantal promises to the Jews and a more solid and respectable role in Israeli society.\u201d Indeed, the ICEJ website explicitly states that their support for Israel \u201cis not rooted in \u2018End Time\u2019 prophecies, but in God\u2019s faithful character to always keep His covenant promises to Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Stone takes exception to Christians who have adopted Jewish practice to the point that it has subsumed their Christian identity\u2014and sidelined the Jewish people.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Earlier in 2024, The Christian Century<\/em> published a magisterial account<\/a> of one such movement, often referred to as Hebrew Roots, which it described as \u201cdecentralized, widely variegated communities\u201d of Christians who consider themselves Torah-observant. According to Christian Century<\/em>, its origins are difficult to trace, although the term first appears to have been used in 1992. Today, this loose network may number over 100,000 people nationwide.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Due to its informal, grassroots nature, Hebrew Roots beliefs are not monolithic. Broadly speaking, members practice the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura<\/em> (restricting religious practice and belief only to what is in the Christian Bible) taken to its extreme conclusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Christian Century identifies a few common characteristics within Hebrew Roots: Sabbath rest beginning on Friday evening, eschewing the unbiblical holidays of Christmas and Easter in favor of those appearing in Leviticus 23, \u201cbiblically clean\u201d eating (although not keeping kosher), and both women and men donning tzitzit<\/em>. Such actions could be interpreted as philosemitic, but a visit to the website for 119 Ministries, a Hebrew Roots organization, contains little mention either of Zionism<\/a> or of modern-day Israel and Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Stone sees Hebrew Roots as a theology that equates Christianity with its Jewish origins, placing gentile Christians under the obligations placed on the Jewish people in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible; members often refer to themselves as \u201cTorah keepers.\u201d Stone says it is a form of theology that says that Christians have replaced Israel. \u201cWhen you have replacement theology,\u201d he said, \u201cyou have a theology that says that Israel is no longer a distinct people group.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Reconstructionist Rabbi Carol Harris-Shapiro is quoted in Christian Century calling Hebrew Roots \u201cthe ultimate supersessionism,\u201d another name for replacement theology: \u201cSome of them believe the Talmud is a distortion and that they\u2019re the only ones who are doing it right,\u201d Harris-Shapiro said, \u201cand the Jews who have been doing it for 2,000 and some years were really just wasting their time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

While the large majority of Gateway\u2019s congregants studying or adapting certain Jewish rituals are Protestant Christians, not all of them are. Some of them identify as Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Stone, for one, said he \u201cnever stopped\u201d being Jewish and does not consider himself a \u201cconvert\u201d to Christianity. \u201cI have pursued [Jesus] and pursued my Jewish roots, pursued my Jewish heritage, pursued my Jewish faith,\u201d he said. He is aware that this is not a position that most Tablet readers will readily accept, but said he wanted to make something clear: \u201cWe love, deeply love and support Israel,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t care if they accept my Jewish faith\u2014my faith in Jesus\u2014or not. We deeply love and support Israel and the Jewish people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although Stone is careful to explain his congregation is \u201cnot a messianic synagogue or messianic ministry within a church,\u201d he estimates that around 15%-21% of his congregation\u2014which numbers between 700 and 800\u2014self-identify as Jewish, meaning they have at least one Jewish grandparent.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Protestant Christianity was interested in Jews and the concept of Israel almost from its very beginning.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Part of this is indicative of a shift in how Jews with Christian beliefs identify. \u201cIn my opinion, there\u2019s a long-term trend from Messianic Judaism (seeing oneself as part of Judaism the religion) toward Jewish Christianity, (seeing oneself as a Christian practicing Christianity in a Jewish cultural context),\u201d said Lily Dayton, a spokesperson for advocacy organization VOICE of Israeli Christians. According to the 2020 U.S. Religious Census<\/a>, the number of Messianic Jewish congregations in America is on the decline, even as Christian congregations like Gateway attract Jewish attendees.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Even if, as Stone suggests, Gateway isn\u2019t out to convert Jews, the church does operate a sort of theological clearing house for pastors and Christians interested in Jewish ministry. Founded in 2020, the Gateway Center for Israel aims \u201cto be a guiding hub of resources and relationships that can inspire a new model of relating to the Jewish people.