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Ask The Pastor
January 22, 2001
Mike,
You said,
> I am doing a research project on the difference
between the jewish
> religion, and the christian faith. This project is worth 100 points,
> and I don't know where to start. Please help. thanx, mike
There are major differences between the Jewish religion and the
Christian faith, but there are also great similarities. One rabbi
says that Christianity is the most Jewish of all the non-Jewish
religions.
Christian began as a sect of Judaism. It afterwards distanced
itself from Judaism and became a separate world-wide religious
movement. The reason was because of Jesus Christ. When Jesus
came into the world, He brought with Him a division in Judaism.
Those Jews who accepted Him as the Messiah soon found themselves
as outcasts by other Jews. The battle lines had been set.
And so, of all the varied expressions of Judaism during what is
called the second temple period, only two groups actually survived
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 ad. The Pharisaic Jews made
up the one group, and the Christian Jews made up the other.
The Pharisees rejected Jesus as being the Messiah. From the
aftermath of the temple destruction, the Pharisees began to
develop a new form of Judaism. It became known as Talmudic
Judaism or Rabbinism. (Of the rabbis.) Talmud Rabbinism is
largely responsible for the Jewish religions as we know them
today.
The other group of Jews to survive the temple destruction were
those who had accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah. This sect of
Judaism was earlier known as Notzrim. (Nazarenes.) It is from this
group that Christianity emerged. Early Jewish believers in the
land of Israel actually used the name Notzim before the name
Christian became popular. Eventually 'Christianity' became the normal
way to express the religion of those who accepted Jesus Christ as
the Messiah of Israel.
A primary difference in the two groups is that Rabbinic Judaism
remained within the Jewish culture. Christianity became multi-cultural and a world-wide movement. Christianity became sort of
a phenomenon that the Jews could not explain. But the Christian
movement had been foretold by the prophets of old.
Judaism itself was never able to compete with the Christians.
Some of this had to do with the way Judaism presented itself.
To become part of the Judaic religion, you had to become a Jew.
But with the Christians, the person who is converted remains
within their own cultural group.
This is a base summary of how these two religions evolved.
In Christ,
Bro. Buddy Martin - Ask
the Pastor
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Lawrence "Buddy" Martin
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.ChristianChallenge.org
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