Hebrew Israelites, KJV & Black Identity | Dr. Jamal Hopkins

the text and the King James primarily borrowed from the Texas Receptus Erasmus he didn't have access to full and complete manuscripts of the entire biblical witness the entire Protestant biblical witness because you have you have a Catholic and you have an Orthodox Christian canon and they have various numbers but the Protestant Christian canon it was they did there there were not full manuscripts preserved at that particular time that Erasmus used and so what one thing that Erasmus did is is those texts that weren't found or preserved in Hebrew he had Latin hmm and what he did is he took some of those Latin versions or some of those Latin manuscripts and read transcriber retranslated those latin back into the hebrew that's a no-no within textual criticism in textual studies and these reinterpreted or re transcribe translated latin back into Hebrew now this Hebrew collection family of manuscript witnesses that Teddy Rasmus put the Texas receptors now was used to translate into the English King James that's suggest they probably the poor translation if you will as far as the english-language Bibles the King James is not the strongest it's probably I wouldn't say it's the poorest English tradition I know the freak out my you know Christian yeah [Music] one of my name's cam Triggs I'm serving as a special host for the June 3 project podcast so glad to have you guys listening in one thing lisa fields for the opportunity we're excited to be talking about a very special topic that i know many of you guys are interested about want to learn more about we've attacked this topic a couple times but i think we want to go deeper to help all of you apologists out there to be able to have a reasonable response for the faith that's within you we have a special guest a scholar he's going to be entering some particular questions about black Hebrew Israelites we're gonna talk about this particular sect or cult that is really taking America by storm oh and we know there's many various traditions and tribes and camps they really have different viewpoints but we want to kind of give a holistic viewpoint and we're gonna ask dr. Hopkins some questions on how we as Christians can engage these brothers and sisters care for them and pray for them so dr. Hopkins thank you for being on a podcast with us I'm glad to be here glad to be here glad glad to be joining the Jude 3 project community absolutely brother now you've been with us once before but for anyone who may not know you maybe this is a brand-new introduction to you and yourself could you just introduce us to who you are how you're serving right now and just kind of how you become interested in this topic my name is Jamal Dominique Hopkins currently serving as the Dean the Dickerson Greene Theological Seminary down here in Columbia South Carolina I had the opportunity and privilege of joining up at least the fields on the talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls and there may be some some some piggyback off of the conversation we're having today I was first you know had conversations like when I was in high school I'm sorry when I was in college actually at Howard University there was a number of against conscious community individuals among them were lackey bre israelites of different different stripes diff dreams five-percent nation black Muslims so we you know we had some colorful conversations at Howard University if you can imagine that and so I just really had you know I always kind of grew up with a kind of an apologetic edge if you will defending the faith and so when I was living in Dallas Texas a good friend of Bishop Jake's actually had me do a couple of sessions were actually one session for one of his pastors groups the Pisgah community and so that just kind of snowballed into to our conversation today so but happy to hear that is huge well we're grateful for your expertise in your heart to be able to engage this topic to talk about a little bit of your your scholarly background on why you know you feel like you really bring this unique knowledge to the table this I think is gonna be very helpful for us today well I did my research in second temple Judaism main mainly late second temple Judaism where I'm looking at the Dead Sea Scrolls intertestamental literature to topography literature I did dealt with the collection of literature actually that came out was unearthed among the Dead Sea Scrolls and in my readings of the Dead Sea Scrolls I saw that there were some key readings that I found pertinent not primarily to the black church black Christian community but also black Judaism as well which has a particularly unique historical anthropological and archaeological contribution that I think people of African descent you know should be aware of and so I think that's fairly pertinent to the conversation we're having this morning absolutely I think in the title black Hebrew Israelites this brother on the podcast can read Hebrew you know it you're expert awesome I encourage anybody who's listening go and check out that podcast on the Dead Sea Scrolls I listen to it I was deeply encouraged by it so it's well worth our time to dive into that topic but in transition into today's I just want to start off with some introductory information who are the black Hebrew Israelites I know that's hard to get our arms around us all the varieties exist under that title yes but more importantly who are they and why should Christians be concerned well you know look at the history of the emergence of the black Hebrew Israelites or the black Hebrews the the idea starting from kind of a very earlier time I know we see kind of the notion of people of God primarily in Christian communities understood themselves as the spiritual Hebrews are spiritually is alights this idea that there's this experiential connection Israel coming out of Egypt out of slavery in the Exodus and that being kind of an experiential connection with African Americans experiencing slavery in North America and this experience taking on kind of this