\u201d As evangelicals, the people who lead the Gateway Center for Israel are not shy about their desire to share their belief in Jesus with Jews\u2014and indeed, with everybody. Their statement on \u201cWhat We Believe About Israel<\/a>\u201d notes that Jesus commissioned his followers to \u201cmake disciples of all nations,\u201d and that in Romans 1:16, the Apostle Paul (\u201ca Pharisee, the son of Pharisees,\u201d as he describes himself in the Book of Acts) said that the Gospel is \u201cthe power of God,\u201d of salvation \u201cfor the Jew first.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But Gateway also acknowledges that the \u201cpersecution of the Jewish people was frequently church-sponsored and fueled by supersessionism\u2014the view that the Church is the new Israel and replaces the Jewish people as the people of God.\u201d They state that they \u201csupport in word and deed the right of all Jewish people to exist as Jews with complete self-determination\u2014free from any form of political, economic, social, or religious intimidation, coercion, or persecution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Jewish organization Beneynu (Hebrew for \u201cbetween us\u201d) exists to counter Christian missionary activity targeting Jews in Israel. A former Christian missionary, Shannon Nuszen, founded Beneynu to address what she sees as an alarming uptick in Jewish conversions to Christianity. Nuszen believes that fundamentalist evangelical Christians are talking out of both sides of their mouth, on the hand, sincerely supporting the State of Israel, but on the other, deploying carefully crafted messaging intended to proselytize Jews with the goal to bring about the Second Coming.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Gateway insists that Jews who come to Christianity must not subordinate their Jewish identity and practices to exclusively Christian ones. \u201cWhile many in the Jewish world regard Messianic Judaism to be deceptive under the reasoning that a Jew cannot believe in Jesus and remain a Jew, a perspective that emerged out of the legacy of hatred between Christians and Jews over the past 2,000 years with its consequent parting of the ways, we affirm the apostolic witness that Jews who follow the Messiah of Israel remain Jews,\u201d their website states. \u201cWe believe that the commitment of Jewish followers of Jesus to remain faithful to their people and heritage, and to raise their children as Jews, contributes to Jewish continuity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Rabbi Tovia Singer\u2019s ministry, Outreach Judaism, aims to push back against fundamentalist, evangelical Christian missionary attempts to convert Jews to Christianity. In an article titled \u201cPreying on the Jews<\/a>,\u201d he takes exception to a claim Messianic Jews make, which Stone also makes, that Christianity is a fulfillment or completion of Jewishness. It is, Singer writes, \u201ca new sales pitch\u201d on the part of evangelicals to get around many Jews\u2019 resistance to Christianity as antithetical to their beliefs, or a denial of their distinct peoplehood. Singer uses the example of wallet-sized cards that he said Messianic Jewish evangelists carry, with tips for evangelizing Jews (say Yeshua instead of Jesus; don\u2019t say you\u2019re a convert from Judaism, but a \u201ccompleted\u201d or \u201cfulfilled\u201d Jew).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Stone understands the mistrust with which some Jews view Christianity. He said even some Jewish Christians he knows will not openly identify as Jews in a Christian context, because they do not feel they can entirely trust the church. \u201cFor a variety of reasons,\u201d said Stone. \u201cWhat might be expected of them? You know, \u2018am I really safe?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Not everyone feels that way. \u201cGateway\u2019s Shabbat service is life to my soul,\u201d said Gateway Jewish Ministry member Greg Rosenberg in an email. He became Christian in 1995, but never encountered Jewish worship service in a Christian church until he moved to Texas in 2015 and attended his first Shabbat service at Gateway. \u201cTo worship in the presence of so many gentiles and Jews together in a church is just life, like a refreshing oasis in a parched land. It\u2019s encouraging for me to see so many gentiles caring to worship in a Jewish context and learn the roots of their faith. I see that they see their Messiah as Jewish, and they cultivate a burden for Israel and Jewish people. For me to see this is so encouraging, it is life. The service also brings me back to my childhood of celebrating the Shabbat every Friday with my family, and often going to synagogue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Other groups within American evangelicalism are trying to approach Judaism with respect and sensitivity. Destiny Albritton is the senior director of Next Gen CUFI, the youth outreach arm of Christians United For Israel. She regularly posts educational videos for Christians on social media. In one recent post, titled \u201c3 Ways Christians Can Honor Jewish Holidays,\u201d Albritton explains how Christians can honor the High Holidays \u201cwithout being awkward or offensive.\u201d \u201cFor me, I know Jewish holidays are on a calendar corresponding with the seasons in the land of Israel. Honoring these holidays deepens my own love for Israel and acknowledges the Jewish connection to the land,\u201d she says in the video. \u201cI find that connection so beautiful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Albritton said she consults the Bible and Chabad.org to learn about the significance and origin of the holidays, and sometimes attends Chabad services with Jewish friends. \u201cThe observance of Jewish tradition for generations and generations despite all their challenges is so amazing and so powerful to see,\u201d said Albritton, who encourages Christians to send appropriate holiday greetings to her Jewish friends, wishing them either a happy holiday or a meaningful fast.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

