I remember when I was reading the classic Greek myths as a young man and noted how the Greeks as contributed so many great ideas about democracy and through men like Socrates and Plato, that the question arose in my mind, "How is it that such a culture would worship many god and build altars to them?" I think that often when we have these sincere questions in the back of our mind that God does answer these questions eventually and even under unusual circumstances. But also the other question of late is, "What did the walk of repentance look like to the Greeks?" Here is the crucial thing to remember when reading about the ministry of the apostles: All of them were Jewish.
One thing to consider in our Darwinist post-modern culture is that most of the Greeks did regard the advent of Creation as an event not a naturalistic process. In fact most all pagan cultures do have some sort of flood myth. Even the Hopi Indians in Arizona being as far as they are from the Middle East have a flood legend in terms of creation. What else is amazing is that as cultures are closer to the Ararat Mountain region that the stories are more in line with the story in the Torah. So here is Paul and the apostles sharing about Christ to the pagan culture around them and they have received the message. What are the weekend messages that they are hearing after conversion? Simply the Torah readings are still kept going but know with the emphasis upon how it relates to Christ and their salvation experience. The Creation story is being told in Genesis, the covenant to Abraham and his children, and then wilderness journey of the Israelites to the promise land is being told on every Sabbath (Acts 15:21). The audience would connect to the story and also the apostles would relate how it also to that the promise land connects to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Somehow this point is missed when one reads Acts 15:21. The council of Jerusalem is discussing requirements onto Gentiles coming to faith and what repentance looks like. They also mentioned that the "the Law of Moses (the Torah) has been proclaimed in every city from the inception of the mission and is being read among the assemblies every Sabbath." Now you may say isn't that Judaizing to do this? Really and truly the issue of actual Judaizing mentioned in Galatians had nothing to do with being Hebraic, actually it dealt with conversion of believers. The council of Jerusalem is clearing matters that occurred in Galatians as Galatians was the earliest letter of the apostle Paul. The Greeks would hear the Creation account and be encouraged in their walk with Christ. They also would understand how the various cultures went astray. Now obviously other matters were discussed and taught and the message was not limited to the Torah but the Sabbath readings were indeed preserved and even most likely connected to Christ. I wonder if todays assemblies were to try a Sabbath services and taught this way how much more the Jews could be reached in a community. The divide between Jews and Evangelicals is vast in the American landscape as both strongly identify mostly with political parties that are in opposition to each other. Overwhelmingly over 75% Jews identify with the Democrat party as the majority of Evangelicals identify with the Republican party. The divide is indeed vast and perhaps there needs to be more of Hebraic nature of Christianity better communicated to the Jewish people. Later tonight will be the beginnings of the advent of Kristallnacht an event that occurred 76 years ago which was the beginnings of the Holocaust in Germany in 1938. More will be posted on this in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment