Founder’s Blog
Negligent Genocide
Can there be genocide without the intent to commit genocide?
The church has sinned. Its sin is one of supersessionism--which has led to negligent genocide. I realize that this is a serious accusation and it demands explanation.
Our newest book, The Holy Epistle to the Galatians builds the case that the church's reading of Galatians (and Paul in general) has resulted in the elimination of an entire people group--Jewish believers in Jesus--by means of assimilation. By making Jewish believers into Gentiles, we have homogenized the church and neutralized Jewish identity among disciples of Yeshua. The result is predictable. The only people that retain Jewish identity for more than a generation or two are those who reject the Gospel.
Some sins have greater effects than others.
- If this had not happened there would be hundreds of thousands (I think it is fair to estimate millions based upon intergenerational growth) devout Jewish believers today. They perhaps would out-number the current number of religious non-Yeshua believing observant Jews today. Their testimony to their people would be incalculable.
- If this had not happened, this living and thriving remnant of Jewish believers would have been a guiding light to the church (the Nations) steering her away from error and misguided interpretations of the Torah, Gospels, Epistles, etc. The church would have steered away from doctrines foreign to Judaism. Their leadership, transmitted from the earliest of Jewish believers, would have placed the church on a completely different trajectory.
This book does not bash Christians. It gently offers a vision of how things might have been different if Christianity had understood the original meaning and intention of Paul's epistle to the Galatians. Additionally, it offers a compelling vision of the way things can be corrected. It presents a vision of Jewish and Gentile believers united and living lives together in a common religious expression.
If you have any interest at all in Hebrew Roots, Messianic Judaism, or early Church history and theology, you need to read this book, and when you are finished, you need to pass it on to others.
Galatians is perhaps the most misunderstood book in the Bible. It is the hinge on which Christianity turns--and the Christian misreading of it has had significant ramifications for all of us.
My heart is so stirred. In all of my years of service to this ministry, I have rarely felt so strongly about a resource we have produced. I feel that this book brings important clarity and sets the pace for the restoration of Messianic, Torah-faith we all are laboring toward.
Pre-Order today. (shipping begins on June 23)
Search in Blogs...
Browse through Blogs
Feeds
Use this RSS feed to track our blogs in your favorite reader.
The FFOZ Blogs RSS Feed
Blogs by Category
- Back Office
- Events and Administration
- Founder’s Blog
- Guest Authors
- Lessons from the Land
- Levertoff Documentary
- Mishlei Musings
- Publications
- Road Trip 09
- Shalom Tour
- Teaching Team
- The Siddur Project
- Torah Club
- Video Blogs
- Site Info Blog
Blogs by Author
- Aaron Eby
- Boaz Michael
- D. Thomas Lancaster
- FFOZ Staff
- Guest Authors
- Media Staff
- Hope Egan
- Seth Dralle
- Toby Janicki
More Recent Posts
- Shameless Self-Promotion
- Is the Bible B.S.?
- Becoming A Better Boss
- Remembrance and Repentance
- Passover and the Death of James the Just
- Hosting Your First Passover Seder
- Devil's Children
- Vacation Time
- Visit Israel with FFOZ
- A KISS from me to you
Visitor Feedback:
Someone needed to say this and may FFOZ be blessed for being the one to say it. The word "assimilation" is "Amalek-ian" to me, if you will. When the Third Reich hunted down the Jewish people, assimilation into European Christian culture saved no Jewish souls from the gas chambers or firing squads. On the other hand, assimilation into Christian culture has destroyed what might have been a thriving believing Jewish culture within the body of Messiah. Therefore, it might be rightly posited, in a certain sense, that on the one hand, the Third Reich destroyed the European Jewish community through nullification of assimilation factors, while the European Christian culture nullified the potential of a thriving Messianic Jewish by enforcing assimilation factors, wittingly or unwittingly. Either way, it seems assimilation has been a key negative factor having negative influence upon Israel's overall testimony of HaShem to the non-redeemed world. Hence, "Amalekian." Can't wait to read the book.
Daniel Hennessy | June 21, 2011 4:35 PM
... and then, of course, one must ask: If this "living and thriving remnant of Jewish believers would have been a guiding light to the church (the Nations) steering her away from error and misguided interpretations of the Torah, Gospels, Epistles, etc.," would the Adversus Judaeous tradition of anti-Jewish Christian theology as put forth by the Church Fathers from the late first century, on, have gained the anti-Semitic traction, so to speak, to have resulted in the cultural conditions that prevailed, paralyzing the European Church and allowing for the Shoah to happen with almost no resistance? A hard, difficult, and frustrating question that, if answered honestly, consistent with post-Auschwitz secular and Christian Holocaust scholarship, must be answered "yes, the Shoah [most likely] could or would have been averted." Bringing this difficult subject to light is a necessary condition for the apprehension of truth as it relates to the need for the Church to repent through remembrance.
Daniel Hennessy | June 21, 2011 5:09 PM
Very thought-provoking, Boaz. We ordered several for our congregation leadership.
Bruce R. Booker | June 22, 2011 9:52 AM
I cannot wait to read this book! I have read many of FFOZ's resources and am amazed at the scholarship that goes into your resources. I have learned so much from this ministry that I can honestly say this ministry has been life-changing. Galatians is a hard book for me as a Messianic believer to understand so I am excited about Mr. Lancaster's new book.
Suzanne Payne | June 23, 2011 9:27 PM