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In reading a book recently entitled The Day America Told the Truth, by James Patterson and Peter Kim, I ran across a survey in which people were asked to rank 73 occupations for their honesty and integrity. Americans said that the four sleaziest ways to make a living in America are: drug dealer, organized crime boss, TV evangelist, and prostitute. Notice that prostitution was considered a more "honorable way to make a living than TV evangelism.
Answer for yourself: How could Christianity evolve into something that would allow such to occur?
It all began in 325 A.D. and was reinforced in the 16th century.
Before we can begin to look at these events we must begin with what God has chosen to reveal to man about Himself. As God revealed Himself it became necessary to write down these revelations which later became canonized into an authoritative document for a community of people. The Bible is a book that contains a number of different recorded revelations about God. Religious leaders, both in Judaism and Christianity rely upon a canon as proof for their authority. Over time challenges have been brought against different groups in authority and their collected "revelations" through different methods:
By the time of John the Apostle's death, the leadership of the Jewish messianic congregation birth at Pentecost had shifted from Jewish men to Gentiles who were ignorant of the Jewish culture and mind set. The first challenge to this new community was through the changing of existing revelations by Gentiles with reinterpretation of the words within that revelation from the religious backgrounds of these prior Gentile pagans. The written authority that was used by these Gentile church leaders was the Septuagint, a corrupted Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, not the Hebrew Bible itself. This is where they make a tragic but purposeful error. As Gentiles read the Greek Bible numerous questions arose since they had not the background or any prior tradition in the Jewish faith and religion of Jesus. With questions came answers, some correct and many incorrect as supplied by new Gentile leaders as they challenged the authority of the Jerusalem church as well as the Jewish Bible. As a result, tensions between those with conflicting positions escalated and the two drew apart. We have now the establishment of Gentile Christianity as opposed to Jewish Christianity (or should I say Messianic Judaism).
With the advent of Marcion and his first "New" Testament we find new revelations were offered in order to replace the "old Jewish revelations." Many of these "New revelations" in the New Testament not only conflicted with the teachings of Moses, the Prophets, and the writings but were completely opposite to them and what Jesus taught. Basically Marcion decided to throw away the Old Testament which was Jesus' Bible. Marcion is credited with producing the first "New Testament" and forced the Roman Church leaders to create their own "New Testament" to counteract that of Marcion. These "proto-Catholics" simply built on the foundation of Marcion's Bible to create their own authority to sanction their efforts of spreading their own kind of religion.
Marcion produced his new canon in 140 A.D. which is almost 100 years after Yeshua. This was 80 years after Paul and 50 years after John. Marcion was forced to create a "New Bible" to allow emerging Gentile church leaders to justify their position as God's "new" appointed leaders as they felt that they had "replaced" Israel in God's dealing with men. These Gentile leaders had failed to realize that God's covenant with Israel and the Jewish people is forever! The authority for those who were supposedly followers of Jesus was to switch from Jerusalem to Athens-Rome. With the Roman response to Marcion which included the production of writings very similar to those found in the New Testament of today, came also the prerogative to include or exclude certain books as each community decided in their successive church councils where decisions became "new" documents and "testaments." Literally epistles were continually written added to in the names of "apostles" was the Gentile church crafted their religious doctrines over centuries. The debate over which books should be included or excluded in the Roman Catholic Canon extended from 150 to 380 A.D. Although the Catholic Canon was closed in 380 A.D. the debate over the book of revelation continued until well into the 10th century.
