Separation of Church 9 Here and Now

The Separation of Church and Faith:

How did we get FROM THERE: SCRIPTURE?

To Here: church traditions?

9. Here and Now

Erasmus

(1466-1536):

His Humanist views were limited to gentile Christians

Hated Jews and what he called: “half Jewish Marranos”

“God rejects the Jews”

“If it is Christian to hate Jews, here we are all Christians in profusion”

Erasmus

(1466-1536)

 updated Jerome’s Latin Vulgate New Testament into a fresher Latin translation

 also collated and edited Greek New Testament manuscripts into a unified text reflecting his Latin version, so that both the Greek and Latin were "synchronized" with Church Orthodoxy

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

1492 Luther 9 years old, Inquisition was fully established as

Law

1513 Luther 30 years old, began lecturing at Univ. of

Wittenberg

1517 Luther 34 years old, 95 Theses

1523, Luther 40 years old, Rome accused him of denying

 Miriam’s perpetual virginity –

 the “Presence” of the body and blood in the Mass

Luther denied the allegations by publishing:

That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew

(1523)

“…Mary's soul was … without original sin …

“from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin”

(Sermon: "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God,"

1527)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us… his mother is also our mother”

(Sermon, Christmas, 1529)

1529, Luther’s Small Catechism , Part 5:

Question: "What is the sacrament of the altar?

Answer: It is the true body and blood … under the bread and wine …"

“What is the use, then, of such eating and drinking?

Answer: It is pointed out to us in the words:

‘Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins.’

Namely, through these words, the remission of sins, life and salvation are given us in the sacrament ...“

1576, 30 years after Luther died, “Formula Concordia" was published

Became the code for most of the Lutheran Church.

“Confession of sound doctrine of the supper of the Lord against the Sacramentarians”

(1) We believe, teach, and confess that in the Lord's supper the body and blood of Christ are truly and substantially present , and that they are truly distributed and taken together with the bread and wine.“

Luther, regarding his German translation:

"I am very confident that my word is not mine, but is Christ's word, so my mouth must also be His, who utters the words."

“In rendering Moses I make him so German that no one would know he was a Jew.”

John 5:46-47

“We have no wish either to see or hear Moses”

“…if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.

But if you do not believe his Writings, how will you believe My Words?”

Luther’s opinion of some of what follows the first Five Books .

“ Job … is merely the argument of a fable.”

“ Ecclesiastes ought to have been more complete.

There is too much incoherent matter in it...

Solomon did not… write this book.“

“The book of Esther I toss into the Elbe [river].

I am such an enemy to the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist, for it Judaizes too much”

“The history of Jonah is so monstrous that it is absolutely incredible."

“The epistle of James gives us much trouble...

I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove …”

( Luther’s Works, vol. 34, p. 317)

St James ’ epistle is really an epistle of straw [i.e. fit to be burned] … for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.”

(Luther, Preface to the New Testament , 1546; originally 1522)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We should throw the epistle of James out of this school [Wittenberg], for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ...

I maintain that some Jew wrote it …

( Luther’s Works, vol. 54, p. 424)

Luther:

“He [James] mangles Scripture… I will not have him in my Bible”

“Although it would be possible to save the epistle by a gloss giving it a correct explanation of Justification ...”

“… he had neither the spirit, the thought, nor the eloquence equal to the task.”

“I therefore refuse him [James] a place among the writers of the true canon of my Bible”

(1522 German Translation, Preface to James)

1543,

On the Jews and Their Lies

Luther 60 years old … 26 years after 95 Theses

“The Jewish people have been discarded because of their infidelity and replaced by the Christian people who thereby became the people of God.”

“The worse a Jew is, the more arrogant he is, solely because he is a Jew — that is, a person descended from Abraham’s seed…”

“save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil”

“What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?

First, burn down Jewish schools and synagogues, throw pitch and Sulphur into the flames whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt, so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it.

And this ought to be done for the honor of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians. …

Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed

“they ought to be put under one roof or in a stable”

them…

Bible”

“all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from take from them their sacred books, even the whole

“safe-conduct on the highways should be abolished completely for the Jews”

“They must be driven from our country… drive them out like mad dogs."

“ if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden, the Jews!”

Luther got the Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537;

He had them driven from other towns in German areas in the 1540’s in his published sermon

Admonition Against the Jews

Luther accused the Jews of

 ritual murder,

 black magic, and

 poisoning wells

The

Stadkirche of Wittenberg where Martin Luther preached

Originally built in 1305 as a

Roman Catholic Church,

Luther had the existing

Judensau “Jew-Pig” refurbished and upgraded

Adding the inscription

“Rabini Shem ha Mphoras,” which mocks “shem hameforasch” “The Pronounced

Name”

Vom Schem Hamphoras, published by Luther, 1543

“Here on our church in Wittenberg a sow is sculpted in stone.

