What We're All About
We need to raise the question of what we Christians are doing praying Israel’s prayers, pledging allegiance to Israel’s Torah and passionately arguing over what it means, learning Israel’s language, and commemorating the events of Israel’s salvation?
The short answer is that we’re worshipers of Israel’s God, and we believe his story is our story. But other Christians are equally worshipers of Israel’s God, yet this conviction hasn’t led them to identify with their Jewish brothers and sisters anything to the extent that we have. Most Christians have felt they can be authentic worshipers of Israel’s God without any connection with Jews. They’ve have been quite content to go it alone.
The way we’ve accessed Father Avraham’s and Mother Sara’s heritage certainly hasn’t ingratiated us either with Jewish or Christian leaders. Christian leaders have accused us of “Judiazing.” Jewish leaders have accused us of syncretism and of expropriating Israel’s identity. To give an example, in 1991 on the Denver campus of the University of Colorado, there was a symposium on the Shabbat, the first-of-its-kind. Participating scholars were Seventh-day Adventists, Jews of all denominations, and Roman Catholics. The informal dialogue off the record sounded one discordant note: Jews did not appreciate the fact that due to our rapid growth, the majority of Sabbath-keepers in the world were members of a non-Jewish religion. They feared that in the public eye Sabbath-keeping might come to be associated with Seventh-day Adventism rather than with Judaism. They accused us of hijacking the major symbol of Jewish identity.
We are sensitive to the concerns both of Jewish and Christian leaders; our last intention would be either to jeopardize Israel’s God-given uniqueness or to undermine the Christian mandate to serve the God of Israel as Gentiles. Nevertheless, for a variety of reasons, we persist in accessing Israel’s heritage.
For one, in our generation Seventh-day Adventists are searching for devotional expressions that engage the whole person. Traditional Adventist apprehension of God has been overly cerebral. Our pioneers were White Anglo Saxon Protestants. Their cultural and spiritual roots where in English Puritanism. The Puritans were the Taliban of their day. The Puritans were opposed to nearly all forms of creative expression: they fought against instrumental music and dance, against painting and sculpture, against dramatic productions and sports. Not only did the Puritans remove art forms from the church, they sought to remove them from civil life as well. The Puritan idea of worship was severely austere: the only permissible sense perception was verbal. By the time of our pioneers New England Yankees were already immerging from the worst extremes, but the heritage of the Puritans cast a long shadow. Contemporary Seventh-day Adventists are much more comfortable with artistic expression than our pioneers were. We seek to employ artistic gifts to God’s glory. We seek a form of worship that engages more of our senses than just hearing. We could access the rich heritage of Roman Catholicism, of Greek Orthodoxy, of the Church of the East, and even of Anglicanism. Personally, I think we should. All these traditions embody certain truths in strikingly beautiful ways. But Israel’s tradition of coming into God’s presence has particular appeal for Seventh-day Adventists. Because the historic Christian traditions are hierarchical, much of their liturgical practice reflects caste distinctions between human persons which we don’t accept. Since Judaism has no distinction between clergy and laity, Jewish liturgy better accords with our Protestant convictions concerning the priesthood of all believers.
Israel’s worship additionally appeals to Seventh-day Adventists because it brings a wide range of emotion before God. Jewish worship features dramatic mood swings: it goes from melancholy and hurt to exuberant assurance. Jewish music seems to combine conflicting emotions: happy music is always tinged with sadness and sad music has a buoyant undercurrent of hope. In this regard Israel’s worship is like traditional African-American worship: it’s not afraid to voice disappointment and doubt right alongside repentance and redemption. There’s no maintaining a stiff upper lip. Israel’s worship is emotionally authentic. This is particularly appealing to Seventh-day Adventists longing for a more liberating experience in God’s presence.
A second reason why we persist in accessing Israel’s heritage is that it is so biblically oriented. Israel’s worship centers around the public reading of large chunks of Scripture. Scripture is not only read; Scripture is adored, adorned, and affirmed. By comparison, the treatment afforded Scripture in Evangelical Christianity seems feeble. In typical Evangelical worship Scripture reading isn’t likely to merit more than a verse or two. There’s a good reason. Despite the high regard in which Evangelicals theoretically hold Scripture, in practice they find the Bible unsettling. The Bible resists simple categories; the Bible doesn’t easily accord with creedal certitudes; the Bible is just plain too messy. Anxiety-ridden Evangelicals prefer not to not be publically confronted by their embarrassment.
