by Harry BuererI’m not Elijah, but I see my role as being similar. In Malachi 4, at the very end of the last prophetic book, we read, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” It’s not clear what he means by the fathers and the children. But one understanding is that the fathers are Jews, people of Israel, and the children are Gentile followers of Jesus, often called “Christians”. These two groups have been in opposition to each other for two millenia. I don’t believe that God wants that to happen, as the New Testament presents them as being separate but interrelated. Ephesians presents them as composing “one new man”, while Romans describes them as branches of the same olive tree.
In writing my book, and this blog, I hope to help both Jews and Christians see that the other has a lot more in common with them than they thought. Jesus and his disciples taught Judaism, and didn’t say anything that Jews should object to, except for his claim to be Messiah. As to the truth of that, we’ll see when Messiah comes who he turns out to be. But there are a lot of statements in Tanak that match the life and death of Jesus.
As for Christians, they need to understand that Jews are God’s chosen people, and there are many promises in the prophets that God will never go back on his choice of them. It’s true that Jews have frequently ignored God’s commands throughout history, and faced exile and worse. But Christians abandoned God’s commands by the second century, and they imagine that that’s what Paul teaches, even though he says many things that affirm Torah.
Jews have preserved God’s Torah while Christians have preserved the identity of God’s Messiah. They both are incorrect about some key issues, but as they come to accept one another and consider the diverse viewpoints, the truth will become more obvious, and God will be more pleased with their perspectives.
Bringing Jews and Christians together, or at least their viewpoints, is the entire reason why I am writing. As the hearts of the fathers and the children turn toward each other, I will be happy. And I believe God will be too.