Young pigs and Jews lie suckling under her.

Behind the sow a rabbi is bent over the sow, lifting up her right leg, holding her tail high and looking intensely under her tail and into her Talmud, as though he were reading something acute or extraordinary, which is certainly where they get their Shemhamphoras”

Woodcut, Munich, ca.

1470; note Judenhut

Jews suckling from a pig and eating its excrement.

The banners display rhymes mocking the Jews

1483.

Martin Luther was born Nov. 10,

Morning after

1938,

Kristallnacht, Nov. 10,

267 Jewish schools and synagogues

7,500 Jewish-owned businesses and stores were destroyed.

30,000 Jews were locked into concentration camps

91 Jews were murdered.

The Jewish community was fined

$400 million for the disturbance

As he re-published an assortment of

Luther’s writings,

Evangelical Lutheran Bishop Martin Sasse:

“applauded the burning of the synagogues” and rejoiced that,

“… on Luther’s birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany.”

“the greatest anti-Semite of his time, the warner of his people against the

Jews.”

1264, Pope Urban officially instituted: The Eucharistic Procession

With just slightly further deviation and modification …

Henry VIII (1491-1547)

 Broke with Rome – NOT

 Executed Protestants with Catholic Theology

Edward VI (1537-1553)

 Made Protestant reforms o Abolished the Mass o Abolished clerical celibacy o Legislated English language services

Bloody Mary (reigned 1553-58)

 Edward’s Roman Catholic ½-sister

 1 st reigning queen of England

 Married King Philip of Spain

 Re-established Roman Catholicism

 Executed 300 Protestants

Elizabeth 1 (reigned 1558-1603)

 Edward’s and Mary’s other ½-sister

 Compromised a political solution: via media (middle way) o Satisfy moderate Protestants; independence from Rome o Not offend Catholics, maintained many traditions o Rejected Puritans as ‘extremists’

 Established what became known as the Church of England

James 1

(reigned 1603-1625) aka: James VI of Scotland

 Welcomed Catholics with political oath of allegiance: ‘King over

Pope’

 Considered the Puritan struggle to reform Church of England

‘seditious’

 Persecuted Puritan Separatists seeking autonomy from State Church

 Puritans fled from England to escape King James

Puritan writings ca. 1600’s, reveal small but growing

Post -

Reformation

Biblical Zionism

Theodore Beza (1519-1605) Calvin’s successor:

“Israel” in the New Testament refers to

Jews

Israel …

the

Geneva

Bible

(1560) Primary Bible of 16 th - 17 th century English Protestants

 taken to America on the Mayflower

 used by John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

 published in Geneva by English and Scot refugees …

 as a response to the Great Bible of 1539, “Authorized” by Church of England

 80% + of the Geneva Bible is from earlier work by William Tyndale

 First English Bible: ALL of the Tanakh was translated directly from Hebrew

 Included notes, commentary in the margins ... Romans 11:15 +26

“He sheweth the time shall come that the whole nation of the Jews, though not every one particularly, shall be joined to the church of Christ.”

Geneva Bible

(1560) with Puritan commentary “provoked”

 Bishops' Bible under Elizabeth I (1568)

 Douay–Rheims edition by the Roman Catholic Church (1582, 1609)

 King James Bible (1611) King James I, head of the English Catholic

King James Bible

(1611)

King James Bible translators were instructed: o

“The old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the word Church not to be translated Congregation, &c”

o “ecclesia” had been correctly translated by Tyndale as: “community” by the Puritans as: “congregation”

Samuel Rutherford, (1600-1661… Westminster Confession of Faith )

“O to see the sight, next to Christ’s coming in the clouds, the most joyful!

Our elder brethren the Jews and Christ, fall upon one another’s necks and kiss each other!

O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead, thee and thy ancient people in mutual embrace.”

Increase Mather, 1669, Boston

The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation Explained and Applied

“That there shall be a general conversion of the Tribes of Israel is a truth which in some measure hath been known and believed in all ages, of the Church of God, since the Apostle’s days …

Only in these late days, these things have obtained credit much more universally than heretofore.”

Henry Finch, 1621: “ The World's Great Restoration, or Calling of the Jews, and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ ”

• criticized “allegories” that God’s Promises have been transferred to ‘the church’

• claimed the Jews would physically return to Israel

• and return to Jesus

• that there would be an impending Apocalypse and worldwide Kingdom and

• world rulers would then pay homage to Jesus, the Jewish King

King James I and Church of England: burned the book and threw Finch in prison until he acknowledged that King James I was his only sovereign

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

“Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans 11 …

Though we do not know the time … this much we may determine by Scripture, that it will be before the glory of the Gentile part of the church shall be fully accomplished, because it is said that their coming in shall be life from the dead …”

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

“The day shall yet come when the Jews, who were the first apostles to the gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar off, shall be gathered in again.