identity among believers Christian mainly Christian communities especially emerging out out of slavery referring to themselves as the spiritual Israelites so it's kind of more of a symbolic kind of thing but from there they're especially during the time of racism among African American communities the response from spirituals lights to locating and identifying themselves more as as a Lost Tribe or as a tribe of Israel tribe and condoning themselves as black Hebrew Israelites or black Israelites spiritual but also suggesting that they have some biological or historical connection and so the emergence of that particularly what we see today I would say a broad understanding of black Hebrew Israelites would be an identity movement a movement that's kind of grounded in a black nationalism as well but also locating that with the kind of faith and Scripture and so this kind of consolation of variant variant traditions as you rightfully folk about Wow okay and I guess in the American context I know in some regards there's sex and other places of the world but in the American context where would you say some of this originated from I know you know some a lot of times there's connections we make with the Nation of Islam five percenters the Moors and even as we talk about black Hebrew Israelites any you know starting points kind of huge movements big historical movements that you would say that we should have paid attention to this is why it's kind of evolved into what it is today well I say I would say the resurgence of the black Hebrew Israelites or black Hebrews come out of a as discrimination against african-americans ramza and we see pockets of this you know we see the emergence of the black Muslims you know during the time period where Jim Crow was I was you know rampant and this was a response with the rise of the Nation of Islam the rise of these movements I think the resurgence of black Hebrew Israelites today is kind of this you know they're taking their turn worse before is the black Muslims now we've seen kind of a resurgence of the black ear Israelites now that now they're taking their term and so in a response to the discrimination against African and people of African descent and in response to racism this is a an identity of how do we locate ourselves we belong we have a story we have a history and it doesn't just begin in American slavery and when he goes back and this idea of going back even beyond Africa so I understand you know this group is its philosophy I call it a kind of feel philosophical understanding of itself grounding itself within a faith context a Judeo context if you will already conflated Judeo context and a black nationalist identity in the emergence of that you have I hate to say but you just kind of pick your pick one you know Muslims like you've realized the commonality among both is that they are black nationalist groups ground in any kind of or a mask masking themselves any kind of religious tradition like Muslims would be Islam but they don't necessarily have a kind of Islamic tradition or a kind of an Orthodox Islamic tradition like here is lights don't having necessarily an orthodox Hebraic or do they tradition and i think the thing that makes them common and they emerge out of a kind of racism and a discrimination with people of color and particularly in north america is that it's about self-determination and it's about self identity and that's what you find common among each of these groups hmm I love that that the polarization of self-determination is self-identity that's that's a great way for us to think about it um you know and well you know even like in the 60s you find like the cultural nationalist organization you find the revolutionary nationalist Black Panthers it was all about self-determination you have all of these various groups responding to racism to squat responding to discrimination in America and you have them understanding self-determination and identifying themselves in an in an in a history that goes beyond slavery that goes beyond black people in America so how can black people understand themselves as having an ancient origin or an ancient historical context and I think if we really begin to study and this is where you know my study in the Dead Sea Scrolls really kind of has a conversation with it I think if we look in the biblical text we find that both Judaism and Christianity Christianity definitely has an African seed but its origin we find within northern African context also Judaism we find Judaism very much in part of the northern Africa northern African context and as we read the biblical text we see this kind of exchange or constant interaction with northern Africans in the biblical text and in the biblical story and so we don't necessarily need to create a kind of a nationalist identity per se when we were just looking in the biblical text we can find ancient African origins and traditions within the biblical context they're not african-american they're bright people of color people of Africa understand that a part of the story that's rich before we dive into the particulars of I guess black Hebrew Israelites I think what you touched on is already helpful and I think it would help those who may be black Hebrew Israelite or particular Nation of Islam or even some of the other movements you talked about is why these movements have come to the forefront I think sometimes we are on the defensive as Orthodox Christians you're kind of attacking these movements but at the same time I like to use an analogy in urban apologetics it's kind of like the novel African sign you know we have to ask ourselves how we've created the monster not to use that euphemism to downplay anybody but the truth is these movements exists in response to some the original sin of America racism in a lot of corruption of Christianity could you just touch on that for those who may be you know wondering how in the world could something like this exist how in the world could people people believe this could you kind of push back on that honor and you know that Franken Stein mentality