This and That...

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of United Lutheran Church

This and that...Thoughts from my studies and places I’ve been.

First regarding the history of our church, from the book by Ole A Pedersen, Early History of the Danes in and Around Laurel Nebraska, a letter from UELC President N.C. Carlsen at 25^th anniversary (1941) Gethsemane Lutheran where he stated, “I am convinced that the word of God has been preached in it’s truth and purity and the sacraments have been rightly administered...Souls have been saved (God only knows how many) and God’s people have been built up in their Christian life.” He continues, “God bless our church in Laurel that souls may be saved, and God’s people may grow in grace, all to the honor and glory of God.”

That confirms my hunch that the message proclaimed from the pulpit in this church has been that of the salvation of souls. You are very familiar with the message that I attempt to proclaim—for I believe and preach the same things emphasized by that denominational president so long ago. Now 84 years later, may we continue to be faithful to that same message. That being the Word preached in it’s truth and purity, and sacraments rightly administered and souls saved to the glory of God.

Are modern Jews coming to Christ? Moving on to another subject, we hear about the growing number of Messianic Jews in the world, and particularly in Israel.

I do believe in Zionism, and believe that it is the proper way to interpret the Biblical texts pertaining to the end times and Israel. What is Zionism? It is the return of Jews to their homeland of Israel following the establishment of the Jewish state. The term distinguishes those returning from those who choose to remain scattered throughout the world.

We are hearing some loud voices objecting to Zionism, for various reasons, including the ownership of the land but also the belief that modern Israel is biblical Israel.

By the way, it has been the official position of many Lutherans world wide for maybe 400 years that the church is modern Israel otherwise known as “replacement theology”. That means according to this view, all the references to ‘Israel’ in the New Testament are really talking about the church. It also means that the so called Jewish people today and the land of Israel have no significance whatsoever. I’ll probably be putting together an article about that in the future. As I said, I do not hold that position.

Another problem is the beliefs of the Jews’. Not only their religion Judaism based on the TANAKH (Old Testament), but the fact that so many have no religion at all i.e. are completely secular. Jews and Christians have not gotten along for almost 2000 years although it is often overlooked that a good percentage of the early church was in fact Jewish.

Even the old Bible teacher from the 1960’s and 70’s, J Vernon McGee who rejoiced in the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948, publicly lamented the ungodly beliefs of the modern Jews in his sermons—and that was 50 years ago.

They had a hardness of heart, like the Prophet Ezekiel says, “for all the house of Israel are impudent and heard-hearted.” (Ezek.3:7)

Paul says, “that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob…” (Romans 11:25,26)

That was then.

I’ve pasted my notes from a recent broadcast by Sean McDowell, son of the famous Josh McDowell. In this podcast Sean interviews Jeff Morgan of the “So Be It” podcast a part of the “Jews for Jesus” ministry.

Here are some of my notes. Mr. Morgan states, that the Jewish people are an unreached people group. The unreached are a category of missions that is top priority because they have not had access to the Gospel.

In 2025 30-50 thousand Messianic believers in Israel. That is up from the number in 1948, when the modern land of Israel was established which was less than 100. It was less than 50. It was less than 25—actually he states it was 23 total Jewish believers in 1948.

According to a 2022 Lifeway survey, there are 1 million Messianic Jews worldwide. Including

870 thousand in the US, and 30 thousand in Israel. Similar to the number given above.

Compare the numbers to the year 2012 where there were 350 thousand worldwide.

2020 Caspari Center, a network of people: Jews and Gentiles throughout the world working together to raise awareness of Jewish believers in Jesus and support the growth of Israel's congregations, the number is 15 thousand Messianic Jews in Israel across 280 congregations.

The Jews are in fact coming back to God. They are accepting the Messiah. Is this proof positive? We can’t say definitely, but all things considered, it’s a pretty strong argument.

Finally, we had an interesting interaction during the sermon the other week, regarding Franklin Graham, who I thought was an example of someone well known enough by everyone that he could serve as a lesson or example. He wasn’t.

What was interesting, we couldn’t find an example of someone who was that well known by both the Millennials as well as the Baby Boomers. It’s obviously not Franklin Graham. It is very interesting to consider that there is not one single personality in our world that is known as a good example by both young and old. Where does one look if not to the church and religion? Does one look to the political horizon, or the celebrity culture of sports, or entertainment? Is there anyone who is an upstanding example for both generations? That’s something to think about.

That’s my view two cents

Pastor Tom ###