JD on X
Not much in Dispensational Evangelicalism is more outrageously misguided than celebrating the Passover Seder. God’s destruction of the Temple was his benevolent loving kindness to the Jewish people, to destroy their capacity to observe the Old Covenant religion that had been superseded and replaced by the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. It was God’s way of getting the most stubborn people on the planet to take a hint and move along.
But alas, that would require embracing the Messiah they rejected, because they wanted a Zionist Messiah, who would restore the earthly kingdom they wanted. They wanted a warlord, not a Savior. And so, in the centuries after the temple’s destruction, they manufactured an all new religion, perverting the rites of the old and inventing creative solutions to the rites of Moses being impossible without the Temple. And from these man-made inventions, we get the 15-part Seder which is nothing like the Passover that God required under the Old Law.
At the very heart of the Seder is its central doctrine; the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. Its entire existence is owed to that rejection of Christ. And its individual parts serve the purpose of blaspheming the One God sent to redeem them. The Seder is a bastardized, illegitimate imitation of the Passover. The so-called “Christian Seder” is an imitation OF an imitation. That’s the stupid part.
There is already a means for Christians to remember the Passover, and it’s by celebrating the Messiah who is our Passover Lamb, the One whose blood was shed for us, so that if it covers us, death will pass-over us, that one day we will make it to the heavenly Zion, our Promised Land, the abode of God.
Neo-Judaizers and Dispensational Zionists believe there’s some special magic in these Jewish rites, but it’s little more than devil worship with a yarmulke, striking at the heart of the Christian faith. And this though – that by imitating or even worshipping alongside Jews there’s some special juju is actually quite old. One of the Church Fathers, Chrysostom, had to deal with the influence of the Judaizers in Antioch.
He said, “Did the Jews ever observe our pre-Paschal fast (IE Lent)? Did they ever join us in keeping the feast of the martyrs? They do not run to the truth, but you rush to transgression…”If any of you shall go to the spectacle of the Trumpets, or rush off to the synagogue, or take part in fasting, or share in the Sabbath, or observe any other Jewish ritual great or small, I call heaven and earth as my witnesses that I am guiltless of the blood of all of you.”
Chrysostom went on, “To go to the synagogue is a greater crime than going to the theater. What goes on in the theater is, to be sure, sinful; what goes on in the synagogue is godlessness..When God forsakes a people, what hope of salvation is left? When God forsakes a place, that place becomes the dwelling of demons…Certainly, it is the time for me to show that demons dwell in the synagogue, not only in the place itself but also in the souls of the Jews.”
Writing from the perspective of Christ, he wrote to the Christians interloping with Jews on their feast days, “You made common cause with those who crucified me. You were obstinate toward me and started up again the festivals to which I had put an end..If, then, the Jews fail to know the Father, if they crucified the Son, if they thrust off the help of the Spirit, who should not make bold to declare plainly that the synagogue is a dwelling of demons?”
Christian Zionism presents a return of the ancient heresy of the Judaizers, which is much wider than simply demanding circumcision or dietary restrictions. Sometimes, Judaizing doesn’t require that at all. The heart of the Judaizing heresy is the belief that Jews retain a special status with God even in their unbelief, and that they have obtained Covenant blessings and promises without faith in Jesus. That’s the heart of the heresy. And it’s that very notion that leads evangelicals in the year 2026 to embrace feasts that exist to reject Christ as Lord.