Why Bother To Seek The Jewish Roots of Christianity?

I found that seeking the Jewish roots of Christianity has helped me to clarify and solidify my position in faith in our Lord.
After all, He was a Jew. His disciples, except for one, were all Jews. The early Christians were all Jews. The first churches that those letters had been written to were synagogues that accepted the messiah. The Bible itself is the story of the Jew's, from the first words to the very end of it, it is centered on the Jewish people.

We have chosen to believe in a Jewish God. The Messiah came to save the Jewish people first, then the gentiles second, so that we would show them the way to Messiah and be saved. And there are those in the Jewish community that are troubled by the numbers of Jews that are taking up the messianic beliefs and are embracing Christ as the promised Messiah. Most all those turning to Christ are doing so because there are missionaries there spreading the good word!

FAI studios, Video's worth viewing.
https://www.youtube.com/c/FAISTUDIOS/videos

 

I was raised with the Mennonite Church.
Had more than my fill of religion and Christianity in particular.

But you have the right to believe as you wish, just as you have the right to keep and bear arms, freedom to peaceably assemble, and so on, as is written in our Constitution.

It's all there, it's all to be respected whether or not you choose to exercise a particular right.

 

Ah yes the long running religion debates.
I like to avoid these at all costs.
Simply tell people you're free to believe as you wish,I exercise the same freedom.
Anyone still getting door knockers pushing their religion?
Its been awhile since I've had any,But
When I did I simply tell them I'm good where I'm at but that guy across the street owns a strip joint/bar room or is running a gambling hall.
The old ladys usually stick out that bottom lip and off they go to set the sinner strait onto the path of righteousness.
My work for the day is done!

 

I can appreciate the history and the lives that God interacted with throughout time.
God has certainly been interacting in my life through out my life, and He has become my teacher and mentor in issues big and small, but I do not rely on what was done in the past, God met their need in their own situations and meets mine in my own situations by different strategies.
The Bible is not a book of incantations on how to manipulate God, though people seem to try to use it as such. God is not manipulated, those that are borne of the Spirit cooperate with Him and are desperate for His Leading.
Though people tend to get distracted with academics, these miss the relationship Jesus intended.
Knowing what God did is not knowing what God will do or what He is capable of. Academics tend to put God in a box and that is a mistake, making it a religion amongst others. It is not a religion.
Jesus said," Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled"
Hungering and thirsting is a lifetime pursuit, not of academics but of this relationship. and righteousness is obedience to the voice of God, not men's assumption of what they want to think God expects based on academics. Most of the people in the bible for that matter were not scholars.
And though Satan tried with scriptures to tempt Jesus, Jesus stood resistant to satan, for His love for the Father obedient to Him in every way. The misuse of scriptures does not sway God.
As well the blessings and promises apply only to the borne of the Spirit.

 

I like celebrating the feasts and I really like the book of Maccabees but some people in that movement condemn the celebration of the birth and resurrection of Gods son on Christmas and Easter.

 

I can understand the argument against Christmas (HE was most likely born in the spring or fall), but Easter is tied to Passover. I know that Passover is tied to the Lunar Calendar and moves around, and hence so does Easter, but that is one of Christianity's ties to Judaism. The Jew, Christian and Moslem ALL worship the GOD of Abraham... each in their own way!

 

not real sure the Moslem part from what I've read and seen the name they use for God was originally a moon worshiping sect...

also according the their scholars their prophet thought it was a demon trying to contact him at first???

as to their own way... might want to read the life of their prophet as well as their history...

several times their prophet said one thing and then in another location said the opposite...

and their prophet also claimed that he was deceived by Satan when he spoke of the daughters of God...

and then said there were no such beings...

this all suggest to me that the God they worship may NOT be the same God???

and that Salmon Rushdie book "the Satanic Verse" kinda points that out???

and finally there are claims that Easter was originally a pagan holiday for the goddess of fertility???

sometimes researching things closely can be a very interesting thing...

 

It is easy to become antagonistic due to compromises being made in the name of winning souls for a particular form of faith.
And at one point I was critical as well, however, one can be in the best church preaching all the right stuff and still be lost having a form of godliness. God looks for the man seeking Him soul searching earnestly in prayer, abandoning what men teach longing for what God would teach him. If you need to impress some one, it's God, not men.
There is special emphasis in Revelation for the judgment on false teachers. If one's teacher is God you have nothing to worry about. Even Paul warned, "those who teach are under the greater condemnation."
Just as it is better to teach a man how to fish rather than giving him fish, it is best being taught of God.
In the old testament, jews turned to their priest for God's point of view.
If Jesus is Lord in your life He is your High Priest.

 

I see you do good works, Gator!

Hey, I was at work and these thought came out. I considered them worthy enough to share with fellow believers in Christ. Not pushing my views on anyone, and I darn sure won't be knocking on Gator's door, except to invite him for a beer.

I, personally, see no harm for a conversation centered on God's word. The sharing of resources, discovered knowledge, views of what was, what is, what will be. After all, this is the Faith and Religion Forum.

