This scripture has been abused much in recent days:
"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation" -Eph 2:14
Trying to avoid any landmines here, but suffice it say, the "middle wall of separation" spoken of by Paul in Ephesians two is not racism. It is discrimination... God-ordained discrimination.
As Charles Welch framed it, under the Old Covenant, the best gentile was farther from God than the worst Israelite.
God wasn't "tearing down prejudice" he was creating something new after the Acts age (which was "to the Jew first"). He was creating the "one new man" (2:15), "fellow members of one body" (3:6; Gk: sussomos - only time used in scripture). He broke down the wall HE erected.
This poor epistle is being trampled on for political purposes. Ephesians is the Magna Carta of this age. Again, the wall of separation was God-ordained and had nothing to do with racism, hatred, or prejudice (in its negative connotation).
Ephesians: The Great Epistle of Our Hope
Ephesians is the glorious revealer of the new hope "far above the heavens;" a greater hope than inheriting the earth or living in the New Jerusalem. It takes Gentiles, those who were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world," and gave us a special hope which was hidden from the prophets from before the foundation of the world!
"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ."
-Eph 3:8-9
"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
-Eph 2:19-22
Amidst all the self-flagellation, I will not stand for God being named as the author of hatred. The wall of separation preserved a people through whom God would send a savior for the world. To charge God with racism is bad exegesis at best and blasphemy at worst.
Beat yourself if you feel you must, just don't drag God's chosen into your guilt.
Leave Ephesians 2 alone. Let us look to our own hearts and stop charging God and his chosen apostles with crimes against humanity. If we've erected walls for our own purposes, don't blame it on God or on those hand-picked to bring his message of salvation to ALL who believe.
A little miffed today, but Christians need to understand the implications of condemning the middle wall.