It would be 55 more years before Emperor Constantine (a self professed God) would wrestle the control of Christianity from the grip of the local independent church leaders. They became totally subject to the Emperor's decisions in the matters of religion after the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. Relying upon "personal revelation" from either the God of Israel or the sun god, Constantine blended Mithraism (pagan worship) with Judaism and further perpetuated Christianity. As recorded earlier, one of the ways of challenging existing religious authority is through a "new revelation". It was through such "new revelation" that Constantine:
Constantine failed to remember the same thing that plagues the churches of today; Yeshua, Paul, Peter, Jacob (James), John, etc. were all Jews. They all kept the Passover and worshipped on the Jewish Sabbath. It would have been a sin for Yeshua to participate in an Ishtar fertility rite or worship on the day of the Sun god. Yeshua and his Apostles were Jews who never renounced their Judaism, gave up their Jewish observances or told other Jews to renounce their Judaism in order to become members of a "new Christian Church." We must not forget that these are the same teaching that were shared with Gentiles who came to faith in God through Yeshua's ministry in the work of his disciples and apostles. Unfortunately this Roman Emperor authority model became the model followed by the Roman Catholic church. Eventually the Roman Empire along with its Emperor who was the head of the church would disappear but only to be replaced again with one man who controlled the church, the Pope. The Roman model of authority prevailed against every major attack until the arrival of martin Luther and a new model of authority; subjectivism.
The decision of Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church was never intended to end in the further creation of a new religion. He liked being a Catholic priest, practiced and taught Catholic doctrines, and actively participated in the Catholic Church. He accepted the Catholic doctrine of salvation and never suggested that there was another way of salvation. Luther chose to continue his reform activities which were built off the desire for money since funds were leaving his Parrish in the building of St. Peter's basilica and soon found himself excommunicated for his actions. For a Catholic this is serious because being kicked out of the Roman Church meant he was no longer "saved" as "salvation is only in the church." For Luther to regain his salvation he had to successfully challenge the authority of the Church. He had to overcome:
Acknowledging that challenges to existing religious authority is always linked to "new" revelations, Luther challenged the Roman Church with his "new" revelation. The following is a summary of Luther's "new revelation."
Thus, the foundation was laid for the Protestant Reformation as individuals protested against the Roman Catholic Church. Next came an immediate exodus from the Catholic Church to Luther's Church. But, it was not very long before Luther's disciples began to use their new found "individual freedoms and personal authority to challenge Luther. Before long there were two Protestant Churches, then 3,5,50,100, and we have 2,200 today!
Answer for yourself: What happened to the faith and religion of Jesus; what happened to original Christianity as he knew it? What happened to "THE" faith ONCE given to the saints? What happened to that "One faith" of Ephesians?
Jews by record numbers are returning to the land of Israel. But there is another return taking place in which a record number of Christians are returning to Yeshua's teachings, practices, and faith. The journey begins and ends with repentance (Teshuvah). Teshuvah holds a central place in Judaism. At the core of Teshuvah lies the concept or a return or "shivah". One is to return not only to the past (one's own, or one's ancestors'), but to the Divine source of all being: "You shall return to the Lord your God."
In this return back to God and His ways for both Jews and Gentiles there must be a standard or guide to direct those returning. Christianity's ultimate rise or fall, beginning or end in linked to one person-Yeshua. Without Yeshua Christianity would not exist. Thus, it is only logical that every Christian doctrine should be compared to Yeshua's position on the subject!
Answer for yourself: What was in that mind of "Christ" two thousand years ago? What did Yeshua believe on various doctrines and dogmas and have you compared this with what you have been taught in Gentile Christianity to see if it is the same? When you find out that it is not the same religious beliefs who do you blame?
Yeshua's teachings and religious belief system must become the standard by which every Christian doctrine is to be measured.
We must never forget that concept. We cannot use Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, or Charismatic interpretations of Yeshua's words as "the standard". We must look through Jewish eyes and view Yeshua's teachings in their proper cultural, historical, and linguistic context. Only through this process will his words be reattached to their original meanings.
The Apostolic Church in Jerusalem as seen in Acts chapter 15 accepted the view of the Synagogue concerning conditions which Gentiles needed to fulfill in order to be "saved". This did not mean ultimate destiny as in heaven or hell, but according to the Greek definitions of the word in Scripture, the Jewish Apostolic Church was concerned about "rescuing" the Gentiles so as to include them in the people of God. Fulfillment of other commandments of Judaism was not prohibited to Gentiles. On the contrary, the Noachide precepts were only the minimal conditions for Gentiles to be recognized as God-Fearers.