Jews, on the other hand, have no particular doctrine of inspiration to uphold and no rigid requirements of what the Bible should and shouldn’t be allowed to say. Jews don’t view the Bible as a text which needs defending from scientific or historical findings. They’re comfortable with a multiplicity of approaches and a multiplicity of answers. They don’t much mind either if the answers happen to be contradictory. Jews are comfortable hearing large portions of Scripture, because it doesn’t pose a threat to their cherished belief system.
In my previous congregation there was a good Adventist sister who expressed her uneasiness with our prayers from the siddur. She asked why we were always praying about the children of Israel, seeking the welfare of Jerusalem, and thanking God for choosing Father Abraham and Mother Sara? Can’t the prayers talk more about God’s other children? Why is one family getting all the attention? She’d been raised on a diet of gospel music. She expected a liturgy that celebrated individual Christian experience. I suggested she read the Psalms of David. She decided that compared to the Psalms of David, maybe the siddur wasn’t so bad after all. At least the siddur was less preoccupied with the children of Israel and talked more about the rest of the world!
While we believe it has universal implications, the Bible is terribly provincial and peculiaristic. It is technically and theologically challenging. To us it is a truly foreign book. The trouble is, the Bible wasn’t originally addressed to Christians and doesn’t speak directly to Christians. Christians are in the unique position of revering a scripture which we borrowed from non-Christians. Over the centuries Christians have tried various schemes to Christianize the Bible. We’re tried allegory. We’ve tried promise and fulfillment. We’ve tried obsolete versus new. We’ve tried universal versus particular. None of these schemes have proven satisfactory. The most common way for Bible-believing Christians to avoid the challenge is simply to skip over most of it.
I think Seventh-day Adventists are attracted to Israel’s heritage of receiving God’s word because we wish to escape the limitations of Seventh-day Adventist Bible study. Some of us perceive foregone conclusions as too controlling. Behind this willingness to publically hear the Bible in sizable chunks with all its foreignness lays the secret hope that we can rise to the challenge of understanding. Perhaps if we learn to listen with Israel, rather than in antagonism against Israel, we can overcome our embarrassment in the face of this foreign message so unlike our own religion.
A third reason we persist in accessing Israel’s heritage is that we wish to facilitate the formation of the endtime remnant. Scripture knows nothing of the familiar dichotomy in our world between Church and Synagogue. There’s never a thought in prophecy that God’s Jewish and Gentile worshipers might belong to separate communal institutions. When the prophets describe future salvation it’s always in terms of non-Jews serving the God of Israel right alongside Jews. The consistent biblical model is inclusion without dissolution of distinctive identity. The biblical prophets never envision Gentiles becoming Jews or Jews becoming Gentiles. God’s plan is to redeem his entire creation in all its diversity. The Apostle Shaul in 1Corinthians 7 urges everybody to retain their God-given status and identity because the end is near. God does not want only women or only men, only slaves or only free, only married or only single, only Jew or only Gentile. Redemption is like Noah’s ark; God saves some of everything so that his new creation will lack nothing. If any sphere of creaturely existence were obliterated, God’s new creation would be compromised. God doesn’t want an all-Jewish new creation or an all-Gentile new creation. God’s plan is for the gospel to penetrate “every Gentile, tribe, tongue and people” [Revelation 14:6] and transform each one without obliterating its wonderful diversity. Every human community is a unique treasure. None can take the place of the other. God’s plan is to redeem each human community. That doesn’t mean every individual will enter the new creation. I’m not preaching universalism. But there will be some of “every Gentile, tribe, tongue and people” in the new creation.
