Foreign. Welcome to the Providence Podcast. My name is Chris Oswald, Senior Pastor at Providence Community Church. So grateful that you are listening to what I believe is going to be a helpful podcast that sets order to a number of issues that are sort of bubbling up in these current times. One of the chief duties of a pastor, in my opinion, is to be a kind of sense maker, to take the word of God into the public square, into the issues of the day, and show God's perspective on any given particular issue. And so today I am going to read to you an essay that I wrote, wrote earlier in this morning about all things pertaining to Jewish and Christian relations. I guess you could say I tried to be rather thorough and deal with a number of issues while also being biblical and following the Bible's own development of these themes throughout.
So let me go ahead and just get into it. We're going to start with Abraham, and we're going to start just by reading Genesis 12, which is the call to Abraham from the lord. In verse one of Genesis 12 it says, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation and will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, as you're likely to know, and here I'm hopeful that I'm addressing both Christians and Jews, people who are ethnic Jews who are not themselves followers of Christ. What I want to do is work through the Abrahamic promises. And so I'm hopeful that most of you would know that God issues that initial call to leave his father's house and to go to the place that he will show him blessings. Promised blessings are accompanied there and then repeatedly throughout the story of Abraham, God draws back to Abraham and reaffirms these promises. So now let me read a second reaffirmation, and each time you'll see slight difference, developments and specificities of the promise. In Genesis 15, again in verse one, we see this after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, o Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abraham said, behold, you've given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. And then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And verse 6 says, and he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Now, in verse five, we have a clear indication of something going on that is going to have to be broader than ethnic Israel. Verse 5 again says, look toward the heavens and number the stars. If you were able to number them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Now that has to be broader than the ethnic Jews, because there's never been a time when the Jews were an expansive number. The ethnic Jews have always been a relative, relative to the overall population of the earth, a small number. And yet God promises to Abraham that his sons will be as the stars in the sky. Innumerable, I guess you could say. So what's going on there? Well, we can turn to Romans chapter 9 and see an explanation. In verse 22 in chapter 9 of Romans, Paul says, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory? For vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people, and her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very same place where it was said to them, you are not my people, they will be called the sons of the living God.
So how does God's promise to Abram to have the sons, as many as the stars, come true? Well, it comes true by the inclusion of the Gentiles. Those who were not my people will be called my people. Those who were not beloved will be called beloved. In the very place where I said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Now, all of that is Paul quoting from the Old Testament prophet of Hosea. So we know that God's promise to Abram always involved adding Gentile descendants to him. That was how the promise would come to its fullest fruition. And we see glimpses of this in God's additional promises to Abram, where the nations are included. Genesis 15:6. I will make you an exceedingly fruitful I. I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. Genesis 18:17, 18. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abram what I am about to do, seeing that Abram shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
So that's step one. Step one is to know that even at the earliest, God's promise to Abram included a number sons of descendants that would go far beyond what we think of as the ethnic Jews. Now, the next question is a little bit more complex. And that becomes what constitutes a true son of Abraham? And can you see why this question arises? We have already seen that the normal ethnic means the normal ethnic meaning of sons has been disrupted by God. God is doing something spiritual. He's aligning people into families based on spiritual qualities, not ethnic qualities. The Gentiles came in and were accounted as sons of Abraham, but they came in by believing Christ, not by having some sort of ethnic gender reassignment. What's going on there? Who are the sons of Abraham? Really? Well, we can turn to a book like Galatians and see in chapter four some explanation. In Galatians 4, 21, Paul writes, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother. For it is written, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear, break forth and cry aloud. You who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate will be more than the one of those who has a husband. Now you, brothers, Paul continues like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So, brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman.
So in verse 24, Paul in his apostolic authority, decrees that present Jerusalem, which is ethnic Jerusalem, is actually accounted to God not as being true sons of Abraham, but as true sons of Hagar, sons of the non promise, while those who are in Christ are the ones who are considered true sons of Abraham, as they are true sons of Sarah. This continues in Romans 9, 6, 8. Paul writes here concerning the Jews. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all who are children of Abraham. And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring.
6 · Oswald synthesizes the argument: in the New Covenant, ethnic identity is no longer the marker of covenant membership
So step one was to simply see that the Gentiles are added. But step two involves understanding that God is just completely done away in the New Covenant. With ethnic identity being the indicator of whether a person is in Abraham or not in Abraham, ethnic identity is not the decisive factor as to whether someone is or is not a son of Abraham. It's not as if there are two plots going on here, one for ethnic Jews and one for spiritual Jews. In Romans 10, 12, 13, we read there is no distinction between now there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
7 · Oswald exposits Romans 2:28-29 to establish that true Jewishness is inward and spiritual—circumcision of the heart by the Spirit—not outward ethnic identity
So what we really see is in addition to this basic concept of adding the Gentiles in, what we really see is that God's doing a whole new kind of math. He is no longer accounting ethnicity as the primary indicator of of belonging to Abraham, but rather he is counting a spiritual ethnicity, those who have been born again of the Spirit, those who have placed their faith in Jesus. Romans 2 says it real simply Romans 2:28. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God.
