The Page of Separation, Part 1
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- Apr 4
- 6 min read
“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.” (John 5:46)
Over nineteen years, I’ve been teaching a course in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
The class is intriguing to most Christians because it’s based on the Jewish perspective of the Torah, including the commentaries of some of Judaism’s major rabbis like Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki [1040-1105]), Rambam (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon [1138–1204]), and Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman [1194-1270]). On the one hand, my students are fascinated because they dive into the Torah for the first time, having had little to no interaction with Genesis to Deuteronomy. On the other hand, if they’ve read or even studied those books, they come away with new eyes on Moses’ God-inspired words.
Why is that, you ask?
Great question. I believe it comes down to one page in the Christian Bible. You’ll find that page between Malachi 4:6 and Matthew 1:1. The Page of Separation.
I just grabbed my Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible and cracked it open. Yup, there it is. The words say, “The New Testament. Words of Christ in Red.” Now, on to my Holman Christian Study Bible. Again, there it is, “The New Testament.” Surely, the NIV Study Bible I received during my ordination in 1994 has something different. Nope. “New Testament.” Maybe if I go back to the first Bible I ever owned, gifted to me by Spirit-filled students from good ol’ Baptist Bethel College in Minnesota. (I know. Weird, huh?)
“Harper Study Bible, The New Covenant, commonly called The New Testament Of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Revised Standard Version. Translated from the Greek, being the versions set forth A.D. 1611, revised A.D. 1881 and 1901, compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1946, second edition 1971.” It’s a bit wordy, but the page is still there.
For as long as I’ve been a Christian and for as long as I can remember, the Page of Separation has been in every Bible I’ve read—and in many Christians that I’ve met, figuratively speaking.
Let me explain.
I’ve often shared with my students that the Bible’s chapter and verse numbers are handy, but they sometimes get in the way. For example, Matthew 9 ends with, “Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). Cool. What happens next? We don’t know unless we ignore the chapter break and head right into Matthew 10:1, “Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness,” after which Matthew gives us their names, including Matthew’s. But then, what did Jesus do with His now-equipped Advance Team? “Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions…” (Matthew 10:5, italics author). Why would Jesus do that? Because, silly, Jesus just told them to “pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest,” and now He’s sending out His workers into His harvest.
Do you see how chapter break interrupts the text’s flow from Matthew 9 to 10? Sadly, that happens all over the Bible. Therefore, a good study tip is sometimes to ignore the artificial breaks that separate the text and go with the idea flow because you might miss what the Lord wants you to see.
I recently listened to a testimony from an orthodox rabbi who had a near-death experience (NDA) during which Jesus revealed Himself to the recently departed rabbi. What the rabbi said grabbed me. To paraphrase him, as he was in Jesus’ presence, all the scriptures he had diligently studied suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
For example, in the Torah’s account of Isaac’s near-death experience at his father’s hand (Genesis 22), the rabbi saw how it was a revelation of Jesus’ death in submission to His Father. Later on in the Torah, the rabbi realized that the account of Moses’ bronze snake on a pole was also a revelation of Jesus on His cross (Numbers 21; John 3:14-15).
In the section of the Prophets, he recalled Isaiah 53 and understood that it was another revelation of Jesus’ self-sacrifice for salvation and atonement for sin.
And finally, in the Writings section of the Hebrew Bible (the “Old” Testament), the disembodied rabbi saw that Psalm 22 laid bare Jesus’ excruciating suffering unto death.
Not only did the rabbi cross the separation between life and death, but Jesus helped him cross the Page of Separation from the Old Testament to “The New Testament Of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” As I listened to the rabbi’s NDE testimony, I realized that Jesus had graciously shown him that He was present in the three main divisions of the Hebrew Bible—the Torah, Prophets, and the Writings (aka the TNK, Tanak)—and that what the rabbi had diligently studied in the Tanak was a grand foreshadowing of the glory of Jesus in the New Covenant scriptures. The rabbi’s conclusion?
The Father knew all along.
With Jesus’ help, the now-born-again rabbi had passed through the Page of Separation from the previous Sinai Covenant to the current New Covenant. Without the Page of Separation, he saw what the Lord wanted him to see.
I find the same thing true for many Christians today. Only it goes in reverse from the New Covenant to the Old Covenant.
When people come to Jesus at conversion, they naturally tend to focus on the Gospels (Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection) and plow through Acts and the Epistles (Jesus’ ascension and the Early Church). Then they drop out at the Revelation of Jesus Christ because it’s confusing and, frankly, unknowable. I don’t fault them. End Time apocalyptic literature is tricky. But while they have the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Gospels and Epistles, they lack the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Tanak—the Torah, Prophets, Writings—the Old Testament.
What’s really delightful for me is taking students through the supposedly “confusing and unknowable” Old Testament scriptures and pulling back their “Page of Separation” so they can see the same foreshadowing the rabbi saw. When the light goes on, many of my students usually respond, “I never saw that before!” as they finally push through the Page of Separation. Just like that, they see how the revelation of Jesus is the bridge connecting Malachi 4:6 with Matthew 1:1, and the Bible is no longer two books within one book cover but one book with one story.
Like the rabbi, but in reverse, open-eyed Christians begin to see the foreshadowing, and it builds their trust in God.
The Father knew all along.
This revelation now starts these Christians on another journey. They begin to realize that Jesus didn’t create an entirely new religion but revealed the fullness of His Father’s plan, starting with Abraham, continuing through Judaism’s development, and fully revealed via the newborn stream of messianism within first-century Judaism.
When we finally learn that the Bible is one book with one plan and that Jesus is creating “one river from two tributaries” as He pushes forward His plan to restore the world, we see what the Lord wants us to see without the Page of Separation interrupting the flow of God’s idea.
Has God’s plan come together at this time? No. Many Christians and Jews remain standing on their respective sides of the Page of Separation, blind to what the Lord wants them to see. But that’s changing as the Lord brings His plan of global restoration to completion. Given time and God’s grace, more Jews will see Jesus and more Christians will see God’s plan with the Jews that’s still active. You might say that Jews and Gentiles are currently on a grand journey of mutual discovery.
One day, at the right time, the Lord will tear out the Page of Separation, and we will see one people, Jews, and Gentiles, reaching across the “separation” between them while standing together with Jesus.
In the next part, I want to share a revelation about this topic that the Lord gave me when I was about to graduate from Bible school in 1995. It was simple yet profound, and it has fueled my ministry ever since.
Stay tuned.
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts