15. Why is there so little understanding and manifestation of the Jewish roots that the Church had at the beginning, in the present Church?

15. Why is there so little understanding and manifestation of the Jewish roots that the Church had at the beginning, in the present Church?

 

That’s a good question, especially when you think about the fact that the Church was founded by a Jewish person.  All of the Apostles were Jewish and the first believers in Jesus wee Jewish as well.  If you look around today, there is very little evidence that the Church ever had any Jewish influence at all.  What happened?  I’ve thought about this a lot and perhaps some of my conclusions will be helpful for you to think about.  Before I give some specifics, I’ll give the over all, bottom line reason why I believe it’s this way.  I believe we see a major shift from a Jewish influence because, we are in a period called, “The Fullness of the Gentiles.”  This is where God in a particular way is primarily working with the Gentile nations and calling out a people from them.

Rom. 11:25 – For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in

That of course does not mean that God is not also saving some from among the Jewish people.  But, primarily His work at this time is among the Gentiles.  Why is that?

Acts 13:44-46 – And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.  And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

To get the entire context you would do well to begin reading at Acts 13:14.  Here we see that it was God’s intentional plan to go to Israel first with the Gospel.  When they rejected it, the doors were opened to the Gentiles and this is where we are today.  After the Rapture of the Church, God will once again work in a special way with Israel and perhaps the character of the believers will once again have more of a Jewish flavor to it.