Hello David, I would like your opinion on who the "Synagogue of Satan" is, and there were also the Judaizers mentioned by Paul who tried to derail others who walked in The Way. I have struggled with these questions for a while and am interested in other's opinions on it. I myself do not believe that an entire group of people are evil, but I do believe there are certain factions in all religions that are evil. A book I would recommend that all Christians should read is "Foxe's Book of Martyrs", it gives the background stories of all the Christian martyrs including the Apostles/disciples. I hope that it is one of the books included in your son's Christian education program, it is very eye opening.
I have never heard the "Synagogue of Satan" and can't speak to it one way or another. The Judaizers were simply those people who believed that the Christianity was not so much of a New Covenant but an extension of the Old Covenant. Thus, they tried to apply OT Law to new Christian converts. Notably, this included circumcision for men, but also dietary laws, etc. Paul went back to Jerusalem to discuss this point with Peter and they agreed that Christians are not required to uphold OT Law (see Galatians). Paul was very adamant on this point (see the theology set out in Romans) that believing Christians are not subject to the Law. Period. We have been set free. We obey pieces of the OT Law because Jesus has commanded us to do so and because it is wise to do so, but the law does not save. There is certainly nothing wrong with circumcision, particularly for Jews who were circumcised under the Law, however. But Paul was very harsh with the Judaizers. See Philippians 3, for instance.
Thank you for your answer David. If you read Revelation 2:9 KJV it says "I know they works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Yes, and it also said that a true Jew is one who trusts God and believes in Jesus Christ, interesting. There is a man in our church that is a Jew but he says he is what is known as a "finished Jew". Maybe there is something to that statement after all, in other words, it says those who reject Him are not real spiritual Jews. I have heard of Jews in Israel that spit on Christians, those must be the ones He was speaking of.
Yes. God is not done with the Jews yet. Many will come to Christ before the end, but many won’t, and those will be condemned, the same as unbelieving gentiles. In Christ there is no Greek or Jew.
After having your mind boggled, you could pause to notice and reflect upon what you saw that you didn't particularly want to see (I've read plenty of Christian history and I have a similar reaction). The boggle wasn't about who drove the nails. It was about "that Christians could take that position". What else does that imply?
I guess I’m surprised that Christians can be so tribal and small-minded to dislike Jews because of the way the Jews in Jesus’s day treated Jesus. Yes, the Jews called for his crucifixion, but the Jews also became believers by the tens of thousands at Pentecost. And all the apostles were Jews. So, anti-semitism from Christians always surprises me. Maybe that was excusable when the Bibles were all in Latin and only the priests could read and understand, but today there’s just no excuse.
By some accounts, and I think I am recalling some of Richard Bauckham's work, Jews and Christians got along reasonably well in at least some regions for several centuries. A particular word comes to mind -- Rome, again -- for what happened, but it's difficult to talk about without being misunderstood. I have had and still have close personal ties with both Jews and Roman Catholics.
That said, the Church as we know it has very serious problems. When events impress me with these kinds of problems, I retain in view what I have seen but give the matter to God. Much of what I have had to deal with comes from a church I joined 9 1/2 years ago and had to leave 6 1/2 years ago. It was a very good place for me when I returned to the faith (for the second time), until I began to see the magnitude of the problems there.
But I was also seeing that I had many of the same problems. So I let God teach me, using that church (along another one with sound teachings that rented there on Sunday afternoons), and I had no plans for leaving. That is, until I was clearly signaled to go.
It's taken years to recover from that departure, but in the mean time they've spiraled ever downward, and I can see now that it is not at all what it appears to be. A sermon series on Jude that I am listening to from my present "second church" is clarifying this. Others "crept in unawares" (Jude 4 KJV), over its history and especially after I left. But that was my church home and family, and what happened made little or no sense to me, until it finally did.
These things are hard to face, but when they arise face them we must.
Yes, and to be clear, Jews didn't think much of the early Christians, either. Saul was having a great time persecuting the Christians until Jesus confronted him about it on the road to Damascus. After he became Paul, he kept trying to preach the gospel in various synagogues around the ancient world and the Jews kept throwing him out. So, the history is the history, but there's no reason for Christians to hate Jews as a group.
