Words to a Jewish college student: Treating him like he is not a "real" person? !!

More than thirty years ago, when I was part of a church that had become a safe haven for young people finding Christ during the hippy years, I remember a powerful scene at a Saturday night concert. One young man who had embraced Jesus but kept slipping away into the drug scene had the attention of the church pastor.

The pastor had his arms wrapped around the young man in a tight embrace and was talking to him. From my distance he was seemingly pleading with him. I could easily imagine him saying “I will not let you go.” Meaning I will not let you keep slipping away into such darkness.

God speaks that to our lives. Jesus promises that to his people. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28) That is our promise from God and it includes discipline within the grace.

I feel that way about the subject I have been writing on for the last several weeks, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network and their publication Steadfast Hope: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace, which I have shown to be anti-Semitic. I will explain. God intends justice, peace and fulfillment for both the Jewish people and the Palestinians.

He is sovereign, his plans and purposes will be accomplished. But who will rise up and who will fall because of their stance toward that which belongs to the Lord?

I will not let go because I see the injustice of telling lies to accomplish our own agenda, our own vision of justice. I will not let go because this is my denomination and I, as well as everyone else who is PCUSA, is responsible for our church’s attitude toward the Jewish people.

As I was writing an answer to someone’s comment yesterday, I had the booklet Steadfast Hope open and my eyes saw something I had marked much earlier. This is from the section “Biblical Israel and the Modern Political State of Israel”:

“Some Jews recognize the threat posed by Christian Zionism’s brand of allegiance to Israel. Israel journalist Gershom Gorenberg, in a 60 Minutes interview on October 12, 2002, warns that ‘Christian Zionists do not see Jews as real people but as actors in their religious drama, where two-thirds of Jews are killed in one act, and the remainder must convert to Christianity.’”

This is how that section ends. When I read that I thought of the chapter on question 10 in Victor Styrsky’s book Honest to God: Christian Zionists Confront 10 Questions Jews Need Answered.

The last question is “What is your deepest prayer for the Jewish People? In the last part of that chapter under the section, ‘You Are A Jew!’ there is a marvelous interchange of words between Styrsky and a Jewish college student. Hopefully he will forgive me if I quote the whole section here:

“’Pastor Victor,’ the Jewish college student addressed me as he stood.

‘It is very, very hard to be a Jew on any college campus and to try and stand for Israel,’ he bemoaned a painful truth.

My response was immediate, unprepared, and seemed to fly out of my mouth like a frightened dove from a thicket.

‘YOU ARE A JEW!!’ I exclaimed with tears filling my eyes. ‘You are the first born of HaShem! [the name-a substitute for using the name of God when not in worship] Yours is the adoption as sons, the Divine Glory, the covenants, the receiving of the Law, the Temple worship and the promises! (Romans 9:3-5)

‘Be strong, be encouraged, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged: for ‘HaShem your God is with you wherever you go!’ (Joshua 1:9)

‘You are a Jew, and if you can’t make it to synagogue yet, your rabbis will understand- but you have got to read your Bible. Until you do, you don’t fully know who you are, nor do you know the power of your God!

‘You must read the account of creation and your heritage in God’s promise to Abraham recorded in the book of Genesis, your birth as a slave-child nation, and your redemption in the book of Exodus.

You might want to skip Leviticus for a while-and nobody really likes math, so leave the Book of Numbers until you connect with a rabbi, but you must also study the Prophets and the Writings!

‘Read your Bible, seek the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and be Jews. That is what you need to do on your college campuses.’"

Enough said!