Democrat Barney Frank, former Massachusetts congressman, is the country’s first openly gay member of Congress. He recently insinuated he is also a “pot-smoking atheist.”
Frank made his comments on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher Friday. Watch in the video below.
What do you do when you learn you are not the person you thought you were, when you learn you are the very thing you hated?
It was a question Csanad Szegedi was confronted with—one that led to a remarkable transformation.
Szegedi was once a rising star in Hungary’s third largest and most controversial political parties, Jobbik. Jobbik has been labeled fascist and anti-Semitic.
Its leader once asked for a list of all the Jews in Hungarian government. And Szegedi, still in his 20s, was on a trajectory to lead the party someday.
“I joined Jobbik in 2003, when the party foundations were being built,” he told CBN News. “I was a member for nine years. I was vice president for six years, and I have served in the European parliament since 2009.”
Szegedi was also branded an anti-Semite, although he told CBN News that when he joined Jobbik, “I was kind of indifferent toward Jews.”
“I didn’t care about Jews,” he said. “I didn’t care about the Holocaust. I didn’t consider the Holocaust as a tragedy for the Hungarian people.”
Szegedi’s Damascus Road
But still, Szegedi was a leader in a major anti-Semitic party, and his public statements showed that, at the very least, he didn’t like Jews and was suspicious of them.
But that would all change when Szegedi learned something about himself that would turn his world upside down: Szegedi discovered he was a Jew.
When rumors of his Jewish ancestry started swirling on the Internet, Szegedi went to talk to his 94-year-old grandmother, whom he never knew was Jewish.
“She opened up and she talked about her life and how she was sent to Auschwitz and how our family was annihilated,” he recalled. “I was shocked. First of all, because I realized the Holocaust really happened.”
At first, Szegedi tried to hide his Jewishness and act like nothing had happened. But he realized he couldn’t stay in Jobbik.
“It started such a crisis in my consciousness,” he told CBN News. “I realized I can’t take part in any organization that has anything to do with anti-Semitism. And after my Jewish origins were disclosed, they really didn’t want to see me in the party anymore.”
A Spiritual ‘Leper’
So what do you do when you discover you are one of the very things you hated? Szegedi decided to change.
He contacted local rabbi Schlomo Koves, who first thought it was a joke.
“When I first met with Csanad, I had very, very mixed feelings because on one hand I was sitting across from a member of the Jobbik party, which has extreme anti-Semitic views,” Rabbi Koves told CBN News.
“But on the other hand, I was sitting across from a broken person who has realized what he has done and has come to a situation where he figured he had to change but he didn’t know how to change,” he said.
Szegedi started attending synagogue and jokes that he was treated by some members “like a leper.”
“It was very interesting to see how other people viewed it, and some stepped back,” Rabbi Koves said. “They were shocked.”
But Szegedi started taking classes at the synagogue, learning Hebrew and the meaning of kosher and Shabbat. He said his life has completely changed.
“It’s changed everything. It’s like being reborn, and the changes in my life are still happening,” he said. “I had this set value system that I had to change completely. I had had this value system until I was 30, and I had to admit that it was all wrong and to find the will to change.”
Visiting Israel
Szegedi also became a politician without a party and has continued to serve in the European parliament as an independent.
“As a politician, now I want to defend human rights for everyone,” Szegedi explained. “I am aware of my responsibility, and I know I will have to make it right in the future.”
One of the high points of his new life was visiting Israel with his wife and visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the Western Wall.
“When I landed in Israel, airport security asked me a lot of questions, and when the guard asked me, ‘Are you a Jew?’ Then for the first time in my life, I could say, ‘Yes,’” Szegedi recalled.
“Just to feel like you are on the right way spiritually, and you can get closer to God,” he continued. “It’s a whole new feeling for me, that I am doing the right thing.”
After thinly veiled threats and reprehensible rhetoric against the inclusion of the Star of David—a symbol of the Jewish people and the atrocities of the Holocaust—in a Holocaust memorial, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is publicly backing down.
A few weeks ago, FFRF, an angry atheist group with a long record of failed attempts to expunge any relic for our religious heritage from public life, demanded that the state of Ohio scrap its plans to build the first Holocaust memorial on state Capitol grounds in the nation.
