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One of the better books that I have read which has laid out the history of the theological conflicts between Biblical Judaism and Gentile Christianity is Schoep's The Jewish Christian Argument. As an added bonus within this book we find Professor Schoeps explaining the relationship between the Israel of God and the rest of mankind. His thoughts on this issue can be very enlightening to today's Christian who is searching for truth in these regards and the following is a summary of Professor's Schoeps understanding of the issue.
The relationship of Israel to mankind takes as its first and foremost principle the fact that, according to the account of the Torah, all men are descended from one father. All of them, not as races or nations, but as men, are brothers in Adam, and are, therefore, called benê Adham (sons of Adam) or benê Nôah (sons of Noah, Noachidae), since, after the flood, Noah, as representative of the principle of law, was preserver of the world. From the time of the occupation of Canaan down to the present day, the treatment of every stranger sojourning in the midst of an Israelite community has been determined by the prescription of Sinai: "And a stranger shalt thou not oppress; for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt," (Exod. 23:9) and the Talmud states (Hagigah 5a): "Should anyone turn aside the right of the stranger, it is as though he were to turn aside the right of the most high God." In the extensive biblical legislation dealing with aliens, the stranger -gér (sojourner), or nokhri (foreigner), to use the biblical expression-sojourning in the land, whom you are to love as yourselves (Deut. 10:19), is equated legally and politically with the Israelite. Every stranger dwelling in the land has the possibility of becoming an Israelite in the full sense. Even the exception made by the Torah in the case of the Ammonites and Moabites (Deut. 23:4) was abolished by the Tannaim of the first century (Mishnah Yadayim IV, 4 and Berakot 28a) on interesting grounds: since the wars and conquests of Sennacherib, the differences between nations have been obliterated by intermarriage. Among the "proselytes" of the Jewish religious community in Palestine-as the Septuagint translated the biblical gêrim-rabbinic literature differentiated the gêr sedhek, the full proselyte, who had himself circumcised and assumed the entire "yoke of the law," and the gêr tôshabh, the stranger in the gate, the nonparticipating or semiproselyte, who lived in the land and, according to his free choice, assumed only a portion of the Jewish law as binding upon him.
The solicitation of proselytes had been carried on systematically in the course of Jewish missionary propaganda ever since the time of the Babylonian exile, especially during the Maccabaean age and continuing into the fifth century. It was held by many to be a meritorious work. Thus Rabbi Simon ben Eleazar (Tanna of the second generation, about 130) states: "The Holy One, blessed be he, gave Israel over into galuth [exile, dispersion] among the nations only in order that they might attract to themselves proselytes." (Pesahim 87b)
Answer for yourself: Did you understand the above passage? The love of God was seen in the captivities of Israel in that they, as the light of the nations, would be able through such unfortunate circumstances like captivity and dispersion be able to extend their Godly influence among the heathen thereby bringing the world to accept not only monotheism but a type of Ethical Monotheism. We see this in the influence of the ten lost tribes of Israel as they not only were assimilated among the world's nations but intermarried them as well.
Only after unfortunate experiences with proselytes became common was greater care taken. After the third century, more voices were raised against the institution of proselytes. (Rabbi Helbo: "For the Jews, proselytes are as grievous as leprosy.") (Yebamot 47b) The aftereffects of the persecution under Hadrian (A.D. 135), the deterioration of the world situation for the Jews, the growth of the fence about the law, the decision of the rabbis to make conversion difficult (Yebamot 47a: "The rabbis taught: If anyone in the present day wishes to become a proselyte, let him be asked: what leads you to become a proselyte? Do you not know that the people of Israel in the present day are afflicted, dispersed, humiliated, robbed, that suffering is their lot?")--all these reasons made conversions rarer and rarer during the following period, but they have taken place in every century. The best known is the case of the Khazars, a Tatar people living in the Crimea, who, following the example of their royal house, were in large measure converted about 770.
