I am amazed at the level of theological confusion seemingly present in the mainline Protestant churches today. I’ve blogged in previous posts about things such as gender neutral references to God (because such masculine references lead to wife beating), ordination of openly gay clergy, etc. Today I found an article that confirms the deep state of disorientation in these churches. The headline reads: “Methodists hire rabbi as spiritual guide.”
That’s because they are led by a Jewish rabbi, part of an unconventional effort to bring to the conference what church officials admit is a much-needed infusion of spiritual renewal. Rabbi Joshua Martin Siegel was hired in September to be the conference’s “rabbinic adviser” to provide spiritual guidance from a traditional Jewish perspective to conference staff, pastors and congregants.
“Much of what is American Methodism has become more cultural than anything else,” said the Rev. Roderick J. Miller, the conference’s programming director. “We want to go beyond that. To be a Christian means to go deeper and wider in furthering our knowledge of God and in living it out. Rabbi Siegel can help us recover some of the spirituality that has been lost here.”
So let me get this straight. The Methodist church has become “cultural” [read apostate] and the Reverend wants “to go beyond that.” Go beyond what? You are lost. The correct move is back to ancient Christianity for you guidance, not to reinvent the Methodists as one of the lost tribes of Israel.
For goodness sake, is this not obvious? Christianity is not about being spiritual; it’s about binding oneself to Christ and hiding in His wounds. Yes the Jews are God’s chosen people and we can learn from them. But Christians are not Jews. We accept Jesus as the Messiah and this enlightens and informs our readings of the Old Testament.
The rabbi informs us that:
“…Christianity is really just “Judaism for the gentiles,” and he feels comfortable providing spiritual support to Christians. “God gave his wisdom to the Jewish people within a certain tribal structure,” said Siegel, 73. “If he truly is the God of the universe, it makes sense that he would need to express himself in different ways to different people.”
I would love to hear the explanation that ”Christianity is Judaism for gentiles.” I’m sure that all this makes sense to the Methodists.