FFRF insensitively called the inclusion of the Star of David “exclusionary” and a “dishonor.” Their letter blamed Christianity for the Nazi Holocaust and analogized their own concept of defending the so-call wall of separation between church and state to preventing “a similar holocaust on our shores.”
In response, 39,000 Americans (more than double FFRF’s total membership) signed on to the American Center for Law and Justice’s (ACLJ) letter to the governor and attorney general of Ohio, defending the Holocaust memorial and the Star of David from these “bizarre” and legally devoid attacks. The ACLJ offered its legal service should the FFRF choose to file a lawsuit against this clearly constitutional memorial.
The ACLJ letter explained how the Star of David was not only a religious symbol of the Jewish religion, but it was a symbol of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. And even more legally relevant in this situation, the Star of David was the symbol the Nazis forced the Jews to wear as part of the systematic murder of 6 millions Jews, two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. The Star of David is a fitting and constitutional way to honor their memory.
FFRF quickly backed down. These angry atheists mellowed, saying they had no plans to file a lawsuit (even claiming they never had plans to sue). In fact, the atheist group reversed their reprehensible rhetoric, stating, “We have no objection to a Holocaust memorial on public property.” FFRF still claims to “object” to the Star of David and reserves the right to “speak up.” However, as one local newspaper noted, “That is all they will do.”
This is a significant victory for the memory of all those tragically affected by the Holocaust. It is a victory for reason. The angry, illogical vehemence of a few was not allowed to drown out reason and constitutionally sound legal arguments. Taking a stand does make a difference.
Matthew Clark is associate counsel for government affairs and media advocacy with the American Center for Law and Justice in Washington, D.C. This article is crossposted on Red State.
Members of 102-year-old church in Danville, Va., won’t let a little graffiti stop them from worshipping.
Vandals recently spray painted the words “Hail Satan” in Latin, along with an upside-down cross, an anarchy symbol and a pentagram, on Schoolfield Church of the Brethen.
“We are going to wipe it off and keep on going,” said Branwen Hall, the daughter of Senior Pastor Richard Berkley, according to .
Berkley, the great-grandson of founding Pastor Marion Prather, was undeterred.
“In this country, you can believe anything you want,” he said. “You don’t have to deface other people’s property to express your religion.”
Danville police said those responsible for the graffiti could be charged with a hate crime.
The first scientific analysis of probable human-to-human transmission of a deadly new strain of bird flu that emerged in China this year gives the strongest evidence yet that the H7N9 virus can pass between people, scientists said on Wednesday.
Research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) analyzing a family cluster of cases of H7N9 infection in eastern China found it was very likely the virus “transmitted directly from the index patient (a 60-year-old man) to his daughter.”
Experts commenting on the research said while it did not necessarily mean H7N9 is any closer to becoming the next flu pandemic, “it does provide a timely reminder of the need to remain extremely vigilant.”
“The threat posed by H7N9 has by no means passed,” James Rudge and Richard Coker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in a commentary in the same journal.
The scientists who led the study stressed, however, that the virus has not yet gained the ability to transmit from person to person efficiently—meaning the risk is very low that it could cause a human pandemic in its current form.
The new bird flu virus, which was unknown in humans until February, has so far infected at least 133 people in China and Taiwan, killing 43 of them, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data.
Most cases have been in people who had visited live poultry markets or had close contact with live poultry in seven to 10 days before falling ill.
The BMJ study, lead by Chang-jun Bao at the Jiangsu Province Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed a family cluster of two H7N9 patients—a father and daughter—in Eastern China in March.
The first “index” patient—a 60-year-old man—regularly went to a live poultry market and fell ill five to six days after his last exposure to poultry.
He was admitted to hospital on March 11. When his symptoms became worse, he was transferred to an intensive care unit (ICU) on March 15 but died of multi-organ failure on May 4, the study reported.
The second patient, his healthy 32-year-old daughter, had no known exposure to live poultry but provided direct bedside care for her father in the hospital before he went to intensive care.
She developed symptoms six days after her last contact with her father and went into hospital on March 24. She was moved to the ICU on March 28 and died of multi-organ failure on April 24.
Strains of the virus isolated from samples taken from each patient were “almost genetically identical”—a strong suggestion that the virus was transmitted directly from father to daughter, the researchers said.
“To our best knowledge, this is the first report of probable transmissibility of the novel virus person-to-person with detailed epidemiological, clinical and virological data,” they wrote.