8 · Oswald identifies his teaching as classically Reformed, not novel
So one of the things that we need to do as reformed Christians is make sure that our understanding of the Jewish question is indeed reformed, and that it's not kind of a fractured view that comes from some other system. And so the classic Reformed view here is that in the New Covenant, God ended racial preference as his means of identifying who was and who was not in the covenant. And now he accounts only those who have placed their faith in Christ to be true sons of Abraham. Romans 2:28. For no one is a Jew who is merely one Outwardly, the ethnicity or the circumcision, the outward isn't the indicator of Jewishness any longer, the indication of Jewishness. And I'm just giving you the straight Reformed perspective that's been around for quite some time. The Jew is one who is circumcised within, one whose heart has been made new and that newness by Jesus Christ. So this isn't going to be a popular message toward those who are ethnic Jews. And I really am sensitive to that fact. But I'm also just going to shoot it to you straight. I'm just going to tell you what the Bible actually teaches. And really it's kind of your responsibility to. To. To hear what the Bible teaches. It's my responsibility to tell it to you. It's your responsibility to listen. And so I would just encourage you to kind of dispassionately just listen to what I'm saying. In fact, this problem of misidentifying oneself as a Jew simply because of ethnicity carries all the way into the Book of Revelation, where Jesus himself speaks in Revelation, chapter 2, verse 9, to the church of Smyrna, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say they are Jews but are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Again in Revelation 3, 9, 10, he speaks to the church at Philadelphia. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie, behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.
9 · Oswald summarizes the biblical trajectory: sonship to Abraham is by faith in Christ, not ethnicity
So what we're seeing here is that God's original promise to Abraham was that he would have, you know, this massive amount of sons. And then when we move into the New Testament, we recognize that what a son of Abraham is, is one who believes in God's righteousness. God's righteousness is Christ. And so the development in the Bible is quite simply this. He who is a Jew is not one merely outwardly or ethnically. There will be many who claim to be Jews based on their ethnicity who are not in God's accounting, because God looks at the heart and not the outward, who are not actually Jews. We can go back and see this kind of peeking through in Genesis 15:6, look toward the heaven and number the stars, if you're able to number them. And he said, so shall your offspring be. And in verse six, Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
10 · Oswald states the conclusion starkly: all true sons of Abraham are in the church; none are outside it
So firstly, the promise of Abraham extended far beyond the tiny ethnic minority that the world calls the Jews. Secondly, we see that Galatians and Romans tell us very clearly that the sons of Abraham are not those who are ethnically aligned with him, but rather those who are spiritually aligned with him. True sons of Abraham are those who are made righteous by faith. So let me say this another way. All of Abraham's sons are in the church. None of Abraham's sons are outside the church. All of Abraham's sons are born again Christians. None of Abraham's sons are not born again Christians. Okay, so one's position in Christ is what makes one a true son of Abraham.
11 · Oswald applies the theology to American foreign policy toward Israel, arguing that Genesis 12's blessing-curse promise applies to blessing Christians (the true sons of Abraham), not ethnic Israel
Now, big parts of the American church have lived by the superstition that it is our support of Israel that has led to the blessings of this country. There are several problems with this. Firstly, we would note that Israel as a nation has only existed since 1948, and some of America's richest blessings came before that time. But the second problem is more directly biblical. We have just shown that true sons of Abraham are those who believe in the Gospel. So when Genesis 12:2, 3 says, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse in you. All the families of the earth will be blessed. God is speaking to Abraham and through Abraham, to Abraham's true sons. Those who bless the sons of Abraham will be blessed. Those who dishonor the sons of Abraham will be cursed. But what did we just learn about the identity of the sons of Abraham? Who are they? Well, Romans 9 and Romans 2 and Galatians tells us that a true Jew is not one who is a Jew outwardly or ethnically, but rather one who has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ. The truth is that Genesis 12 holds up quite well. The promise is true. Those who bless the sons of Abraham will be blessed, and those who dishonor the sons of Abraham will be dishonored. But the truth is that the nations who bless Christians will be blessed, and the nations who dishonor Christians will be cursed.
