InChrist @jackhandyram - Twitter Profile

Your claim is that Jews can maintain their traditions harmlessly and without offense so long as they aren’t explicitly condemned by Scripture. Let’s evaluate the claim: It sounds reasonable. After all, if an Appalachian gets saved they aren’t required to give up sweet tea in sippy cups or naming pickup trucks. We aren’t talking about Canadians giving up Timmy’s or Kentuckyians giving up Bluegrass. However, I’d suggest one litmus test to your rule: 1) if the tradition in question was created as part of a competing religious order that is at enmity with or oppositional to Christ, it is unclean, especially when the rituals themselves deny Christ. When taking into account that Rabbinic traditions were necessitated as *replacement rites* (because the temple’s destruction ended the possibility the original, God-given rites could be observed at all), it fails that test. We are not talking about neutral cultural traditions like tying yellow ribbons around oak trees or barbecuing on Memorial Day. We are talking about (for example) the zeroa shank bone added to the Seder, which represents (1) the outstretched arm of God being broken because the temple is destroyed (2) a sacrifice for sin now missing. But neither is true; God’s arm is now outstretched through Christ, and Christ’s sacrifice is not missing, but complete. It was created to deny Christ. To observe is an active denial of Christ. This is how rabbinic traditions all operate. The retelling of the Haggadah (as commanded under Moses), removes from the Exodus account the priesthood, blood, and sacrifice (because the Temple is gone). It censors the very elements of the account that foreshadowed Christ. And it insults Christ by its omission. The daily Amidah prayers ask for a temple restoration already complete by the resurrection of Christ’s Body (John 2:19). Even the reappearing the Shema - the words of which is in the Torah - is done in Rabbinic Judaism because they claim it replaces the daily sacrifice at the temple, but Christ is the last, ultimate sacrifice. The Gedaliah and other fasts mourning the temple’s loss is done in rejection of Christ’s fulfillment of it. These are all part of a competing, fraudulent covenant system in opposition to Christ. There’s no redeeming that. These are not analogous to someone making grandma’s homemade biscuits or some harmless cultural artifact. With every other false religion we realize this, from the daily prayers of Islam, to ritualistic bathing in Hinduism, to the holy underpants of Mormonism. We give up these things when we follow Christ. And I’d submit each of those is less offensive than rabbinic traditions because they aren’t intentional denials of Christ. Christians must cease coddling Talmudians or allowing their sinful stench false religion to corrupt our church. The message to Rabbinic Jews must be the same as to everyone else: forsake your false religion and follow Christ.