In the Epistle to the Colossians the “hope of glory,” now revealed to the saints, is that Mashiach is among the Gentiles [1:26-27]. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the mystery, unknown in previous ages but now revealed by the Holy Spirit to the apostles and prophets, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, belong to the same body as Israel, and partake of God’s promise in Mashiach through the proclamation of the good news [3:5-6]. The fellowship of this mystery is being demonstrated to the principalities and powers in heavenly places in the congregation [3:10]. Ephesians speaks of the reconciliation between Jew and Gentile in the congregation as the prototype of the reconciliation Jesus brings the whole world. The schism in the world today between Jews and Jesus-confessing Gentiles calls Jesus’ reconciling power into question. If Jesus cannot pull this reconciliation off, he’s an inadequate savior.
In his Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Shaul goes further. He teaches that even Jews who do not confess Jesus nonetheless take part in this unfolding mystery of Jews and Gentiles united in Mashiach’s body. He draws many comparisons between Israel who does not confess Jesus and Jesus-confessing Gentiles.
In Romans 9:4 adoption belongs to Israel who does not confess Jesus. In Romans 8:15-16, 23 the Gentiles receive adoption.
In Romans 9:4 the glory belongs to Israel who does not confess Jesus. In Romans 8:18 the glory is revealed among the Gentiles.
In Romans 11:2 Israel who does not confess Jesus is foreknown by God. In Romans 8:29 the Gentiles are foreknown by God.
In Romans 11:29 Israel who does not confess Jesus is called. In Romans 9:24 the Gentiles are called.
In Romans 11:15 Israel who does not confess Jesus experiences reconciliation and life. In Romans 5:10 the Gentiles experience reconciliation and life.
In Romans 11:21 God does not spare the natural branches. In Romans 8:32 God does not spare his own son.
I can’t understand the Apostle’s bold comparisons any other way than that the part of Israel who doesn’t confess Jesus is nevertheless united in God’s eyes with those Jews and Gentiles who do confess Jesus. Israel, including the part which God has blinded [Romans 11:25], still has a mission task to perform on behalf of the unredeemed world.
For those who may object that God can no longer employ his covenant-keeping servants who haven’t confessed Jesus, the Apostle offers an argument. He argues that the remnant of Jesus-confessing Israel sanctifies the part which doesn’t confess him. In Romans 11:16 he says,
“For if the challah (dough-offering) is holy, the dough is also. And if the root is holy, the branches are also.”
I’m not saying that all Jews will attain final salvation, any more than all Christians will attain final salvation. What I’m saying is that Israel is still a player in the plan of salvation, just as the church is still a player, despite its many failings.
Revelation 12:17 descibes the endtime remnant of Mother Israel’s seed in terms “of those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12 similarly describes the endime remnant as “saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” Seventh-day Adventists have self-identified with these descriptions as if the remnant of Mother Israel’s seed could somehow be comprised solely of non-Jews. In order to justify this identification, Seventh-day Adventists have tendentiously sought to limit the commandments of God to the Decalogue, as if God were suddenly so stingy as to take back his gift and leave Israel with only ten commandments!
The actual number of commandments in the written Torah varies somewhat according to who’s counting. The traditional number is 613. Whatever the precise number, 10 is 1.6% of 613. Seventh-day Adventists expect us to believe that the identifying mark of the endtime remnant is 1.6% obedience!
The notion that only the Decalogue really counts goes back to the church father Irenaeus of Lyon, who taught that the commandments of the Decalogue are OK because they’re natural, whereas all the rest of God’s commandments are only suitable for infantile people like the children of Israel at an immature stage of development.
This redefinition on the part of Iranaeus is predicated on the Western concept of commandment as law. The redefinition of Iranaeus overlooks the biblical evidence that frequently mitzvot are actions which express a unique relationship to the God who commands them and which create a new reality. Biblically speaking, eating and drinking around Jesus’ table with his other disciples is a mitzva. Biblically speaking, immersion into Jesus’ dead and resurrection into the life of the age-to-come is a mitzva. Biblically speaking, resting with God on his Shabbat is a mitzva. Biblically speaking, loving the resident alien in memory of redemption from Egypt is a mitzva. In the Bible there are many important mitzvot for Christians besides the Decalogue. The performance of mitzvot recall formative experiences in the life of God and God includes us in his biography when we cooperate with him. Biblically speaking, commandments are what Roman Catholics term sacraments. They are joint actions with God which reenact various events in salvation history. The Seventh-day Adventist reduction of “those who obey God’s commandments” to folks who don’t disobey the Decalogue ignores the whole dynamic of what mitzvot do in the Bible.
