I don’t want to make this a long post because I think this is a simple fact.
The mouths of so many christians are filled with the praise of Jesus. Their songs are about him. The words are about him. So much of their teaching is about him. So many christians know their “new testament” much better than the old one. I remember, after having left the notion of Jesus being messiah, going through the song book of my old church, trying to pick out a song that focused on the identity they know as “the Father,” the one who they believe sent their messiah-figure. Out of maybe 400 songs, there were probably only two or three where “God the Father” was the main emphasis.
Think about the way so many of them pray; they need to end their prayers with “in the name of Jesus.” I remember, with pain, hearing so many prayers directed to Jesus, or with the person praying swapping between Jesus and God as they pray. “Oh Jesus, in your name I’m praying …. And God, please make a way! And we call on your name …” It’s like a confusion! No, it is confusion. Whether they pray to Jesus, or think they have to pray through Jesus to get to God, it has diluted the pure worship spoken of in the Jewish Bible. Where the Psalmist says that God is near to all who all up on Him in truth, the christian interjects and says no one can come to the Father unless there’s a middle man.
In the Jewish Bible, the person who revered God didn’t need a priest or a prophet to call on God. In the christian testament, and in the lives of its devotees, some other person is inextricably attached to the worshipper to get any communication with God.
What makes much of christianity idolatry is their praise of someone other than God: a man. What makes much of christianity idolatry is their emphasis and focus on the Jesus-character and not on the person who they claim is the one who sent him. God commanded Israel, “You shall have no other god in front of me.” Yet christianity puts the man Jesus between themselves and God in their devotion, worship and prayer. Their so-called “mediator” becomes the divider.
Someone once said that christianity was a great stumbling block, causing so much of the world to err in serving a god other than the true God, the Creator. That person’s words have been justified.
Leaving Jesus 
Great post. Good to “see” you back in action!
Thanks for the kind words, man. I guess it had to come eventually. Despite the fact that christianity has been going on for a long time, seeing it in different lights evokes thoughts that want to come out on this blog. Glad they meet with your appreciation. Hope you are well.
Yes, Christianity has “evolved” into a very “spiritual” movement, one that grabs on to and heavily focuses on ones emotions. There is a new website out that has “testimonial” videos of Jews who believe in jc. If you watch them, it is all about emotion and miracles, neither of which the Hebrew bible says defines G-d. On the other hand, there are now several websites that have both former Christians who now believe in the teachings of Torah and Jews who believed in Christianity who have returned, B”H. If you watch those videos, it is all about what the Hebrew bible really says, not about emotions and miracles. And many of those people had those very emotional and/or miraculous experiences. So I ask all the readers out there, which holds more weight? Those who base their beliefs on emotional and/or miraculous experiences, or what G-d says in the Hebrew bible?
Amen to that! Very telling witness about the change and the quality of that change.
I hesitate to reply, however i feel a need. I pray my remarks come across in humility, which is the way I intend them. I only want to explain my understanding.
Looking through your site, you mention many teams leaving Christianity. The name of your blog states it quite simply. So i’m sure you understand where I am replying from. As a Christian, i believe that Christ and God the Father, not to mention the Holy Spirit, are one. They are distinct and individual, yet part of the same divine. A lot of this stem from the gospel of John. Specifically John 1:1-18 and John 10. There are others, but that is good start. True Christianity come from an understanding that everything flows from God. Christ even stated I have come to do the will of He (God the Father) that sent me.
You mentioned a person doesn’t need a priest. However, if my understanding of Levitical law is accurate, a priest is needed to offer the sacrifice. Obviously offerings of praise and song is open to all as described through many of the Psalms. Reconciliation and Atonement, on the other hand, required a mediator to present the sacrifices on behalf of the guilty. For us we find Christ dying on the Cross fulfilling that atonement (Romans 3) once for all (1 Peter 3:18). We also believe death on the Cross and not an alter is especially significant, because it accomplishes the need to be “cursed.”
In short, as a Christian, we use the name of Christ in prayer, not as a mystical or magic incantation. But as one references a mediator or intercessor for our behalf. In the same way the people of Israel called Yahweh, the God of my father, or the God of Jacob. We use Christ to claim membership of the eternal family. If Jesus were just a man, I would completely agree with your note. However, I am still convinced of the divinity of the New Testament. In Revelations God states He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is praised in the highest heavens morning and night. Similarly Christ is also called the Alpha and the Omega. He is also praised by wondrous hosts singing, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain”. To me, that is worthy of praise and reverence.
Shalom,
As you are fully convinced of the divinity of the NT, this response is not necessarily for you, but for those open to what I will say.
Your knowledge of Leviticus is incomplete and your reference to it ignores both what I said in my blog post asked the context of the whole Jewish Bible. In my post, I said that a person doesn’t need a priest to call on God. You then referred to sacrifices which is a different subject to just calling on God. In referring to Leviticus, you made the claim that a priest is needed to give the sacrifice. A few points:
1. Leviticus is God’s commandments to Israel, not the world. There’s no verse you can point to with an understanding of the Hebrew that tells you that the sacrificial Law was incumbent on all humanity. There’s no verse in the Jewish Bible that says that non-Jews need a priest. So that refutes the notion that non-Jews need a priest.
2. Leviticus doesn’t say that only “a priest” will do. The Torah, the Law is where God commands which family the priest must come from (Aaron and Levi). God commands what must be sacrificed (specific animals that don’t include humans). God commands where the sacrifice must be made (in the Temple/tabernacle). GOD commands the precise way the sacrifices must be killed and what is done to the blood. The worst thing you can do is point at Leviticus and the rest of the God’s commandments because the words themselves disqualify Yeshu/Jesu as any form of sacrifice for sin.
3. If you took note of the whole Jewish Bible, you would see that the notion that sacrifice is necessary for atonement and reconciliation/forgiveness does not come from the Jewish Bible (to be continued)
(contd) continued from point 3. A bible which has statements like “I confess my sins and you forgave me” (psalm 32:5), like “with truth and kindness, sin is atoned for” (proverbs 16), “if people called by my name and humble themselves and pray, I’ll hear from heaven and forgive their sins” (2 chronicles 7), like “when a wicked man turns from his sins, and does what is right, I’ll forget his sins” (ezekiel 18), like “let the wicked man forsake his way for God is ready forgive” (isaiah 55), you have verses like these that show – with no sacrifice nearby – that God forgives and atones for sin without sacrifice, and it impossible to come away from God’s prophets with the notion that a priest is needed to get forgiveness … unless you’ve rejected his prophets and undermined their message because “I’m fully convinced about the divinity of the NT” which means the execution of a man you’ve devoted yourself to is more important that what God said through his prophets.
4. Leviticus never says the only way to get forgiveness and reconciliation with God is by means of a priest and a sacrifice.
Simply, it doesn’t help your case when the plain meaning of the passage you’re pointing has a different and conflicting message to your own. I know full well the christians claim that the mundane execution of a man “fulfils” the law. But the mundane execution is not the words of God’s commandments. You have to imagine a hidden meaning. I’ll happily take the plain word of the Jewish Bible rather than a doctrine that breaks the words of the commandment.
By the way, all my points apply regardless of whether you teach that God died as a man, or whether you teach the man without God died.
Your doctrines don’t come from God’s prophets in the Jewish Bible. And they aren’t based on the words of God’s commandments. Someone said “Go to the Torah: if they don’t speak according to this, there is no light in them.” I hope you find God’s light instead of remaining devoted to a man.