A Letter To A Rabbi Friend

(This is a letter to a Rabbi S. I wrote that I felt that God had removed the ability of the early Christian Church to do miracles because it became anti-Jew. He wrote back that this didn’t make sense to him. My response was rather visceral and the only part about it that I regret is that one small comment seemed to treat the sufferings of the Jew as being trivial. He took it in stride though. )

I think it makes perfect sense to me that the Almighty could get mad at us. He can get mad at the Jew, why not the gentile Christian? Why should we miss out on all the fun?

I was taught by this little group that with every movement of the Almighty upon us Christians, whether it was the Reformation, the Baptists, the Holiness Movement, God found the same lousy attitude in us that Jesus found in the pharisees and sadducees. “Who are you to tell us what to do?" That sort of thing, and it really makes sense to me.

So God and the reformers go out and pick up the riffraff, clean them up and add them to the group. A generation later you can’t tell them apart. The Pentecostal movement was started by black folks in 1906 in a rescue mission in LA. White people and others were drawn to it supernaturally, but had to receive some new ideas on centuries-old scripture from black leadership. Very hard to swallow for some, for most. This happened long before MLK. Then the movement split into black and white factions with a very recent and noble attempt to mend some fences. Today, a hundred or so years later, 650 million people world-wide consider themselves “Charismatic” or “Pentecostal.” Not bad for a small beginning, but it fits the pattern that every time God wants us to move forward, obey our own scriptures, be better at being a Christian Church, learn from our mistakes . . . well, it is usually not a pretty sight.

Fortunately, we Christians have all these things figured out now, so there are no more surprises coming. Right? Aren’t you glad for us? Per my current church, we’ll all be raptured soon, then we will come back with Jesus and rule the world. I wouldn’t let us run a candy store, myself, much less the world, but what do I know? So we really think He is happy with us just as we are? A Christianity with three arms; Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant; this is the best He can do? He wants to marry a woman with three arms? I wouldn’t.

I asked a Jewish friend of mine at work one time that if he were Messiah, waiting to come back to earth, to destroy His enemies and sit on a throne in Jerusalem, who would He rather rule the world with, the Jew or the Evangelical Christian? He said the Jew or at least certain parts of Judaism. I agreed with him, sort of. Jews have a nation now. Gentile Christians have experience at creating world-wide Judo-Christian cultures. Messiah might find both useful, but I think you Jews are further along in His plan than you might realize. I shudder to think what it might take for us to . . .

Sorry for rambling. It is a touchy subject for me. No, I think my comment makes perfect, tragic, sense.

By the way, I realize that I am implying that the Christian Church is on the same level with God as the Jew. I don’t ask you to agree with me on this. It is truly okay with me if you don’t.

JS

(He wrote back that it was fine with him.)