So how can Seventh-day Adventist Christians qualify as “the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus?” We can’t on our own. During the 1260 years when the Woman who gave birth to Mashiach was enduring persecution there were no Christians performing mitzvot with God. Certain Seventh-day Adventists have invented fantasies of unknown Sabbatarian tribes in clandestine locations in a pathetic attempt to qualify as seed of the woman. Even if for the sake of argument, we grant these surreptitous witnesses might have existed sometime during the 1260 years, they don’t meet the specs of the prophecy, because they have no continuity into the endtime. If you need an archaeologist to find traces of the Woman’s seed, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Historically, the only commandment-keeping people during the 1260 years had the same momma as Jesus. It follows that a church without obedient Jews can’t really claim to be the eschatological people of God.
Interestingly, Jews can’t quality on their own either. During the 1260 years of persecution any Jew who confessed Jesus forfeited the commandments of God. In every generation there were Jews who joined the church, but the price of admission was always apostasy. In forbidding Torah practice among its Jewish members, rather than requiring it as it should have, the Church contradicted its own claim to be in continuity with biblical Israel.
Sadly, during the 1260 years there were no people on earth who obeyed God’s commandments and held to the testimony of Jesus. God had some faithful worshipers doing one or the other, but nobody who did both. Consequently, the endtime remnant requires both Israel’s heritage and the church’s heritage. From the Christian side, the remnant requires the precious heritage of faithfulness to Jesus. From Israel’s side, the remnant requires the precious heritage of obedience to God’s mitzvot. None of us can go it alone. To be seed of the Woman, endtime Jews need the Christian heritage and endtime Christians need the Jewish heritage.
Getting back to my original question. What is Beth Shalom Seventh-day Adventist Congregation all about? Somebody asked how are we different from Jews for Jesus? Well, Jews for Jesus is sponsored by Southern Baptists, Tiqqun Ministries is Presbyterian, Apple of His Eye is Missouri Synod Lutheran, Beth Emuna in Agoura Hills is Foursquare Gospel, Beth Ariel in Canoga Park is Evangelical Free Church of America. We’re none of the above. Admittedly, we do some of the same stuff. We sometimes sing the music of the messianic movement. Like the messianic movement, our worship borrows some synagogue elements. We want to create a social environment where Jews aren’t disoriented by Seventh-day Adventist culture.
But whatever the similarities to what our Evangelical friends may be up to, our primary business is not persuading stray Jews to change their religion. Jesus had some rather harsh words for missionaries who travel land and sea to win a single convert, then make him twice the son of hell as themselves [Matthew 23:15]. In this mixed-up world of rootless souls there are some Jews whom God calls to serve him in a non-Jewish way. In Jesus’ name we welcome them. In our congregation we’re happy for Alan Reinach. But at bottom, we are Seventh-day Adventists advocates lobbying for the saints who obey God’s commandments. If this movement is serious about being the catalyst of the remnant, we’re in desperate need around here of some Torah-practicing Jews. They may or may not be forced by their own community to resign from God’s election. They may or may not join our non-Jewish religion, but we desperately need them as brothers and sisters, as friends and allies, as colleagues and associates.
The endtime remnant who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus doesn’t necessarily need to be a single institutional entity. We don’t know what shape the remnant will take. But it needs to be a working coalition where the world gets a glimpse of what Mashiach can do among his Jews and his Gentiles. As the Epistle to the Ephesians says, there are onlookers. Should the Seventh-day Adventist Church someday concede that God has bound himself to Israel by a valid covenant, logic dictates that we would have to make allowance for Seventh-day Adventist Jews to obey him as Jews. I said we’re lobbyists. We’ve got a long wish list.