12 · Oswald illustrates his theological claim with American history: America was blessed when it honored Christians and is declining as it persecutes them
And that is actually what we see over and over again in observable history. America is the most blessed nation in the history of mankind. And it was founded to honor and enable free Christian worship. It was the first nation, in some respects, explicitly developed for the express purpose of observation, obeying the reformed view of Genesis 12. We will bless Christians, we will make it easy for them to be Christians, and as a result, our nation will be blessed. A recent History makes this plain in the inverse. In the past 50 years, our nation has waged a systematic war, not against Judaism, but against the Christian faith and our decline. Our national decline is a consequence of this terrible choice. And indeed, this is a terrible forecast for so called negative world. As a nation becomes more hostile to the true sons of Abraham, it can expect cursing. A nation that persecutes Christians is, whether it realizes it or not, committing national suicide.
13 · Oswald addresses ethnic Israel's need for conversion
Now, what about ethnic Israel? What is God's plan for them? Well, firstly, we must say that the only plan that we can or should hope for involves their conversion into Christianity, their spiritual circumcision. Without this, they will perish and go to hell. We do them no favors by extending to them promises of favor that God himself does not extend. We don't want to give them a false sense of security. God is angry with them as he is with all who have not yet had their sins forgiven through Christ. They, like the rest of mankind, are sons of wrath. Telling them that truth is kindness and withholding that truth is cruelty. Unfortunately, they have been conditioned to view this kind of truth telling as anti Semitic. And there are many reasons for this. And some of them have to do with the sins of Christians in church history. But even well before this, well before there were Christians to blame, the Jews have had a problem with ethnic pride. Beginning at least in the time of Jesus, the primary obstacle to gospel acceptance among many of the Jews was ethnic pride. John the Baptist, coming as a forerunner of Jesus, points to this explicitly in Matthew 3, 7, 10. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come, bear fruit, keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid at the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
14 · Oswald describes the defensive posture of ethnic Jews as rooted in pride and judicial hardening
If you've ever been around a prideful person, you'll know that they are prickly and defensive. You'll know that they do not receive correction very well. And they will usually look for a way to turn the table so that they can come off as the victim. This is, sadly, the state of Christian evangelism toward the Jews. So if you tell them, I'm sorry, but the Bible teaches that you are not God's people unless you serve God's Messiah. When you tell them that you can expect that conversation to not necessarily go well. Why is that? Well, partly because of this ethnic presumption, this ethnic presumptuousness. But this also seems to be an extension of something theologians call the judicial hardening. In Romans 11:25, Paul writes again of the Jews, 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 Jews has come in.
15 · Oswald cites Matthew 13 to show Jesus's own explanation of judicial hardening—He spoke in parables because their hearts were hardened
Jesus knew about this judicial hardening. Listen to Matthew 13. Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them to you. It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. To them it has not been given. For to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables. Because seeing they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. You will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart in turn. And I would heal them, but blessed are your eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many people, prophets and righteous people, long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
16 · Oswald clarifies that judicial hardening is not universal—some Jews believe
Now I want to be clear that this judicial hardening is not universal amongst all the Jews. When Jesus is speaking those words in Matthew 13, the only people he's talking about are Jews. The people who aren't hearing are Jews. The people who are hearing are Jews. So the state of Christian evangelism of the Jews is simply this. We can expect a hard bit of sailing. That's because of, to some extent, the rather choppy relationship between the Christians and the Jews running in both directions for the past 2000 years. But more than that, this is simply good old fashioned presumption. This is simply good old fashioned trust fund baby pride. Born on third base, thinking you hit a triple. And so there is a When you begin to tell someone that they weren't born on third base or that they didn't hit a triple. When you begin to tell someone that their imagined favored status is indeed imagined, and that the situation is exactly the opposite. Well, then you can expect some pushback.
