I have always said that God has no religion; religion was created by men in order to have power over other men.
This has been the reason that so many people who think they are worshipping God correctly are actually on the wrong path.
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Judaism is based on the Torah, which are the first five books of the Bible and are, in fact, the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us how to worship him and how to treat each other.
Christianity grew from a Jewish movement that accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah God promised to send, and after Yeshua’s crucifixion and resurrection, allowed Gentiles into that movement. These neophyte Gentile believers were learning about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as learning about the Torah.
The confusion began with Shaul (Paul) teaching the many Gentile messianic congregations he formed (there was no “church” in the First Century) about obeying the Torah out of a faithful trust in God, and not in order to earn salvation. His problems were exclusively with the believing Jews who were forcing the Gentiles to undergo B’rit Milah (circumcision) in order to be saved.
The Elders in Jerusalem, led by Yacov (James) helped in this by writing a letter that identified 4 requirements- INITIAL requirements, not the only requirements- for these Gentile believers to obey, stating that they would eventually learn the Torah by attending Shabbat services (Acts 15).
These Gentile believers had another problem, besides the believing Jews “legalizing” them, and that was Rome. You see, the Jews had been rebelling against Roman rule, and there were three major rebellions, the third and final one being around 170 CE, which resulted in the death of thousands of Jews and most of the remaining Jews being disbursed throughout the Diaspora. The Romans added insult to injury by retitling Judea to Syria Palaestina, which in English is Palestine.
The problems and confusion that has caused is for another discussion.
So, as the Jewish movement became more and more infiltrated with Gentiles (sorry, but that is the best word I can use) and as the Jewish leaders die, no more Jews were coming in because the Gentile leaders were transforming this Jewish movement into a new religion, rejecting the Torah and forming their own holidays and rituals. By the end of the Second Century, they had a polytheistic religion by creating the idea of the Trinity, which was an absolute turn-off to the Jews, even those who were willing to hear about this guy Yeshua, now rebranded as Jesus, a Christian savior.
What started out as a Jewish movement accepting Yeshua as the Messiah and even allowing Gentiles to join to receive salvation, was mutated into a new religion called Christianity which was against Judaism and rejected the Torah.
Within Judaism there are 6 sects: Chasidic/Ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox (modern-day Pharisees), Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Messianic (although mainstream Jews do not accept Messianic as Jewish). And we can see that there are different ways that Jews interpret how to obey the Torah, but we are all basing our worship of God on how he said to do it.
Now, if you ask Google how many different Christian religions there are, this is the answer you will get:
There are an estimated 45,000 to over 49,000 Christian denominations globally. This massive number exists because of differing historical interpretations, cultural shifts, and the rapid growth of independent, localized churches.
So, we have to ask ourselves this question: how can there be so many different ways to worship God with so many different tenets and credos and holidays if they are all basing their worship on the Bible?
And the answer is obvious: they are not basing it on what God said but on what some human being said.
Christianity is not based on the Torah, although it does recognize the 10 Commandments and takes some things from the Torah.
The truth is that Christianity, for the most part, is a man-made religion that is based on an anti-Torah foundation, misusing and misinterpreting letters some Pharisee wrote to Gentile congregations having interpersonal power struggles and issues of faith. It is not based on how God said to live and worship him, but on what people have said how they want you to worship God.
That brings us back to the question I asked in the title of today’s message: Whom do you obey?
If you want to obey God, then you really need to do what God said to do, and if you have been taught differently, then how can you be obeying God? You can’t! You have to be obeying some man-made religion that has rejected what God said to do.
If you are thinking to yourself, “How can I be wrong if there are millions of Christians doing (pretty much) what I do?”, think about this:
When I meet God at Judgement Day, as we all will have to, I can say, “I tried my best to live as you said I should.”
But if you follow a religion that is not Torah based, the best you can say is, “I did what they told me I should do.”
Now, I can’t speak for the Big Guy upstairs, but I believe his answer to you would be something like this:
“I understand, my child, that you did what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts!”
Do you really want to hear that when where you will spend eternity is being decided?
Oh, by the way, if you think Yeshua will get you out of that situation, don’t count on it, because he lived and taught the Torah and he never said anyone should ignore his father’s rules. In fact, he already has warned you about this in Matthew 7:21-23:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.
Chew on that the next time your religion tells you the Torah is just for Jews.
Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and let me wish you Chag Sameach Shavuot!