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Jewish Apostates
 

by Magda C.
USA

Question:

I have been told that if I don't believe in Jesus as my savior I
am going straight to Hell after I die. This seems like a compelling reason
for me to believe in Jesus particularly since I have also been told that
there is no consequence within Judaism if I believe in Jesus. Therefore, I
have nothing to lose by believing in Jesus, so why shouldn't I believe in
him as my savior?


Answer:

Actually, belief in Jesus is a horrendous sin with grave
consequences for any Jew who professes to do so. To understand this let us
look at the tragic apostasy of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and its
dominant tribe, Ephraim. God, speaking through the prophet Hosea declares,
"When Ephraim spoke with trembling, he became exalted in Israel; but when he
became guilty through Baal, he died" (Hosea 13:1). When they served God,
Ephraim was "exalted," but when they became guilty of idol worship and
remained unrepentant despite prophetic warnings to cease their sinful ways
they signed their own death warrant. Ephraim died a spiritual death long
before it suffered national destruction.

From the prophetic message we learn that apostates, even during their
lifetime are reckoned as dead as long as they remain unrepentant. The
prophet not only denounces belief in molten images fashioned by craftsmen,
but also those who trust in a false savior-god: "And I am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt, and gods beside Me you should not know, and there is
no savior but Me" (Hosea 13:4).

God desires the apostate's repentance and beckons him/her to renounce
iniquity: "From the clutches of the grave I would ransom them, from death I
would redeem them, I will be your words of death; I will decree the grave
upon you. Remorse shall be hidden from My eyes" (Hosea 13:14).

For the apostate who does not repent, God says, "I will decree the grave
upon you." In a more literal sense, "I will be the cause of your being cut
off to the grave." Katavcha, from the verb ketev, denotes "cutting" (e.g.
Psalms 91:6). Its primary meaning is "to cut," but in Hosea 13:14, ketev
takes on the secondary meaning "decree." In Hebrew, the primary word for
decree is gezayra, the root of which is gezer, "to cut." There are a number
of word roots in Hebrew whose primary meaning is "cutting," yet have a
secondary meaning of a final, permanent decision or ruling (e.g., pasak,
chakak, gezer, charatz, karat).

As we see, the belief in the false savior-god Jesus is a grave sin. The
unrepentant apostate is not only shunned and considered dead by the Jewish
community. God Himself considers the unrepentant apostate as spiritually
dead in this life and in physical death the apostate is all the more so "cut
off."


Question:

Is a born-Jewish individual who believes Jesus to be his/her "Lord
and Savior" still a part of the Jewish people?


Answer:

A Jew who believes in Jesus as his/her "Lord and Savior" has become
a Christian. Even if not a formal member of a church group that person is a
Christian theologically.

The halacha (B.T. Sanhedrin 44a) recognizes the biologic link to the Jewish
people as inviolate, but also recognizes that as long as one remains an
apostate one is not considered to be part of the Jewish community. A willing
convert, whether formally or informally, forfeits his/her legal and social
rights, which express a Jew's belonging to the Jewish people.

A Jew must meet, actively or inactively, the fundamental biblical
stipulation: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3,
Deuteronomy 5:7). God declares: "I am the first, and I am the last, and
beside Me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). Surely, a belief in "God the
Father," "God the Son," and "God the Holy Spirit" does not satisfy God's
command even when one claims that these three distinct personages are really
a tri-unity. Even to make Jesus into "a god" but not God Himself denies
God's declaration that He alone is God. Such a belief creates a dualistic
system of shared divinity unrelated to the teachings of the Jewish
Scriptures.