17 · Oswald outlines a strategy for evangelizing Jews: be gracious to individuals but critical of their leaders, drive a wedge between them and false teachers, and read Scripture to them
So if they are hardened, what can we do? Well, let me suggest a program for interacting with ethnic Jews that I think is observable in the Bible. Firstly, if I had a Jewish friend, I would take up the general pattern I see in scripture and be very gracious, honest, but kind to them while being rather acerbic toward their leaders. I think this is the pattern we see in the scriptures. The average Jew deserves decency and respect. And if there's any kind of acerbic, you know, cutting, it would be toward the leaders. I would want in my interaction with a Jewish friend to intentionally drive a wedge between them and their spiritual leaders, because their spiritual leaders are the real issue. The average Jew's biggest problem is that they're trusting the wrong people. I mean, that's a problem that we all run into. The average Jew's biggest problem is that they're trusting the wrong people. And so Jesus main strategy in both the Gospels and in the book of Revelation and Paul's main strategy is to go after the leaders. In my experience, average people following bad leaders need to be kindly corrected, patiently corrected and corrected mainly for their own gullibility. They need to learn to think critically about their leaders. They need to begin to listen carefully to whether what their leaders are telling them is actually true. This would be the same strategy, by the way, I'd use for the average Roman Catholic. So in addition to sort of driving a wedge between the average, you know, blue collar or the average Jew and the spiritual elite, I would also do this. I would just read the word of God to them. Hebrews 4 tells us that for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joint and of marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. What do you do with pride? Just in general, what do you do with pride? Well, I can tell you both as someone who has dealt with his own pride. Sorry, coffee break. Thank you. Someone who's dealt with his own pride and also dealt with prideful people. It does very little good to go much further than the scriptures go. The Scriptures are the thing that make us naked. And none of us would necessarily be super proud if we were naked. So read the Gospels to them, read Galatians and Romans to them. Pass on this podcast, the average Jew is simply listening to the wrong leaders. We need to show them the truth in Scripture and become a new leader to them, a new teacher. There's no reason why that can't happen.
18 · Oswald proposes asking Jews whether God shows ethnic partiality, using the question to expose the inconsistency of claiming ethnic privilege while opposing racism
Thirdly, I would ask them what they think about racism in general. I think this is a huge point. We'll revisit it a couple times. Ask them what they think about racism in general. Ask them if they think that ethnic partiality is good. Then ask them if they think Yahweh is a racist. Does Yahweh show ethnic partiality? And then again, take them to the Word and show that God through Jesus has made an end to ethnicity as a spiritual advantage. Spiritual ethnicity now is all that counts.
19 · Oswald exhorts Christians to live flourishing, joyful lives as heirs of Abraham's promises, speaking sweetly of Christ to Jewish neighbors as a testimony
Fourthly, I would live an Abrahamic life. That is to say, I would live a rich life in adventure with God because the promises to Abraham are mine. In Christ Jesus we are, quite, in spite of anything we have done, part of God's favored people. And it's up to us to live a rich, full life, raising our children well, teaching them how to be entrepreneurial, teaching them how to take extreme ownership of their lives, filling up our little tribe with faithfulness and joy, and letting our cup runneth over. Speak sweetly of Christ to your Jewish neighbors and speak of the many benefits he's brought to you in this life and in the life to come. Live as a post millennial, even if you aren't one.
20 · Oswald cites Romans 11:11 to show that God intends to provoke Jews to jealousy by Gentile blessing
Why would that be helpful? Why should you do this? Because God has a plan to save many ethnic Jews, and He will do that by using jealousy. Romans 11:11 says so I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means. Rather, through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. The Church owns the blessings of Abraham, and so we ought to live like it. We ought to be exceptional people, living exceptional lives, full of fully embodied, with reverential excellence, overflowing with God's temporal and eternal blessings. We should not be proud or boastful. Romans 11 also warns about this. But we should be joyful in a way that stirs up jealousy. It ought to become evident that the Abrahamic blessings belong to the church, and in this way the average Jew will see the benefits of worshiping the Messiah.
21 · Oswald pivots from evangelism strategy to political considerations regarding the modern state of Israel
Now let's turn our attention to Israel as a nation state. What should our posture be toward political Israel?
22 · Oswald applies his theology to current events, arguing that Israel has a right to self-defense and that Palestinian men bear responsibility for Hamas's integration into civilian infrastructure
Firstly, we ought to grant that every nation has a right to defend itself from its enemies. What Hamas did to Israel on October 7th was absolutely despicable. And more than that, I want to stress that the People of Palestine are directly responsible. Specifically the men of Palestine. No matter how old they are, no matter whether they are enrolled or in Hamas or not, all of the men of Palestine are responsible. They are not innocent victims. The whole problem Israel is having with eradicating Hamas is that the Palestinian people elected Hamas. And not only did they elect them, they have protected them. The average men of Palestine simply, unfortunately, has their own people's blood on their hands. They should have absolutely forbidden Hamas from building their terrorist network into the general population. The men of Palestine have betrayed their own families by acquiescing to the general strategy of using people as human shields. They should have stood up a long time ago, years ago, and refused. Israel's war on Gaza is horrific. It is also, unfortunately, the consequence of years of general Palestinian evil. Sometimes that evil is active, as in the case of Hamas, but other times it is passive, as in the case of all of those Palestinian men who for years and years acquiesced to this terrible, terrible strategy of integrating Hamas military capacities into hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, and so on and so forth. In other words, the men of Palestine should have stood up and said, you may not make my child a human shield. Thank you very much. They did not, and now they're paying for it.