we've created the monster well you're so in American context so you you you take a people out of an African West African context and you create them as slaves you tell them that they're you know this this form of this brand of Christianity says that black people are cursed black people are reserved for slavery and so you give them a kind of and of Christianity based on conflated traditions right not faithful to the blue context but conflated traditions reading the biblical text with trying to affirm a presupposition a superiority of white people and a inferiority of black people and particularly in that particular time you know during the antebellum period in America you couldn't get away with an argument like that unless you can justify it through scriptures because scripture was authoritative and you couldn't push anything past or sell anything if it wasn't sellable across the pulpits of America and so you know we have this argument of how we understand black people and it was kind of that creation and so the response was the emergence of the black church but within these early black church context especially during the slave period slavery enslavement you have a kind of syncretism a kind of remember remembrance of the West African contexts and cultures and practices merging with early Christian practices especially during the antebellum period so you have a kind of syncretism a kind of black religion African slave religion mixed with a kind of you know Christianity this kind of new brand of Christianity in American context and so the syncretism kind of carries for either in a more in a Christian tradition or in traditions that go into Islam or you know trying to find some way of connecting it with some kind of faith traditions and so you have these Frankenstein emerging kinds of things you know we see this even with apologetics studies you find we are defending the Christian faith that kind of an Orthodox Christianity against these varying brands or varying streams of Christian revisionism these are kinds of Frankenstein's how do we understand ourselves because it's all about control yes all about how do I understand myself how do I take control of my Destinee how about you take control of my plight in a context that it seems like you know oppression is just kind of getting away and just doing whatever once it once with me how do i reconcile that with reconciling submission to God and my faith and it's just kind of all over the place mm-hmm so you have a lot of Frankenstein's I call it existentialist Frankenstein's walking yeah that's great as that's that's really something for us to contemplate because I think sometimes we forget this conversation and I think it's important for us to really have a firm grasp on that conversation as we engage people who are really grappling with the grotesque history of religion in America in a lot of ways and we're trying to respond to it for you I know it would be just as difficult to say what is a Christian theology what is a Christian view of particular tenets of the faith because there's many streams in Christianity but there are I guess you know what we would call pillars of the faith what would you say are some pillars of Blackey brew Israelites if you look across the camp's the sex what are some you know main tenants yes there'll be variations yes they would vary to some degree but what are some of the main or primary beliefs that kind of brings them into this this identity it's a theology that affirms blackness no locating blackness as or a black skin as as the people of God anything that's outside of this dark-skinned context any persons any communities and traditions have been complicit in the the oppression in the subjugation of dark-skinned people's and because of that they reflect the kind of kind of rebuff from from God and the remnant tradition that preserves this kind of integrity of who God is and what God is act is preserved primarily within dark-skinned people's and so that would be a I think a core basic tendency there's uh you know it's it's it's you know race-conscious oriented mm-hmm you know you ask yourself tonight the idea of salvation where salvation salvation for the Jews but the biblical text is read only in the sense of they are there in the community these planning were Israelites are the enlightened ones it's kind of the final ascent Nations there's those who are enlightened those who understand who they are they're kind of God destined or God reserved you know to save the nations the black Hebrew Israelites understand themselves as that remnant and the biblical text is similar to what we see within the principle community of the Dead Sea Scrolls they understand the biblical text and they rewrite the biblical text in commentaries we call them pressure commentaries and as the biblical text is speaking only about them and only their leaders can interpret the text for them and interpret the text correctly because they are the remnant of God because all else has fallen away for one reason or another and so I see lots of similarities with ancient communities like that Jewish community the Essenes Qumran with ancient Hebrews lines the biblical text is speaking about them it the interpretations can only come out of their communities and their leaders are the ones that are only equipped and enlightened and anointed to give those interpretations mm-hmm now how do you contrast that with I guess the Orthodox Christian belief where's the tension you know for somebody who's listening wants to affirm the struggle wants to affirm why the Frankenstein exists why we've gone in the other direction of affirming black identity in the Bible affirming identity within a biblical framework where's the tension between the black Hebrew Israelites in Orthodox Christian view well you have we have a different theology so we're reading the same biblical text but we have different meanings different understandings and so I think if you divest the biblical text from its historical context its historical origins then you can kind of create this Frankenstein you can kind of