Has anyone listened to these lectures or read similar information? There is a lot to write about, but essentially it boils down to:
1. Jesus could not be the Messiah (and many reasons are given)
So, the answers I'm going to give you, are incredibly controversial in today's modern Christian world. But I digress. I COULD be wrong, but I don't believe I am, so test everything that I'm saying to scripture. It will be long, but if you want an explanation, it's worth reading.
1. He definitely is, and I'll show you why. Now, first off. Israel, was separated into two houses. The northern house, (the house of Israel) and the southern house (Judah). The southern tribe kept Father's Torah, and still has, and because of it, was blessed by Him abundantly, still to this day, because as His Torah says, He HAS to bless those that keep it. If He didn't, He'd be lying, and since they've kept it until this day (aside from the man-made oral laws, and everything else the talmud etc) they have been blessed.
BUT, the northern house, Israel, didn't. Continually they failed to keep Torah, until the point that God was fed up with them, and divorced them. However, as Jesus says:
Matthew 19:8-9
"
8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say unto you,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery."
God divorced Israel, and put them away, binding them forever to the curse of an adulterous bride. According to the Torah, Israel could only have been relieved of this curse, when her Husband died. Since her husband was God... kind of not gonna happen. So, He HAD to come down and die for His bride, as His prophets predicted. In Hosea, (I bring up Hosea, because you can't dispute that it's talking about Gentiles becoming Israel) we see that
after God scattering His people among Israel, and several prophets predicting this, and that they'd forget about God, His name, and His Torah, which has happened.
2. It is possible that the OT is true while the NT is not - and many flaws of the NT are pointed out.
The NT, is an absolute fulfillment (regarding the gospels) of many, many things of the Torah and Tanakh. Jesus perfectly fulfilled not only the law of the adulterous bride, freeing all of Israel from the curse they were once under. A lot of people try to say that by grace we are free from the law, when this isn't true. The Torah still stands, BUT we aren't under the curse of it that we once were. People say that if you keep Torah you are relying on works for salvation, when this obviously isn't true. Abraham was saved by faith, yet in Genesis 26:5, we see that even he kept Torah, before it was written down by Moses. Proving that His Torah is eternal. Noah kept observance of food laws Genesis 7:2, but a lot of people don't want to face this fact, because as God promised - He'll send them strong delusions.
3. If Judaism was the true religion up until the crucifixion and resurrection, then it stands to reason that Judaism would be the "true" religion still if Jesus was not the Messiah and Christianity is not true.
Judaism, is one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Technically 2 (Judah and Benjamin). There is no Judaism. Well, there is, but Judaism, is based off of worshipping the Father by faith, and keeping His Torah. So, worshipping יהוה, is the main takeaway, because even as in Jesus' day, the Talmud, and the oral laws have taken away from and trodden down the Torah. Messianic Jews are closer than modern day Judaism, but it's not their fault. Nor is it the modern day Christians fault for thinking that the Torah isn't pertaining to us, it's part of the great deception.
Keeping Torah (which mainly Judaism HAS done) is the truth. That is what we all need to be focussing on. I used to wonder the same thing thinking "If Jesus was perfect, and He was Jewish... shouldn't we be Jewish?" We should, in a way. Because even as all of the apostles have mentioned, and proven through their texts, Torah never stopped. Actually, the early church kept Torah until Constantine started killing those found keeping it. Jesus constantly tells us, to keep Torah, but He never directly says "keep Torah", so our flesh talks our way out of it.
Matthew 23:2-3
2Saying,
The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Jesus says constantly, that everything the Pharisees tell us, and do, is not to be regarded. If ever a people group in the bible was talked about that you DON'T want to be, it's the Pharisee. Yet, here, Jesus tells us, that this, is their redeeming quality, and that this, is what we can learn from them. That, they preach what Moses preached, and we were to observe what Moses taught. What did Moses teach? The Torah. He says if we love Him, we are to keep His commandments, but His commandments aren't just the 10, there are several hundred of them. People freak out about the number, but a lot of them we can't keep because we have no physical temple, no tabernacle, no priests, no judge council, and no land and country of our own. That does away with many of them, then, there are many that only apply to farmers, or women, or children, etc. Not all of them apply to each of us, because not all of us are in the situations they're pertained to. I'm not a woman, nor a farmer, nor a levitical priest.
