A Brief Look At Nero's Life

[Jonaitis]

I found this video very informative about the life and death of the Roman Emperor by Biographics. The only thing I didn't like was that he called Christians a Jewish cult and sect.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

I found this video very informative about the life and death of the Roman Emperor by Biographics. The only thing I didn't like was that he called Christians a Jewish cult and sect...

In the first century et al, Christians were a Jewish cult and sect. Why not like the truth ?

 

[Jonaitis]

In the first century et al, Christians were a Jewish cult and sect. Why not like the truth ?

Well, according Acts 24:14 Paul didn't seem to think of us as a sect, it was more of the opinion of the unbelievers.

If we are a sect, then the Christian faith is part of Judaism. We are not a sect of a false religion that denies Christ.

 

[ajcarey]

Thank you for the video, but Jesus was a Jew and the earliest Christians were Jews. Being a faithful Jew led one to being a faithful Christian. The Gospel is founded on the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apostles preached the gospel completely from these (in light of the then fulfilled prophecies of Jesus' first coming contained in them- see 2 Timothy 3:15-17). A sect is not a bad thing when and if that sect is right. In Nero's case he obviously had vitriol in his saying that Christianity was a Jewish sect though technically he was right.

 

[Jonaitis]

Thank you for the video, but Jesus was a Jew and the earliest Christians were Jews. Being a faithful Jew led one to being a faithful Christian. The Gospel is founded on the Hebrew Scriptures and the Apostles preached the gospel completely from these (in light of the then fulfilled prophecies of Jesus' first coming contained in them- see 2 Timothy 3:15-17). A sect is not a bad thing when and if that sect is right. In Nero's case he obviously had vitriol in his saying that Christianity was a Jewish sect though technically he was right.

Actually, it was the host in the video who said it, not Nero. You must not have watch it, yet thanked me for it? The host of this video is saying we are a cult of Judaism...discrediting us.

 

[Sabertooth]

I'll be glad when the Babylonian super-dynasty (of which the Roman Empire is a part) is finally deposed.

 

[Jonaitis]

I'll be glad when the Babylonian super-dynasty (of which the Roman Empire is a part) is finally deposed.

I'll be glad when Christ returns to bring us into a new earth where there is no pain, no sorrow, and no sin. Imagine, a world like this but free of the fall and all that fell with it!

John MacArthur said that our human experience will be at its extent and fullness. I believe it.

 

[JackRT]

Actually, it was the host in the video who said it, not Nero. You must not have watch it, yet thanked me for it? The host of this video is saying we are a cult of Judaism...discrediting us.

But Christianity did originate as a Judaic cult or sect. However, within a century of the crucifixion we had lost our Jewish roots and had wholeheartedly slipped into a gentile Greek mindset. The early loss of our ability to "read scripture with Jewish eyes" has been an immense loss to Christianity and has shaped all that has happened since.

 

[Jonaitis]

But Christianity did originate as a Judaic cult or sect.

In your case, all of it originated from Sumerian myths.

 

[JackRT]

In your case, all of it originated from Sumerian myths.

I am not sure exactly what you are implying here but I would agree that the ancient myths of the mid-east are intimately related to our Judeo-Christian beliefs.

 

[Jonaitis]

I am not sure exactly what you are implying here but I would agree that the ancient myths of the mid-east are intimately related to our Judeo-Christian beliefs.

It's too bad that some Christians don't accept Rabbi Moses Maimonides' advice that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not to be taken as literal history --- they are folklore and borrowed myth to fill in the gap in the period before the Israelites' emergence as a self-aware cultural entity.

So are we an evolved Sumerian religion?

 

[ajcarey]

Actually, it was the host in the video who said it, not Nero. You must not have watch it, yet thanked me for it? The host of this video is saying we are a cult of Judaism...discrediting us.

You're correct in that it was the host of the video who called the early Christians a Jewish sect and not Nero. I don't know why though you would say that discredits "us". Who are us? If you means Christians in general, why would that be a discredit? Do you not know that until Cornelius no one was even allowed baptism and entrance into the church who was not first a circumcised Jewish convert? And do you not know that even after Cornelius a true Christian is grafted into Israel and a Jew inwardly (Romans 11,Galatians 6:16 and Romans 2:28-29)? To separate Christianity from its Jewish foundation makes it heathen and is preaching another jesus. The real Jesus said in John 4 that salvation is of the Jews.

 

[Jonaitis]

You're correct in that it was the host of the video who called the early Christians a Jewish sect and not Nero. I don't know why though you would say that discredits "us". Who are us? If you means Christians in general, why would that be a discredit? Do you not know that until Cornelius no one was even allowed baptism and entrance into the church who was not first a circumcised Jewish convert? And do you not know that even after Cornelius a true Christian is grafted into Israel and a Jew inwardly (Romans 11,Galatians 6:16 and Romans 2:28-29)? To separate Christianity from its Jewish foundation makes it heathen and is preaching another jesus. The real Jesus said in John 4 that salvation is of the Jews.

My contention isn't that Christianity has a deeply Jewish heritage, but that the host is suggesting that we are just another split from Judaism claiming to be somebody. It seemed like a disrespectful way to call us Christians. He could have left that out of the script, but instead they probably feel that we don't deserve to be called anything better. Instead of recognizing us as a separate religion from Judaism, they make it sound like we are like the Brigham Young split of the Joseph Smith party.

I don't believe Christianity at one time was Judaism. Real Judeo-Christianity does not teach what modern Judaism teaches about the afterlife, about the Messiah, about Torah practices, etc. They don't believe in a place called 'hell,' most believe we die and that's the end of our story. I've talk to some that take Scripture to be entirely metaphorical and said we Christians take things too literal. Judaism is not what people think it is. It has been evolving, and Jesus was quick to point out the early stages of it as well as the apostles. It really changed during the middle ages...

 

[ajcarey]

Yes, the host possibly was being disrespectful in what he said, yet I could see also how he was speaking from the perspective of Nero. But you said it- what is called Judaism today is not what Judaism was in the 1st century. Even in the 1st century there was much corruption in Judaism, but it was exactly that: "corruption" because it deviated from and opposed the Jewish Scriptures themselves and the godly principles established therein. A faithful Jew then was ready to become a faithful Christian (the very point of John the Baptist's ministry was to call the Jewish people back to biblical Judaism and away from the unbiblical corruption so they would be able to receive Jesus properly). We see Jesus addressing what was corrupt about 1st century Judaism in the Gospels, and accepting and living under everything else, since much was yet biblical and proper. Those Jews who received Jesus did indeed splinter from the mainstream Judaism though they still attended synagogue until cast out and went to the Temple before they fled Jerusalem shortly before the Temple was destroyed in AD 70.

It is an important point because much corruption in Christianity now comes by not recognizing and receiving the Jewish foundations of Christianity and the lessons already in place in the 1st century from the Jewish Scriptures which Jesus and the Apostles took as axiomatic in their preaching in what we know as the New Testament.