make the biblical text say and mean what you wanted to say but if we ground the biblical text within this historical context as historical origin and understand historically what the text was speaking about right we take part passages from them Deuteronomy passages from the Pentateuch well we have a mosaic community talking to a people of Israel who are coming out of Egypt historically and and Moses our God through Moses is preparing them for entering into the Promised Land well that's historical we can read that and and ground that in the historical narrative and we want to understand and read the biblical text and understand the kind of having a contextualized reading what is the contemporary relevance yeah so what we're now looking for what are these time transcending chooses historical transcending truths these truths of God part of God's grand narrative if you will what is how has God interacting with communities and so we preserve or we read the biblical text and we read the Old Testament reading the Testament as a kind of legacy these are witnesses these are these are individuals and how God has used and interacted with them because way back from the beginning when God created humanity God created humanity in the Michael day in His image humanity fell now God is interested in the redemption of humanity and salvation through Jesus Christ and so that's how we understand ourselves in the Christian context salvation is through Jesus Christ salvation is not for an ethnic group salvation is not for a particular region or geographical region Judaism initially was it was an ethnic religious tradition when salvation is for everyone Jesus Christ came died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and there's a response that we have to accept that black-white Jew Gentile purple yellow green who elevation is for everyone and that's how we understand is Christian within the Christian tradition and we understand Jesus as Savior but Jesus as God incarnate and na and we embrace the authority of Scripture the lordship of Jesus Christ and the redemption or a redemption for Humanity because of their fallenness and sinfulness and Jesus is that redemption that propitiation for our sins that's so that's how we understand ourselves as a Christian content as opposed to what we say Hebrew Israelite context which is primarily I would say interested in affirming blackness I mean through kind of a religious orientation that's really great how should the Christians engage taking that that context taking that that contrast you know we engage depending on the camp different ways there's definitely some of particular camps that are on the Block open-air preaching with the signs some come in to two barber shops a lot of times we know family members cousins who have converted into this particular movement how do we engage what recommendations or practicalities would you give for a Christian who is kind of being affected by this I call it I have a kind of a three pronged approach observing you being a passive observant listening and hearing what they're saying kind of getting a sense because like you say rightfully say there's there's varying groups they have varying different thoughts and understanding so black Hebrew Israelites are not monolithic in any stretch of the imagination so observing listening hearing what they're saying as a passive observant being an act of observing asking questions flushing out trying to hear really where they are and then being a witness potentially dispelling the myths that they have or the misunderstandings on the misconstrued understandings in the biblical text but that requires one knows what they believe as a Christian one understands the theology and knows what they believe and why they believe what they believe so they witness requires you know the Christian had you know to do some homework to be an apologist if you work we have the observant approach which moves to being a witness which is dispelling the myths and finally and lastly is to really begin to find common ground yes black people people of people of African descent are within the biblical text we find African nations within the biblical text in an African so we could find common ground and we can we can affirm those common commonalities and I think most importantly with all of these approaches is remain a community remain in relationship don't lose that relationship don't break that relationship and potentially being an observant and especially a witness you know unless you feel like you got enough juice you probably don't want to engage them on the street when it's like 15 against one Laura because you know how how can you really have an intelligible conversation mmm you know you know if you really want to have an intelligible conversation and really talk about the scriptures really begin to dig in it's probably best to have one-on-one conversation but if you feel like you can have conversations on the street I mean it's just the performance it's it's about a loader and then it can turn into kind of ad hominem attacks and it could turn pretty ugly and I don't think that's the witness that they would suggest that God advocates the way they understand God there tends to be some sense of anger some hostility and maybe that's just a venting or kind of response to what they feel like has been the plight of the black man the planted the black woman to play the black community there's some more constructive ways to do that and we can move forward because we did today we trust God we trust we trust you know that's that's when our faith you know it's built on me we trust God that God is is in controlling God knows what we're going through is as people of color that's good let me let me dive in a little bit to your expertise as we kind of turn towards the the last round of questions kind of getting into like the specifics of what they believe and kind of using your historical knowledge and your study how can we combat this one major kind of influence that I think you could really speak to what is the ethnic identity of the Jews what was their