One issue that always amazes me about first-century Israel from my safe twenty-first-century perspective is how many Jews, even those who spent a great deal of time with Jesus, misunderstood most of what He said and most of who He was. The understanding of what and who a messiah was in first-century Israel had gone through centuries of discussion and analysis to reach a very specific definition, and Jesus did not meet these criteria.
What Jews expected from a messiah then, and many still have these expectations, was a distinctly worldly figure. According to the website Judaism 101, this, among other things, is what is expected of the Messiah:
- Political and spiritual redemption by bringing Jews back to Israel (Is 11:11-12, Jer. 23:8, Hos 3:4-5)
- Establish a government in Israel that will be the center of the world for Jews and Gentiles. (Is. 2:2-4)
- Establish Jewish law as the law of the land. (Jer. 33:15)
But how did they reach these conclusions? The English term “messiah” comes from the Hebrew word Masiach, or Mosiach, which means ‘anointed.’ The term Christ comes from the Greek word for the same idea. The ancient Jew’s understanding of this term would have been connected to the anointing of a king or prophet. The word messiah is used 30 times in the Old Testament, seemingly always referring to a king who would also serve as the military leader of the nation and who would lead his people to worldly salvation.
This history, combined with desperation for liberation from Rome, led the teachers of the nation to reach these very specific conclusions. Isaiah 42:1, 4 reads, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations…He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.” This verse is frequently cited to demonstrate the belief that the Messiah will come to earth to bring justice in the here and now to the people of Israel, and it is easy to understand while a nation who had heard only this as a messianic message would not understand what Jesus was preaching and would have difficulty in seeing how Jesus would fit into the world as they saw it. As a matter of fact, it is possible to view that the Pharisees persecuted Jesus not because they didn’t believe that he was the Messiah, but because they were afraid that he was, and he would take their theological authority and destroy the support that they had from Rome.
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What If We’re Missing Jesus, Too?
But what if we, like the first-century Jews, are missing Jesus because we are looking through a worldly lens? My concern here is that the first generation to see Jesus can serve as an example of how easy it is to view God through the lens of what it means to be human. Just as the Pharisees and Sadducees of the New Testament found it to their advantage to lead people away from Jesus, I fear that the same thing is happening right now. Jesus clearly felt that the leaders of the first-century church should be considered false teachers, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matt 23:13-14).
I will not be going into all of the details concerning Biblical false teaching, but there are a few points and means of recognizing false teaching that I think are important.
Ways of Recognizing False Teachings
Beware of false prophets…You will recognize them by their fruits. (Matt 7:15-16)
One of the primary means of understanding the value of the teaching you receive is to evaluate the outcomes that it creates. What is it trying to achieve, and more importantly, what does it want you to become? When I teach my research writing courses, there is one logical flaw that is far too commonly used, an Ad Hominem Attack. This is a Latin term for “To the Man.” In rhetoric, it means that rather than dealing with your opposition’s argument, you attack the people who hold that argument. One aspect of false teaching, one of the fruits that it generates, is to cause us to see those who disagree with us as ‘the enemy.’ This is particularly dangerous when the opposition are also followers of Christ. So pay attention to the outcomes of the path you are being led down:
- Does this teaching make me more loving toward those who disagree?
- Am I becoming more like Jesus or more like a political activist?
- Is my focus more on changing hearts or changing laws?
If you are not happy with your answers to these questions, it may be because another fruit created by false teaching is division. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.” (Rom. 16-17-18). If the teaching you are following has one of its outcomes distrust, distaste, or disgust with those who are not you, beware.
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. (Mark 7:6-9)
This particular line from Mark is Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees regarding their questioning Him and his disciples about not walking according to “the tradition of the elders.” An often overlooked tool to uncover false teachers is that they are connected, first, foremost, and, in some cases entirely, to issues of this world. John calls us to identify the false prophet as “They are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world.” (1 John 4:5). Paul supports this argument in his letter to the Colossians when he writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. ( Col. 2:8)
There is much being preached in our century that mirrors the passion for the ancient Israelites to save their earthly nation. And, as this caused the Jews to miss the living Messiah of Jesus, we may be led astray by attempts to make America something that it is not.
In the 17th century, the Puritans attempted to make the New World a “City on a Hill.” Though historians debate the importance of the term and concept to the early New Englanders, it has come to be used as term of American exceptionalism. However, the Puritans attempted to create this ‘paradise’ through suppression, violence, narrow interpretation of scripture, and even attempts at genocide. By the third generation, the Puritan experiment had failed, and the church was in freefall.
I’m not sure how to put this, but God doesn’t favor America. He dearly loves each and every American (regardless of how you want to define that), but the identity of our nation is outside of what he wants to accomplish here. It is not the responsibility of the state to reach his people, and the more we try to force the lost into salvation by using the state, the further we tend to drive them away. God’s only ‘favored nations status’ belongs to Israel, and I would be hard pressed to find a nation that has a more troubled history and a more tested relationship with God. I also believe that you can make an argument that though the Israelites are “God’s chosen People,” there is a distinction between the people and the government. (1 Sam. 8:7)
Always Question
So, what am I suggesting? How about this, when you are being instructed in matters of faith, always question. Is it scriptural? Is it rightly interpreted? Is it bringing human beings together? Is it uniting people of faith? Is the fruit something that will bring joy to the Father? Will it cause the Lost to see you, as a Christian, as someone that will attract them or repel them?
I am not saying that you need to be a constant source of questioning to your local pastor, but I am also not saying that you shouldn’t (Hi Derek). I am also not saying that anyone you consider a false teacher should be put to death (Deu. 18-20), as we are all humans, who often “follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.” (2 Pet. 2:2). Essentially, listen more to God and less to people, media, and the weaknesses of our own thoughts. Following can be difficult, but one of the great things about our time and place in the world is our ability to learn, admit when we are wrong, and go the other way.
