The Glory of Jerusalem, It once was lost but is now being found

The Glory of Jerusalem, It once was lost but is now being found

“In this "fullness of time" there were 3 prominent cities; Jerusalem, Athens Greece), and Rome. From Jerusalem we have the story of salvation history. We get the Old Testament, we learn about the family of God. In Greece, humanity learned to ask the most penetrating questions about the most important issues such as: What is just? Does might make right? How do we know what something is? How can we know the truth? From Greece we also are provided with our Christian vocabulary, i.e., Logos (Jn. 1:1). From Rome we get the social structure through which all of this flows into our own time. It is the basis of secular law and even the organization of our Church from its earliest beginnings with the apostles.

The richness and strength of Greco-Roman culture was its philosophy and order. Both would be incorporated into the church over time through the theologians and administrators of the church. To this day Roman Catholic divisions are called dioceses; a Roman geographic division and Priest continue to have an educational experience steeped in Greek philosophy. The break from Judaism however meant the loss of much of the Biblical instruction contained in the Torah and the road map to a great deal of Biblical living. It was not a complete break with Biblical understanding. It was in fact a partial application of Paul’s model in Acts 17:26. But partial applications are incomplete applications and sometimes 2 out is 3 is bad and in this case it was tragic. The church fathers developed and theological frame work around Greco-Roman cultural truths, but they loss the Glory of Jerusalem, and what it meant for Jesus to fulfill the law and the prophets. Jesus stands of a hill to look over his great city, his future home and cries,

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Matthew 23:47

Many have thought that Jesus was only weeping for the Jewish people in this lament, but he was lamenting for all people. For the scriptures say of that temple, “I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:7

The destruction of the temple was not just the removal of the sacrificial system for the Jew but it was the removal of the living object for the Gentile world that “it is finished.” Ephesians 2:14 says, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,” He speaks he of the separation that was between Jew and Gentile. If they were open to Rabbi Paul the Apostle the church fathers might have heard him say, “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Un-circumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”Ephesians 2:11-13

The church fathers were not wrong in retaining Greek philosophy or Roman order. These in face are part of the redemptive gifts that the Lord wanted to incorporate into his church. It was part of the ‘fullness of time’ plan as referenced Galatians 4:4. It speaks of the Christ, the Anointed one who had come into the world to Jew and Gentile alike. But the fathers also lost Paul’s zeal for evangelism as expressed in Romans 1:16. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

In the fullness of time, meant that the Glory of Jerusalem could be seen, the wisdom of Athens could be contemplated and that strength of Rome would allow us to live at peace. It was the expression of God’s desire for us to worship him with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength. It highlights the predominance the redemptive gifts found in the cities of that age.

The church fathers error was not just in what it lost in rejecting its Jewish roots but in what it retained. Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. What this mean is that there was not a limited priesthood but a priesthood of all believers. It was the fulfillment of Mosses prayer that ‘all would prophecy’ It is what Peter told the Jewish witnesses on the day of Pentecost. ‘I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” Acts 2:18. It was the removal of the sacrifice incorporated in the church father’s Mass when each priest and congregation declare “Lord accept the sacrifice of your hands… for our good and the good of all the church.”

It is impossible to over state this sin and the open rejection of the Jewish culture and by extension Biblical culture that was practiced and taught by the church fathers. Consider this quote by Justin Martyr stated in a dialogue with Trypho, between 138A.D. and 161 A.D and John Chrysostom circa 380 AD as it relates and cultural feast as described in a previous blog. He said,

“We too, would observe your circumcision of the flesh, your Sabbath days, and in a word, all your festivals, if we were not aware of the reason why they were imposed upon you, namely, because of your sins and the hardness of heart."

His wrong conclusions then are built upon by wrong justifications.

"The custom of circumcising the flesh, handed down from Abraham, was given to you as a distinguishing mark, to set you off from other nations and from us Christians. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolated, and you cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of you land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes; that not one of you be permitted to enter your city of Jerusalem. Your circumcision of the flesh is the only mark by which you can certainly be distinguished from other men…as I stated before it was by reason of your sins and the sins of your fathers that, among other precepts, God imposed upon you the observence of the sabbath as a mark.”

Martyr could not have been more wrong. Bad theology always leads to bad doctrine, stated another way, bad thinking always leads to wrong doing. Other church fathers would carry their anti-Semitism even further. John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.) – One of the "greatest" of church fathers; known as "The Golden Mouthed." A missionary preacher famous for his sermons and addresses stated,
The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts…the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and dabauchees, and the cavern of devils. It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop…a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition."…"I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason.
To the church father’s mind there were both cultural and theological reasons for creating a Christian festival season separate from the Jews. The one could have been done without it being at the expense of the other. Then Jew and Gentile would have been blessed together. There were questions of authority and ethnicity that drove much of their thinking. Isaiah Gafni points out that the early church that kept the Jewish calendar were dependent upon non believing Rabbis to set. Initially the remembrance Christ death burial and resurrection were kept based on the Passover and the Passover date was set by the Rabbis.

Over time the church has become much better at asking the questions of how the culture of a newly evangelized people group can be incorporated into the church. The below quote represents very good thinking around this issue;

“Given that popular or cultural traditions can sometimes be invasive of the Sunday celebration and deprive it of its Christian character, "There is a need for special pastoral attention to the many situations where there is a risk that the popular and cultural traditions of a region may intrude upon the celebration of Sundays and other liturgical feast-days, mingling the spirit of genuine Christian faith with elements which are foreign to it and may distort it. In such cases, catechesis and well-chosen pastoral initiatives need to clarify these situations, eliminating all that is incompatible with the Gospel of Christ. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that these traditions and, by analogy, some recent cultural initiatives in civil society often embody values which are not difficult to integrate with the demands of faith. It rests with the discernment of Pastors to preserve the genuine values found in the culture of a particular social context and especially in popular piety, so that liturgical celebration above all on Sundays and holy days does not suffer but rather may actually benefit"

If this standard had been applied to Jewish life as well as other evangelized groups the church would have been blessed by not just the wisdom of Athens and the order of Rome but also the glory of Jerusalem, Then the mission statement of cultural memory would have been truly seen in the Catechism as it is expressed below.

“As defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Liturgical Year is "The celebration throughout the year of the mysteries of the Lord's birth, life, death, and Resurrection in such a way that the entire year becomes a 'year of the Lord's grace'. Thus the cycle of the liturgical year and the great feasts constitute the basic rhythm of the Christian's life of prayer, with its focal point at Easter”

Within the cultural traditions of the Jewish people is found the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Within the philosophy of the Greek is found the Word of God that would become flesh. Within the order to the Roman is found the discipline that would be necessary to keep the church holy and free from sin. The church has historically maintained two out of three, but sometime two out of three is bad! May we return to a rich understanding of his word and see the glory in all peoples of the earth, to the Jew first and then to the entire world.

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/francis_schaeffer_catholics_greek_philosophy_in_the_bible.htm
http://www.romanrite.com/j030802.html
http://gatesofpraiseministries.blogspot.com/2011/05/jewish-holidays-creation-celebrated.html

Anti-Semitism of the Church Father’s” http://www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm
“Anti-Semitism of the Church Father’s” http://www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm
“Anti-Semitism of the Church Father’s” http://www.yashanet.com/library/fathers.htm
Gafni, Isaiah, Great World Religions, Judaism, The Teaching Company, 2010, CD http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=6103
“The Feast of the Liturgical Year, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church http://www.wf-f.org/LiturgicalCalendar-info.html
“The Feast of the Liturgical Year, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church http://www.wf-f.org/LiturgicalCalendar-info.html