[Dancing]

Originally Posted by bearbear

I think we are throwing around different definitions of being "Jewish". Here's my understanding of the different definitions

1. Jews by culture/birth: This includes secular Jews who may observe and attend synagogue on the major feast days as part of their culture but they don't necessarily believe in God or the OT.

2. Judaism / Religious Jews (Orthodox, Karaite, Hasidic, etc). These are Jews who practice the Jewish religion which rejects Jesus. Most of the streams of modern Judaism derive from the Pharisee movement of Jesus' time. Like the Pharisees, modern Judaism (excluding Karaites) believes that only Rabbinic system and the Talmud (life study-like commentary) have the authority to interpret scripture, and stuff the Rabbis and Talmud say can actually supersede anything the bible says if there is contradiction. The Rabbis/authorities in Judaism can act like the ministers of the age who speak for God. The system vehemently reject Jesus as Messiah and go out of their way to re-interpret OT prophecies and passages like Isaiah 53 which clearly point to Jesus.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they were of their father the devil and that they were not children of Abraham. Perhaps the same could be applied to some the leaders of this system. However Paul also says in Romans 9-11 that the gifts and calling of God are not revocable and there are still many promises for Israel that have not been fulfilled, so the promises of the OT still applies to them. Daniel's 70 weeks have been paused at week 69 and hasn't been completed yet so God is still not done with them. Israel's heart will eventually soften and turn to Jesus at his return.

3. Romans 2:29 Jews: Jews who believed in OT and observe Torah and look to it's promise, and later become born-again, believing in Jesus as Messiah: These include the Jews who comprised most of the early church. Initially they didn't have the New Testament like we do, but scripture to them was only the Old Testament, so they had to rely on the Holy Spirit and memories of Jesus' teachings for revelation. They got to enjoy the fulfillment of the law and promises of the OT. At the Holy Spirit's direction, the gospel was open to the Gentiles who also got to enjoy the fulfillment and blessing of God's promises in the OT.

The New Testament, with the exception of Luke was written by such Jews. Jesus himself was a Torah observant Jew who did things such as command the lepers he healed to go see the Priests first (Leviticus 13).

This can also include Messianic Jews of today who observe feast days, sabbaths in a commemorative way to gain blessing and worship God (Col 2:16) but not as works that they base their salvation on.

According to Isaiah, seemingly "Jewish" things will be observed in the millennial kingdom such as the Sabbath and the Feast of Tabernacles (sukkot). People will also look to Jews to grant favor with God (Zechariah 8:23).

Interestingly enough in Jesus' seven letters to the churches in Rev 2-3, he refers to "Jews" as members of the churches instead of the term we use today "Christians". Perhaps Jesus uses this term to refer to the Jew and Gentile as one new man in Christ (Romans 10:12) who are children of Abraham by faith.

Very helpful info. Thank you so much, bearbear.