Immanuel.at Forum for Discussion Discourse 142: The Messianic Jews, Jewish religion and Christian faith.

(Has God replaced Israel with a bunch of Christians? / Letter of Instruction by Jacob Damkani, Messianic Jews)

Time in the sight of God is an important element. In the fullness of time He comes again. This time it is not about another Moses or another Isaiah; this time the Messiah Himself comes and offers them the Kingdom. From the beginning of His ministry until the end of it, Yeshua speaks about the Kingdom. The parables have to do with the Kingdom and His teaching has to do with the Kingdom. From the beginning till the end He offers Israel is the Kingdom of God on earth. And as you well know, once again, they refuse Him. They refuse God, who brought them out of Egypt and they ask for a king; they refuse Him when Messiah comes and offers them the Kingdom. But did God give up on His people? Did He tell them He would replace them with Gentiles, with a bunch of Christians? Did He do that? No, God forbid! If that had happened, maybe one day He would have come to these Christians to tell them they were not good enough and would have passed on to Muslims instead.

(God’s covenants, by Jacob Damkani, New covenant/22)

Trumpet
Trumpet of Salvation to Israel

The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

Mt 21,42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘the stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 21,43 "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it." Mt 21,42-43;

The sons of the kingdom (Jews without Jesus) will be cast out into the outer darkness.

Mt 8,11 "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 8,12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mt 8,11-12;

The kingdom of God was taken away from the Jews and given to the biblical Christians (Mt 21,43). Because of this and because there is neither a temple nor a burnt altar (sin offering) in Jerusalem – and only in Jerusalem – , the Mosaic faith cannot be practiced – the Mosaic laws cannot be fulfilled.

Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes (the temple of Jerusalem), there you shall offer your burnt offerings.

Deut 12,10 "When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, 12,11 then it shall come about that the place in which the LORD your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the LORD. 12,12 "And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 12,13 "Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, 12,14 but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. Deut 12,10-14;

Jn 8,21 Then He said again to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." 8,22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?" 8,23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 8,24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He (the Messiah), you will die in your sins." Jn 8,21-24;

He who believes in Him (Jesus Christ) is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.

Jn 3,17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 3,18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jn 3,17-18;

Therefore, the Jews have no forgiveness of sins. They have been dying in their sins since two thousand years and will go to damnation if they have not converted to Jesus Christ.

So, there is only one biblical faith: the faith in Jesus Christ.

And so Jacob Damkani is wrong to say to the Jews that they do not have to change to a new religion:

"And Yeshua never meant the church to be what it is in the most parts of the world today. Praise God for people like you who really have the understanding of the true revelation of God in Yeshua haMashiach who have not come to bring a new religion to the world."

(God’s covenants, by Jacob Damkani, New covenant/24)

The Jews have to become biblical Christians! There is no other way. As Jews they do not have eternal life, they have to convert to a new religion: not Catholicism but biblical Christianity.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Christianity: a fulfillment of the Jewish religion? / Comment by Daniel, Trumpet of Salvation to Israel, 2020-04-30)

Shalom,
I agree wholly with everything you wrote. There is only one way to God, and that is solely through Jesus Christ. Yes, the Jews have to pass over from the Mosaic covenant into a saving faith in Jesus Christ, or they will indeed die in their sins.

What Jacob (Damkani / FH) meant was this: Christianity is not a new religion that began two thousand years ago. It is a fulfillment of the Jewish religion. It is a fulfillment of the Old Testament, as God purposed and promised to His people in the Old Testament

There is a remnant of Jewish believers that have crossed over to the new covenant, to faith in Jesus. Jacob is one such, and now he calls his Jewish brothers and sisters to faith in the Lord and Savior, the Messiah Jesus Christ. That is the message and work of this ministry – that the Jews should unite with the Gentile church, through faith and forgiveness of sins, with Jesus Christ as Head of the one body, the Lamb Who came to take away our sins through death on the cross.

