Per Merriam-Webster: Ju·deo–Chris·tian - adjective \jü-ˌdā-ō-ˈkris-chən, -ˈkrish- also ˌjü-dē-ō-
or jü-ˌdē-ō-\: relating to both Judaism and Christianity.
The problem: Somewhere along the way, Americans lost the "Judeo" in Judeo Christian.
The Solution: Putting the "Judeo" back in the Christian faith!
The “Church” is known as the Body of Christ, so it would stand to reason that knowing all there is to know about God's word is critical for us to understand in order to become ambassadors for Christ here on Earth. The best source we have to determine these guiding principles is of course the New Testament. There is a plethora of information provided not only by the original apostles of Christ, but also by a Church favorite: Paul (previously known as Saul of Tarsus), who is regarded by many as the “authority” on the apostolic church (the original church, in the days of the apostles). The bible is more than sufficient to help us understand how we can not only obtain salvation through the shed blood of God’s Passover Lamb, Yeshua HaMashiach (known to much of the world as Jesus Christ), but also to teach us how to live our everyday lives according to God’s divine instruction.
The Holy Bible contains more than just the New Testament however; there is the first part to consider: the Old Testament, sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Bible" by many westerners. The Old Testament is an infinite source of wisdom which includes everything from detailed design schematics for construction of the Temple of God and its holy furniture, to many of the most beautiful love letters ever written, and so much more. It provides the details of what God wants us to know about some of the most amazing events on planet earth, since the history of the world....all inspired supernaturally by the Ruaḥ ha-qodesh, known to most as the Holy Spirit.
So, why then, do most American Christians pay little if no attention to the Old Testament? Well, before we try to answer this question, first we need to understand exctly what it is that is being ignored.
To Jews, there is no "Old Testament." Most Christians understand that the set of books Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture. What is not common knowledge is that the set of books that we refer to as the Old Testament is known to them as the Tanakh. The Tanakh is not set up the same way as our Old Testament. It is divided into three parts: the Torah (the Books of Moses or the Law), the Prophets, and the Writings.
I need to make note that while discussing this topic, I will be using the term “Americanized Christian”. This is in no way meant as slander, it is simply a descriptive term I have assigned which describes the large portion of the Christian faith in this country which unfortunately is ignorant of the bulk of God’s word. Many of these individuals believe what is called "Replacement Theology", which in the simplest terms is the belief that as a result of Israel's behavior, God "replaced" Israel with the church (who would now recieve the promises the Israelites lost). This viewpoint is so blasphemous, it doesn't even deserve argument. But these replacemnt Christians are not the only ones who ignore the Old Testament books. Many American Christians completely ignore the Old Testament books of the Bible which outline the foundation of our faith, not because of a replacement belief, but because they view it as being "old" and out of date in relation to the times we now live; regarding it as dusty history lessons which have absolutely nothing to do with Christian beliefs. If you heed Solomon's words: (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
....and you know a little about the "thing" he is referring to...this viewpoint beomes a particularly dangerous one to adopt.
If you are a Christian who embraces this viewpoint that the Old Testament is no longer "applicable" ...you must understand that what you are doing is throwing away the foundation of your own belief! Christ himeslf showed us what happens to a house with no foundation...it is much easier to destroy. Not to mention it makes ZERO sense when you consider the information contained in the Old Testament. Take a look at just a few of the topics covered:
2. The many consequences which resulted from the fall.
3. The very beginning of God's plan of Salvation for us.
4. All the accounts of God's plan coming to fruition, also known as Satan's many lost battles.
Not to mention....a many vivid descriptions of Gods adversary; which is the same being that is trying to detroy all of mankind to this very day!
Christianity IS the fullfillment of God's promise in Judaism....it is their faith....fullfilled! So why on earth would we discard the beginning of our story? It is not just an account for the Isrealites (the nation picked by God to be the intercessors for ALL NATIONS); it is an account for all who believe in the ffullfillment of the promises of God!
There are many who go further and throw out even more of God's word; dicarding selected New Testament teachings, due to a belief that most of what is written about the latter days is merely allegorical rhetoric, or the imaginative descriptions of events that have long past.
