DIVIDED KINGDOMS: PART ONE
Christians have serious dissonant problems in their theology regarding their relationship to Israel and Jews. The general attitude is that Christianity is a new religion that has a clear historical relationship, but only a tenuous spiritual, relationship to Israel. Most Christians want to be respectful of Israel past and present, but have not studied the Bible enough to understand the spiritual connection they have with true Israel and true Jews.

Lacking a proper theology, Christians tend to see themselves as “saved” because they have Jesus, while seeing Jews as lost because they do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. In their ignorance and pride that they have the Messiah, they forget or ignore that status as a Jew or Israelite is a spiritual condition and not a matter of ethnicity or religious beliefs. And they conveniently ignore that they are grafted into Israel — not Israel into Christianity.

Christians also show their ignorance about the New Covenant in the belief that it was not inaugurated until the physical birth, death and resurrection of the Messiah. Jews, on the other hand exercise their own pride in the belief that they have the Mosaic Law (i.e. Torah) but the Christians don’t.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See New Covenant for a detailed discussion about who had access to the New Covenant and when they had it.

In addition to these and other theological problems, this wrong thinking creates distance between religious Jews, ethnic Jews and Gentile Christians. A few on both sides are making feeble attempts to close that gap in modern times through religious tourism and quasi spiritual relationships that are more about money and politics than theology. Thus, we see many Christians taking sides with Israel in international affairs and backing that political support with cash donations to Israeli charities, political diplomacy and tourism to the “holy land.”  As the beneficiary of this interest and generosity, Israel encourages Christians around the world to visit the “holy land’ and take an interest in Israel’s domestic and international affairs.

Of course we must recognize that there are religious entrepreneurs and politicians who are trying to make something spiritual out of the historical relationship between Jews and Christians, but, despite their apparent sincerity, they base their ministries and teachings on literal interpretations of the Old Testament. They have no sense of the symbolism of Jews and Gentiles discussed in this series of pages.

All this activity has the appearance of deep spirituality but means nothing to God.  It appears to be a kind of reconciliation between the two religions, but it is all religious showmanship meant to appease God and men while lacking any real spiritual significance. For the Jews, encouraging Christians to visit the holy land and give money to needy Israelis is all about the business of tourism, fleshly philanthropy and political support.

STUDY TIP: Many Christians make pilgrimages to Israel hoping for a deep religious experience by walking where Jesus walked. See Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages to for God’s view of the spirituality of physical places.

If Jews, Christians and Muslims would get their theology right, they would see themselves as brothers born of the same spiritual father (i.e. Abraham) and not as spiritual “haves” and “have nots.” And all three religions might also recognize the truth that Christians are grafted onto spiritual Israel and are not spiritually superior to it.

Theologians have coined terms to describe the religious tension between Jews and Christians: Supersessionism which is also called fulfillment theology and replacement theology. Attitudes toward Muslims are commonly called Islamophobia. These terms describe the Christian theological position that the New Covenant replaces the Mosaic Covenant, which is commonly referred to as the “Old Covenant”.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: The link above goes to a series of Wikipedia articles about the many doctrinal teachings Christians have devised to separate themselves from Jews, Muslims and all things associated with Israel and Islam. Most Christians have simply accepted these teachings without question because they are so fully integrated into denominational theology and have been in place for so many years that they are beyond question.

It is important to know the origins of these doctrines and to make personal judgments about their validity. They are steeped in anti-Semitic attitudes that go back to the time of the early church when a deep split developed between Judaism and Christianity.

Islam’s relationship to Jews and Christians is not explained in the bible because it emerged six hundred years into the Common Era. Nevertheless, God’s command to love your neighbors as yourselves must be applied to Muslims who are also the seed of Abraham and physical neighbors to Israel and other nations that identify as Christian.

Readers who are interested to delve deeper into the history of Judaism and Christianity are encouraged to read the following books by Paul Johnson: History of the Jews; History of Christianity. Both books are works of exceptional scholarship. We believe it is impossible for either Jews or Christians to come to a sound appreciation of the historical relationship of either religion without reading these books or other books with similar focus. As good as they might be in reporting history, however, they do not report a proper spiritual understanding of any of the three Abrahamic religions.

While Christians have their own wrong views of their relationship with Jews, Jews have their own problems with Christians whom they criticize for many reasons; but basically because they do not follow the law of Moses. And Christians criticize the Jews because they do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They both err greatly in their lack of understanding of  what Jesus represents in spiritual terms. Until both religions recognize that Jesus symbolically represents people who have God’s spiritual laws written on their hearts, they will remain in this divided state.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See The Messiah for an explanation of the spiritual Messiah. Also see Religion is flesh in motion. Also see Jesus

Not only do these attitudes fail to serve any of the Abrahamic  religions well, they also fail to serve God because the religious animosity Jews, Christians and Muslims  also have for each other confuses a watching world which knows intuitively that three groups that claim to serve the same God should not have such differences in their theology and religious practices. And that, of course, obstructs God’s global purposes to have all nations worship him.

We discuss these theological issues here because they strongly influence everyone’s understanding of Israel, Jerusalem, Jew and Christian. Islam is excluded from this discussion because it is not  mentioned by name in the bible. Nevertheless, legitimate inferences about Islam can be made from biblical references to Abraham, Ishmael, Esau, Midian, Ham and Canaan.

Without a right understanding of “Jew” as God thinks of “Jew,” it is impossible come to a right understanding of Jerusalem and Israel. Without that understanding, there will always be a division between Jews, Christians and Muslims until God fulfills his desire to create one new man out of three religions.