One of the worst things happening in certain sectors of the Church right now is the denial of the "Jewish roots" of our faith.

When I was discipled as a young man, and then trained in college and seminary, there was just this widespread understanding that because "Christianity" as we know it today did not exist in the time of Jesus and the Apostles, we have to put the New Testament back into its Jewish historical context for many things to make sense.

So sure, even though Jesus often had harsh words for the Jewish leaders in his day, and even though rabbinic Judaism continued to go astray after 70 AD, there was still what I call a "common stock" of Jewish theological ideas that were accepted by everyone, including Jesus and the Apostles, because this was just the cultural current they swam in, which was, for all its faults, still deeply biblical.

But now there is this movement afoot that is characterized by a pathological desire to completely sever Christian theological discourse from its Jewish context, and to resort instead primarily to the Church fathers or the Protestant reformers for everything.

And yea, the fathers and the reformers did a lot of good. But that does not mean theirs are the only voices we need to hear.

There were also Jewish people who lived before, during, and after the time of Jesus, yes, those within "Judaism," who understood many things rightly, which Christians often do not understand.  

So, instead of just saying, "We don't want to hear about all that Jewish stuff and Zionism," shouldn't we be open to whatever sources can shed real light on the Word of God?  

Are we absolutely sure that blanket prejudice against all Jewish sources, past, present, and future, is a wise principle of interpretation?  

It's not. I can guarantee you that. - Travis M. Snow