just words

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One of the greatest myths of evangelical Christianity is that Judaism is older than Christianity. Fundamentally, indisputably, this isn’t so. We have all heard the family tree explained with complete confidence, often by those who understand our religion about as well as a monkey understands a Rubik’s Cube. They confidently tell us that Judaism came first, and then Jesus opened a competing franchise of the family business, and a new religion called “Christianity” started. Abraham gets assigned to the Jews, and Jesus gets assigned to the Christians. And if someone calls Jesus “Yeshua,” they probably keep Him with the Jews, too. The problem is that a chart putting Abraham on one side and Abraham’s Messiah on the other has already misplaced its most important Person. Before accepting their claim that Judaism is older than Christianity, we need to know what “Judaism" is. The Greek word Ioudaismos existed before Christ. The word appears in Second Maccabees and referred to Judean culture and its way of life. It referred to Judean customs and culture. It was not a term for Old Testament religion. It wasn’t about religion at all, actually. Ironically, Christian theologians were the first to use the term “Judaism” to refer to religion. It was not initially Moses’ religion or King David’s, but the religion of the rabbis who invented the post-temple system, based on the Pharisees’ novel adaptations of a Messianic cult that denied their own Messiah. With the temple fallen and Old Testament rituals now impossible to keep (as God intended), they had to make their own. This is what “Judaism” initially referred to, in the religious context...Rabbinic, post-temple religion. In this sense, there is no “Old Testament Judaism.” When the word was first used in the religious sense, Judaism referred to a New Testament-era cult, not the faith of the patriarchs. Occasionally, Christians may refer to “Old Testament Judaism” to contrast it with Post-Temple or Rabbinic Judaism, so people have a frame of reference for the discussion. We’ve done it a time or two ourselves. Sometimes, if someone has a limited frame of reference, we may need to start there. But technically, the Old Testament religion was never called “Judaism.” When we continue to refer to it as that, we are muddying the water in a way beneficial to Judaizers and Jews who manipulate Christians by appealing to our religion when trying to coax from us money or moral support for Zionism. No, Jesus’ religion was not “Judaism.” First, because it wasn’t invented yet, and secondly because Jesus and the Rabbis clearly did not see eye to eye on religion. He would have rejected the new religion they would later invent after He decreed the destruction of their temple. There’s irony in that. Jesus is the One who declared, “Destroy this temple,” and did so out of great love to send to them the unmistakable signal that God had put to death the Old Covenant. Instead of getting the clue, they just made up a new religion that, unlike the Old Covenant, didn’t have Jesus at the center of it. It had Jews at the center of it. Jesus has nothing to do with that religion, and by design. So Christians who think Christianity is a recent departure from the religion of Moses are mistaken. The religion of Christ is the religion of Moses. The Bible confesses that Moses testified to Christ, that the sacrifices anticipated Christ, and that the promises reached their fulfillment in Christ. Jesus told the Pharisees, the founders of Rabbinic Judaism, “…For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. (John 5:45-47) Luke 24:27 says of Jesus, “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” It turns out, the Old Testament is about Jesus. One religion. Two covenants. One covenant has passed away. Another is still going. But it’s still one religion. When Jesus says in John 5:46, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me,” Moses was not recruiting disciples for a new religion whose defining achievement would be rejecting his Messiah. Moses was espousing Christianity. If Moses wrote of Jesus, then the Christian who believes Jesus is heeding Moses. Whoever denies Jesus denies Moses. So not only is Christianity the religion of Moses, but “Judaism” most certainly is not. You see, Moses’ Christ was Jesus. Abraham’s Christ was Jesus. David’s Christ was Jesus. Everything the Patriarchs spoke to us centered on the Christ. Why? The religion was Christianity, whether or not they knew the Christ’s Greek name. Oh, but Jesus came long after Abraham, Moses, and David, right? They couldn’t possibly have believed in Him, right? Wrong. They did believe in Him, and that’s why they aren’t in hell right now. Believing in Jesus is how every justified person was ever justified, including in the Old Testament. The Bible makes this clear. According to Paul, Abraham received the gospel and preached the gospel. That should make Christians less willing to surrender the patriarch to “Judaism,” a religious system that rejects the Christ. Galatians 3:8 states, “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Paul calls it the gospel. Make note: Abraham received the gospel. The gospel is Christian. Abraham was a Christian. The promise also had an identifiable recipient. Galatians 3:16 declares, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” The “seed” of Abraham, or the “promised seed,” recurs throughout the Old Testament. That’s Christ in the Old Testament. Romans 4:3 asks, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” The patriarch did not climb into heaven on a ladder of ceremonial achievements, leaving Christians to discover an easier entrance around the back. Abraham was saved just as we are, by faith in Christ. This is Christian salvation. Christ himself describes Abraham’s expectation in John 8:56: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Abraham’s response to Christ’s day was joy, which makes him a really weird mascot for the post-temple religion that rejects Jesus. Jesus did not first enter the story when Mary laid him in a manger, for the hands that would bear the nails had already laid the foundations of the earth (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:16–17). Before Abraham drew breath, the Son already was (John 8:58), and when Isaiah saw the Lord enthroned above the trembling Temple, he beheld the glory of Christ (Isaiah 6:1–5; John 