He is risen. He is Lord.

I hope I have helped clarify somewhat.
Please feel free to correct, add or comment, as you see it.

Daniel (Info Trumpet of Salvation – info@trumpetofsalvation.org)

Thank you very much for your mail and your willingness to engage in further discussion. In fact, I am delighted to find such agreement with you, as a Messianic Jew. But of course some questions do keep coming up.

We both proclaim the ‘saving faith in Jesus Christ’. And just so as to establish what this faith actually saves us from: the ‘saving faith in Jesus Christ’ naturally saves us from condemnation at the Last Judgment because of our sins and from eternal damnation in hell (the lake of fire).

And when the Lord says to the Jews, in Jn 8,24 above, that they will die in their sins – that is to say, without forgiveness – if they do not believe that he is the Messiah, then he means just that: they will be condemned to eternal damnation at the Last Judgment.

But this is the biblical proof that this Jewish religion has had no significance whatsoever since that time, as it can no longer offer the only goal that a religion can have in this world, namely the promise of eternal life. – The same goes for every other religion in this world, by the way, including Catholicism (because of its idolatry) and Protestantism (because of the homosexual superintendents).

So there is now only this one and only access to eternal life: the saving faith in Jesus Christ, and here of course we both agree. But it follows from this that this faith cannot be a "fulfillment of the Jewish religion", as you write. "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached" also said our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Jewish religion lost its meaning with the rejection of the Jewish Messiah by the Jews two thousand years ago. Until then, God had dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the ‘holy of holies’ of the Temple, which was separated from the ‘holy’ by a curtain, God was constantly present with His people Israel.

On the death of his Son, God left the holy of holies, the Temple and the people of Israel.

And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (God left the temple).

Mt 27,50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 27,51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Mt 27,50-51;

God sent his Son to the people of Israel as their Messiah for their salvation. This was the prophecy from the Old Testament, and it applied solely and exclusively to the people of God from Israel.

But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.".

Mt 15,21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 15,22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 15,23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 15,24 But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mt 15,21-24;

UAnd then again, when the Lord sent out his disciples to preach this Good News of the kingdom to the Israelites, he expressly sent them only to the Israelites and forbade them to go to the nations or even to the Samaritans.

Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Mt 10,5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 10,6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 10,7 "And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’. 10,8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 10,9 "Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10,10 or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. Mt 10, 5-10;

Only when the Jews had rejected him and it was clear that they would not accept his message did God order the proclamation of the gospel to all people:

Mk 16,15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16,16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. Mt 16,15-16;

But by rejecting the Messiah, Israel broke the covenant with its God, and God dissolved this covenant and 40 years later had the temple in Jerusalem, including the altar of burnt offering, destroyed. So, according to the Mosaic rite, no more sin offerings could be made and the Israelites could no longer be forgiven for their sins.

Jer 31,32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. Jer 31,32;

In his Son Jesus Christ, God made a New Covenant with all people: every person of this world – including every Jew – who comes to the saving faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross for our sins is saved, and will inherit eternal life at the Last Judgment (by grace – not by righteousness!).

But the kingdom of God (‘the kingdom’) that was promised to them was thus lost once and for all by the Israelites when they rejected the Son of God and so broke their covenant with God. The Son of God actually confirms this to them in the following parable.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(From a Messianic point of view, Christianity is not a religion for the Jews. / Extract from: "God’s covenants," by Jacob Damkani, preacher of the Messianic Jews.)

"To my sorrow, a lot of Christians do not really understand that Jews do not have to be converted to any other religion; they do not have to leave their heritage and their Jewish faith, because if God gave identity to any group of people, He gave a really clear identity to Jewish people. It is not meant for them to leave their identity and to become something else, to become Christians. In the mind of Jewish people the Christianity is something else than what you think that the Christianity is."

