Essay:One of humanity's greatest movements is now gaining significant traction

This essay is an original work by LT. Please comment only on the talk page.

For those reading this essay, good for you—before I explain the full substance, it should be clarified that what I'm referring to is not any confined to any mere political, social, economic, national, regional, or cultural phenomenon. This most certainly is not about another meaningless manifestation of any random worldly causal cascade. Nor is this relevant only to contemporary times, as the subject holds important historical significance, even if it's commonly viewed by people of nowadays as being limited to recent times.

Here's a hint with the parable of the prodigal son from the Gospel of Luke:

“	And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”	”
—Luke 15:11–32

Perhaps you now understand the subject I'm referring to? If not already so, this should give a further clue:

“	For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.	”
—Romans 1:16

If you guessed Messianic Judaism, that's correct! Why is Messianic Judaism in particular so important? In the cited parable from the Gospel of Matthew above, consider what it means for Jews and Gentiles regarding the composition of spiritual Israel. In the Old Testament days, the literal nation of Israel were God's chosen people, believing that the prophecy and law will be fulfilled. However, in the New Testament as stated very clearly in the Gospels, it's clear that the majority of Pharisees and scribes Jesus's day rejected the Word of God. Unfortunately, in the centuries that passed, most religious Jews did not follow in Jesus and instead adhered to traditional rabbinical Judaism. Taking into account the parable of the prodigal son as an analogy, it's obvious that God is greatly saddened that his firstborn, the literal nation of Israel which were once his chosen people, ended up falling away; the growth of Messianic Judaism means that religious Jews who grew up without Christ now are finding salvation, and are returning to the group of God's chosen people. To reiterate, this carries an important meaning which bears historical significance. The message of parable of the lost sheep applies here as well; given that God is overjoyed when Christians stay true to the faith, imagine how much more His joy is when those who once trusted Him, then abandoned the faith, end up returning to be saved.

The other importance of the growth of Messianic Judaism is that it can be one of the greatest allies of Bible-adhering Christians to truly kill the myth that Christianity is associated with antisemitism. (it's nonetheless unsurprising that the devil attempts to slander Christianity) It should be understand that Messianic Judaism began not in recent eras, rather in Jesus's time. Although the early Christian generations understood the Gospel's true message of humility and kindness, later religious leaders misinterpreted biblical events, often misusing the Gospel of John, to en masse blame Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus. Furthermore, as the early church increasingly became comprised of Gentiles, rifts between Jews and non-Jews increased due to the religious antisemitism of numerous early church fathers, who insisted that Christians not partake in Jewish traditions.

The institutionalization and origins of religious antisemitism that supposedly was perpetrated by "Christians" particularly finds substantial roots in Constantine and the origins of the Roman Catholic Church. At this time, the church attempted to convert pagans, and also tried to further distance itself from Jews, who were becoming unpopular. Constantine, a pagan himself who worshiped the sun god (hence why he instituted apostate Sunday laws in lieu of the Sabbath), oversaw the process of Rome's horrendous pagan traditions passing its baton into the church, which became a propagator of heresy for the next one and a half millenia. Oh, and it's not only the Roman Catholic Church that was guilty of taking the name of the Lord in vain via its antisemitic persecutions. The key leader of the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther, and as pointed out in the link in the previous paragraph, Luther was a rabid Jew-hater whose writings became an inspiration for... Adolf Hitler. Not to mention that the Protestant Reformation also produced other lines of heresies such as "once saved, always saved," and that Protestants would come to follow the lead of the papacy in observing Sunday rather than the 7th day of the week, Saturday (the Sabbath). Most professed Christian denominations nowadays disregard Old Testament laws as "irrelevant," citing Jesus's fulfillment of the law as an excuse, even though in that very passage Christ stated that He did not abolish the law. Numerous passages in the New Testament, explicitly clarified by Paul the Apostle, make it clear that a true follower of Christ keeps His commandments, and nowhere was the Sabbath abolished. How could Jesus be the Lord of the Sabbath if the institution was done away with? The true reason that most professed Christians nowadays have abandoned Christ-like adherence to Old Testament laws vital to Jewish traditions is because of man-made heresies resulting from historical religiously motivated antisemitism. Unfortunately, most people don't seem to realize it.

There seem to be two sides to the myth(s) surrounding the Christianity–antisemitism canard. On one hand, there religious Jews who believe in the notion of the New Testament being antisemitic and thus think of Christians as being the perpetrators of their persecution, whether historical, current, or both. On the other hand, there are antisemites who misquote passages in the New Testament to justify their Jew-hatred. Most notably, the Gospel of John's vague mention of "the Jews" have been frequently misunderstood, including 8:44. However, as correctly pointed out by Jews for Jesus, the fourth Gospel's mention of "the Jews" is not a reference to Jewish people en masse, rather the leadership coalition, aka Pharisees and scribes. There was probably a good reason that the Gospel of John was the fourth out of the four Gospels... assuming the vast majority of Bible studying results in reading the Synoptic Gospels first, it's obvious that Jesus's denunciations were leveled specifically at the Pharisees and scribes, not all of the Jewish people. Furthermore, the entirety of the New Testament demonstrate a sentiment of love and compassion. A large number of its books were written by Paul, who prior to becoming a Christian was a fanatical Pharisee persecuting Jesus's followers. His change of heart and repentance exemplifies the message of Christianity as inherently loving and forgiving rather than spiteful.

Recently, I've noticed plenty of advertisements on YouTube coming from the organization One for Israel, which takes Zionism in a direction in concordance with the Great Commission rather than being a mere worldly phenomenon, which unfortunately its standard political variants in the Western world are limited to. Hopefully the growth of the movement will culminate in an expansion of Christianity to save the lost, particularly as concerns simultaneously escalate regarding end times prophecy and the end of the world approaching.