skin color just be blunt and honest I mean this is a big conversation that we're having with them you mentioned it in a common ground is your study in the Dead Sea Scrolls looking at the sceen community you talked about black presence in the Bible where does with this ethnicity and skin color kind of merge with the history of the Israelites who they were what the identity is where they are now how would you speak to that yeah I definitely you know within the biblical text we find from the very beginning garden the garden of God God created humanity from the dust of the ground you look at the dust of the ground and there's this play on words this term Adam if you have the the Hebrew consonants olive dialect main and you've ow point that differently with different vowels 'adam meaning humanity can be found I don't which means crown and this idea of ruddy or rustic or brownish in color so the declarant word God takes the God creates a Dom anyway he takes from the atom the dust of the ground this reddish brownish color and informs Adam this humanity and so they were definitely a people that look like the brow he looked like the color of that so there are people of color dark skin hue people of color and so we find throughout the biblical texts throughout the historical telling of God's story in the Old Testament all the way up into the New Testament we find it's it's no it's no surprise that we're dealing with people of color we're dealing with this I call it afro-asiatic region we're not in Europe we're not in North America we're in this afro-asiatic region where these people are dark-skinned brown bronze reddish in color and archaeology bears that out historical migration patterns bear that out and so there's this constant interaction why would why would in the in the Gospels why Matthew why would Joseph take Jesus to Egypt to hide from Herod well because that's because he resembled you know when you're hiding you're hiding you're blending in you resemble the people of color the people then look like that so we can acknowledge and we can establish with like he realized black Muslims what we can establish yes that the people of the Bible where people of color dark skin black skin kind of a multi array of colored people if you will mm-hm so you know that argument is common ground we can affirm that we can affirm that you know the theory of mark the first gospel of john mark if we take that theory mark being a patron saint Suriname northern Africa Libya born there died in Alexandria whether or not he reminded there because of the Jewish systems of that particular time after the Israelites are coming out of Babylon now and because of the rise of the different Jewish factions the Pharisees the Sadducees that sell it the scene and who's controlling the temple and the Syrians are fighting against the Egyptians and Ptolemy and the Syrians went out and Titus becomes the ruler of this Palestinian air and he sells the priesthood to the highest bidder at that particular time and the priests that or were bought and sold by the Syrians are offering sacrifice in the temple offering swine on the birthday of anti you have Jewish communities going back into northern Africa archeology tells us that there was a Jewish temple set up in Egypt in Leon topless Egypt during this particular time period that's because the temple had been defiled the Jewish priests who were they that lineage were ousted by Antiochus the Syrian ruler and they set up a temple in Egypt northern Africa well if you have a temple in a particular location this is the first time the temple was set up outside of Jerusalem then you have a community there you have a Jewish community there and so this kind of gets into you you find the northern African desert Simon of Cyrene a coming and worshipping in Jerusalem and he's forced to carry the cross of Jesus where was he in Jerusalem he's Jewish he's working like he has it's encounter with Jesus same thing with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 he's in Jerusalem coming from worship he's a blind man he's a person of color he goes back and takes the tradition Christian the impact would you know being preached to about the suffering servant he takes us back to the can decay the ruler of the Ethiopians and the traditions presence to this very day the oldest Christian churches on earth are found in Ethiopia and in each of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or the Egyptian Coptic Church so that's not an accent because there's this historical traditions could be bore out archaeologically anthropologically historically that Judaism and Christianity I say or ancient African tradition traditional religions because you find them there and they inform us which is really kind of now begs the question what is our Christianity here in America look like how much of is it if it is informed by these historical traditions and these historical patterns there there's no way we can find common grounds there we can find definitely find common ground that's really good and I'll and that's what I call a pastoral approach you know not in the common ground let's have a list of a real conversation is this really about anger anger issues venting but if it's about racism you know God loves all of us black white guys no respecter person God is interested in the redemption of humanity black white yellow red all of us what in terms of common ground I know a conversation that always is going to come up with certain camps is this idea of King James only yeah you know the the other texts aren't necessarily as valid I've you know some camps will even go as far to say King James was black your historical analysis textual criticism how we got the Bible you know what would be your response to that you know biblical translation you know where did the King James come from how we receive the text what would be your response in that regard well you know the King James 1611 it didn't have the advantages of the manuscripts that were found 18th 19th 20th century Dead Sea Scrolls the oldest Bible manuscripts primarily the Old Testament