(God’s Covenants, by Jacob Damkani, covenant Abraham/04)

"It is not about a new religion, Christianity that the Lord wanted to bring upon the earth, religion that will be against His own people. The cry of the Prophets, the cry of the Apostles and now, praise God, your cry for the return of these people back to God is awesome. The Almighty God is so thrilled for everyone in the Church who wakes up to the reality of salvation – to the Jew first, Romans 1:16. We praise God that you have come to really share the gospel with this nation. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. The Almighty God is going to bring this nation face to face with the reality of Yeshua in His Jewish Context, thanks to people like you who care, who love, who are willing to fight the good fight. This takes the revelation; we cannot really be bitter or resentful towards the rest of the Church. They simple did not have the privilege and the grace to have this revelation. Here you are taught things that very few in the Church really understand. You are taught things that are far away from the Church. They are so many doctrines in the Church, but there is only one truth. We are touching the heart of the truth as we study the Word here and as we look into the plan of God concerning this nation and the salvation that finally will come, the of on earth. Come, Lord Yeshua.."

(God’s Covenants, by Jacob Damkani, The Day/15)

First of all here we would like to correct the statement on which Damkani and his fellow workers are always placing such emphasis. We are always being told, "The Jew first!" – and that is precisely what we read in the above extract from his letter of instruction. He appeals to Rom 1,16, so let us just take a look at the passage:

Rom 1,16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Rom 1,16;

"The Almighty God is so thrilled for everyone in the Church who wakes up to the reality of salvation to the Jew first"

Damkani would like to interpret Paul’s statement in such a way that the gospel must first be preached to the Jews – as he does – and only then to the ‘Greeks’, that is to say to the nations.

Now the gospel may very well be ‘the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.’ But as we can see from the biblical quotations quoted earlier, the Jews already had this opportunity when their Messiah appeared. – And they did not use it, they actually rejected it.

So this statement of Paul’s does not mean, then, that ‘the gospel must first be preached to the Jews, and only then to the Gentiles’, but rather it means that the gospel was first preached to the Jews, and if they had believed, they would have been saved. But now the gospel is preached to all nations (the Greek) – including the Jews – so that all may be saved.

But also from the rest of the above extract from Jakob Damkani’s Letter of Instruction we can see that although Messianic Judaism believes in Yeshua as its Messiah, it has still not been able to separate itself from the orthodox Jewish religion, and has not yet correctly recognized the actual meaning of Christianity. When Damkani writes:

"To my sorrow, a lot of Christians do not really understand that Jews do not have to be converted to any other religion" and

"It is not about a new religion, Christianity that the Lord wanted to bring upon the earth, religion that will be against His own people."

he has clearly forgotten that it was the representatives of this orthodox Jewish religion who swore two thousand years ago: "His blood shall be upon us and upon our children!" (Mt 27:25). What the Jews therefore need is a different faith. The new faith in the New Covenant with God for all people – including the Jews – through the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ!

This is what the Jews urgently need if they do not want to go to hell, otherwise they cannot obtain forgiveness for their sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not bring a new religion – for Christianity is not a religion, but, better still, a New Covenant with God (Lk 22:20).

The Old Covenant of God with Israel was broken by the Jews through their condemnation of the Son of God to die on the cross, and God consequently dissolved this covenant and left the Temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:51). And whereas the Old Covenant had commanded regular animal sacrifices so that the Jews could be forgiven for their sins, in the New Covenant the sacrifice has already been offered once and for all. It is the redeeming sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

So when Jacob Damkani suggests that the Lord Jesus might have brought a new religion, ‘a religion that would be against his own people’, this is a reversal of the facts. It was not our Lord who brought a new religion against his own people, but his own people who, out of stubbornness and lack of knowledge of Scripture (Matthew 21:42, 19:4, 12:3, 22:31 etc.), interpreted this new religion – faith in him as their Savior – against their own Messiah.

