Biola University and LOP 60
By Judith Mendelsohn Rood, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History and Middle Eastern Studies, Biola University, California
Judith Mendelsohn Rood took part in the North American LCJE meeting in Los Angeles in March and ordered a large number of the booklet “Jewish Evangelism: A Call to the Church” (LOP 60).
In this article she tells how she has distributed them and also about a reaction to it.
Our crate of LOPs arrived when our Spring Semester was almost over. I was teaching a course on Jewish History, another on Anti-Semitism, and another on Premillenial Dispensationalism and History. The students were both graduate and undergraduate. I distributed the book to each student in our final class.
The greatest blessing, however, was this Fall, when I was invited to give the sermon for the Talbot School of Theology chapel on October 4. Someone chose the date without realizing that it was the first day of Rosh HaShanah. God’s fingerprints were everywhere to be seen. I invited the worship team of Congregation Ben David (my congregation) to lead the service, and my son, Joshua, blew the Shofar. The chapel was packed with approximately 300 faculty, seminarians, and undergraduates. The Holy Spirit truly was among us, as many who were there told me afterwards.
I spoke about the experience of the Children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, God’s promise there of a future kinsman-redeemer, and His faithfulness to the Jewish people throughout history. I then turned to the story of my own salvation, and explained the importance for continued witness to the Jewish people. This experience was a strong affirmation from the Lord of our work at Biola University. What an amazing experience.
I distributed the book to all of those present. I have also given it to my colleagues who are interested in Jewish Studies. Our intention is to get a copy to each member of our faculty and their pastors, and to all of those who will be involved with Jewish Studies at Biola University.
A note from a colleague
One of my colleagues, who teaches Biblical Hebrew and Old Testament Studies at Talbot Seminary sent me the following note: “ The Society for Biblical Literature website has a forum where people post articles of somewhat general interest. One Jewish professor posted a paper called ‘The Hebrew Teacher: Guru, Drill Instructor, or Role Model?’ In the paper he describes teaching both Jewish and Christian students and talks about their differing motivations. He is respectful toward his Christian students and seems happy to teach them. But in one of the footnotes he makes the following statement: ‘I am well aware that numerous students have enrolled in Hebrew classes with me over the years hoping to acquire a tool with which they could convert Jews, including me. Almost all of these students dropped out quickly when the work piled up. But my experience has been that whenever honest students have truly paid the price to master Hebrew, along the way they have also developed the ability to respect Judaism as a meaningful pathway to the divine, a pathway that, though different from theirs, has its own independent integrity. So while I reject the ignorant flat-world fundamentalist who views only his beliefs as the center of the theological universe, I do not fear the well-educated Christian who has paid the price to master our sacred texts and our liturgy, a mastery that routinely generates respect. Said another way, the Bible and the Siddur are well capable of speaking for themselves and consistently demonstrate their value to those who seek to understand them. Jews and non-Jews alike are well served by their study.’
This seems to be a fairly common attitude in academia and I guess we would describe it as somewhat "postmodern." I'm not sure how to formulate this question, but maybe it is something like this: "How do we help Jewish people understand that we do respect and value Judaism but that nevertheless we still feel that they need to recognize Yeshua as their Messiah?" Maybe the label "ignorant flat-world fundamentalist" is the price we have to pay for our views, but is there some way to penetrate this barrier? It is interesting that he considers Christians who want to ‘convert’ him lazier about learning a foreign language than those who come to see the ‘independent integrity’ of Judaism. Maybe the answer is to master Bible and Siddur yet still see the need for Yeshua.
I actually have read a good portion of "Jewish Evangelism" and have skimmed through the rest. The book does a good job of refuting the view that the Christian gospel is not for the Jewish people. A year or so ago materials came through the mail asking me to sign a statement to renounce any efforts on the part of the church to evangelize Jewish people. I round-filed it but on reflection wonder if it would have been better for me to send it back unsigned but with a reply of some kind. There is tremendous pressure in our culture today to tell the church that it has no business to evangelize Jews, and a lot of that pressure comes from within the church, even some from within the evangelical wing. That somehow seems like the worst sort of anti-Semitism; just leave the Jewish people to face judgment before God apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. So your handing out that book to us was very thoughtful and timely. All of us, whether faculty or students, need to reflect on this crucial issue.”
We pray
Thus, you can see how helpful the book is. I want to express our gratitude to the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism for supporting the cause of Jewish evangelism. We pray that the Lord will continue to lead all of us as strive to serve Him and the Jewish people.
Judith Rood
judith.rood@biola.edu