06-22-2009, 10:35 AM
..continued from part 1
But it seemes to me that the jews are really far CLOSER to what Yeshua may have had in mind for his followers than what we have today. Meeting on Sunday is not questioned by many. But yeshua himself observed the sabbath. As those who would "be imitators of Yeshua" we haven't done a very good job. Much of what we do has been handed to us by MAN and the catholic church rather than scripture. So I find myself now in between christianity and judaism. I guess I woudl describe myself more as a "First Century Believer in Yeshua" than as a christian because of all the negative things I see there.
One of the biggest of these "negatives" is our teaching about Yeshua himself. We SAY we believe in a triune G-d. But what we teach is really differnt and we talk about yeshua and teach about Him as if he is separate from the father. But we really can't do that. What we have done is to make him appear as seaparate and to our jewish brothers and sisters it is as if we are asking them to abvandon G-d and accept the son when really they are inseparable. No wonder jews are pushed away by christian teaching and practice? And we do not observe what G-d commanded HIS PEOPLE to observe but still call ourselves his children.We have the teching about being "grafted in" from Romans 11 and give lip sevrice to the belief that the root is the jewish people, but we are estranged from them, do not know them and push them away in many ways. Instead of seeng the many similarities between jew and christian and embracing those, we take on a whole differnent identity and end up being indisguishable from the world we hope to evangelize.In the same stroke we distance ourselves from the only people G-d chose. How can we hope to work as one or come closer with this kind of practive?
In conclusion, I hope BE a bridge across the gap between jew and christian by focussing on our similarities,by living in a way that comes closest to Yeshua's intention for his followers and by trying to be all Yeshua taught us to be and embrace my jewish brothers in hopes that through relationships and built-up trust, one day they would see and ask what the difference is in me. I hope I can tell them the difference they see is because of the father's love, ruach ha kodesh living inside and Yeshuateinu, our salvation.
But it seemes to me that the jews are really far CLOSER to what Yeshua may have had in mind for his followers than what we have today. Meeting on Sunday is not questioned by many. But yeshua himself observed the sabbath. As those who would "be imitators of Yeshua" we haven't done a very good job. Much of what we do has been handed to us by MAN and the catholic church rather than scripture. So I find myself now in between christianity and judaism. I guess I woudl describe myself more as a "First Century Believer in Yeshua" than as a christian because of all the negative things I see there.
One of the biggest of these "negatives" is our teaching about Yeshua himself. We SAY we believe in a triune G-d. But what we teach is really differnt and we talk about yeshua and teach about Him as if he is separate from the father. But we really can't do that. What we have done is to make him appear as seaparate and to our jewish brothers and sisters it is as if we are asking them to abvandon G-d and accept the son when really they are inseparable. No wonder jews are pushed away by christian teaching and practice? And we do not observe what G-d commanded HIS PEOPLE to observe but still call ourselves his children.We have the teching about being "grafted in" from Romans 11 and give lip sevrice to the belief that the root is the jewish people, but we are estranged from them, do not know them and push them away in many ways. Instead of seeng the many similarities between jew and christian and embracing those, we take on a whole differnent identity and end up being indisguishable from the world we hope to evangelize.In the same stroke we distance ourselves from the only people G-d chose. How can we hope to work as one or come closer with this kind of practive?
In conclusion, I hope BE a bridge across the gap between jew and christian by focussing on our similarities,by living in a way that comes closest to Yeshua's intention for his followers and by trying to be all Yeshua taught us to be and embrace my jewish brothers in hopes that through relationships and built-up trust, one day they would see and ask what the difference is in me. I hope I can tell them the difference they see is because of the father's love, ruach ha kodesh living inside and Yeshuateinu, our salvation.
Nathanael147 : Your questions are good. to answer your questions of when things were changed you may want to look up the church history of the laws written around 300 Ad. If the christian church was writing laws to prevent sabbath keeping at that time then some Christians must have kept the practice. As far as the claim of being put under the law, we are only under it if we are burdened by it. What if instead we see God's law as a tree of life. Then perhaps instead we are free to keep it. Paul was talking about a mindset switch not a change in the law. Jesus said he didn't come to destroy the law but to fulfill it and then he explained it in more challenging terms. Now you are not only going to kept God's law but submit your thoughts to the obedience of the law as well. More challenging is ok because God will be dwelling with us once Jesus returns to heaven. However, Christian history does not show God's inter dwelling. Instead it shows a history of murder we are right to question where Christianity went right and where it messed up so we don't repeat the mistakes.