Although now the Messianic Jews – just like the biblical Christians – believe in Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior, they run the risk, as a result of their not being completely separated from the Jewish religion, of actually believing in a false Messiah in the future, just like many Catholic Christians and of course also Orthodox Judaism (Jn 5:43).

In the Last Days the Antichrist will pretend to be the true ‘Messiah’ and, through the demonic powers given to him by Satan (2The 2:9-12), will tempt not only all the Jews, but even many Christians to worship him as the ‘returned Jesus’.

While the Christians will then have to be accused of a lack of knowledge of Scripture in those future Last Days, the Orthodox Jews will boast that of course they have always known that this Yeshua from Nazareth was a deceiver and blasphemer.

Only after the Last Days, at the beginning of the Millennium, when the Son of God begins his millennial reign of peace in Jerusalem, will the Jews realize that historically they have mistaken the right Messiah for the wrong Messiah and the wrong Messiah for the right Messiah, and will convert to Jesus Christ being filled with contrition. (Rev 1:7; Mt 24:30; Zech 12:10).

The Messianic Jews of today can only be advised to examine the Bible carefully and to separate themselves from the Jewish religion (not from the Bible!!). The statement of Jacob Damkani in above his letter of instruction "that Jews do not have to be converted to any other religion; they do not have to leave their heritage and their Jewish faith" is in contradiction of any biblical Christian understanding of the faith.

You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law (Tora); you have fallen from grace.

Gal 5,3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 5,4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Gal 5, 3- 4;

Mt 28,18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Mt 28,18;

Jn 5,22 "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, 5,23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Jn 5,22-23;

On the contrary, it is altogether comparable with the ⁅veneration of saints’ in the Catholic Church. Only with the difference that in Catholicism a person (Mary, the saints) is ‘idolized’ and with the Messianic Jews it is ‘Judaism’. In both religions – Judaism and Catholicism – over the past centuries the lying pens of theological scribes (rabbis or church fathers – cf. Jer 8:8) have falsified the authentic biblical faith beyond recognition with their writings (Talmud instead of Torah [Old Testament] or tradition and the catechism instead of the New Testament).

The well-known English author and Bible connoisseur Michael Marlowe documents these events in Judaism as follows:

(Abraham our Father – Jerusalem our Mother / by Michael Marlowe, Dec. 2004.)

And so the Talmud holds sway over the Torah as the primary authoritative source for modern Jewry. This is even seen in the Talmud itself. For example, in one edition of the Talmud, we find the words: ‘My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah’. Accordingly, we find the statement in an article in the Jewish Chronicle that in true yeshiva (religious teaching), Jews are ‘devoted to the Talmud to the exclusion of everything else’. In the authoritative Jewish Encyclopedia it is stated: ‘Those who professed Judaism felt no doubt that the Talmud was equal to the Bible as a source of instruction and decision in problems of religion’. And it goes on to say even more explicitly: ‘For the majority of Jews [the Talmud] is still the supreme authority in religion.’

(Extract from: "Abraham our Father – Jerusalem our Mother / by Michael Marlowe, Dec. 2004.")

The beginning of a conversion could be, for example, that the Messianic Jews change the name of their organization. Instead of

PS: To my chagrin, Daniel of Info Trumpet of Salvation – info@trumpetofsalvation.org has not replied to my comment despite his request, "Please feel free to correct, add or comment as you see fit."

Discourse 142 – The Messianic Jews, Jewish religion and Christian faith.

The teaching of the Messianic Jews.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Has God replaced Israel with a bunch of Christians? / Letter of Instruction by Jacob Damkani, Messianic Jews)

The narrow gate.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Christianity: a fulfillment of the Jewish religion? / Comment by Daniel, Trumpet of Salvation to Israel, 2020-04-30)

The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(From a Messianic point of view, Christianity is not a religion for the Jews. / Extract from: "God’s covenants," by Jacob Damkani, preacher of the Messianic Jews.)

(Abraham our Father – Jerusalem our Mother / by Michael Marlowe, Dec. 2004.)