One study is called the Pew Forum’s study of the American religious landscape. Here is some of their findings:
If you break down Pew’s Jewish numbers, you find that 55 percent of Reform Jews make over $100,000 a year–three times the national figure of 19 percent in America.
Other revelations are that 51 percent of Jews are 50 and older. The national average is 41 percent. Though mainline Protestants are also older in the same proportion: 51 percent
Now education. The national average for college or postgraduate education is 27 percent. Among Jews it is 59 percent. And as for mainline Protestants, 34 percent.
Most Jews live under the old covenant, and many things in that covenant are obsolete. However, it was written by our eternal God who speaks with eternal truths that never become obsolete. Cutting foreskin is obsolete, but that we are rewarded in this life for obedience is not. Check out the fruits of the spirit. The old covenant never, with its eternal truths, promised salvation for obedience. It was an eternal truth that bloodshed and faith were required for forgiveness of sin.
A major factor in Jewish life is based on how the Lord tells us to bring up children. The orthodox Jews begin memory work very early in a child’s life. We teach nursery rhymes, they teach scripture. It has been proven that the memory of a child begins much earlier than most people believe it does.
We are so blessed that we know Christ, it is so much greater than their blessings. They have the blindness God gave them to understanding the Messiah. That does not mean we must not look at the blessings they have from the Lord and wonder about them.
Amen really insightful post i point to the fact that 98 percent of the Bible or so is written by Jews who existed under the ot law , but also new the lords word of salvstion in the New Testament .
it sort of explains it well in scripture many don’t feel it’s worth some time to read any length but this is what happened
“And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.…
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land…
Genesis 15:12-14, 18 KJV
exodus Leviticus and numbers tell us the fulfillment of these things leading up until they are about to cross over Jordan and
Moses dies before entering the promised land.
Now they receive the law and
conditions for the promised land he was giving them based on the promise to Abram
“In that
I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy
God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
I call
heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Deuteronomy 30:17-19
there are about 2-3 full pages of perpetual blessings for obedience of the nation and cleaving to the lord , and perpetual curses if Israel Broke the covenant and served other gods after they entered the land and God found them out beforehand and knew this part which is true we read of it beginning in (judges 2 )
“For
when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat;
then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant……..for I know
their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.”
Deuteronomy 31:20-21 KJV
Gods presence with them found them to be as every gentile people sinners incapable of holiness by thier flesh.
When they entered into the promised land and
abrams promise came to pass as the lord determined by his foreword of promise (genesis 15:12-end of 15)
Just as God foresaw they began to turn away from him and worship other gods
That then becomes the Old Testament story of isreal a repetitive thing like (judges 2:11-23 )describes this happened multiple times through multiple generations with multiple gods of multiple nations.
( Ezekiel 23) to the point God labeled the nation of Israel a whore who he formerly had been betrothed to but now would hand over to all the nations who’s gods she committed adulteries with.
And would choose another nation of people who were not a nation before he chose them basically God was fed up with Israel’s adulteries serving false gods
“I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not:
I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me;
for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
And I will bring forth
a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Therefore
will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. Therefore thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry:
behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
And
ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen:
for
the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name: That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
For,
behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Isaiah 65:1-3, 5, 7, 9, 12-13, 15-17
the new covenant is for the new earth to come the churches promised land but the ot is an example for us now that repentance is a need always in the lord because eventually the day of the lord will come we don’t want to end up in the desolation and curse but want to enter into the city God prepared for us and receive the inheritance of Abraham’s children born in Christ not in flesh
“Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is,
They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God:
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
Romans 9:6-8 KJV
“For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And
if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:27-29 KJV