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One New Man: Amalgamation or Transcendence?

 

The operative word in Paul's revelation of one new corporate man forged from all peoples is the word new. The issue is, what does it mean to be one "new" corporate body in the earth?  

-          Amalgamation  

As long as I've ever heard teaching on the meaning of this mystery, I have been taught that through the cross, we all--Jews and Gentiles--have one thing in common, which is "faith in Christ;" and past that, wherever Jews and Gentiles differ in heritage and culture, we either just keep to ourselves, or else we try to "meld" into one pot.

 

Prior to the late development of "Messianic Christianity," where larger numbers of Jewish people have begun turning to Christ, most understanding of the one new man was theological, but not practical. In theory the belief was that Jews and Gentiles are "one in Christ." But in practice the Gentile-origined churches remained largely to themselves and their natural heritages, while the few Jewish converts there were kept to themselves and their heritage.

 

This has continued into the present time with the rise of what is called "Messianic Christianity." Jews and Gentiles can worship Christ in spirit together, but the non-Jews keep their national cultural traditions while the Jews keep theirs--which is why the Messianic churches remain distinct from other churches. (Strangely, messianic Christianity is at once a Christian denomination and a denomination of Judaism, being alternately referred to as "Messianic Judaism.")

 

But since the resurgence of Messianic Christianity, a new effort at making practical the "one new man" has arisen. At heart is the belief that Christ has brought the Jewish and non-Jewish peoples together through an amalgamation of heritages, or what we could call "culture melding." The special emphasis on this meld is to expose the Christian gentile culture to the influences of the Jewish heritage--with a view to the centrality of the Jewish people to the body of Christ.

 

According to "amalgamist" thinking, we should find ways to blend the two heritages into one new expression of faith, with a view to the specialness of the Jewish heritage. The amalgamist demonstration of the "one new man" is realized when Jews and gentiles incorporate one another's traditions into their worship. Gentiles learn to celebrate Hanukkah while Jews learn to celebrate Christmas. Both learn to celebrate Passover and Easter at the same time, and so on...

 

Extended out, the idea of Jewish/gentile culture melding goes on to embrace state nationalisms--melding gentile nationalisms with Jewish nationalism. Thus we see the idea of gentile Christian "Americanism" for instance being woven together with Jewish "Zionism." According to extended amalgamist thinking then, the wedding of Christian Americanism and Jewish Zionism is also part of manifesting Paul's "one new man" in Christ.

 

The support for the idea of culture-melding seems to come from Ephesians 2:15 where Paul tells us only that the Mosaic Law ("the Law of commandments contained in ordinances") can no longer be used to define the relationship of Jews and Gentiles. "The Law" is all he speaks to. He says nothing about "culture." Therefore (so the thinking goes), as long as we just "keep the Law out of it," we can and should believe that the Lord wants to use everything else about our separate cultural heritages to build them into the "one new man."

 

But is the Mosaic Law all Paul is really excluding in defining the new Jewish/Gentile relationship? And is the amalgamist cultural concept of the one new body of Christ truly accurate?

 

Part 7





Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

05/06



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