Peter Horby of the Oxford University clinical research unit in Hanoi, Vietnam, who was not involved in this research, said the study raised the level of concern about H7N9 and reinforced the need for intensive surveillance.
Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
© 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
I’ve always loved the term “We’ve come full circle.” Circles are my favorite shape. They ring themselves around life like God’s bow around a package—and a few weeks ago, God drew a circle around a part of our life in the game of baseball.
After spending 32 years in the game, you begin to think nothing will surprise you, but Bobby and I were surprised one cloudy morning in October 2009 when we received a call from the Yankees’ general manager explaining we lost our job as third base coach for the team we loved. He told us Alex Rodriguez got us fired by complaining to the owners, citing he was uncomfortable with Bobby as a coach.
We were stunned. Was it because I had consoled his wife (now ex-wife) and prayed with her about the struggles she was enduring in their marriage? (A week later, A-Rod was publicly palling around with Madonna.) Was it because Bobby was closer to other infielders on the team and A-Rod felt threatened? Could he sense a spiritual tug as we covered him in daily prayer, for us only to get thrown under the bus by the very man we prayed for?
Whatever the case, the fallout from that firing was painful. We counted a financial loss of around $1.2 million as the Yankees went on to win the World Series the next year and had many playoff appearances and pay increases in the years to follow. We spent 16 years in the minor leagues before landing that job, each of us working two to three jobs apiece to try and make ends meet. We knew our hope was in the Lord, but at times it was difficult to watch A-Rod garner a string of titles and accolades. His stunning looks and baseball presence seemed to keep him exempt from the harsh winter of reality. Even after allegations of performance-enhancing drug use stung A-Rod’s stellar record of accomplishments a few years ago, he seemed unfazed by consequence or regret.
A few weeks ago, the minor league team Bobby manages for the Toronto Blue Jays had a double-header with the Tampa Yankees. And there on third base was A-Rod, nursing a hip injury as he staged a rehab stint on his way back to the big league team. Bobby has seen A-Rod in passing over the years, but this visit proved to be more.
It was a “full circle” encounter if there ever was one. Alex’s eyes locked on Bobby as he moved toward the coach’s box next to third base. As Bobby thrust his hand out to shake, Alex lunged forward into an awkward hug—the kind of hug that lasts a bit longer and holds a bit tighter than usual. A bit stunned, Bobby pulled back and looked Alex in the eye. As the pitcher took extra time to warm up, Bobby realized God was giving him the gift of time—stolen moments to speak into this ball player’s life.
“I’ve been praying for you, Alex,” Bobby said with a warmth in his smile. ”I know you’re going through a lot right now, and I want to tell you something.”
Alex remained frozen on third base. As if time stood still, he leaned in to listen.
“All the things you’re going through right now [a drug investigation by Major League Baseball and the threat of a lifetime ban from baseball]—it’s too much for you to handle on your own,” Bobby said. “Without God, you’ll struggle to make it.”
Alex listened intently as Bobby continued.
“I want you to know that you’re not alone. The Lord is with you, and He won’t fail you. No matter what you’ve done or what lies ahead, He loves you.”
Alex quietly lifted his voice as his eyes looked through Bobby, as if he was in communion with something Bobby couldn’t see. “I guess I’m learning what’s really important,” he whispered.
“You are,” said Bobby, “so don’t forget what God teaches you.”
As Bobby moved to his perch in the coach’s box and Alex took his position at third, I swear you could see a full circle drawn around these men. Isn’t it like God to have the last word when we let Him? Hope, fear and forgiveness tied in a bow.
We may never have another conversation with A-Rod, but God knew a circle needed to be drawn, and Bobby was the one to draw it. He could have snubbed Alex with an unforgiving glance or smirked in pleasure, watching Alex grapple with his current life predicament—but when you’ve encountered the God who loves, all you want to do is share that gift. The gift of coming full circle.
Garri Meacham is an author, speaker and teacher. Her next book, Watershed Moments, is coming out in October 2013.
Here are some symptoms of a backslidden heart, some tangible tests by which you can examine yourself. Ask yourself:
1) Is there a decrease in my personal devotion to Jesus? This will be evidenced by a decreased desire for intimate and private times with the Lord (especially in prayer and worship) and decreased hunger and passion for the Word.