the oldest Bible manuscripts are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls this is a 20th surgery find and you find variant traditions with this exclusive Bible you find the Masoretic text which are the manuscripts that we use for our Bibles today translated and I don't translate your Bibles today you find the samaritan institute you find this the source for the Septuagint in hebrew you know found among the Dead Sea Scrolls so Septuagint is not just this Greek phenomena that has a different variant but the source of the Septuagint you find in Hebrew among the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts and then you find a version of the heat of the Old Testament Hebrew Bible that has not been attested for in its writings and it's it's it's its descriptions that's only a tested for among the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts and so those manuscripts and the richness and what they inform in the biblical text aren't afforded to King James Version of the text and the King James primarily borrowed from the Texas Receptus Erasmus he didn't have access to full and complete manuscripts of the entire biblical witness the entire Protestant biblical witness because you didn't have you have a Catholic a Dean you have an Orthodox Christian canon and they have various numbers but the Protestant Christian canon it was then it there there were not full manuscripts preserved at that particular time that Erasmus used and so what one thing that Erasmus did is is those texts that weren't found or preserved in Hebrew he had Latin hmm and what he did is he took some of those Latin versions or some of those Latin manuscripts and read transcribed or retranslated those Latin back into the Hebrew mmm that's a no-no within textual criticism in textual studies and these reinterpreted or re transcribed translated Latin back into Hebrew now this Hebrew collection family of manuscript witnesses that Teddy Rasmus put the Texas receptors now was used to translate into the English King James that's suggest they probably the poor translation if you will as far as the english-language Bibles the King James is not the strongest that's probably I wouldn't say it's the poorest English tradition I don't wanna freak out my you know Christian yeah yeah but yeah but but but what but what the King James does do and if you would put it in a parallel to the New Revised Standard is it it shows the faithfulness of the message Jesus as Lord and Savior the story of God it's still preserved as long as you find some discrepancies in some some different areas in varying areas now but the core message is still preserved within the King James and you preach from the King James you teach from the King James people still get saved people still get set free you know so the message is still preserved and intact it's just you have a rich more richness and more of a full you know collection of manuscripts to kind of pull from when you're looking at the NIV or the New Revised Standard Version love it now another similar question which you will see is a certain camps carrying around these red books okay a lot of Christians wondering what they are apocryphal though you have expertise and that as well but what is the Apocrypha why is it important it should it be binding on a Christian is that I mean how should we engage with this movement who are reading this engaging this holding it what would be your view on how we should engage that should it be binding on us something we need to add into the Christian canon why wasn't it in our regular leather-bound Bible today what would be your your answer towards that so with we find the Apocrypha or this kind of historical set historical documents that are common to the particular time period we find this inter Testament illiterate literary time period and that gold between a kind of to the pig referred to Apocrypha time period that are in that's in between the Old Testament and the New Testament and it just simply describes the kind of literature that was prominent of prevalent at that particular time they in turn a New Testament literary time period but it also talks about the historical timeframe and that sets up I would say between the Old Testament and the New Testament we understand and we have a historical continuum from what we say you know the Minor Prophets you know in Daniels time going into Babylon up until the New Testament you know the Gospels or Paul's early writing and so we had this Apocrypha serves as a kind of historical information it lets us know historically what was going on Maccabees talks about the Jewish Wars Lou you know the rise of the Maccabees that are moving from the Hasmonean times to the huronian times it just it's it's a rich information because it gives us historical historical kind of a dimensional portrait and reality whoops what's going on with the people of God from the time of coming out of Babylon and the time we get these first recordings of the New Testament and the Gospels in Paul's writing and they are preserved within the Catholic canon and Catholic Bibles they would be deuterocanonical which would be you know canon which is standard up here and deuterocanonical which would be sub canon or sub which they're informative of the Canon they don't tell a different story necessarily but they affirm when they value and they validate what we have as canon in there in the Orthodox Christian Bibles as well so yeah we don't necessary need to be afraid of them I probably wouldn't advocate preaching from them but you you know as you're building your sermon and teaching your lessons you can definitely refer to them to try to set the his the the biblical passage within the system content the context is important historical context is important we see where we've come from which it helps us to inform our present which allows us to know where we're going in the future that's great one last question for you it kind of its the overarching question when we engage black Hebrew Israelites the law what do we do with the law how should we know there's various ways that