Where is Israel in churches’ statements of faith?
Statements of faith are a staple of contemporary Christianity. Every church has it. There, encased in carefully crafted words, one can glean the core beliefs of a particular Christian community. And not just the essential things are listed, like G-d, Jesus, how to be saved, etc. – but also the minutiae, such as will the church be Raptured before or after the Tribulation, how does one exercise the gifts of the Spirit, what do they think of homosexuality, whether or not King James version of the Bible is the most accurate translation, or what constitutes a valid marriage, are often included as well.
However, as a Jew, I’ve spotted one glaring omission in nearly all of those statements – Israel and the Jewish people. To me, nothing showcases the ugly legacy of Supersessionism quite like the total absence of any mention of Israel and the Jewish people in the core beliefs the church presents to the world. One would think that the one and only nation with whom the New Covenant was established by G-d (Jeremiah 31:31–34) , the people that has shared this spiritual blessing with the nations of the world, the nation whose soil Messiah will touch with his feet upon his return, would be found in the statements of faith of nearly all mainline churches. “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22)? – one wouldn’t even know it by reading the core beliefs of most churches, even those who are otherwise supportive of Israel or use Israel as the so called “prophetic time clock”.
Where in the churches is Israel? Below are the statements of faith of some of the largest and most influential churches in America.
| Church and its Statement of Faith (linked) | Israel or Jews mentioned? |
| Calvary Chapel | NO |
| Willow Creek Community Church | NO |
| Second Baptist Church | NO |
| Saddleback Church | NO |
| The Potters House | NO |
| North Point Community Church | NO |
| Fellowship Church | NO |
| Northridge Church | NO |
| First Baptist Church of Hammond | NO |
| Christ Fellowship | NO |
| Harvest Christian Fellowship | NO |
| Crossroads | NO |
| Eagle Brook Church | NO |
| Rock Church | NO |
| Kensington Church | NO |
| Christian Faith Center | NO |
| The Chapel | NO |
| Seacoast Church | NO |
I made the “mistake” of saying this on one of my recent blog posts:
The main point of my blog posts was the peace we receive through “the minister of peace” and not the church’s relationship to Israel per se, but I still received quite a bit of “attention” just for that one quote. It seems that the church is still, on some level, disconnecting the Jewish Messiah from the Judaism and Israel.
Gene,
You give them too much credit when you characterize it as a mere “omission.”
These churches I’m guessing are Protestant which means they incorporate the major Protestant systematic writings (e.g. Luther, Calvin, etc) by default–and I say default unless they’ve publicly renounced their own anti-Torah and anti-Semitic Protestant tradition regarding Israelology. That means that Churches are NOT omitting Israel but rather they are purposefully hiding their true ideology–a supersessionist Israelology/nomonology. If only it were just a simple omission! But the culpability is far worse than mere omission. Think accomplice liability: their minimum liability is that they are accessories after the fact (they help the criminal offender escape detection). They purposefully choose not to mention their positions on Israelology/nomonology in order to help the criminal offender (anti-Semtism/anti-Torah) escape detection.
On a positive note, the Protestant churches seem to be shifting toward nondenominational congregations which, it seems, are less dogmatic and thus more open to Jewish-friendly hermeneutics. There’s still that default anti-Semitism though in the form of anti-Torah hermeneutics that must be challenged. After all, if one is against the Torah that defines Jewishness then, logically, one must be against Jewishness.
Sincerely,
Peter
Peter, good input. You should have ended with “I rest my case!”.
I agree – by thrusting away Torah as an outmoded construct, the Jewish people are also outmoded along with it. However, it’s not always true – some sections of Christianity do uphold Torah (or Law, reinterpreted in their own way, of course), but still do away with the Jewish people since the Jew has supposedly lost his claim to Torah (which was inherited by the Church, along with every promise made to Israel, according to such thinking) by not accepting Christ.
“It seems that the church is still, on some level, disconnecting the Jewish Messiah from the Judaism and Israel.”
James, that’s an understatement of the week. You are very gracious, my friend.
The second part of my four-part series on supersessionism and the church will be published in the upcoming issue of Messiah Journal, and I just submitted part three (which won’t see the light of day until sometime in late summer) to FFOZ a few days ago. We’ll see how gracious I am as these articles are released. ;-)
It’s interesting. Lately I’ve noticed a small rise in protestants converting to the Greek Orthodox faith because they feel this is the earliest form of the faith. I suppose I will eventually do a series on the history of the early Jewish community and track the changes into the Byzantine period which is essentially where the Greek Orthodox communities began. It was somewhere between the downfall of the Temple and 150 A.D. in which the focus shifted away from Israel and onto the “Church.”