When you were hot, Jesus was everything. You couldn’t wait to spend time with Him. Praising Him—even with the simplest little choruses—was pure joy.
If there was a prayer meeting, you were there. You devoured the Word. You could relate to the words of Paul: “I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8, NKJV).
You might still enjoy the forms of worship—good music, singing, dancing, being part of the exciting corporate experience—but what about the object of worship? What about the Lord?
2) Is there a decrease in my personal satisfaction in God? This will be reflected in the need for other things to gain fulfillment, an increased social orientation in place of private devotions, and an increased desire for recognition and acceptance by flesh and blood.
The Word says that “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). What do you desire? What brings you satisfaction? Do you love God, or do you love the world?
3) Is there a decrease in my passion for spiritual work? This will be reflected in a decreased burden for the lost, a decreased burden for revival and visitation (often replaced by good works, and more subtly, by good spiritual programs), and a penchant for respectability in place of radicality.
How often do you share your testimony? You used to seek opportunities to talk about Jesus. Witnessing used to come naturally. But now, you almost avoid the subject.
And what about revival and visitation? How would you feel if the Spirit fell in power? Are you hungry anymore for a real move of God?
4) Have I lowered my standards of holiness? Do you permit things in your life, family, or congregation that would have been unthinkable when you were on fire and felt compelled to avoid certain activities, movies and other forms of entertainment?
Beware! This type of backsliding is often done in the name of spiritual maturity. I warn you as one who once fell into this very error: It is a trap and a lie! Absence of divine conviction does not mean absence of divine displeasure. It may actually point to a withdrawing of His presence.
5) Am I backsliding in my spiritual authority and personal victory? This will be reflected by a lack of victory over the flesh, falling back into old habits and lusts, and the inability to resist and drive out the devil from strongholds in your life or the lives of those to whom you minister.
You can fool others, but you can’t fool the flesh and you can’t fool the devil. As Leonard Ravenhill often asked, “Are you known in hell?”
Are you moving from victory to victory, or do you find yourself more and more entangled every day (or month or year)? Peter taught that “a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Pet. 2:19, NIV).
Ask yourself if Jesus is your Master or if you are mastered by sin. Are you an overcomer, or are you overcome? Is Jesus your Lord, or are you ruled by your belly, your sexual lust, your temper, your greed, your bitterness? Who or what governs you?
You once chased the devil; now you tremble at his shadow. You once cast off fear like a dog shakes off water; now you are paralyzed by anxiety and dread. You once forgave from the heart instantly; now you remember and hold a grudge.
My friend, you are backsliding.
You once made effective inroads into the devil’s kingdom. Now he’s making inroads into you.
What has become of your victory? You are backsliding from the place of spiritual authority. How tragic that Satan has paralyzed you, be it with theological questions or fear of failure or massive self-doubt.
Press back in to Jesus. He is as victorious today as He ever has been. He will restore your faith.
At one time in my walk (in the late 1970s and early 1980s) I began to backslide, all the while claiming to be growing and maturing. My prayer times decreased; my devotional reading of the Word decreased. My fasting all but stopped; my witnessing dropped off.
I became more interested in social action than in spiritual action. I had less and less control over the flesh. I virtually never took authority over the devil. I fell in areas I had never fallen in before. I even became addicted to video games.
I felt the presence and joy of the Lord less frequently and less abundantly, yet I was an active leader in the church, I taught the Word with conviction, I preached with fervor (and even some anointing), I ministered actively, I sought to keep a pure testimony before the world, I was considered by many to be zealous, and I was engaged in many good and even sacrificial works.
I will be eternally grateful to my sister-in-law who, without my knowledge, helped to pray me back on fire.
How I praise God for His miraculous intervention, planting the first seeds on New Year’s morning 1982, lovingly rebuking me in March of that year, awakening me with a vision of a spiritual outpouring in May, showing me how far away I was drifting in September, calling me to lay everything on the altar in October, and then sending a visitation November 21, 1982. I have not been the same since then.
I encourage you in the words of Psalms and Hebrews, “‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts'” (Ps 95:7-8; Heb. 4:7, NKJV).
Respond fully to the Lord today. Pour out your heart to Him. Pray through. Allow His Spirit to move freely.
Don’t be ashamed. He can—and will—fully restore. Obey whatever He speaks to you. Set a new pattern for your life beginning now. And then, every day, whenever you can, take another step closer to the Lord, one step at a time.