There are those in the Jewish community who appreciate the Christians who are adopting aspects of Jewish tradition, viewing the phenomenon within the context of increased antisemitism in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Laura Kessler is the Ohio-based founder of BIPACT (Bipartisan Action Against Antisemitism). She grew up in the Midwest in a mixed family with Catholic relatives. \u201cI have a lot of experience with evangelicals,\u201d Kessler said, \u201cso this is normal to me.\u201d She welcomes the practice, as long as the Christians aren\u2019t there to proselytize or convert. \u201cWe need a bigger coalition. The more we normalize that Judaism is open, it\u2019s cool, the better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Avavit Pyle, 55, is a Hebrew language and Jewish studies teacher at a small Miami Beach Orthodox preschool. Originally from Israel, she has lived in the United States for 30 years. One of her closest friends is an evangelical Christian. \u201cShe\u2019s been a source of light with all the hate,\u201d said Pyle. \u201cI think it\u2019s very positive,\u201d she said of the Christians who are incorporating Jewish rituals and traditions into their lives. \u201cThey are identifying with us, rather than distancing from us. That love [of] Israel is the number one priority for both of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cMy friend says that when Yeshua comes, we will all be one,\u201d Pyle said, and laughed. \u201cI just hug her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although Gateway\u2019s Statement of Faith decrees that the Bible \u201cis the source of all doctrine, instruction, correction, and reproof,\u201d containing \u201call that is needed for guidance in godliness and practical Christian conduct,\u201d no one seems to object that the Shabbat service includes a few Jewish liturgical prayers that are not found in the Bible: the prayer recited when lighting Shabbat candles, or the blessings over the bread and the wine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mining Judaism for ritual and tradition may also represent a broader trend among evangelical and nondenominational Christians of looking to history to enrich their faith. Some evangelical churches are returning to physical hymnals, instead of displaying lyrics on a screen in the front of the sanctuary<\/a>. Others are adopting liturgical observances like Lent<\/a> and Advent<\/a>, or even departing nondenominational churches altogether for more liturgical Protestant denominations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

During his sermon on the meaning of Yom Kippur, Stone explained the Kol Nidre prayer to the congregation, that it was a confession of vows broken and yet-to-be-broken. When he was done speaking, two singers, a cellist, and a pianist emerged from backstage and began the Kol Nidre in Hebrew. It was a marked departure from the slick production and high-octane drums that characterized the opening worship music.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The congregation sat quietly as a clear, unadorned soprano voice went out over them, supported by reverent, plaintive acoustic accompaniment. The singers, a father and daughter, harmonized in Hebrew. Some people closed their eyes, others watched them with focused intensity. When the music was over, Gateway Southlake gave them a standing ovation. Still, the applause was decidedly muted compared to the cheering and shouting that punctuated the earlier, more energetic prayers and songs. The prayer was not the typical Gateway worship fare. It was far older.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

This story is part of a series Tablet is publishing to promote religious literacy across different religious communities, supported by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Maggie Phillips<\/strong> is a freelance writer and former Tablet Journalism Fellow.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shabbat for Protestants Maggie Phillips As part of a growing trend among American churches, an evangelical congregation in Dallas weaves elements of Jewish ritual and liturgy into its Christian service A congregant blesses two loaves of challah during the Friday night service at Gateway Christian Church Jeff Wilson Just outside Dallas, kippot outnumbered cowboy hats […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117680"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117723,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117680\/revisions\/117723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}