This will be
the first in a few posts explaining why Judaism is not Christianity. It
is sad I need to do this but I've seen a lot of really bad theology floating
around in the Church and the Internet and it is disconcerting that Christians has been led so far astray. You know what
I'm talking about. The Christians trying to "get back to their roots"
or those with political inclinations that feel that they need to support a modern geopolitical Israel, not the spiritual Israel mentioned within Romans
9-11. I don't know if it is Dispensationalism run amok (John Hagee) or if it is
some odd need to relate to the Jewish people. Whatever it is, some Christians feel compelled to maintain Jewish dietary laws out of necessity, Easter
as Passover, etc. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is some guilt-laden empathy. Regardless, I'll be posting to delineate between the two and
explain why Judaism is now a false religion.
We need to
help the Jewish people understand these facts. We are doing them no favors when
we treat them as Christian brothers and sisters without teaching them or
providing them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without providing them with the
Gospel, we condemn them in their sins.
I will go
through some of the basic tenants of Judaism to clear the air for the reader. I
will admit outright that both Jews and Christians believe in the Old Testament.
It might be organized differently and different portions might have different
names but it is essentially the same book. The difference obviously comes from
misinterpretation of the Old Testament and events that took place after the Old
Testament ended. Without seeing Jesus for who He really was it is not
surprising the Jews would misinterpret their own holy book. They did not/do not
have the proper context and cannot see the big picture as revealed to the
believing Christian in Christ.
Jewish holy
writ ends with the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Christian holy writ continues
towards something much greater which is one seriously major caveat for Jews to
overlook (or more properly, reject). They've been rejecting Jesus and his claim
to divinity since He was alive. If they didn't believe He was God when He
Resurrected from the dead then, how are we to expect any different from them now?
John 1:45 ~
“Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in
the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
Luke 24:44 ~
“Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Christians
believe Jesus Christ abrogated the Law and fulfilled the prophecies of the Old
Testament prophets. In other words, Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the Jewish
prophets and embodied in the Jewish Law. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law
because he was God’s Son. Please note I said he abrogated the Law, not
overturned it. Even Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17
~ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I
have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Trinity
From the
Jewish side it becomes a bit more convoluted. Christians believe in the
Trinity. Jews do not, at least not the way Christians currently understand it.
Because they do not believe Jesus was Messiah and that he came in the flesh and
ascended in the resurrection body, they are missing what is tantamount core
Christian doctrine. Without it, lack of this information can damn a person if
they do not understand and accept it. Jews do not believe in the Gospel.
Period. They therefore are condemned and incur the wrath of God. In short
Christians believe God is both Spirit and Flesh, Jews believe God is completely
incorporeal. This of course totally overlooks the Incarnation and the work of
Christ on the Cross.
Sin
Jews do not
believe in Original Sin or that sin is imputed from Adam to us today. If
one has an incorrect view of their sinful nature, they do not know how to
properly repent because they are confused or unware of their inherently
depraved nature. In other words, Jews (and some Christians) do not fully
understand their complete inability to recognize their need of The Savior.
Don’t get me wrong, they know they need repentance. They just don’t realize
that the atonement for their sin is Christ. This of course leads to the
difference or atonement for sin.
Atonement
As best I
can tell, Jews do NOT believe that blood atonement is absolutely necessary for
personal or individual sin even though Leviticus specifically states that:
Leviticus
17:11 ~ “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you
on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes
atonement by the life.
This issue
is quite strange to me and I’m not sure I fully understand it. It seems to be a
Jewish theological contradiction. The Old Testament clearly required a blood
sacrifice for sin (Leviticus 17:11) and the Jews of the Old Testament knew this
for a fact. Conversely, modern Jews and modern learned Rabbis seem to believe
that blood sacrifice is not primary or absolutely required anymore even though
nothing has abrogated or legally fulfilled that need in their Law (in their point of view). In the time
of the Old Testament it is clear they understood this fact due to the immediate
rebuilding of the Temple upon arrival back into their homeland. After the
exile, the Jews immediately rebuilt the Temple and began offering blood
sacrifices again.