In practice, what’s the difference between God’s commandments for Jews and God’s commandments for non-Jews? Some people immediately object that since there’s one Torah, there shouldn’t be any differences in its applicability. There is one Torah, but like all sane legislation, it makes different provisions for different situations. In this regard our Torah is far more intelligent than current zero-tolerance legislation, which is mere rules without recourse. In Deuteronomy 17:18-20 there’s a mitzva that a Jewish king upon his accession to the throne must copy out a sefer Torah in his own hand. Of course, a commoner may also copy out a sefer Torah, but that’s no mitzva. What we do on our own initiative by definition isn’t a mitzva. A commoner has the option of hiring a scribe; a king doesn’t. Does this mean God discriminates against kings? Not at all. A king merely has some special responsibilities commensurate with his office. Men and women have the same Torah, but men don’t have responsibility for menstrual impurity. Only Jews are subject to contingent impurity and only women are subject to menstruation. God is with Jewish women in a special way each month, because only they can perpetuate his perpetual covenant with Israel. Jews and non-Jews have the same Torah, but non-Jewish parents can’t redeem their firstborn son. If the proud parents wish to give an obliging kohen five silver sheqels, he’ll take the money, but it won’t be redemption!
Some people object that Israel’s Torah practice ought to have ended back with animal sacrifices at the destruction of the 2nd temple. But most Torah practices that distinguish Israel from the Gentiles are not contingent on the existence of the temple. I’m talking about Torah practices such as circumcision, redemption of firstborn, family purity, food purity, lighting lamps on the preparation day, annual Sabbaths, tassels, forbidden fabric, phylacteries, door mzuzot, shma recitation, grace after meals, havdala after Shabbat, and formal blessings when performing mitzvot. Already during the 2nd temple period these mitzvot were practiced far away in the Diaspora by Jews who didn’t have frequent opportunity to go up to Jerusalem. All evidence indicates these mitzvot were an integral part of Jesus’ intimacy with God. That fact that he and his apostles left no instruction about their discontinuation should make Seventh-day Adventist Jews think twice about disregarding any of them. All of them reinforce Israel’s identity and none of them conflict with Seventh-day Adventist doctrine.
Now if we’re talking about Seventh-day Adventist practice rather than Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, yes, currently there’s a conflict. But we need to keep in mind that Seventh-day Adventist practice is 19th century conservative Evangelical practice. It wasn’t designed for Jesus-confessing Jews, and shouldn’t define Jewish obedience. If there were more Jewish Seventh-day Adventists in the world, Jewish obedience wouldn’t be considered irregular. It’s no compliment to Seventh-day Adventists that within our circle of fellowship Jewish obedience is such a rare thing. From the perception of duly constituted church leadership, Jewish obedience is a niche interest. Within our political structure it is managed like other minority interests. We’ll never make endtime remnant with that kind of attitude toward Jewish obedience!
So what exactly are all we non-Jews doing in Beth Shalom Seventh-day Adventist Congregation? We don’t believe God has commanded non-Jews to practice Israel’s commandments. That would be judaizing. That would be as silly as expecting a commoner to obey a king’s commandment or expecting a woman to obey a man’s commandment. We non-Jews are facilitators and advocates of Israel’s obedience. We’re helping other people do what God has commanded them to do. This is not a novel idea among Seventh-day Adventists.
Seventh-day Adventists, for instance, believe parents have an obligation to provide their offspring with a Christian education. Now, not all Seventh-day Adventists have children of school age. But all Seventh-day Adventists, insofar as God has given them means, are expected to help those who have children of school age meet their obligation. We believe in helping others do what God commands them, even if we ourselves are not in their situation. That is how we build community. That is being our brother’s keeper and our sister’s keeper. We can’t think just about ourselves or about people in our own situation.
When non-Jews help Jews obey Israel’s distinctive commandments, they're not obeying God, at least not directly. Their Jewish brothers and sisters are the ones doing the obeying. That needs to be abundantly clear. Non-Jews however, do receive a blessing when they help Jews obey Israel’s commandments, because there's always a blessing in helping others, especially in helping others obey God.
There are any number of legitimate reasons for Seventh-day Adventist Christians to access Israel’s heritage: It broadens our corporate experience in God’s presence. It exposes us to a broader canvas of Scripture and possibilities for understanding what we hear. It facilitates the formation of the endtime remnant of Jews and Gentiles. Above all, it helps others obey God. Israel's heritage is good for us; Israel’s heritage is even better for Israel. That’s why I’m involved in this congregation.