12:41). He is the promised offspring who would crush the serpent (Genesis 3:15; Hebrews 2:14). He is Abraham’s promised seed, through whom blessing would reach the nations, and the coming ruler from Judah, to whom the peoples would gather (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16; Genesis 49:10). Abraham rejoiced to see his day (John 8:56), and Moses counted the reproach of Christ worth more than the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:26). We see his deliverance pictured in Egypt, where the blood of a slaughtered lamb stands between a household and death, for Christ is our Passover lamb sacrificed for us (Exodus 12:7-13; 1 Corinthians 5:7). We see his cross anticipated in the wilderness, where the dying look upon the lifted serpent and live, just as sinners receive eternal life through the Son of Man lifted up for them (Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-15). He is the Rock from which Israel drank, the divine provision for a people who could not keep themselves alive (Exodus 17:5-6; 1 Corinthians 10:4). He is the true Manna from heaven, giving life that death cannot consume (Exodus 16:14-18; John 6:31-35, 48-51). Jacob’s ladder finds its answer in him, for heaven opens and the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of Man (Genesis 28:12–17; John 1:51). The Temple finds its fulfillment in his body, which men would destroy and he would raise in three days (John 2:19-21). The veil points to his flesh, through which his people receive access to the holy presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-22). Jesus is David’s greater Son and David’s Lord, the king whose throne will outlast the kingdoms that think they can overthrow him (Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:41-46; Luke 1:32-33). He is the shoot rising from Jesse’s felled house, the righteous Branch bringing justice, and the shepherd gathering the flock that false shepherds scattered (Isaiah 11:1-5; John 10:11-16). This is what we mean when we say that the patriarchs’ saving faith was Christianity. They trusted the divine promise before it was fulfilled, while we confess the Savior who fulfilled it. Their knowledge was less complete, but their salvation did not come from a different Redeemer. God’s brilliance in this is easy to see. The Old Testament religion is the same as the New, but as Paul makes clear in Romans 9, not everyone who called themselves “Israel” was really Israel. Those who deny the Christ don’t qualify. The problem was, those Jews were really convinced they were Israel, observing true religion, despite rejecting the religion’s Savior. The solution was simple: take away their ability to observe the rites of the Old Covenant, which had now passed away. In AD 70, Roman armies destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in accordance with Christ’s decree, bringing its sacrificial worship to an end. Priests could no longer approach its altar and pilgrims could no longer enter its sanctuary. What followed was a struggle over what the Pharisees would do now that they could no longer observe the retired rites of their old religion. Christianity, the religion of the Old Covenant revealed by Jesus, knew the sacrifice had been offered, the High Priest had entered heaven, and Christ had fulfilled the sanctuary’s purpose. God destroyed the Temple through Roman hands, but now, the Jews left outside God’s Covenant needed a religion because theirs had left them behind. None of their rituals could be observed. So, they made up new ones. The rabbinic movement then toiled for the next 600 or so years, drawing on earlier Covenant traditions to create rituals with the same name but very different practices. Blood atonement was gone; forgiveness of sins remained, but they tried to replace Christ with Torah study, prayer, legal interpretation, and a new set of sacred writings called the Talmud, written between 200 and 600 AD. That's the new religion. Christianity is much older. But without the Christ, whatever religion they invented, it wasn’t the religion of Abraham or Moses. Their religion went onward through Peter, Paul, and the other Apostles. Christians are the true Israel and Abraham’s real heirs (Galatians 3:28-29). It’s easy to claim Abraham. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all invoke his name, which means invoking his name doesn’t guarantee the religion was really his. Mormons claim to have the religion of Jesus, but that doesn’t make it so. Islam claims to be Abraham’s religion. That doesn’t make it so. Ben Shapiro claims to have the religion of Abraham, but that doesn’t make it so. So, let’s look to the Bible. John 8:39 records, “They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” His hearers had the ancestry they claimed, allegedly, but Jesus flatly denies it. Abraham’s real children do what Abraham did. Which is to believe in Jesus. When we say Abraham’s REAL children, we don’t mean by a DNA test, which very few “Jews” could pass today. When we say “Abraham’s real children,” we mean those whom God Himself considers real. We refer to Abraham’s children, whom God promises will be more numerous than the stars in the sky. Obviously, 14 million members of one of the smallest organized religions on Earth do not compare to the number of stars in the sky. We mean the REAL children of Abraham: Christians. More than two billion people alive today have taken the name of Abraham’s Messiah and claim to worship Him. God will have to separate wheat from tares in the Great Beyond, but two billion is much closer to the number of stars in the sky than a tiny desert war cult with roughly the same population as Greater Houston. Two billion is roughly the number of stars mapped in the Milky Way. Paul makes clear that ethnic lineage is not a certificate of spiritual inheritance. Romans 9:6 declares, “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Not only are we told that Christians belong to Abraham, but we are also told that the Jews still following Rabbis clearly do not belong to Abraham. We can date the compilation of the Mishnah and trace the Talmud’s development. That is “Judaism.” It is younger than Christianity; it is a repudiation of the Old Covenant, and it rejects the God of the Torah. The name “Christianity” may have first been used in Antioch (Acts 11:26), but Christ was worshipped from day one." Read more at Right Response. Audio IS available. Link below.