978-9659039715
Another entry into Raymond Robert Fischer’s writing exploits proves half excellent, and half letdown. Full Circle involves the hows and whys of the Essene Dead Sea Scroll beliefs–at least for about half the book. The highlight comes when Fischer begins to quote Dead Sea Scroll fragments and puts them next to their Biblical equivalent in the first hemisphere of the work. Everything there fits together nicely and is done in a scholarly fashion. Some time before that is spent on discussing the Pharisees and Sadducees and who they were and what they believed. This is all excellently covered and executed.
The second half, though, is not as strongly performed. Much of this can be attributed to the subject material taking a decided shift toward different beliefs that are fallacies that Fischer sees burgeoning within the Messianic circles he travels. His arguments are well done where these matters arise–things like the “automatic Jewish Covenant” not requiring any witnessing about Messiah because the Jewish people were born into a Covenant and the two house ideology of Ephraimite Gentiles being the new Christian inheritors of Israel who will go on to replace Judah in the land of Israel. Indeed, replacement theology is ugly stuff since it so often seems to come with the baggage of whomever is being replaced as being treated in some subhuman way. So, it makes sense as to why Fischer feels the need to cover this issue, but what it winds up doing is turns the book from being a “Hey, here is how to understand the Essenes” work into a “Here are how Messianics who are not Jewish and never will be are screwing everything up”. A lot of infighting between various Jewish activism kinds of groups within the early Messianic roots movement are highlighted.
Fischer, unfortunately, subscribes to the idea that Jews are Jews and “grafted in believers” are “grafted in believers” and that the grafted in are not more Jewish than the Jews. This point makes sense in terms of not trying to replace Jewish people. On the other hand, the ten tribes were dispersed, and at some point when they come back, they are not going to be LESS Jewish than Judah either. Instead, everything at that juncture should become Israel, as it was originally intended to be. Who knows how many exiles have married Judah tribe members unknowingly? How could they prove it, and how Jewish do you need to be before you are considered Jewish? Ten generations? Twenty? Traceable to the Temple? Which one? The First or the Second? What if a person suddenly starts speaking ancient Paleo-Hebrew and brings forth the lamp that never runs dry of oil? Is that Jewish enough? Do you need an angel to descend from on high with heavenly shofars blowing to announce how Jewish your heritage is? Is that evidence admissible? Can you live in the land THEN??!!
The Messiah sets the bar high and says that whoever does the will of YHVH are the “chosen people”. That gets beyond any one tribal distinction. With this caveat, the second half of the book reads like a train wreck. This person is fighting with that person over that doctrine and this congregation and this kind of outreach. This person has this specific qualm with that specific matter, and they are exchanging heated messages on the internet about one another.
Fischer tries to make peace with the whole thing saying that Gentiles have one kind of call and Jews another and they shouldn’t try to overlap their calls. On the other hand, Fischer completely seems to miss that at a fundamental level it doesn’t really matter who is what. Yes, it matters in the sense that you don’t want people to move into Israel who are not Israel. However, Israel today over the years is the consequence of Israel not being Israel. It is what remains after a lot of disobedience and infighting and rebellion. It’s good that something remains, but because something remains does not make it better than what is missing. Indeed, Israel cannot fully be itself until what was removed is no longer missing. Jews, it could be said, cannot really be REAL Jews until all the tribes are back. After all, if everything there is just Judah, what’s the point in having those other tribes at all? Just install a lion on the Temple Mount and make sure it roams around 24 hours out of the day on that spot and call it a day.
The work would have been far stronger had it stuck with the Essenes and their possible beliefs. Fischer has unique experience here since he can literally go where they were. That’s one of the perks about being recognized as Jewish–you can get past the gatekeepers. Of course, Fischer points out that many try this only to find that once they are in the land of Israel that they cannot afford to stay there for various reasons. At the point Fischer is writing, Israel was undergoing an Intifada which was causing unemployment and other complications due to the UN wanting Israel to give Palestine more land. Again, Israel seems to be the cauldron of boiling tensions, no matter the time period where it exists and where it doesn’t it still seems to ignite tension because it might come back into existence. Because of the political climate, not everyone who went to live in Israel got to remain there.
The first half of this book is well worth the read. The second half is fine if you like reading about fights over inheritances like you might see in a family after a funeral. Either way, it is a product of the time in which it was written, and gives unique insight into why Israel is as it is today.