The book of Revelation is one that many disregard in this manner, which is truly sad, as this book is the only one in the Holy Bible that promises the reader a special blessing for just reading it! The Revelation of Jesus Christ, written by the Apostle John as he was in exile on the island of Patmos, is a treasure trove of secrets, some hidden since the foundation of the world. It starts off with letters, written by Christ himself to seven of the churches in existence in John’s time. It is indeed sad that many pay little to no attention to this book of the bible; let’s put it this way, when we get home, I wouldn’t want to have to tell our Lord and Savior “OOPS, I didn’t get the memo!”
For the majority of American Christians, this ignorance is not something that is intentional; instead it is a learned behavior and is part of the culture of American society. I can speak to this subject as I was raised as a Baptist in South Carolina. This issue is not limited to my neck of the woods, or even to just America for that matter. America is one of the primary vehicles for Christianity sweeping the world; and we were indeed blessed as a nation for doing so. So it makes sense that this limited biblical view, which is a very "American" concept, would have spread. I want to stop here and confirm one vital premise before going any further: there is no disagreement here, that the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the key message, and is one that has on the whole stayed in tact when spread around the world by those in the western nations. This issue I speak of today is not meant for everyone. Due to barriers in education and language, many in the world may hear only a peice or two of the gospel message, and will find salvation beacause of it! This message is for those christians who aspire to study ALL of God's word, in depth; those who wish to learn ALL there is that God has to teach. My message is to warn others that If the Bible is approached with western googles, or with a "selective" attitude with respect to the scriptures, much of the key messages will be lost, or in some cases never uncovered.
And for the record...the message I have for those who believe in replacement theology is this: READ THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT WORD FOR WORD and PRAY FOR UNDERSTANDING....ASAP! You have bigger problems; one being that you actually believe that God breaks his promises! Enough said about that.
Somewhere along the way, between the time of the early apostolic church and now, the JUDEO in the Judeo-Christian church was lost. How it was lost is complicated to say the least, but a big part of it has to do with culture. The culture in America today has “evolved” into a system that considers falsehood as being factual, and too often, rejects most truths. One example is the current antagonistic view of the Bible vs. Science. As a scientist, I have found that many of the scientific principles I have learned work well in illustrating other biblical principles. Not only that, but the Bible supports proven scientific theories in EVERY WAY. When I say proven scientific theories I am NOT speaking of corrupted scientific theories concocted as propaganda used to forever disconnect humanity from God, such as the theory of evolution (which by the way is so ludicrous, the evolutionists can't even continue to support it.)
We have been taught to look at science and the Bible in completely separate compartments, as different as oil and water. Many scientists even go as far as to choose one over the other, believing that only one set of principles can be true as they are two diametrically opposed systems. It is my opinion, however that many of these individuals are not making an informed choice based on truth, but instead are choosing between science and a “distorted Christian doctrine.” The secular world continues to pit science against the teachings of the bible in an eternal grudge match; but this battle goes much deeper than most understand. It is borne out of the eternal battle, the very first of ALL battles as far as we know; the battle between God and the Adversary (better known as Satan or Lucifer.) I do not make a choice between the bible and science; I have found that they complement each other nicely; in fact, science supports the bible every time. That being said, consider the following paragraph concerning the mathematical concept of the propagation of error:
Once error estimates have been assigned to each piece of data, we must then find out how these errors contribute to the error in the result. The error in a quantity may be thought of as a variation or "change" in the value of that quantity. Results are obtained by mathematical operations on the data, and small changes in any data quantity can affect the final value of a result. We say that "errors in the data propagate through the calculations to produce error in the result."
If you take this concept, but apply it to knowledge instead of mathematical operations, you see the same sort of thing happening. I am reminded of a game I used to play as a child, usually played in a large group of other girls. I can’t recall the name of the game but it goes like this;
The first girl would whisper in a very low voice, and only once, a phrase to the girl next to her, then that girl in turn would do the same, passing along what she heard to the next person in line, and so on and so forth…until at the end of the line, the last girl stated what she heard, which quite often ended up being gibberish and was drastically different than the original utterance.
