"Say They are Jews, and are Not"

Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: "...say they are Jews, and are not..."
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: May 30, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/j002.htm

'...say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.'

"Perhaps they, like the gentile Judaizers of the book of Galatians, adopted a smattering of Jewish practices and tried to force them on Gentile Christians. They may have subjected themselves to a legalistic perversion of the Torah...Virtually all commentators ignore the obvious and straightforward interpretation that Yochanan (John) is talking here about Gentiles who pretend to be Jews...In the first century, the Jewish religion was highly regarded; many Gentiles became Jewish proselytes.

"Should it nevertheless be thought improbable that Gentiles would call themselves Jews, Hebrews or Israelites, consider the following modern examples. The 'British Israelites' regard the British as the Ten Lost Tribes. The Mormons not only consider themselves to be the Ten Lost Tribes but regard themselves as Jews and everyone else (real Jews included) as Gentiles! A sect of mostly American-born blacks consider themselves the true Hebrews; several thousand of them are living in Israel. All of these are outside the pale of Christianity. In addition, scattered about are well-meaning Gentile Christians whose strong identification with and love for the Jewish people has made them believe--without a shred of evidence--that they are actually Jewish themselves...In fact, some years ago a congregation was expelled from the American Lutheran Church because, along with a general drift into weirdness, its pastor and dozens of its memberes claimed to have heard from God that they were really Jews; many even said they knew which tribe they belonged to."

(Jewish New Testament Commentary, David Stern)

[There are quite a few organizations now claiming that Christians should be celebrating feast days and sabbaths and have reverted back to the law and tradition. The root is JESUS, not Judaism. Beware.]

...when in the Book of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures the writer violently attacks the "Jews who are not Jews," he is not criticizing the majority of Jews of his time, who did not accept that Jesus of Nazareth was the prophesied Messiah... rather, he is specifically attacking the Samaritan "Jews who are not Jews," because of their Babylonian, magic-based distortion of Judaism... Recent archaeological digs in Israel have unearthed numerous Samaritan "synagogues." The symbolism used in these structures points to what both traditional Christians and Jews would have considered pagan "demon worship"--that is, treating the (astrological) "starry hosts" to be "gods"--playing a large role alongside traditional Jewish forms of worship. This strange combination is similar to the mixture of Christian symbolism and African animism that makes up Caribbean voodoo and Santeria.

( Cracking the Bible Code, Jeffrey Satinover)

(Est 2:5) Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;

From the Soncino Talmud, CD-rom edition.
Megilah 12b-13a

There was a certain Jew in Shushan the castle, etc. a Benjamite. What is the point of this verse? If it is to give the pedigree of Mordecai, it should trace it right back to Benjamin! (footnote: And not mention three names only). [Why then were only these specified?] — A Tanna taught: All of them are designations [of Mordecai]. 'The son of Jair' means, the son who enlightened [he'ir] the eyes of Israel by his prayer. 'The son of Shimei means, the son to whose prayer God hearkened [shama']. 'The son of Kish' indicates that he knocked [hikkish] at the gates of mercy and they were opened to him. He is called 'a Jew' [yehudi] which implies that he came from [the tribe of] Judah, and he is called 'a Benjamite', which implies that he came from Benjamin. [How is this]? ... R. Johanan said: He did indeed come from Benjamin. Why then was he called 'a Jew'? Because he repudiated idolatry. For anyone who repudiates idolatry is called 'a Jew', as it is written, There are certain Jews etc. (footnote: Dan. 3:12. Though Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah to whom he refers were not of the tribe of Judah. V. Sanh. 93 b (Tosaf.)).

"According to the majority of the Sages, acceptance of the Torah was tantamount to repudiating idolatry. Its observance is therefore one of the most basic definitions of being "a Jew." (Shulam, Joseph. A Commentary on the Jewish Roots of Romans, Messianic Jewish Publishers, (c)1997; p. 96)

"Christians [baptised persons] were by the Heathens called Jews."

(The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible)

"Gentile Freemasonry refers to its initiates as Jews, refers to its lodges as Solomon's Temple, and calls non-Masons Gentiles. Likewise, a republic founded by Freemasonry and governed by Masons is by inference a Jewish nation. Conversely, a kingdom not ruled by Freemasonry, such as Russia, would be considered a Gentile nation."

Daniel, John. Scarlet and the Beast: A History of the War Between English and French Freemasonry, Vol. I, 1995, p. 371

* Footnote: "In 1830, a Master Mason named Joseph Smith founded a new rite at the Masonic Lodge in Nauvoo, Illinois, and named it the Mormon Rite. Smith planned to make Mormonism a superior rite in Freemasonry. Mormonism began to take over the Masonic Lodges in Illinois, and many researchers believe that Joseph Smith was killed to stop this movement." (Daniel, p. 41)