23 · Oswald argues that while Israel has a right to defend itself, America should not create 'militaristic welfare states' by extending unlimited aid
So, first of all, we want to grant Israel, as a political entity, as a nation, the right to defend itself. And unfortunately, because of Palestinian sin, the nation has no choice in many respects. In their effort to eradicate the enemy that would kill them, they have no choice but to go into places and go into places causing more collateral damage than would typically be the case in more civilized places. And that honestly falls on the hands of like, say, Palestinian men my age who let that integration of the militaristic terroristic infrastructure int integrate into just the general populace. Those men have a lot of blood on their hands for letting that take place, as did every single person who elected Hamas in the first place. Secondly, pushing back a little bit in a different direction, we should not create militaristic welfare states. Here's what I mean. By extending money to a nation like Ukraine or extending military aid to a nation like Israel, we are discouraging them from waging intelligent and pragmatic warfare. These countries should simply be left to fend for themselves. If they do not have the means to protect themselves from their enemies, they need to make a deal with their enemies. As distasteful as that may be. They should be required to wage war according to their own means. In Ukraine, this would have brought the war to an end a long time ago they would have lost the Donbass but would have been spared many, many lives. American interventionism disincentivizes people from taking responsibility for their own defense and to coming to peace as quickly as possible. Now, in the case of Israel, I do not think that they need our help when it comes to handling their immediate neighbors. I don't believe that they need our help, but it might give them pause when dealing with larger nations like Iran.
24 · Oswald exposits Deuteronomy 4:25-27 and cites numerous Old Testament passages to establish that Israel's possession of the land was conditional on obedience, not unconditional
Thirdly, we need to recognize pertaining to Israel that the land of Israel in ancient biblical times was given conditionally to the ethnic Jews and not unconditionally, and that it was conditioned upon their obedience to the law. Deuteronomy 4:25 when you father children and children's children and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over to the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but you will be utterly destroyed, and the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you up out. See also Deuteronomy 6:18 8:1, 28, 63, 30:18 Joshua 23:16 Leviticus 18:28 Leviticus 20:22 Jeremiah 27 Jeremiah 3:1 Hosea 8, 13 and 9. 3. Their place in the land was conditional.
25 · Oswald argues that presumption turns conditional promises into unconditional ones, which works against God's intent
And here we run up against the problem of boasting, the problem of pride, the problem of presumptuousness, which, as I've said, has been a problem for a very long time. Presumptuous. Presumptuousness always turns conditional promises into unconditional promises. God wants Israel. He had intended this from the very beginning, to feel that their place in the land was as tentative as their own obedience, and he wanted them to feel this so that they would seek him. So when Christians offer some kind of universalization or unconditionalizing of God's land, promises to Israel were working against what God had intended to do from the very beginning, to stir up in them zeal to maintain the law so that they could stay in the land. God wants Israel, the nation, the political entity, to remember what God promised. Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
26 · Oswald criticizes Jewish leaders for invoking God's promises while ignoring His requirements
Which brings us back to their leaders. Jewish leaders have a way of invoking God's promises when it serves them politically, while ignoring God's requirements for blessings. It's the same of American politicians. By the way, Jewish leaders have a way of invoking God's promises when it serves them politically while ignoring God's requirements for blessings. Unfortunately, unfortunately, there are very few evangelical Christian leaders who are willing to push back against this. Very few evangelical Christian leaders are telling the Jews what God told them in Deuteronomy 30, 15, 20. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, that I command you today by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over to the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. For he is your life and the length of your days that you may dwell in the land of the Lord, sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob to give them.
27 · Oswald applies the historical fact that modern Israel was established by Christian nations (Britain) to argue that Israel owes its existence to Christianity, not Judaism
Very few evangelical leaders additionally seem unwilling to remind. Very few evangelical leaders are willing to remind the Jewish leaders of a simple historical effect of a simple historical fact. The nation of Israel as it is currently constructed was given to the Jews by the Christians. The land was not won by the Jews, but rather the Christian nation of Britain. And it was the Christians who pushed back the Ottomans in 1919 and of course many times before that, going all the way back to the crusade of 1099. It was Christianity and not Judaism that contended with the Muslims for the last 2000 years over that land. Israel as a nation came into being by the will of Christian nations. So we don't want to let the tail wag the dog. We don't want to feed the presumptuousness. We don't want to get the sonship issue confused. We want to see the true implication of Genesis 12. Bless the Christians and you'll be blessed. Dishonor the Christians and you'll be cursed.
