The Biblical Religion
How many Religions did God establish in your Bible? Most Christians would answer two: Judaism in the Old Testament & Christianity in the New Testament. But is God schizophrenic? Would He really have established 2 conflicting Religions: One teaching He’s a unique singular Being - the other teaching He’s a Trinity; One revolving around a lunar calendar of Sabbaths & Holy Days - the other revolving around Sundays & Holidays; One still looking for the promised Messiah - the other declaring Jesus is that prophesied Messiah. Or did men decide to label these 2 different groups of Bible believers as separate Religions?
Religion: “A specific fundamental Set of Beliefs & Practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or Sects.” In reality, the book of Acts clearly establishes that there is only ONE Biblical Religion, but it is made up of different Sects: The Sect of the Pharisees (ACTS 15:5); The Sect of the Sadducees (ACTS 5:17); and the Sect of the Nazarenes (the dawn of Christianity - ACTS 24:5). The adherents to these 3 Sects did not look at one another as different religions, but rather different expressions & administrations of the same Religion.
The unity of both Testaments & its peoples into ONE Religion is clearly demonstrated in the following texts:
“For if you (Sect of the Nazarenes) were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree (Israel - Jeremiah 11:16), how much more will these, who are natural branches (Israel) be grafted into their own olive tree? For I (Paul) do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (ROMANS 11:24,25)
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (GAL.3:28,29)
Unfortunately, with the rise of the Roman Church in the 4th Century, came the division of the Old and New Testament peoples and writings - instead of the unity God intended:
“Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day; and if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be Judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (The 7 Ecumenical Councils - Philip Schaff)
Replacement Theology, or Supersessionism as it was also called, taught that Christians had replaced the Jews as God’s holy, chosen people. Such Anti-Semitism led to great persecution of the Jews by Christians in Europe and around the world. Martin Luther wrote a book entitled ‘ON THE JEWS AND THEIR LIES,’ which in part led to Hitler’s justification for the Holocaust.
In 1955 the Lutheran Church formally apologized to the Jewish people for teaching Replacement Theology. Other Protestant denominations followed suit. And during Vatican II in the 1960s the Catholic Church also apologized for teaching this destructive doctrine.
Paul was inspired to write: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (ROMANS 2:28,29)
It’s time Christianity returned to its Jewish roots, adopting the view of God held by the Original Christians: “…yet for us there is ONE GOD THE FATHER…” (I COR.8:6) and worshiping in the cycle of the Sabbath & Festivals (ACTS 17:2) (I COR. 5:8) and awaiting the time when God will open the eyes of the Jewish people to see that Jesus was indeed their promised Messiah:
“And I (God) will pour on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me (Christ) whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (ZECHARIAH 12:10)