Pray more (and with more focus and direction), read His Word more, speak His Word more, share your faith more. Listen to tapes, watch videos and read books that will help keep the fire burning.
Keep your conscience clear. If you know something is displeasing in God’s sight, don’t do it. Be sensitive. He understands your weakness, and He will give sufficient grace.
But He will not put up with determined and willful hardness. Bow your knee to the Lord, and He will lift you up. Your future can be just as bright as the promises of God.
Michael Brown is author of The Real Kosher Jesus and host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network. He is also president of FIRE School of Ministry and director of the Coalition of Conscience. Follow him at AskDrBrown on Facebook or @drmichaellbrown on Twitter.
Around 200 people ate together at a public lunch in the town of Tizi Ouzou on Aug 3 to protest against the “persecution of non-fasters and creeping Islamisation” in the Kabylie region in northern Algeria.
Sandwiches and soft drinks were shared during a picnic held just a short stroll from the headquarters of the local law enforcement agencies, which looked on but did not act.
In Algeria, where Islam is the state religion, breaking the Ramadan fast in public is punishable by fine and imprisonment.
Picnickers circulated a petition, which translates: “The values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence of people of all opinions and faiths that has existed in Kabylie since the dawn of time is being trampled upon. The Algerian government is intruding into private life and persecuting non-fasters.
“We call on the citizens of the world who identify with the values of tolerance and respect to support the initiative of Kabylie by signing the petition for the right to freedom of conscience and tolerance and to guard against any suppression.”
Protesters told World Watch Monitor the picnic was organised as a response to the alleged intimidation of non-fasters on July 19 by police in Tigzrit, 35 km north of Tizi Ouzou.
“We were sitting quietly in a cafeteria, which opens during the day throughout the month of Ramadan,” said one protester, named Malik. “The police came and started taking down the names of people who were in a cafeteria during Ramadan. We don’t understand. We should be free to fast or not to fast.”
Malik said the police asked the café’s owner to report to the police station and confiscated some of his legal documents.
Another picnic was held simultaneously in the town of Aokas in the neighbouring Béjaïa province, which attracted over 100 people.
A number of local Islamic associations expressed their indignation and called on the state to punish those involved.
Meanwhile, the Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs Abu Abdellah Ghoulamallah said the picnics were “provocative and ridiculous”.
“[The protesters] do not represent the Kabylian region, [or] Tizi Ouzou’s residents,” he told Echorouk newspaper. “A total of 800 mosques are built in this province and 1.3 million Muslims are living there. So, 200 people do not represent the region and their act is ridiculous as they want to offend Muslims, but they humiliated themselves instead.”
The state news agency APS reported that the protestors were “not attacking Islam” but asking for “freedom of worship and conscience [which is] guaranteed by the Algerian law”.
However, APS’s claim that the non-fasters included “followers of the evangelistic church who drank beer” was contested and considered by some an attempt to discredit the protestors.
One picnicker, who wished to remain nameless, told World Watch Monitor: “From the first moment to the last, I did not once witness the presence of any evangelist who drinks beer.”
Another told the BBC: “We’re saying to others that this is Kabylie, and here we do what we want. We have to respect our culture, our traditions, our individual and religious freedoms. It doesn’t matter if they’re Jewish, Christian or Muslim.”
In 2010, two Algerian Christians were taken to court for publicly breaking the fast, although they were later acquitted.
It is of the utmost importance and significance to the kingdom of G-d that at this time the church fully comprehends the unique roles that both Israel and the church are still to play out before Messiah returns. This would also be inclusive of Jewish believers from within the church who are called to be a light back to their own people.
As the apostle Paul has instructed, we are not to be ignorant to this mystery (Rom. 11:25). Yet there seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding in this regard—not simply toward Jewish believers, in how they should reflect their faith in Yeshua, but also in our reconnection as a spiritual family, as up to this point we are so very separate.
In fact, a good amount of what we hear and read from within the church continues to fuel this separation, either through the doctrine of replacement theology that teaches the church has replaced Israel, or through teachings that promote a continued separation right until the end with G-d dealing with Israel on His own apart from the church. However, with all of my heart as a Jewish believer who has come to love his Gentile family as his very own, I believe both of these teachings and positions to be incorrect.
