Originally posted in March, 2007
There has been some talk recently about Barak Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ, and his friend, spiritual mentor and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In a recent article, Ed Lasky, of The American Thinker raised the issue of anti-Semitism. He pointed out that Obama has acknowledged his pastor’s influence on him.
As a pastor I have no problem with this…as long as the pastor’s influence in beneficial. Unfortunately there are questions concerning the wholesomeness of Rev. Wright’s influence. Ed Lasky points out that Rev. Wright is committed to an Afro-centric view of Christianity,” which emphasizes, “a Black Work Ethic, commitment to a Black Value System, and an allegiance to all Black Leadership that follows the Black Value System.” The concern here is that “anti-Semitism…is…often associated with other leaders and groups that have emphasized black separatism and empowerment (think Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton).”
Lasky concludes that “some qualms might be warranted, particularly given some of the actions and statements of [Rev. Wright].”It is also troubling that “Pastor Wright is…a supporter of Louis Farrakhan, and in 1984 traveled with him to visit Col. Muammar al-Gadaffi.” Further concern is raised by the fact that Rev. Wright is a proponent of liberation theology, and, as Lasky points out, “The language of liberation all too often veers off into anti-Jewish rants.”
I am in complete agreement with Lasky. But the example he cites to illustrate his point completely misses the mark. He refers to “one of the founders of the movement, Gustavo Gutierrez,” and his stated position “that the infidelities of the Jewish people made the Old Covenant [between the Jews and God] invalid.”
I agree that Gutierrez’s view is anti-Semitic. But Lasky is apparently unaware of that fact that this view is actually quite orthodox. This pernicious teaching is sometimes referred to as replacement theology because it asserts that Israel has been replaced by the church. It lies at the heart of an ancient system of Christian eschatology known as Amillennialism. Far from being an aberration unique to liberation theology, Amillennialism has been embraced by the church since the third century. Even today the majority of those who call themselves Christians – Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Protestant — hold to Amillennialism or some variant of it such as Postmillennialism.
Amillennialism teaches that the covenant between God and the Jewish people has indeed been invalidated (God got around His obligation to keep the covenant to the physical descendants of Israel by declaring the church, “The New Israel.”) Having replaced the old Israel with the church, God then transferred the blessings of the covenant to the New Israel (A term, by the way, that occurs nowhere in the New Testament). But what about the old Israel? Well, having expropriated the blessings of their covenant, the church has been very generous and has allowed the Jewish people to retain the curses.
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Theology