Nehemiah
10:32-33 ~ “We also take on ourselves the obligation to give yearly a third
part of a shekel[a] for the service of the house of our God: 33 for the show-bread, the regular grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the
Sabbaths, the new moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin
offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of
our God.”
The prophets also spoke of a [third] temple in the future and blood sacrifices will still be
central to atonement in said Temple.
Ezekiel
45:15-17 ~ “And one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the watering
places of Israel for grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offerings, to
make atonement for them, declares the Lord God. All the people of the land
shall be obliged to give this offering to the prince in Israel. It shall be the
prince's duty to furnish the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink
offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, all the appointed
feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, grain
offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement on behalf of
the house of Israel.
I guess,
because the Temple has been destroyed for nearly 2000 years, it’s easy to see
why the Jews would want to believe that blood sacrifices have been abrogated in
some way.
Obviously,
from a Christian perspective, the veil was rent and the Temple was later
demolished because the ultimate Lamb of God was slain at the Cross in the
message of the Gospel. The Old Testament sacrifices are no longer necessary nor
apply to the Christian. They were only symbolic to the Jews anyway because they
point to the true Lamb, Jesus Christ.
In light of
the Temples absence, Jewish theologians will often argue blood sacrifice is
not necessary for atonement. They say deeds and repentance alone can replace blood sacrifices.
Isaiah
55:6-7 ~“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him
while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Repentance
to whom remains the question. A Triune God devoid of Jesus? That is not true
repentance. The good deeds argument arises again in Proverbs 16:6. Again, this
is another FAIL. Repenting to a Godhead devoid of Jesus is like repenting to a
stone. It’s ineffectual, pointless and meaningless. Psalm 141:2 states that
prayer replaces blood sacrifices yet Jews are knowingly making an interpretive
error by interpreting a poem/song literally when it is clear David is using analogy
here about his prayer life. David’s original meaning had nothing to do with
replacing blood sacrifice with prayer. I could go on but you are beginning to
see the picture. In the absence of the Temple, Jews are digressing from
Scripture because they have no true place to seek atonement absent Jesus or
their Messiah.
Christians clearly believe that Jesus is the atonement for sin.
Christians believe in the work and deeds that He did, not the works and deeds
they do. Not only did Jesus atone for sins, he made it very neat and tidy and
easy for people to understand in Scripture. A person would need to be blind to miss it.
Romans 3:25
~ “[Jesus] whom God put forward as a propitiation [atonement] by his blood, to
be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
Hebrews 9:22
~ “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
1 John 2:2 ~
“He [Jesus] is the propitiation [atonement] for our sins, and not for ours only
but also for the sins of the whole world.”
The former
sins referred to in Romans 3 is not only the sins of the individual that were
committed before they repented and came to Christ but it can also mean the sins
that had initially been covered by blood sacrifices in the Old Testament. The
sacrifices in the Temple during the Old Testament were only typologies and
shadows of the One who would actually forgive the sin: Jesus.
Salvation
We must
never forget that Jews see themselves more as a corporate or communal covenant entity.
Therefore the idea of individual salvation is sort of alien to their belief.
Although Jews believe in ideas of concepts like atonement and repentance, they
do not believe in them the way Christians do. Combine this with the fact they
do not believe in Original Sin and we begin to see just how much of a “bad way”
the Jews are in. Knowing these things it is easy to see why the Pharisees and Sadducee of Jesus’ time became so legalistic and arrogant. The Law
misconstrued made them slaves to deeds and this mentality just carried over
into the Diaspora and modern times.
For
Christians, salvation is through Christ alone. It is by grace through faith in
what Jesus did on the Cross by which we are saved.
Acts 4:12 ~
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved.”
Ephesians
2:8 ~ “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God”
Although
Christianity emphasizes good works, they are not the path to salvation. God’s
grace through faith in what Jesus did at Calvary is that path.
2 comments:
Rejection of the Torah laws was complete and final at the Council of Jerusalem in 48 A.D. www.theveryfirstbible.org
The Spiritual Israel Ideology is a lie. HaShem never abandoned the physical Israel who are chosen priesthood. Even the book of revelation touched on this
Post a Comment