Hello David, I would like your opinion on who the "Synagogue of Satan" is, and there were also the Judaizers mentioned by Paul who tried to derail others who walked in The Way. I have struggled with these questions for a while and am interested in other's opinions on it. I myself do not believe that an entire group of people are evil, but I do believe there are certain factions in all religions that are evil. A book I would recommend that all Christians should read is "Foxe's Book of Martyrs", it gives the background stories of all the Christian martyrs including the Apostles/disciples. I hope that it is one of the books included in your son's Christian education program, it is very eye opening.
I have never heard the "Synagogue of Satan" and can't speak to it one way or another. The Judaizers were simply those people who believed that the Christianity was not so much of a New Covenant but an extension of the Old Covenant. Thus, they tried to apply OT Law to new Christian converts. Notably, this included circumcision for men, but also dietary laws, etc. Paul went back to Jerusalem to discuss this point with Peter and they agreed that Christians are not required to uphold OT Law (see Galatians). Paul was very adamant on this point (see the theology set out in Romans) that believing Christians are not subject to the Law. Period. We have been set free. We obey pieces of the OT Law because Jesus has commanded us to do so and because it is wise to do so, but the law does not save. There is certainly nothing wrong with circumcision, particularly for Jews who were circumcised under the Law, however. But Paul was very harsh with the Judaizers. See Philippians 3, for instance.
Thank you for your answer David. If you read Revelation 2:9 KJV it says "I know they works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Google for commentaries. Here’s one: https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/revelation-2/
Sounds like there was persecution of the Christians in Smyrna by some Jews.
Yes, and it also said that a true Jew is one who trusts God and believes in Jesus Christ, interesting. There is a man in our church that is a Jew but he says he is what is known as a "finished Jew". Maybe there is something to that statement after all, in other words, it says those who reject Him are not real spiritual Jews. I have heard of Jews in Israel that spit on Christians, those must be the ones He was speaking of.
Yes. God is not done with the Jews yet. Many will come to Christ before the end, but many won’t, and those will be condemned, the same as unbelieving gentiles. In Christ there is no Greek or Jew.
After having your mind boggled, you could pause to notice and reflect upon what you saw that you didn't particularly want to see (I've read plenty of Christian history and I have a similar reaction). The boggle wasn't about who drove the nails. It was about "that Christians could take that position". What else does that imply?
I guess I’m surprised that Christians can be so tribal and small-minded to dislike Jews because of the way the Jews in Jesus’s day treated Jesus. Yes, the Jews called for his crucifixion, but the Jews also became believers by the tens of thousands at Pentecost. And all the apostles were Jews. So, anti-semitism from Christians always surprises me. Maybe that was excusable when the Bibles were all in Latin and only the priests could read and understand, but today there’s just no excuse.
By some accounts, and I think I am recalling some of Richard Bauckham's work, Jews and Christians got along reasonably well in at least some regions for several centuries. A particular word comes to mind -- Rome, again -- for what happened, but it's difficult to talk about without being misunderstood. I have had and still have close personal ties with both Jews and Roman Catholics.
That said, the Church as we know it has very serious problems. When events impress me with these kinds of problems, I retain in view what I have seen but give the matter to God. Much of what I have had to deal with comes from a church I joined 9 1/2 years ago and had to leave 6 1/2 years ago. It was a very good place for me when I returned to the faith (for the second time), until I began to see the magnitude of the problems there.
But I was also seeing that I had many of the same problems. So I let God teach me, using that church (along another one with sound teachings that rented there on Sunday afternoons), and I had no plans for leaving. That is, until I was clearly signaled to go.
It's taken years to recover from that departure, but in the mean time they've spiraled ever downward, and I can see now that it is not at all what it appears to be. A sermon series on Jude that I am listening to from my present "second church" is clarifying this. Others "crept in unawares" (Jude 4 KJV), over its history and especially after I left. But that was my church home and family, and what happened made little or no sense to me, until it finally did.
These things are hard to face, but when they arise face them we must.
Yes, and to be clear, Jews didn't think much of the early Christians, either. Saul was having a great time persecuting the Christians until Jesus confronted him about it on the road to Damascus. After he became Paul, he kept trying to preach the gospel in various synagogues around the ancient world and the Jews kept throwing him out. So, the history is the history, but there's no reason for Christians to hate Jews as a group.
Indeed, thank you.
Amen 🙏🏼
Lovely.