4. There are many scriptures that point to the Law of Moses not ever changing, which is opposed to Paul's teachings. However, this could still work on a MJ level.
It never changed, aside from the sacrificial laws.
1. Because we have no temple and proper altar, tabernacle, etc.
2. Because faith on Jesus (Yeshua) was the only thing ever meant to take away our sins, as the prophets, and several other great men of faith have proven.
That, and Paul, never does away with the Torah. It's insanely confusing - his writings, but he was a great supporter of Torah. Here's proof.
This is after Jesus' ascension into Heaven:
Acts 20:6 And we sailed away from Philippi
after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.
So, after Jesus ascended, he still observed the biblical feasts. That, and it came to pass, that certain Jews felt that Paul was teaching Torahlessness, (because of the confusing appearance to his letters, which had confused certain churches.) That they sought to punish him.
Paul did this in response:
Acts 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave
their heads:
and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing;
but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
The person told Paul that look, they think you're teaching to abandon the Torah. Do this, so that they KNOW that which they've heard (that he did away with Torah) was not true. But, that you DO keep torah.
That, and the story of Jesus is in Genesis. The genealogy written about from Adam to Noah says this:
Adam - Man
Seth - Appointed
Enosh - Mortal
Kenan - Sorrow;
Mahalalel - The Blessed God
Jared - Shall come down
Enoch - Teaching
Methuselah - His death shall bring
Lamech - The Despairing
Noah - Rest, or comfort.
When put together, it says this: Man appointed mortal sorrow; The Blessed God shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the despairing, rest.
Since those that kept Torah the longest, and no one had known of this happening, because the prophets hadn't happened yet, there's literally no explanation for this hiding in text. None whatsoever, especially considering, those who have kept Torah for the longest, don't believe in this message, because their Messiah isn't supposed to die supposedly.
5. Many of the "messianic" verses pointing to Jesus as the Messiah are misinterpreted on purpose or on accident by Christians in the OT.
There might be some that are, but the majority of them aren't. Whether they're in the prophets, or just in the verses of the Psalms, or the Patriarchs, etc. Most people in the OT, didn't see the mercy of Father, but those that were blessed with eyes to see, knew how merciful He was. Whether it was Abraham who was justified by faith, or Moses, or David, Lot, etc. The people in the Tanakh, that did great things, all were justified by faith. Moses wasn't perfect, yet he still saw God. Not because of anything that he did, but because of faith. That was what Jesus came to teach, that we are to be justified by faith alone. He not only fulfilled many aspects of the law (adulterous bride, the red heifer, the scape goat, the passover, unleavened bread, first fruits, and pentecost, the law for cleansing leprous homes, etc.) There's probably even more that I'm just not aware of because of a lack of knowledge, but He has fulfilled prophecy after prophecy. The reason Judaism doesn't believe in Him, is because people today claim that there is no more Torah to follow, when biblically, that makes no sense.... So there's this circle, where christians look down on jews because they keep torah and lack faith, but yet, jews don't believe christians, because they have faith but lack the torah... Even though the early church kept the Torah until Constantine forced them to abandon it for pagan practices. He basically ruined how we were to observe things, and replaced everything for paganism. Those that were found keeping Torah, died, and eventually it just became the norm, and people forgot, until today, where people can even see that what Constantine did to the early church is true, yet they'll be like *shrugs* meh, oh well. *celebrates christmas*.
You're right to be weary, but trust me. The NT in no way shape or form, did away with Torah. If Jesus taught people to NOT keep Torah, Jesus was in sin, and that simply isn't and wasn't so. Jesus is our blemish free lamb, perfect and dedicated is He.
I can link to some of the audio or video if you like, but each lecture is long - around 75 minutes.
