Day 5 We and our fathers have sinned.

Tertullian courtesy Wikipedia

 

Tertullian , a prolific writer and supposedly first to use the term “Trinity,”  is known as the “founder of Western theology.”  Like Justin Martyr, he argued that the Gentiles had been chosen by God to replace the Jews because they were worthier and more honorable. In De Oratione, he wrote that ‘though Israel may wash all its members every day, it is never clean. Its hands … are always stained, covered forever with the blood of the prophets and of our Lord himself.’

Origen of Alexandria, one of the most distinguished of the church fathers,  declared Jews dangerous enemies of Christians. He writes  (240 CE) that the Jews “have committed the most abominable of crimes” in conspiring against Christ, and for that reason “the Jewish nation was driven from its country, and another people was called by God to the blessed election”.

Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage and preeminent Latin writer who was himself persecuted by Emperor Valarian and eventually beheaded in Rome, in 248 CE wrote:

“I have endeavoured to show that the Jews, according to what had before been foretold, had departed from God, and had lost God’s favour, which had been given them in past time, and had been promised them for the future; while the Christians had succeeded to their place, deserving well of the Lord by faith, and coming out of all nations and from the whole world. ” 

Today, Day 5, we repent of the sins of judging our brother and withholding mercy.

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:36-38)

Father, we ask You to forgive these early church fathers for taking Your place as Judge and to forgive us where we are guilty. Help us to be as willing as You are to extend mercy, for Your glory, in Yeshua’s name we pray.

Related Scripture:

For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us.  Isaiah 33:22 ESV

There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?  James 4:12 ESV

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 KJV

 

Day 4 We and our fathers have sinned.

Irenaeus, (130-202 CE) a Greek clerk noted for counseling and helping to expand Christian communities, pressed Justin Martyr’s declarations, which we saw yesterday, into what became known as “supercessionism” or replacement theology. He espoused the  view that the Christian church was the “true” or “spiritual Israel with Christians replacing the Jewish people as the chosen people. Intrinsic to his writing is that the surest source of Christian guidance is the church of Rome,^[3]

“The Jews have rejected the Son of God and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him. Therefore, God has justly rejected them and has given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the fruits of its cultivation.” (Iranaeus, Against Heresies (Book IV, Chapter 36)

It is written:

Rom 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Rom 11:19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
Rom 11:20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.
Rom 11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
Rom 11:22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
Rom 11:23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
Rom 11:24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Rom 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Rom 11:26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
Rom 11:27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
Rom 11:28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Rom 11:30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,
Rom 11:31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Today, Abba, we repent for the harm the church fathers have done in trying to come to terms with their identity. We repent for our own pride, arrogance. and wrangling for the best seats in the Kingdom. Grant us humility and mercy to remember that “we see in a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12 KJV) and help us, as we go about Your kingdom business, to honor and prefer others. Heal the Jewish wound, grant them the ability to forgive us, and cleanse ALL of Your people of  iniquity for Your glory in Yeshua’s name.

 

 

 

 

Day 3 We and our fathers have sinned.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)

Perhaps we have not considered the “iniquity of the fathers” concerning antisemitism.