28 · Oswald addresses the 'replacement theology' charge, reframing the issue as an open invitation to all
Now critics of this, rather than interact with the biblical and historical data, will simply throw out the pejorative replacement theology and antisemitism. Here's the problem with that. The opportunity to live out the Abrahamic blessings is being held out to all peoples everywhere, including the ethnic Jews. All they have to do is walk in the ways of Abraham and place their faith in Jesus like He did. People can object to this all they want, but in the end, Psalm 2 is the only way forward. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like potter's vessels. Now therefore, O Kings, be wise, be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
29 · Oswald addresses Jews directly, urging them to stop trusting leaders who distort Scripture and to read for themselves that Jesus is the Son
So if I were speaking to just the average Jew, I'd say you need to stop turning to your leaders who have a self motivated interest in lying to you about the very obvious and clear meaning of these passages. You can read these yourself and you have enough data even now to understand that the God of Israel has sent His Son. So if you love the Jews, you will do what you can to lead them to Christ, because blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.
30 · Oswald pivots to address antisemitism, signaling a shift from evangelism strategy to cultural analysis
Now let's talk about antisemitism, specifically real antisemitism. How should we think about that?
31 · Oswald frames contemporary allegations of antisemitism within the context of Marxist ideology, which magnifies racial sins for revolutionary purposes
Well, firstly, we need to understand that our culture is currently being attacked by Marxist ideology. There is a real attempted revolution underway and we need to understand that highlighting racial animosity and universal, universalizing it has been a play run by the Marxists from the very beginning. I won't go into the historical details here. Take my word for it. The Marxist revolution has always depended on sowing national shame on the populations it wishes to seize. And in the west, their primary strategy has involved magnifying real racial sins to a systemic level. So we need to take the allegations of every form of racism with a grain of salt. Just because racism exists doesn't mean it's systemic. And just because antisemitism exists doesn't mean it exists to the degree that the Marxists would have us believe.
32 · Oswald analyzes campus antisemitism as not racial but intersectional—progressives side with perceived victims (Palestinians) against perceived oppressors (Israel) based on power dynamics, not ethnicity
Secondly, there seems to be two streams of Antisemitism arising among the people. The first kind is the kind we're seeing on college campuses, but it is Marxist in nature. It is not actually a racial oriented issue. It is intersectional in nature, meaning the antisemitism isn't really racially located, but rather it's rooted in stupid intersectional principles that see victims as more elevated than non victims. So while it appears to be anti Semitic, I think that the whole from the river to the sea useful idiots on the college campuses are just progressives who are not actually thinking racially, but rather politically woke people hate winners, Jews are winners, often woke people hate excellence, etc. They hate Israel because of its power, not because of its ethnicity. So I would actually say, I guess to their credit, I guess, that the stuff you're seeing on these campuses right now is actually not racial per se. It's a reaction to all the intersectional lies that were taught to them for years in which they simply immediately identify with the person who's losing the battle and blame the person who is winning the battle. I think that's a clearer summary of what's going on there or a clearer description of what's going on there.
33 · Oswald addresses right-wing antisemitism as a reactionary overcorrection to dispensationalism
But there is another stream of antisemitism that does appear to be more racially oriented, and this one is mostly popping up on the dissident right. So how do we respond to that? Well, firstly, we need to understand that dispensational theology is so erroneous that it tends to tempt young people into reactionary overcorrections. One of the things that is very helpful to understand is that young people on the right are extremely sensitive to propaganda. You see, the current majority position of the church toward the Jews is actually propaganda. It doesn't add up biblically. It is actually a racist position, though not anti Semitic. Here's the way I would talk about it. Any kind of theology that grants the Jews special favor from God due solely to their ethnicity is itself a racist position. Let me say that again. Any theology which grants the Jews special favor from God due solely to their ethnicity is itself a racist position. You can't fight racism with racism. Either God shows ethnic partiality or he does not. If he does, which is the dispensational perspective, then the Pandora's box of racial pride is opened. If he does not, which is the Reformed perspective, then the Pandora's box of racial pride is destroyed. The dispensational approach that grants Israel special favor based on their ethnicity is a racist take. It explicitly works against the New Testament's. Basic aims to relocate individual distinction out of racial or economic markers and into spiritual markers.
34 · Oswald synthesizes his cultural analysis: right-wing antisemitism is a reactionary photo negative of dispensational pro-Semitism
So I think that what you've got on the right is that antisemitism of the young dissident right is simply a photo negative of dispensationalism. Antisemitism on the right is a reactionary posture to dispensationalism, playing along with dispensationalism's own basic terms. This is just a general reactionary thing. When you do the opposite of your parents, you're still following your parents lead. You're letting their actions dictate your actions. So what I see is the anti Semitism on the dissident right is actually anti dispensationalism with an antisemitic form. That is the photo negative of the pro Semitic form in dispensationalism. The solution to all of this is simply the Jews are not spiritually special, either for good or for bad. They're just people. That's the way out of antisemitism. You won't cure racial superiority with more racial superiority. This is why no one cares what the dispensationalists have to say about this issue any longer. You cure racial superiority with the universal demands of the gospel. That's the only approach that's ever worked.
