PART 1 – The purpose of this article is to cause people to think critically about their eternal destinies. What are you believing about God, and why?
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a criticism of any creed or religion. It is simply a statement of facts regarding the beliefs of some of the major religions and denominations. The reader must draw conclusions on their own if applicable.
The manuscript, archeological and prophetic evidences supporting the Old and New Testaments is by far more extensive than that of any other religious book.
The Judeo-Christian story starts in the Garden of Eden where man rebelled against God the creator. Sin entered the world and a rift developed between mankind and God. The story takes shape when God visits Abraham around 2000 BC and tells him he is to be the father of many nations. From his seed will come a people who will produce the savior of the whole world. The Savior will reconcile God and man once again.
Abraham’s seed through whom the promise would come into the world was the Hebrew nation and the God/man produced within it – Jesus Christ. God establishes the Hebrew nation by delivering them from slavery in Egypt and giving them His laws at Mt Sinai – teaching them how to live with their new found freedom from slavery. If they followed His law, they would be blessed and would live eternally with God. When they failed, they were to offer an innocent animal as ceremonial payment for their sin.
Once the law was given, leaders were appointed who eventually began to manipulate people and truth, as men in authority often do. “Teachers” began to add and subtract from Gods holy law. The law of God is good and was given to set apart the Hebrew (eventually Jewish) nation from the rest of the world. Religious leaders added restrictions and tightened the law to where it is/was almost unlivable. It became a burden too great to bear. Interpreting the law became a full-time job for teachers of the law, and a standard too strict to bear for the people attempting to follow it.
In the fullness of time, God brought forth the promised Messiah – Jesus. God sent His son to be the Messiah of Israel and the WHOLE world (no one is excluded), and to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law, thereby reconciling God to man. In Christian theology, this is the seminal act in history that changes everything for mankind. God’s plan was that people should follow His law, yet their righteousness would come only by faith in Jesus Christ. The sacrificing of animals would be replaced by the sacrifice of the once for all “Lamb of God Who would take away the sin of the whole world”. The Bible tells us that “if righteousness could be obtained by the works of the law, then Christ would have died in vain”.
In Christian theology, the point is that salvation comes by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and it is a gift from God Himself. It cannot be earned. It also cannot be mocked – so we don’t need to ask “if I believe, can I just live anyway I want to?” Once internalized by a true believer, this “gospel” truth should result in obedience to God from a heart of love. Jesus is God incarnate and as such He is the only sacrifice suitable to wash away our sins and make us right with God. His uniqueness as savior and His God-hood is essential to this story. This is the gospel.
The theology of trusting in Christ for salvation no matter how many times we fail and submitting to God’s law was universally embraced by the early Christians until about 325 AD at the Nicene conference. At this point many other forces entered the picture and began to distort the basic concept that Christ completed (not eliminated) Judaism. So, the picture was complete. People should honor their maker by following His laws in Torah and living a holy life according to scripture with the guidance of the Holy Spirit – placing their entire trust in Jesus who delivered total reconciliation to a perfect God through His eternal sacrifice and the forgiveness of sin.
If this gospel is true, it follows that the enemy of our souls would seek to destroy or distort the simple message in order to lead people away from it. We have already seen how the religious leaders abused Gods law and authority by making the law impossible to obey. Now we will see other leaders abuse what Christ came to do. A new religion called “Christianity” was formed and eventually Judaism was all but kicked out of the picture by the Christian “church fathers”. Eventually while Christians embraced Christ, they eliminated previous Hebrew practices, while adding other traditions of men. The Jewish language, God’s Biblical laws, the holy festivals, etc were basically thrown out and we were left with Pagan replacements such as Christmas and Easter and other sacraments as well as the worship of other (deceased) people.
Christianity started many denominations, developed many theologies and basically “replaced” all aspects of Judaism in the eyes of much of Christendom. At least it thought it did. As a result, great hatred of Jews was kindled and the two religions separated. Even Martin Luther of the reformation was very anti-Semitic, believing that the Jews killed Jesus and should be hated.
There is fighting amongst denominations and false teachings abound. There are literally dozens of religions, denominations and cults that sprang up as a result of man’s desire to change what God had done. The gospel eventually came to be about what God could do for us, rather than a lifetime commitment to God on our parts.
Maybe it is the spirit of overachieving religious leaders that seeks to control people, or to make complicated that which is simple. I will outline a few of the more noteworthy developments introduced into the world, beyond “Pharisaic” Judaism and “false” Christianity which might serve the purpose of moving people away from the original message. You will note a kernel of truth in almost all of these initiatives, which makes them particularly enticing to the masses. You be the judge. UNTIL THE NEXT ENTRY….