For one moment, let’s look at G-d’s family between Jew and Gentile as a circle. The Jews were brought in first into their half and then removed through their unbelief, while the Gentiles came into their half after Christ through a remnant of Israel that started the church. So, from G-d’s perspective, His spiritual family between Jew and Gentile has never really co-existed. And yet we hear the cry of Jesus from deep within His heart in John 17 that His family would be one. And it does not take much to read between these lines that Jesus was not just referring to all believers being united here in these Scriptures, but also that His Jewish and Gentile family would be one.
Read it carefully and you will see that first He prays for His Jewish apostles and then, in verse 20, He switches to pray for those who will believe in their message, who up to this point are mainly believers from the nations (Gentiles), that we would be one. But the devil has ravaged the relationship between the two groups (Jew and Gentile), because he knows what is at stake when we truly reconnect as a spiritual family, which I will explain in more depth in part 2 of this message.
In light of the end times in which we are living, we must stop looking at Israel and the Jewish people as they are currently and start to see them by faith through the word of G-d, which tells us that the veil over their souls is only temporary and that it will be lifted (Rom 11:25-27). Indeed, Israel is a covenant people who must be spiritually restored before the L-rd returns in accordance to His promises to them through His word. We must begin to see them as part of the family of G-d who is yet to be restored to the circle and love them with the Father’s heart, a Father who longs for His firstborn children to come home. Nothing less will do. We (the rest of G-d’s children in His family) must also begin to see Israel’s spiritual awakening as tantamount to G-d’s end-time glory plan and begin to take it on as our very own. For isn’t that what family is supposed to do for each other? Have we been missing something here?
In fact, I believe that G-d has designed His end-time plan so that neither group can come into its fullness without the other and that we are intricately linked together in His final end time mercy plan to take full dominion over heaven and earth—for Israel to receive salvation and for the church to be G-d’s salvific agent to help bring it to pass. If this is truly the case, then we will need to take a good, hard look at what we currently believe, especially if it is keeping us apart from our divine destiny to help the L-rd return to the earth. Church, this is serious stuff!
I know these are challenging words to many of us, but they are written and bathed in the love of Christ so that, at this time, the body of Messiah through Jew and Gentile would truly unite and understand the depths of their callings to help usher in the final chapter of the book and see Jesus reign upon the earth. For when the church accepts the reality of these circumstances, we will also begin to discover the significance of our own end-time role, which is to help release life back to our firstborn brethren, Israel, and see the family of G-d finally restored. Oh, my G-d, what an honor He is actually bestowing on His end-time church, which is why our generation and the ones that tarry in the church to the L-rd’s coming need to make adjustments toward Israel. Now is the time of their restoration and salvation. As Jesus told us, the first would be last and the last first!
One, With Distinct Roles
To still believe the church has replaced Israel when all of the Scriptures regarding Israel’s restoration to the land have already been fulfilled is silly. Both Moses and the prophets clearly pointed out that Israel would be brought back first and then spiritually cleansed. You must read these Scriptures, for the Word of G-d does not lie (Deut. 30:4-6; ; Ez. 36:22-28)!
If you honestly believe this or are teaching it to the church, you truly need to repent and allow the L-rd to correct your heart as well as your theology and support of His spiritual family, for there is no condemnation in Christ. I would also really encourage you to read my new book, The Ezekiel Generation, which launches in October and addresses this subject in detail where you can find healing and restoration in this regard.
However, there are also many willing believers in the church thinking that the “one new man” in Christ has eliminated any differences between Jews and Gentiles. This also is incorrect. The apostle Paul never meant to eliminate the distinctions between Jewish and Gentile believers, but rather emphasized that in the Spirit of G-d, we now have complete equality and are co-heirs of the promises of Israel’s covenants, both Jew and Gentile alike. This was actually challenging for first-century Gentile believers to process in light of Israel’s rich heritage, which is why the apostle Paul worked so hard to communicate this essential principle to them.
If Paul meant to eliminate the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, then why did he adapt himself when he went back to Jerusalem, so he could effectively reach his own Jewish brethren with the gospel (Acts 21:17-26)? If he truly taught that the distinctions between Jew and Gentile were eliminated in Christ, why did he act in this fashion? No, he was a Jew to the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles, because he fully understood those he was ministering to in the hope that he could reach them for G-d (1 Cor. 9:20-23).