Michael Guttmann (in his Das Judentum und seine Umwelt, Berlin, 1927) has described in detail the significant transformation which the above-mentioned concept of the "stranger within the gate," or "semiproselyte" underwent in the centuries after Christ. Referring to these people, the Greek and Latin documents of the period took over the Hebrew phrase yir'e adhiônay, calling them "god-fearers." In Hellenistic Judaism this name was attached to the heathen in the Diaspora who joined in the Jewish form of worship, visiting the Synagogues, yet not observing all of the observing the ceremonial laws but some of them and without being reckoned in the company of the Jewish congregation. In the course of this period, the concept of the god-fearer became increasingly and more generally a means of distinguishing between Gentiles. Whoever kept the Noachite laws-that is, the laws known to Noah and pre-Israelite mankind-was called a god-fearer and no greater example can be found than Cornelius in Acts 10. In the discussion of these laws set forth in Sanhedrin 56 (of the Babylonian Talmud), they are determined to be the prohibition idolatry, blasphemy, unchastity, shedding of blood, robbery, and eating the flesh of living animals, together with the commandment of responsibility. Maimonides formulated the true Jewish conception of the Laws of Noah and the "semiproselyte"; he held to and proclaimed by tradition in all periods, in Mishnah Torah IV, Hilkot Melakim, Section X, Halakhah 2: "Whoever professes to obey the seven Noachite laws and strives to keep them is classed with the devout among the Gentiles, and has a share in the world to come." It is of course true, according to Maimonides (ibid., VIII, 11), that only that man is to be accounted a "devout Gentile" who fulfills these laws, not as dictated by reason, but because of his awareness of their divine origin. With this important modification: every individual who keeps the Noachite laws is set on a par with the Jews. Indeed, a statement made by Rabbi Meir (ca. A.D. 150) is even recorded three times in the Talmud: "The pagan who concerns himself with the teaching of God is like to the High Priest." (Sanhedrin 59a; Baba Kamma 38a; and 'Aboda Zarah 36a)
Whatever may have been the origin of the political institution of the gêr toshabh, the semiproselyte, or "stranger within the gate," it fell into disuse when the Jubilee Year ceased to exist in its full legal form, that is, ever since Israel ceased to exist as a nation. Understandably, the Noachidae occupied the places left vacant by the "devout among the Gentiles." Through their "righteousness," which is not solely the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, they also have a share in the world to come (Tosefta Sanh. 13, 2; Bamidbar Rabbah 8, 2; and elsewhere).
The Talmudic literature does not employ a specific designation for Christians; the term minim (heretics) is invariably applied only to Jewish heretics (among whom, of course, the Jewish Christians were counted), concerning whom many a harsh judgment can be found. "Among the Gentiles there are no minim," says the Talmud (Uullin 13b). The later designation for Christianity in religious law is shittuph, that is, "ascribing the name of God to something else."
The medieval commentators made this clear (especially in commentaries on tractate Sukkah 45b, which discusses shittuph) by distinguishing Christian worship clearly from abhôdhdh zárah (idolatry), thereby recognizing Christian worship indirectly as a possibility within the Noachite laws. Therefore, the Tossafot to Sanhedrin 63b, Megillah 28a, Bekorot 2b, Shullhan Aruh O.C. 156, and other passages declare that Jews are permitted to allow a Christian to swear a Christian oath before them, even though shittuph occurs and another is being addressed with the honor due to God (like Jesus). Understand that this was a concession that only began in the Middle ages and many think was the consequence of the oppressive conditions toward them by the Gentile state religion of Roman Christianity.
Answer for yourself: When the Jewish Scriptures are full of examples of non-Jews coming to the knowledge of the One true God and Israel is the light of the world concerning this One true God how confident can we be in such a ruling by Mid-evil age Rabbis who made such allowances under dire circumstances? This means that you possibly face meeting God face to face as an idolator ill prepared because of compromises you have made with the Jewish Scriptures! Ones need to be very careful here or at least a competent student before much allowances should be trusted!
The Torah has decreed extermination as the punishment for idolatry (Deut. 7, and elsewhere). Many passages in the Talmud which set up standards for the conduct of Jews toward idolators were unjustly construed by anti-Semites of later periods as referring to Gentiles of their own day. Insofar as the Gentile world is Christian (and also Mohammedan), Jewish religious law places it within the realm of shittuph, i.e., the adulteration of the Jewish faith with non-Jewish elements. In spite of all differences, the Jews share with Christians (and Mohammedans) belief in the same God, the God of Israel, whom Scripture also acknowledges to be "God of the nations." (Jer. 10:7; Isa. 2:3; Psm. 47:8, 82:8; and elsewhere) The God of Israel is at the same time the God who cares for the Gentile world."Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us?" asks the prophet Malachi (2:10). Let us not forget this same Father gave both the Jew and the non-Jew Covenants whereby we both could be in relationship and good standing with our Creator if we would only uphold our part of the Covenant with God by observing the Laws and Commandments which constitute our Covenant responsibilities to our King and Creator.