2002.11.D.07 Article On Repentance From Jews & Christians Created by James3 on 8/16/2019 11:05:06 AM Article On Repentance From Jews & Christians
Greetings
This was forwarded to me.
Having been required by Yah to repent to the Jews at two public conferences in Tel Aviv in 1996 i can strongly identify with the subject, repentance on both sides is a major requirement for unification of both branches of the faith.
Warm regards and blessings
"An Apology FROM the Jewish People"
A word through Jewish Believer, David Dreiling
daviddreiling@comcast.net
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An excerpt from this article by David Dreiling:
"This word is very hard to hear for my Jewish brethren. Non-believers don’t understand repentance and forgiveness very well. Even for believing Jews the idea that our people need to repent to the believing world seems ridiculous. They are very clear about Anti-Semitism, but are prone to doubt that Jews ever persecuted believers when they were the dominant religious group in the early days of the Church. Besides, many reason-- why should we repent for that after two millennium of being mistreated by Christians." -- David Dreiling
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Dear Steve:
I have sat on this word for over five months, sharing it only with Messianic leaders and in local assemblies here in Nashville. I believe it is powerful and it is time to release it nationally. Perhaps you will agree. It is being published in the next issue of Living Waters magazine, but I feel that it should go out on the Elijah List. You know I am careful not to put out a bunch of stuff, but I think this one’s important.
Blessings on you and all your work,
David Dreiling
daviddreiling@comcast.net
The last ten years
On September 20th 1992 I was attending a conference hosted by Gary Bergel. of Intercessors for America. When I went into the morning meeting, I was told that G-d had been speaking to the leaders of the conference. He had asked them to take time this morning in prayer and with a prophetic act to repent and ask forgiveness of the Jews. For almost 2000 years Christians had persecuted the Jewish people. G-d was not pleased about this. The Church needed to repent to the Jews for their actions.
As I was the only Jew present, I was placed on the platform in a large chair and Gary Bergel and others washed my feet and repented on behalf of the Church for sins against the Jewish people. I understood that they themselves had not sinned against my people. Rather, this was an act of what some would call “identificational repentance”. Allow me to share a scripture out of the book of Daniel.
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Dan 9:1-11
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans--
2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,
5 "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
6 "Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.
7 "O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day-- to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.
8 "O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9 "To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
10 "We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
11 "Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. (NKJ)
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Now Daniel had not committed all of these sins. However, his prayer was pleasing to G-d who accepted his petition, forgave the Jews and restored them to their land. Those people who prayed for me that day had not sinned against me, nor had most of them sinned against my people. Yet God required them to take responsibility for the sins of their ancestors. I felt the pleasure of G-d as they did so, even though I felt a little embarrassed personally. Repentance opens a way for reconciliation, relationship and life.
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The Revelation
In May of this year the L-rd spoke to me and reminded me of this event. He then reminded me that in the last ten years many Christian leaders have offered repentance to Jews for sins committed by past generations. But His next statement to me was both very clear and startling. He said, “As I have brought Christian leaders, even the Pope, to repent to the Jewish people, so now I am requiring the Jews to repent to the Church for the sins of the Jewish people against the redeemed community in the early centuries of the Church.”
As I prayed about this word, I realized that most students of Church history are aware of the Church’s persecution of the Jews. The Crusades, where Jewish blood was liberally spilled, and the Inquisition are just two of many examples. Even Hitler’s executioners would tell Jews that they were beating and killing them in the name of Christ. There is little debate about these things and how much the Father’s heart was grieved by such abuse of the name and purposes of His Son.
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But G-d was speaking to me of something else. I was reminded of many things written in the book of Acts. The Sanhedrin, the leading Jewish governing body at the time, had issued the letters which, prior to his encounter with Yeshua, had given Paul authority to drag believers out of their homes and cast them in prison. . After coming to faith, Paul was hounded from city to city by Jews who wanted to kill him. In the Roman world Caesar was considered a god and was to be worshiped by his subjects. The Jews, however, had received the status of being an exempt religion. They could worship G-d according to the truth of Torah. Virtually all the first believers were Jewish. Yet about 20 to 30 years after Messiah’s death there were many, perhaps a majority, of Gentile believers. Surely the Galatian church was mostly gentile. Now, take a look at this scripture from Galatians chapter 4.
Gal 4:28-29
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. (NKJ)
It demonstrates that it was common knowledge in the believing community that Jews persecuted believers, whether Jew or Gentile. The Jewish leaders purposely exclude the “Way” as Paul refers to believers in Acts from the commonwealth of Israel, effectively freeing the Romans to act against the early believers by forcing them to choose between Caesar worship and G-d. There are many accounts of the martyrdoms that occurred in the first few centuries after Messiah. The book of Acts is filled with references of Jewish activity to hurt and destroy the believing community. What G-d said to me is that these things grieve His heart, even as the Church’s persecutions of His chosen people grieve Him.
He further told me that repentance must come forth from the Jewish community, and specifically told me that He was extending authority to Messianic leaders to carry this word of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation, to the larger Christian community. I understood that as He had accepted Daniel’s repentance on behalf of the Jews in the past He would now accept repentance from believing Jews on behalf of His chosen people. What a wonderful and amazing thing. Accordingly, I have submitted this word to several national Messianic leaders. Notwithstanding, after not speaking about this thing for several months, the brothers that I walk with have suggested that it is appropriate for me to release it at this time.
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Therefore, with whatever measure of authority that G-d in His Grace has bestowed upon me, though it may be very small, I pray and declare the following:
I repent to you, my non-Jewish brethren in Messiah, on behalf of my people for sins committed by my ancestors against those who first kept and shared the words of the Gospel. I say, “Please, Forgive us. We are truly sorry for the pain and hurt that was caused as families were torn apart and lives destroyed because of Jewish prejudice. I ask you to forgive our people, even as G-d has required that we freely and with an open heart accept your repentance. G-d is not looking for who is right. He is creating Shalom in One New Man. Please hear and accept our repentance as we also forgive you, In Yeshua’s name. Amen
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This word is very hard to hear for my Jewish brethren. Non-believers don’t understand repentance and forgiveness very well. Even for believing Jews the idea that our people need to repent to the believing world seems ridiculous. They are very clear about Anti-Semitism, but are prone to doubt that Jews ever persecuted believers when they were the dominant religious group in the early days of the Church. Besides, many reason why should we repent for that after two millennium of being mistreated by Christians.
I ask you to pray that this word of repentance take root in the Messianic community. There is much that we Jews need to repent for. This is one issue, but it’s a big one. Please pray that our people would find grace in their hearts to begin to both value true Christians and believe that they worship the G-d of Israel.
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