Christians even talk about this in terms of kind of theological spectrum on different denominations but as a whole I think there is a synonymous witness with an Orthodox Christianity about what it means to be justified by faith alone in Christ alone but how do we differ with this movement on what they think about the law how it pertains to salvation how should we apply the law live in light under the Old Testament well the law never was suggested or implied to save hmm the law was a schoolmaster Paul talks about this it was a tutor the law let us know how unrighteous and how unjustified we were the law let us know that we needed a redeemer we needed a savior because at the end of the law within the law there was this place for sacrifice and the blood sacrifice of the pure lab that was to atone for the sins of the people so that was within the law so the law was a tutor it was a schoolmaster it showed us that we needed everything that we needed a savior but the law also we look at in the Pentateuch first five books the Bible was to distinguish the people of God from the other nations if we were going to be a people of God we had to conduct ourselves a certain way we had to behave a certain way we had to act a certain way we were in a sense preparing ourselves to be in community in communion with God and so there was this setup you know the twelve tribes you know Israel's or Jacob's sons and that going into you know from you know being saved from the famine and going in Egypt you know the Egyptians is forgetting whom Joseph was and that community they're now being in bondage the Israelites and now coming out going into the promised land in this community with God and His laws were to help the people to remember who their God was remember how their God saved them so it was a covenant between the two um you know God did this for you got to dis for us therefore we must be obedient we must follow his commands in the merciful and so now here we have Jesus is fulfilling the law and how the New Testament says if you love me you'll keep my Commandments well you keep the commandments by embracing what Jesus has done is fulfilling the law we're not going against the law per se but we are living in grace for operating in grace and we know that the law never was meant to save us but Jesus is our Savior and therefore we have an advocate the Holy Spirit we pray confess our sins and you know that God has redeemed us this is God's ultimate sacrifice of redemption for Humanity through grace Jesus Christ because it wasn't the law so that law you you can't find a way for one to be redeemed or saying and I don't think the black Hebrew Israelites aren't sacrificing animals if they are then we need to be concerned mmm you know Orthodox Judaism they're not sacrificing animals and that that was primarily the kind of the crux the foundation of his Jewish practices it's about atoning atoning sins for the community and they're not offering sacrifices you know of course they the big fight with the Temple Mount and al-aqsa and the mosque and in Jerusalem both being the holy site for both Islam and Judaism and today there was a kind of a spiritual eyes notion of sacrifice that's the best they can do because there's nowhere to sacrifice the word offer animal sacrifices blood sacrifice but you know within Christianity Jesus is the blood sacrifice and Jesus is the atonement redemption for sins for all of humanity it was great that's the gospel yes amen amen amen and I and I really advocate you know we just we love we love a brother like you his reliance of brothers and sisters they are our brothers and sisters wrap our arms around and and don't run from them but to embrace them listen to them you know pray with them walk with them journey with them cry with them I mean there are brothers you know the the the key question and I would say the question that permeates from Genesis all the way to the day when Cain asked God about the murder of his brother am I my brother's keeper yes my brother's keeper I'm my sister's keeper black he grew a lookalike through my brothers and my sisters they might not feel the same way about me but but we have an obligation and responsibility to love our brothers and sisters mmm thank you for that encouragement brother I want to thank you for your expertise and all of the knowledge that you've dropped on us I think we're gonna have to go back and listen to this about two or three times we're gonna get out the theological dictionaries and dive into everything that you're saying it was just an encouraging time I think for us one to have a scholar of your expertise but also being very practical and I hope that the listeners of Jew 3 are blessed and encouraged by it for those who differ with us on our views hope is taken in love hope they research everything that you've said as well and the dialogue continues and I pray that the free offer of the gospel continues they impact people that are listening in today so if people want to get in contact with you what's the best way to stay in contact I think it's they could be in contact my facebook is facebook.com/paes my Twitter and Instagram would be a Twitter and Instagram would be PhD Hopkins and so yeah we can continue the conversation there I appreciate you appreciate your work I appreciate June 3 and Risa's work and injustice ministry being able to not just necessarily giving a one-sided message but given the opportunity for open conversation so appreciate you brother appreciate you absolutely we appreciate you as well may the Lord bless you and keep you amen thank you guys thank you so much for listening to the Jew 3 project podcast we hope that you guys are encouraged by this message if you want to support Jew 3 project just go to Jude 3 project comm and we will be grateful for your generosity Oh [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Jude 3 Project

Views: 9,817

Rating: 4.0588236 out of 5

Keywords: Hebrew Israelites, Jamal Hopkins, King James Version

Id: hGvtekbca74

Length: 50min 2sec (3002 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 21 2019