This is a good analogy of what has happened to the Message of the original apostolic church. The message started out loud, clear and understood (those parts which were meant to be understood at the time). But even as early as within 60 years after the death of Christ, they started haivng trouble fighting off false doctrine. Throughout history this has been the case...often the word is twisted or misrepresented to serve man's purposes not God's, and it continues to this day. The end result (in many instances) was that a powerful and supernaturally inspired word, when presented to others, became watered down and much less potent. In most cases the central theme was retained, thanks be to God, which is that the lost may be saved because of the sacrifice of a God who loved his people enough to offer his only son as a sacrifice, to serve as the only payment that would satisfy the debt caused by the sins of his own creation; available to all who will believe in this act, and his son; accepting him as Lord and Savior of their lives, as their intercessor. Anyone who does not have Christ to intercede on his or her behalf will not enter the kingdom of heaven. No man or woman can do this alone. While the core of this powerful message was retained, much of the meat that supported it was considered no longer applicable or in some cases was deliberately tossed aside.
To many this may not make much sense, particulary if ignorant of the operation of the early church. And, after all, the bible exists to this day, and is even available in a multitude of translations, even the original languages as on the Dead Sea scrolls. Information is readily available like no other time in history, with a huge variety of translational aids available to almost everyone thanks to the World Wide Web. All of this is true. While sometimes this multitude of translations IS the actual problem (but I won't go down that road today); more often than not it is the "teaching" of the word that is the problem. To teach was the primary job of the early church, and it looked a LOT different from the "church" of today.
In the early church, individuals would gather together in their homes. It was simply a group of believers coming together to share and learn and determine how to best fulfill Christ’s directives to spread the good news, and to help others as he had shown us when he was on earth. The ideas of churches as physical buildings didn’t emerge until the third century. The word Church is translated from the greek word ἐκκλησία,ας,ἡ, transliterated in English as ekklésia: an assembly, a(religious) congregation. Today, however, when
the word church is used, it is not normally used by itself, but with a “qualifier”…such as the Catholic Church, or the Methodist Church…and on and on. Where in our Bibles were we given instructions to divide the church that Christ built in such a way? Spoiler alert: we weren't, but we did it anyway.
The idea that a congregation would need to organize in order to better fulfill the directives of Christ is not what is under debate here, instead, it is that the majority of these denominations created by mankind decided to blatantly disregard God’s warnings, and there are plenty of these warnigs found in both the Old and New Testament. I offer a few for your consideration:
Notice in John 14 how Christ tells us of the importance of keeping his words:
15If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17[Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and Iwill love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet] present with you. 26But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
One thing to notice in the passage above, is that in verse 26 is he foretells that they will receive a teacher in the Holy Ghost…
There are plenty of Old Testament warnings regarding how we handle God’s word as well:
Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deuteronomy 12:32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Psalm 119:160 Thy word [is] TRUE [from] the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments [endureth] for ever.
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God [is] pure: he [is] a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
And there are large warnings with respect to altering the words of one book in particular:
Revelation 22: 18-19 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.
And Paul explains to us WHY we are to adhere so strictly to the word:
1 Corinthians 4: 6-7 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ [from another]? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive [it], why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received [it]?
When men do not heed Paul’s warnings, it led to the birth of cults. For example:
Catholicism: Christian cult focused on the pagan practice of Queen of Heaven Worship.
Islam: Christian cult which resulted in the worship of a false god (and in this author’s opinion, the false god is none other than Lucifer himself) and in the complete denial of the existence of the son of God. The Quran was written by plagiarizing much of the Old Testament.
Mormonism: Christian cult that teaches that men will be “little gods”
Scientology: Religion started by a Science Fiction Author….(no joke)
Just to name a few…there are an endless supply of these and there are new ones created all the time.
And all of this…is just the tip of the iceberg! Do not throw away the Father’s words; but treat them with all the respect you give to the Son’s. Because, as Yeshua told us:
John 14:8-11
8Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so longtime with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and howsayest thou [then], Shew us the Father? 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.11Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
And from John 12:
42Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess [him], lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. 44Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 46I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on meshould not abide in darkness. 47And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge {5719} him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 49For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
When you listen to what Christ says to us in the books of the New Testament, it is clear that God’s WORD (all of it) must NOT BE FORGOTTEN!
God Bless, E. A. Mourn
MORE COMING SOON!
Judeo-Christian Revival
Check out this NUGGET I found concerning GOG!
Putting the "Judeo" back into Judeo-Christian!
By E. A. Mourn 14-Dec-2014
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