35 · Oswald cites Peter's Pentecost sermon to show the universal call of the gospel—repentance and baptism are for all, Jews and Gentiles alike
Peter's sermon at Pentecost. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord in Christ, this Jesus whom you've crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourself from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.
36 · Oswald signals a shift to direct evangelistic appeal to Jewish listeners, setting a pastoral tone
And I want to imagine that there are some listening to this podcast who are Jews. And I want to address you directly as the final piece of this podcast. Want to address you respectfully, but not fearfully, carefully, but not timidly. I just want to be firm but gentle.
37 · Oswald directly confronts Jewish listeners with the standard of Psalm 24—clean hands and pure heart required to ascend God's hill
And I would say to the ethnic Jew who's not a follower of Christ, I would say this. Are you currently keeping the law? Perfectly. Are you keeping the law perfectly. Psalm 24 says, the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell there within. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. So, dear Jewish friend, I want to ask you, do you have clean hands and a pure heart? Are you sincerely, honestly, sincerely and passionately seeking the Lord?
38 · Oswald cites Psalm 1 to challenge Jewish listeners on whether they meditate on God's law day and night—the standard of the blessed man
Psalm 1 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, nor but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the wicked will perish. So, friend, let me ask you this. Do you meditate on the law of the Lord day and night? Do you meditate on the law of the Lord day and night?
39 · Oswald confronts Jewish listeners with the Shema—the command to love God with all heart, soul, and might
Deuteronomy 6 in the Shema hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Dear friend, is that you? Are you loving the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might? There's no opportunity for comparison here. The questions presented in these texts are not how do you stack up in comparison to others? The word of the Lord is to you as an individual, right now in your ears is the word of God. Do you love God like this? Friends, the only honest answer is one in the negative.
40 · Oswald applies Isaiah 53:6 to expose universal sinfulness, including Jewish listeners
As Isaiah 53 says, we all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. Now your religious leaders are contriving, have contrived, have taken centuries to contrive a way for you to appease your conscience that simultaneously keeps them in power. But they're selling you snake oil. Here's what we know, you have not loved the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength. You have not meditated on his law day and night. You do not have clean hands and a pure heart. And no matter, no extreme compiling of religious observations will fix that. This is just a power play by those leaders who are in charge to somehow assuage your conscience enough so that you'll still keep them in charge so that you won't leave. They're not doing any favors. They're not inviting you to just be genuinely honest with your own soul. They're sort of encouraging you, sort of empowering you to live in self deception. But I'm not actually even just hopeful. I'm actually somewhat confident that even as you and I are having this conversation, you see that that's not a game that you want to bet your soul on.
41 · Oswald states the solution to the human problem: internal transformation, not external religious observance
So what's the solution? You need to be changed from the inside out. That's the fundamental need of humanity. You, just like every single other person, need to be changed from the inside out.
42 · Oswald exposits Jeremiah 31:31-33 to show that the new covenant involves God writing His law on hearts—internal transformation
Jeremiah 31 says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will ride it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Now let's. Let's just be honest. That's not happened to you, has it? Has it? That internal transformation in which the God of the universe writes his law on your heart and helps you to love him and helps you to seek Him. That hasn't happened, has it?
43 · Oswald connects the new covenant to Jesus's institution of the Lord's Supper, declaring that Jesus inaugurated the new covenant in His blood
See, this new covenant has come by Jesus. When observing the Passover with his disciples, he said, this is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for the remission of sins. You need a new heart. You need to be transformed from the inside out. And no religion, no set of ordinances can do that. That has to be God touching your soul. And so what's the plan? What's the plan? How else will you ascend the hill of the Lord. How else will you grow like a tree by the river, Prospering, truly prospering. How else will you find an actual end to all of the chronic anxiety? How else will you find an end to to the darkness you have in your heart toward your fellow man? How else will you find an end to all this? You need to be changed on the inside out.
44 · Oswald signals a transition to Isaiah 53 for the solution to the human problem
Isaiah 53 says,
45 · Oswald exposits Isaiah 53:4-7, showing that the Suffering Servant bore our iniquities and made peace possible
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of his all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led before the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth to see that the Passover lamb was a shadow and Jesus is the substance. He has borne our iniquities. And we cannot ascend the hill of the Lord without it. We cannot take hold of the blessings of Abraham unless we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength. But how can we do that unless our hearts are changed? We need an inward transformation and God has made that possible through the person of Jesus Christ.