Until that shall be, the fulness of the church’s glory can never come.

Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the Restoration of Israel;

Their gathering in shall be as life from the dead.”

Systematic “Protestant” Problems: Covenant Theology = Replacement Theology

There is NO Bible Covenant made with “The Church” that is exclusive of Israel

Jer. 31:31-33

“New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of

Judah.”

He will provide:

 change of heart,

 the indwelling Spirit of God,

 the internal knowledge of God's Law and

 they will be "My people."

Covenants and Dispensations

The Promises and Covenants are God’s unchanging Word …

They still stand – to Israel and to the gentiles:

Ephesians 2:11-12

“… formerly… the Gentiles… were… strangers to the Covenants of

Promise”

Covenants and Dispensations

Ephesians 1:10

(NASB) “an administration suitable to the fullness of the times”

(ESV) “a plan for the fullness of time”

(KJV) “the dispensation of the fullness of the times”

G#3622 οἰκονομία oy-kon-om-ee'-ah … administration, plan, format

“… for the Fullness of Time, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth”

Covenants and Dispensations

Eph 3:9

“to bring to light… what is the

God” (ESV) plan of the mystery hidden for ages in

οἰκονομία oy-kon-om-ee'-ah … format, ‘structure’

A ‘dispensation’ is, in part: a way of administering the Covenants

Titus 1:7

“…an overseer, as God's steward , must be above reproach” (ESV)

G#3623 οἰκονόμος oy-kon-om'-os same root; administrator …

Gal 3:16-17

“the Promises were spoken to Abraham … the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a Covenant previously ratified by God…”

Gal 4:1-2 “It served as an oy-kon-om'-os until …”

Paul teaches The Law (Sinai Covenant) served as an administrator until the time appointed … until the New Covenant οἰκονομία oy-kon-om-ee'-ah administration

All Covenants and Promises given from

…

The Beginning

were “formatted” in the οἰκονομία

oy-kon-om-ee'-ah …

Administration, Dispensation

instituted with the Sinai Covenant …

 Creation: In-the-Garden-fellowship … “all very good” … “be fruitful, multiply”;

 Fall: out of Garden-fellowship; fruitful and multiply—pain, thorns and death,

 Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Judah …

 In Egypt, Ex 6:2-8 “I have heard…I have remembered…

I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will also redeem you,

I will take you for My people, I will be your God,

I will bring you to the Land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

And I will give it to you for an inheritance – … I am T HE L ORD !”

 All Pre-Sinai …

Deut 5:2-5

“The L ORD our God made a Covenant with us in Horeb.

Not with our fathers did the L ORD make this Covenant, but with us

… while I stood between the L ORD and you at that time , to declare to you the Word of the L ORD ...”

Moses mediated the “Mosaic Covenant”

Deut 4:36-38

“Out of Heaven He let you hear His Voice, that He might discipline* you …

And because He loved your fathers and chose their seed after them…

* “discipline” Paul references and combines Moses in

Gal 4:1-2

Greek:

“… a child …is under guardians and managers until the time appointed”

G#2012 ἐπίτροπος

G#3623 οἰκονόμος ep-it'-rop-os guardians, tutors, ‘discipliners’ and oy-kon-om'-os managers, administrators

God will:

1. bless them; Lev 26:4-12; Deut 7:13-15; 28:3-12

2. multiply them; Lev 26:9; Deut 6:3; 8:1; 28:11

3. give them this Land; Lev 26:5; Deut 6:3; 8:1; 9:4

4. make them a great nation; Deut 7:14; 28:1, 3

5. be their God and they will be His people; Lev 26:11-12; Deut 7:6-10;

28:9-10

6.

And I will establish My Covenant … Lev 26:9; Deut 29:13

6.

And I will establish My Covenant … Lev 26:9; Deut 29:13

Gen 6:18, “And I will establish My Covenant with you and you shalt come into the ark”

Gen 9:9-11, “And I will establish My Covenant with you and with your seed after you”

Gen 17:7,19,21 “ And I will establish My Covenant with you throughout their generations for an Everlasting

Covenant”

All the Covenants previous to and following Sinai, were placed within the ‘format’ of the Mosaic Covenant …

‘administration’, ‘dispensation’ of the Mosaic Covenant…

That included the Promise of a New Covenant –

A ‘Dispensation’ other than Sinai that would further reveal ALL the Covenants

( Deut 30; Isa 49; Jer 4, 9, 31; Ezek 16 )

Without any spin, Paul’s ‘Dispensational’ view = 2

1. From Sinai

To 1 st Coming

2. From 1 coming st

To 2 nd Coming

Eph 3:6-10

This mystery is that the Gentiles are

fellow

heirs, members of the

same

body, and partakers of

The Promise

in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

Ruth 1:16

“For where you go, I will go;

And where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people, my people, and your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die;

And there I will be buried.”

Genesis 12:3

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”