Such Gentiles who were attracted to the Jewish way of life and religion, who accepted MANY, but not all of the Jewish commandments, were accepted within Jewish religion even though they did not become full proselytes since they did not become circumcised. The leadership of the Jerusalem Church decided to lay no burden upon Gentiles who followed Yeshua beyond the Noachide precepts (Acts 10:28-29) and did not object to their voluntary observing more.
Yeshua did not created a new religion that was either authoritarianism or subjectivism as seen above in the examples of Marcion, Constantine, and Luther. Yeshua did not replace Judaism with something else. He worked to purify the lives of the Jewish people by bringing them back to Torah and God's will for their lives. Neither Yeshua or any of his Apostles preached anything related to any of the salvation messages preached in today's churches. He simply called people to repent and turn back to God and God's ways as revealed in the Torah (Bible).
Modern Christianity's intellectual concept of salvation is possibly one of the most destructive forces ever released on the face of the earth. It has attracted millions of adherents who believe that they are "no longer under the Law". We must not confuse Subjectivism with grace. They have been taught erroneously that they belong to a "new spiritual Israel" which is a replacement for the Old Israel. They have been incorrectly taught that God has ended his relationship with Israel because of their disobedience. If we realistically look at the churches of today concerning their moral and spiritual conditions they make the Church of the first century look spotless.
Paul teaches us that Gentile Christians were grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel, not the opposite. Israel is not to be grafted into the Gentile Church!
Today the shofar is beginning to sound. The Church is being called back to the faith of Yeshua as when Gentiles adopted a Jewish religion as taught by Jesus to his apostles whom were later instructed to take these Jewish teaching to all the nations (Gentile nations). It is time for us to know his God, his people and his land.
True Christianity is not Gentile Christianity as practiced by our Churches today. Paul, in 1Cor. 11:2 encouraged and praised the Gentiles of Corinth that they "kept the ordinances that I (Paul) delivered unto you." Paul was pleased that they were turning (Teshuvah) from Gentile paganism to the true worship of God as in the Jewish religion. Paul was not bringing these Greeks more Greek philosophy, rather, he was bringing these Greeks Jewish customs and traditions concerning festivals, Law, conduct, and belief systems. These Greeks were not necessarily to become Jews physically, but they were to develop Jewish minds and spirits as they adopted the Jewish religion of Israel as their religion. Lastly, in 2 Thess. 3:6 Paul instructs and commands these Greeks in the city of Thessolonica to "withdraw themselves" from every brother that "walketh" disorderly and not after the "traditions" which they had received from him.
Answer for yourself: What traditions had Paul brought them?
Jewish traditions and ordinances along with Jewish Laws and Commandments which also included festival observances. The word "walketh" in the Hebrew means "interpretations", thus Paul is commanding these non-Jewish believer like you and me to resign themselves from the company of others who were not holding fast to the Jewish way of religion and worship.
Answer for yourself: Have you the courage to do what Paul ordered and begin to study and worship in Spirit and in Truth?
Answer for yourself: What would Paul have said about your involvement in churches that do not practice the festivals let along teach the Jewish way as taught by Yeshua?
Answer for yourself: Is our lot to remain in reinterpreted revelations and replaced religious doctrines when the truth about the historical Jesus is at our fingertips today and when we see for example upon our study that the non-Jews who came to God through Paul and Jesus' apostles were taught to adhere to the Covenant and Laws of Noah and today we go to churches which pride themselves that they are not under such "laws"?
Answer for yourself: Having read this above article then can you really look within and tell God you are truly a follower of this man from Galilee and a "true" Christian as they were when Jesus walked among us?
No longer
are do we have to be deceived and have to live in the darkness of biblical
ignorance.
.