WHERE DO I STAND ON THE JEWISH QUESTION?

by John S. Torell 

May 17, 2006

A while ago I noticed that Christians in Sweden were discussing my theology and where I stood when it comes to Israel and their relationship with God. After reading most of the contributions, I want to establish exactly where I stand on this issue, so there will be no more doubts or questions.

DEFINITIONS

During my years of study, first in Sweden during high school and college and later at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California, I learned that to in order to have an intelligent discussion, everyone must agree on pre-determined definitions for a particular topic, and then work within those boundaries. If two parties cannot agree on a definition, there is really nothing to discuss. With that in mind, I would like to put forth some definitions of where I stand:

1.      I believe that the Bible is God’s Word, and included are exclusively the Old Testament and the New Testament. In English, I work with the King James Version, and in Swedish, I work with the 1917 translation.

2.      I believe Jesus is the Son of God; He was born by the Holy Spirit and in the flesh by the virgin Mary. Jesus lived a sinless life, and when He was crucified, He died for all people who confess their sins, receive Him as their Lord and Saviour. Salvation by grace through faith is an eternal truth; we are not saved by our deeds, but rather through Jesus’ blood that reconciles us with God. Ephesians 2:8-10

3.     The Bible says that we should live a sanctified life after we have been saved. I wholeheartedly agree and try to live this way each and every day. Ephesians 4:20-32, 5:1-20

4.      Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-19, that all instructions given by God to man in the Old Testament are still relevant for today with the exception of the sacrificial law which was done away with when Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice on the cross and took away all our sin. Hebrews 9:1-28

CONCLUSION

These four definitions are not something I have made-up myself, rather, they are taken directly from the Bible, and this is the foundation by which I stand. Having laid this out, I would like to state my position towards the Jewish people.

A)    First of all, Jews are not a race. They are the descendants of Abraham; his lineage eventually became so numerous that a nation came out of it. Abraham was not a Jew but a Chaldean since he was born in the city of Ur, which was situated in Southern Babylonia (Iraq), and at that time the area was known as Chaldea. This information is found in Genesis 11:26-32.

B)    Abraham was called out of Babylon and told to settle in the land of Canaan. God promised that this land would be for Abraham’s seed. Through Abraham all nations in the world would be blessed, since the Saviour would come through his bloodline (Genesis 12:1-7). This promise was repeated in Genesis 22:15-19.

C)    641 years later after Abraham, when God called Moses, this family had grown to around 3,000,000 people. They were now called Hebrews or the Children of Israel. God made it very clear, if they wanted to live in the Promised Land, it would be on the following condition: They could not live in sin and worship idols. If they did this, God would cast them out of the land and punish them with much pain, disease, persecution. Moses wrote these detailed instructions down as found in Deuteronomy 28:1-68.

D)    The Book of Judges is the story about Israel's continual betrayal of God and how God time after time punished them for their sins and idol worship. God used different nations around Israel to make war against them, torment them, and enslave them. When the Children of Israel asked for forgiveness and repented, God sent in men and women to throw off the yoke. However, as soon as the God-fearing generation died, the next generation started sinning, and the same procedure would start all over again.

E)    The kingdom of Israel was split because of Solomon’s sin and idol worship (Judges 11:1-13). The northern kingdom, Israel, which consisted of the ten northern tribes, had their capital as Samaria. When these ten tribes had fallen thoroughly into sin and idol worship, along came God’s judgment and punishment. They were conquered by Assyria around 721 B.C. and led away into captivity.

Judah was the name of the southern kingdom and had as its capital Jerusalem. The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were allowed to continue as a nation to around 600 B.C. Then the cup of God’s wrath was full for Jerusalem and the people in Judah, as the Babylonian king came in and took the city and captured a great part of the population and took them to Babylon. This struggle is described by the prophet Jeremiah, who struggled heavily for the people to repent.

F)     From that time, Israel was never an independent nation, but has constantly struggled under the yoke of other nations. There have been revolts, such as during the Maccabees around 67 A.D., and both times, the Jewish forces, along with the women and children were slaughtered.

G)    When the Jewish leaders and mob demanded that Jesus be crucified, they cursed themselves, instead of letting the blood of Jesus come over them as a cleansing, it came as a curse. Matthew 27:1-66

WHAT DOES THE WORD OF GOD SAY?

If you live in sin, the land will be taken away from Abraham’s heirs in the flesh. There is no place in the Bible which says that God will raise up an independent political state. Nor will you find anywhere in Scripture where it says that Jews should ignore God and continue living a unrepentant sinful life. The big problem is that Jewish leaders and many Christians have not realized this, so they fight in the flesh to build up Israel and keep it afloat.

Does this make me anti-Semitic for coming to this understanding after reading the Bible? Obviously not! This has nothing to do with my emotions, I just accept what God has told me. Just because I do not support and fight for the state of Israel does not mean that I hate the Jewish people. After reading the Bible, I just cannot support what they are doing, because they work in the flesh, and try to do something that God has not told them to do.

When I lived in Sweden, I wasn’t a member of the Social Democratic Party, but does that mean that I hate these people just because I don’t share the same political viewpoint? Absolutely not! I don’t think that Mormon’s and Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians, but do I walk around and hate them? Of course not!

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP JEWS NOT BE PERSECUTED?

When I expose the evil deeds of Jewish leaders, I deal with them in the same way I also deal with false religions. Let me give you an example: In the country of Sweden, there is now a law that forbids anyone from saying homosexuality is a sin or that God will punish gay people. The people who wrote the law have made it a crime to speak evil of homosexuality, saying that it only stirs up hate. If that is indeed the case, then God Almighty is a criminal! The Bible obviously does not agree with these so-called Swedish laws. God hates sin and wants to save the homosexual, but God cannot and will not save the queer and ignore his sin. It is the same way with the Jew; God loves him and wants to save him, but if the Jew does not want to receive Jesus and repent, then God can not save him. It is only fair that blame be put on the guilty party. The Jewish leaders live their lives in such a way that just like a lightning rod attracts lightning; they have been attracting God’s judgment for the last five thousand years. I cannot stand up and say to God, “You have to lay off punishing Jews, you’ve become an anti-Semite!”

I have not been called to persecute the Jewish people, and no one that is saved and walking with Jesus will ever do that. Our job is to pray for them, show them love, witness Jesus to them, and do everything for the Jew people to be saved; however, at the same time, just like Jesus, we are also to expose their evil deeds (Matthew 23:1-39). Even the apostles, who they themselves were Jewish, confronted the Jewish leaders.

SUMMARY

A Christian can not be true to Jesus and be a Zionist at the same time. It is equally impossible for someone to be a Christian and a Communist. The Zionists worship the State of Israel; the very ground on which it has been built upon is an idol to them. Most Zionist’s do not believe that God exists since they don’t believe that there is life after death. Many of them have been and are hardcore atheists; Jewry for them is a national association with customs, habits, and rituals that have kept them together.

If you claim that this makes me a Jew hater, there is the only thing I can say to you, you have no knowledge of the Bible or history, and your thinking is built upon emotions that other people have given you in order to support their own activity.

LET GOD’S OWN WORD SPEAK FOR ITSELF!

Galatians 3:26-29

(26)    For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

(27)    For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

(28)    There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

(29)    And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

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