The apostle Paul’s emphasis in the Galatian epistle does not eliminate Jew or Gentile but rather focuses us on our position in the Spirit through Christ: “You are all Sons of G-d through faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29).
This is why these different references were good for this analogy, as we know that while as men and women, for example, we are now equal in the Spirit through Christ, it does not eliminate the differences between us as men or women or even husband and wives. But in Christ, we are one!
Nor did it necessarily change a slave’s rights at that time. But it did in the Spirit, and so it is with Jew and Gentile. There is no longer any difference between us as His children, for we are one and are now co-heirs.
We can also see this unity and distinction within the Trinity itself. While the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all one, they each play out unique and different roles from within the unity of G-d. And this is also true of G-d’s family in the Spirit between Jew and Gentile, which we must now learn to accept and bless to encourage Israel’s spiritual awakening, which has to come to pass so that the end may come.
As a result, our roles remain—and thank G-d that they do—which up to this point we have not understood too well. Instead, when a Jewish person has come to faith in the church, we have expected them to conform to Gentile customs. But may this never be, because they have been called and chosen to become lights back to their own people, and so instead we should be supporting and blessing them into this calling to help win the Jewish people to faith.
I am not suggesting that Jews go back to the law for any dependency for salvation, but rather are free to live as Jews in their own heritage in however the Spirit leads them to reach their own. Nor am I criticizing Gentile customs, many of which I now enjoy myself.
But as a believer and follower of Jesus, have I not been set free from the law that I may have liberty in the Spirit? Is it not liberty to move with my Gentile-believing family and liberty to move as a Jew along with my customs and heritage? It is not liberty to celebrate the feasts of the L-rd, most of which focus on Yeshua Himself and the Holy Spirit? In fact, as a Gentile believer, do you not have liberty to celebrate the feasts also? There are appointed feasts and times in the Spirit that I honestly feel we have been robbed of through the church’s disconnection from its Jewish apostolic roots and heritage.
In order for this to happen in G-d’s body at this time, there must be a spiritual reconnection between us as His children, which is vital for Israel and the church. It is vital for Jews to come into the salvation of the L-rd and for Gentiles to fulfill their destiny in arousing Israel to envy and releasing the mercy of G-d back to them. Just as G-d used Israel to give birth to the church, now in turn to fulfill His family circle, we would give birth back to them. It makes so much sense when you think of it in this light.
In part 2, we will address the incredible significance of the church’s end-time role to bring glory to G-d. We will also address some of the barriers the enemy has placed in our way from the church’s past to prevent us from coming into this destiny, some of which are of a sensitive and delicate matter that we will need to face in order to come into this time.
Hold on. It’s going to get really good.
Grant Berry is a Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus and author of The New Covenant Prophecy and The Ezekiel Generation. He has founded Reconnecting Ministries with the specific focus to help the church reconnect spiritually to Israel and considers it vital to the kingdom of G-d in the last days. His message focuses on the unity, love and healing that the Father wants to bring between Jew and Gentile yet clearly points out the differences and misunderstandings between the two groups. Now is the time to look more carefully into this mystery to make way for healing and reconnection in the Spirit. For more information, please visit .
Bible teacher Joyce Meyer’s books hit the century mark Sept. 3 as God Is Not Mad at You hits stores. The upcoming FaithWords title will be the 100th published book by Meyer, a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author.
“I am amazed at all God has done in my life and I’m honored to be able to share His goodness in my books,” Meyer says of the achievement. “Over the years, I’ve discovered the freedom found by applying God’s Word to my life, and my desire is to help others do the same. I am truly blessed.”
Of her 100 books, 78 are still in print. The total does not include booklets her ministry has published.
Fifteen titles landed on the New York Times list, including Approval Addiction; The Confident Woman; and one of her novels, The Penny, co-written with Deborah Bedford.
Meyer’s top 10 best-sellers are Battlefield of the Mind (updated edition); The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word; Power Thoughts; The Confident Woman; Change Your Words, Change Your Life; Living Beyond Your Feelings; Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits; Do Yourself a Favor … Forgive; Never Give Up; and New Way of Living. Battlefield of the Mind was originally published in 1995 and has sold 3 million copies.
Along with God Is Not Mad at You, Meyer’s 2013 releases include a children’s book, The Perfect Christmas Pageant (Zonderkidz, September) and Power Thoughts Devotional (FaithWords, October).