Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
John 4:21-26
I read a post, or note, the other day (and lost it, of course. Seriously, Substack, would a ‘back’ button be too hard???) which was railing against the phrase ‘Judeo-Christian’. And was proposing, in its place, “Islamo-Christian” (or some variant. See ‘lost it’ above.)
Which proposal is… insane. Does he know they want to kill us?
Have you read the New Testament?
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Matthew 15:22-28
My first question for the author (whoever that was, see ‘lost it’, above) would be, “Have you read the New Testament?”. Because while the New Testament (a rather important document for Christians, at least in theory) is chock full of confrontations between Christians and ‘the Jews’, anything more than the most cursory of readings (and it would have to be a pretty bad cursory reading to miss this in the first place) would reveal to the reader that the early Christians… were all Jews!
Christ was a Jew, his disciples were all Jews, He was sent to the Jews… to the extent that He called members other nations ‘dogs’… James says to Paul, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law…”
And then if you throw the Old Testament into the mix we are faced with the realisation that ‘Judeo-Christian’ is a simple statement of historical fact. God created Adam, Noah was righteous and obedient, but Abraham was chosen. Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-Judah… from which comes Christ. The history of the Jews is the first part of the history of Christ. Jesus was sent to… the Jews. The temple where he worshiped was the… Jewish temple. In Israel.
Talmudic Judaism
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Luke 2:25-32
Some people would reject the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ because they correctly point out that modern, synagogue, Talmudic Judaism is in active rejection of Christ the Messiah.
True enough. But the term isn't ‘Talmudo-Christian’ or ‘Synagogo-Christian’, it is ‘Judaeo-Christian’. ‘Judeo’, a word harking back to the word ‘Jew’, which comes from the word ‘Judah’, as son of Jacob will form the line from which David, Solomon, and eventually Christ came. Judah, who came from Jacob, a guy called ‘Israel’. Jacob, who came from Isaac, who came from Abraham, who the new Testament lists as the father of all Christians. 1
And if we are going to talk about the way modern Jews reject Christ, we must say that so do the Moslems. There has been a great deal of friction between the Jews and the Christians throughout the years, but rarely have the Jews said to the Christians, ‘convert or die’. But not so the Muslims. They want to kill us. Indeed, they do so.
And so All Israel
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Romans 11:1-5
Is there some Scripture somewhere that says, “And so all Islam will be saved.”? God forbid. Indeed it is quite the opposite. The Scriptures state quite clearly that all Islam, along with all other false religions, will be dammed.
But what of the Jews? Again, we need to mark a difference between the Jews as a people and as descendants of the covenants of God, and Talmudic Judaism. The latter is a false, anti-Christian religion. The former is the subject of Romans 9-11, and the group to which Paul and Peter belongs.
Conclusion
And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:67-79
There are certainly dozens of false ways to use the terms ‘Judeo-Christian’ or ‘Judeo-Christian Values’. However in none of them do the Muslims fair any better.
And as a straight historical and theological matter, the term ‘Judeo-Christian’ has meaning. It might not be the best term to use, and I don’t use it myself, but it is simply false to say that anything resembling ‘Islamo-Christian’ is better. Christianity is fundamentally a faith rooted in God’s history with the Jews. Islam is a modern opponent of both.
The goal of every Christian vis a vis the Jews should be that the Jews would recognise the truth of what God taught the Jews in the Old Testament, and turn to Christ as Messiah. The goal of every Christian vis a vis Islam would be that they would recognise that Islam is a false religion. The Jews are our elder brother, the natural branches. The Muslims are our enemies.
And they want to kill us.
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Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books include:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid
and
Arthur also has a substack, and a website.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Romance 21:12 and Galatians 3:7
Very good essay. Christians should remember that Islam is the enemy of Christendom and they will destroy us if they can. Unfortunately, our political rulers, such as GW Bush, the Anglican and Catholic churches deny that truth.
"So Pope Francis in Singapore just said the following:
Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God but God is God for all."
https://markmarshall.substack.com/p/is-every-religion-a-way-to-arrive
The way I see it, Jesus was a Jew, until he became the first Christian. Then he was the first Christian and no longer a Jew.
Happy Thanksgiving.