 

Nothing like the affirmation of ones faith with your bodily fluids leaking out all over your self!
I have always been of the faith, in my case, Russian Orthodox, but during my formative years, I discovered my connection with God didn't require a book or a church not did it require me to follow any specifics, it was far bigger, and far stronger then any of that, As long as I held on to my faith, I would be unshakable!
No where was this tested more strongly then in the back of a Helicopter hundreds of times, holding a young mans hands as he drifted off to join his forefather's in heaven, and I would pray with them, for them to find Him, reach out and take his hand, their work here on earth was done! It didn't matter what faith those young men were, if any, those last words meant everything to them! That kind of thing moves you in ways words cannot possibly describe, but it reaffirmed my own faith, made me stronger then ever because I under stood what my real mission was! I have always had a strong relationship with God and his son Jesus Christ, and I have no fear of death because I know that when my time comes, I will have earned my place in the holy lands eternal!

 

This is interesting. Most of my fiction has a fairly thick Christian underpinning, but done in a way as to be all but 'invisible' simply by not drawing attention to it...

Except for a Man out of Place. Very pro-life...and yet, I have yet to get a single comment on my 'contact the author' or see anything in book reviews.

@Uri Ki, you are right on Brother. Being with a person crossing the Rainbow Bridge is a humbling experience....

 

After more than thirty years doing what I do, I have sat with a whole lot folks taking that last breath or staff sitting with them telling me they are gone. Nothing left but the prayers, paper work and the phone calls.

And the remembering who they had been.

 

Any time friend !

 

It has been a VERY long time since I have been down in your country Gator. I hope I will be able to make a run down through there soon.

 

Mai come on, We going to eat drink and swap tales.

 

And if a man dwells too much upon how a meal was prepared he might die of starvation. Sometimes researching a thing too closely is not a good thing...some things you have to accept on faith. Christmas was a pagan holiday and the Sunday Sabbath was a pagan day of worship, however Easter has always been tied to Passover. Some Easter traditions like the Easter Bunny/ Rooster and decorated Easter Eggs were pagan, and most pagan religions that worshipped a fertility goddess did so in the spring. They also usually had holidays that celebrated mid-summer, the autumn harvest and mid-winter...just like we do today. Yes, there are those who say that these traditions are not Christian, but such traditions are pretty much universial across time, culture and religion.

 

It also has to be said, that if a man dwells insufficiently upon how a meal was prepared and what ingredients it was prepared with, might also die of poisoning. Neither starvation, nor poisoning are particularly attractive options.

More often, researching some things inadequately can have devastatingly harmful consequences. The greater the potential consequences, the closer the 'thing' in question being investigated should be evaluated. Blithe ignorance (aka 'faith') is not a good recipe for navigating the real world...both spiritual, and temporal hucksters have historically done well out of exploiting the gullibility and trust of the 'faithful'.

Such 'Christianised' 'traditions' could also be accounted for, by Christianity's propensity to appropriate parts of pagan traditions, through the process of syncretism. These tactical and strategic appropriations, have served the church well, in undermining various pagan faith traditions, and establishing the Christian hegemonic political and religious control over pagan cultures that it had come to dominate by conversion either voluntarily via missionaries, or involuntarily at sword point by armed missionaries.

Inside the Conversion Tactics of the Early Christian Church

https://historycollection.com/10-christian-holidays-beliefs-steeped-pagan-traditions/2/

 

I am thankful that my Lord Jesus looks after me, both in times I have asked for His intervention and times Had no knowledge I was in trouble.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path.
One cannot do better in life than to make God himself, his teacher.

 

Voltaire was French, and that is all that I have to say about that!

Also celebrating High Holy Days and the weekly Sabbath on the days that the pagans celebrated theirs could have been a way for early Christians to escape notice and death. As you know, in the Roman Empire there was religious freedom, of a sort. You could worship any gods that you liked as long as you gave lip-service to the official Roman gods. Most peoples observed the official holy days and made sacrifices, but the Jews and Christians didn't and suffered for it.

 

That is of course until Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire post Constantine, and had sufficient institutional power to proscribe and punish Roman citizens for paying more than 'lip service' to the Roman (and other) pagan gods. Christians have not historically been avid sharers of the public space with competing spiritual belief systems...what they couldn't absorb and subjugate, they destroyed, much like today's Taliban.

Up until the mid 20th century many people were obliged to pay at least lip service to the Christian faith, but now, the number of people who are identifying as unaffiliated, atheist, agnostic, or 'nothing in particular' are rapidly replacing Christians and other theists. Although Christianity is certainly not near to as dead as the Norse, Roman, Greek et al pantheons, Christianity is none the less, clearly ailing, and belief in Christian dogma is gradually dying.

In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace

Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics

Fewer Than Half Of U.S. Adults Belong To A Religious Congregation, New Poll Shows

Self-described religious identification of Americans 2020 | Statista