There are no words. Truly. None that can accurately communicate the loss that continues to unravel.
628 days ago, Israel was attacked. No, it was not attacked, it was ravaged. Innocence was raped. Purity was massacred. Evil boasted.
628 days later, the only physical encouragement is the continued resilience of the Jewish people, who sadly have been here time and time again, and their courage to fight for and support their country and people daily, with the ultimate hope in the protection of the Living God who never slumbers nor sleeps, defending Israel.
We recently saw this in the bold execution of Operation Rising Lion, where Israel took the lead to fatally weaken the largest terrorist regime in recent history. Israel, roughly the size of New Jersey and with a population similar to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Texas, defeated a nation’s murderous regime that is 75 times larger in landmass and has a population 9.5 times greater.
David continues to beat Goliath, and the covenant of relationship between God and His people continues to be proven while He defends His people.
However, the world continues to decline, with over 1,200 “Hands off Iran” protests documented globally. Despite military support, America as a whole is not only failing Israel and her people but also the Jewish men and women who call it home. Two young lives were brutally murdered simply because of their ethnicity, occupation, and their courage to stand for what they believed. Fifteen people were mindlessly burned just for gathering peacefully as a community to remember the hostages held for 628 days. A Christian Zionist event was canceled after six months of preparation and $556,000 spent on security due to serious threats, and antisemitism continues to rise.
The hostages have been held for far too long, and evil’s impact is reaching every part of the globe. However, now a new weapon of wickedness is gaining power: division.
I am a Gentile Christian, and the church I serve lies within the largest Jewish population of my city, with many Observant Jews walking through our church parking lot on Shabbat. Although I began forming friendships with the Orthodox Jewish community before October 7, 2023, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that my friendship with the community has been more accepted since that fateful day.
My journey is like many Christians who would say we reject replacement theology: I loved Israel, but did not know many Jewish people, let alone Orthodox. This allowed for more of a philosophical “love,” and I could create my own definition of it for the Jews, whether I knew if it was sincere or not.
This began to change when I first spoke with a well-respected, seasoned, Ultra-Orthodox rabbi. He was so kind and gracious, welcoming and open! However, the distrust and hurt from the Christian community were all too real. This change continued once I met an intelligent, charismatic, community- and family-oriented Modern Orthodox rabbi who opened the scriptures in a way I had never heard (obviously), which illustrated the dangers that Christian evangelism had created not only from 300 AD through the Holocaust, but also in the present day.
During these interactions, I earned trust and was welcomed into the Jewish community as a friend. The beauty of the faith, community, and culture became all too real. I quickly understood how simple Christian traditions, like Easter, Christmas, and a Sunday sabbath, not only do not make sense in Judaism but also come against the faith and community. I saw that what we Christians were inviting Jewish men and women into was destroying the people we said we loved.
My second discovery was more impactful than the first! I learned that if I respected the beliefs and values of my Jewish brothers and sisters and did not try to push my Christian beliefs, I could talk about Jesus openly! In fact, many of my Jewish rabbi friends began to help me understand Him more! I have had as many in-depth conversations about Jesus with Jewish rabbis as with Christian pastors. In these, I have learned more about Jesus than I ever could have only with Gentiles, as I am discovering a new context to His Jewish identity, for Jesus’ conversations would have been more like the rabbis’ than the pastors’!
It did not take me long to see that these rabbis have a very real and intimate relationship with the Living God. There is an understanding, passion, and grace I never could have imagined. These men are shepherds and love their people more than I can explain. The love and friendship they have extended toward me are priceless. I have personally experienced the “blessing to all nations.”
Since beginning this journey, I have now read the Torah three times, as it is a part of my daily Christian Bible reading. Each time, I see passages that make clearer why the Orthodox do what they do. Whether you are a secular Jew or an observant Jew, a devout Christian, a Muslim, or an Atheist, all consider the Orthodox rabbis as the protectors of Jewish identity. My respect for them grows daily as I learn of the countless genocidal attempts made against the Jews since Moses, most coming from the church from 300 AD on. In these attacks, the rabbis and Orthodox would be the first to be murdered as they were easily recognizable and a symbol of hope for the community. Christian interpretation of the end times (although we really have no idea what’s really going to happen) has the antichrist making a sacrifice to himself in the Third Temple, meaning in Christianity, some way or another, a sacrificial system will be reinstated (for why would an altar be needed?). It definitely will not be us with the knowledge to run it! The rabbis preserved a way of life that is needed even in Christianity!
In all of this, I am reminded of Jesus’ words, “I have not come to abolish the Law,” of His early followers being “zealous for the Law,” and quoting the scripture that “God’s word is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” I meditate on the reality that, for the majority of the past 2,000 years, most genocidal attempts against the Jews came from Christian attempts to convert and proselytize, which paved the way for the mindsets that made the Holocaust possible. I have realized that Christianity has only been “kind” to the Jewish people since 1948, with a true shift in thinking only in the past 30-40 years, and for us to think just because our perspectives are different, the Jews should suddenly change their perspective of us is arrogant and naive. But most importantly, as a Gentile Christian, I now realize the fulfillment of what I believe can only come to pass with the Orthodox Jewish Community.
Perhaps if Christianity had been able to preserve the expression of the Law that Jesus held so dear over the past 2,000 years, or if we had been a better example of the love we profess to know, especially to the apple of God’s eye, His firstborn, and His chosen people instead of murdering them, I would not have reached these conclusions. But that is not the case.
There must be more to the story than traditional Evangelical Christianity has understood.
It is at this point that I must painfully conclude…
Just as the truth in the saying reveals: If Hamas succeeded in their plans, there would be no Israel; and if Christians succeeded in an attempt to destroy Jewish identity, there would be no Judaism.
Our ideas of support and unity must change.
The realities of Christian love must do the same.
Pastor Ryan Warren
Ryan is the discipleship pastor at a church in North Texas; located in the heart of the North Dallas eruv where he continues to serve and support the local Jewish community.