46 · Oswald cites Acts 2:22-24 to show Peter's declaration that Jesus was raised from the dead
How do we know that Jesus is really the Messiah? Listen to what Peter says in Acts. Two men of Israel. Hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that you did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. Now I want you to understand that Peter is saying these words to people who were in Jerusalem. The tomb where Jesus was laid was nearby. The whole thing had only occurred, you know, 40 days or so previously. Nobody, nobody spoke up and said, that's not true. He's still there. The resurrection, friends, is a historical reality. You can scroll back to my Easter sermon, which was on March 31, and you can listen to the evidence I presented there. This really happened. The resurrection of Jesus from the grave after crucifixion really happened. The facts are there for you to discover. And that really means there's no more room for pleading ignorance.
47 · Oswald cites Acts 17:30-31 to show that God now commands all to repent because the resurrection proves Jesus is the appointed Judge
In Acts 17, the apostle Paul states, the times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
48 · Oswald acknowledges the cost of following Jesus for Jews—familial estrangement—but cites Mark 10:29-31 to show Jesus's promise of hundredfold blessing
Now I want to conclude by saying this. I do not pretend that there will be no cost to following Jesus. For the Jew, there is a very real factor of familial estrangement that awaits you if you claim Christ. But I want to leave you with a promise that Jesus issued to the first generation of believing Jews who did this same thing. They did have to be estranged from certain family. In Mark 10:29 31, Jesus says this. Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold. Now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. Did you hear. Did you hear the Abrahamic call from Genesis 12 in that leave your father's household. Go ahead. It's okay. Go ahead and leave your father's household, my ethnic Jew friend. Yeah, scary. Get it? But be a true son of Abraham and leave your father's household. Go on an adventure with God. Believe in him. Trust him. Do what Jesus says. Trust in the promise that no one who leaves their father's household or sisters or mothers or children or lands for my sake or for the gospel will not receive a hundredfold. Now in this time and in the time to come, go, leave your father's household and go to the place that God has shown you. The place being the cross.
49 · Oswald contrasts natural birth with new birth, physical circumcision with heart circumcision, citing Deuteronomy 30:6 to show God always intended inward transformation
How does anyone enter the blessings of Abraham? Is it by birth? No, it's by the new birth. Is it by circumcision? No, it's by circumcision of the heart. The Lord was very clear about this, going all the way back in deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 36, the Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live. And that is offered to you through Jesus.
50 · Oswald uses the analogy of painful physical circumcision to describe spiritual circumcision
Is circumcision pleasant? No, it is painful. Is spiritual circumcision Pleasant, no? It is painful. But I plead with you, stop resisting. Stop resisting God. Even right now, he stands over your heart ready to cut it and make it new, as the Scriptures say.
51 · Oswald exposits 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 to show that in Christ one becomes a new creation, reconciled to God
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us. And we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
52 · Oswald concludes by summarizing the gospel call: acknowledge sin, recognize the need for inner transformation, and place faith in Jesus Christ as the atonement
So there's some. Some rather expansive thoughts on a particular subject related to Jewish and Christian relations. And if anyone is listening to this, who finds their heart stirred to leave their Father's household and go to the place that God has shown them, then I would say here is where God would lead you. God would lead you to simply, humbly acknowledge that in all the significant ways that matter, you have sinned against him. You've sinned against him in what you've done transgressing the law. And you've sinned against him in many respects by what you failed to do, including, most importantly, to love the Lord with all your heart, to say to God, I'm like a sheep. I've gone astray. I have turned to my own way. And also to find all of these promises going from Deuteronomy to Ezekiel to Jeremiah, these promises related to inner transformation. I would encourage you to say, I haven't had that, and I can see that I need that. And where do you go to get that? Well, you go to the substance and not the shadow. Go to Jesus Christ, who knew no sin but became sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus is making all things new. And if you'd place your faith in Jesus Christ as the atonement for your sins, then you can be a new creation from the inside out. You can be a new creation, and you can be reconciled to God and you can join the people of God. Is that a hard message? Does it feel hurtful? I can understand that, but I also hope that you can hear a sincere effort simply to tell you the truth, sincere efforts to simply lay out the case as it is presented in reality, with no agenda whatsoever except to tell.
53 · Oswald closes with a pastoral benediction and thanks to the listeners
All right. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. May God bless you this week. I really appreciate the time you dedicated to thinking with me through these important issues. Be well.