Deanne Shallenberger (Glenn) - Homeward Bound

Deanne Glenn's new single "Homeward Bound" 

"Lyrics by Joshua Shallenberger Purchase the hit single "Homeward Bound" as heard on Hebrew Nation Radio: www.lulu.com A passionate cry to Yahweh to return to the covenant so that the nations might be restored as His people (Israel) once again."

FROM.. YOU ARE MY WITNESSES (Is. 43:10) THE TRADITIONAL JEWISH RESPONSE TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES by Yisroel C. Blumenthal

The authors of the Christian scriptures describe the

development of the early church in the following manner.

Jesus was a Jewish man, who lived in the land of Israel. When

he was about thirty years old, he began to travel throughout the

country. For about three years, Jesus traveled and taught. By

the time Jesus died, he had created a small following. All of

his followers were Jews. Prominent among Jesus’s followers

were his twelve disciples. These disciples formed a

community with its center in Jerusalem. The community of

Jesus’s followers was lead by James, a brother of Jesus. This

community is referred to as the “Jerusalem Church”. In the

years following Jesus’s death, the Jerusalem Church grew in

size. At one point, the authors of Christian scriptures claim

that they numbered several thousand. But the members of this

church were all Jews.

Christianity reached the non-Jewish world through the

person of Paul. Paul traveled the length and breadth of the

Mediterranean, teaching the gentile world about Jesus. Paul

founded many churches throughout the Roman Empire. The

churches which Paul established were predominantly gentile.

The Christian scriptures end their narrative at this point.

They leave the reader at the historical point where there are

two churches; the Jewish church of James, and the gentile

church of Paul.

History tells us that the Jewish church of James did not

survive as a separate entity. By the time Christianity became

the established religion of the Roman Empire, there were

almost no Jewish Christians left. The few Jewish Christians

which still existed, were persecuted as heretics by the gentile

church. All of Christianity as it exists today, was transmitted

through the body of the gentile church. The books of Christian

scripture were products of the gentile church. They may have

included in these books, material which came from the Jewish

Christians. But the gentile church was the editor of this

material. It was the gentile church who determined the

contents of the Christian scriptures, and who transmitted these

texts to the future generations.

In order to be convinced that the gentile church is truly

transmitting the original message of Jesus, one must determine

that Paul’s teachings conformed with the teachings of Jesus.

The gentile church only learned of Jesus through the teachings

of Paul. If Paul’s teachings were not synonymous with the

teachings of Jesus, then the gentile church does not possess the

original message of Jesus.

To determine Paul’s connection to Jesus, we will turn to the

books of Christian scripture. It is clear that the editors of these

books were strongly motivated to present Paul as one who is

faithfully transmitting the original message of Jesus. Yet even

these biased writers, were not able to do so.

The Christian scriptures describe the basis of Paul’s mission

in the following manner. Paul never saw Jesus in real life.

Neither did Paul learn of Jesus’s teachings through the

disciples of Jesus. Paul emphatically states (in the 1st and 2nd

chapters of Galatians) that no living person was involved in

transmitting Jesus’s message to him. Paul only learned of the

teachings of Jesus through a series of visions. In these visions,

Jesus appeared to him and imparted his teachings. Paul’s

entire message was the product of these visions.

The only way we can verify the truth of Paul’s claim, is by

determining the reaction of Jesus’s disciples to Paul’s

message. These men who lived with Jesus and heard him

teach, could compare the teachings that they heard, to the

prophecy of Paul. How did the Jewish following of James

react to Paul’s claim to prophecy?

Paul makes the claim (Galatians 2:9) that the leaders of the

Jerusalem Church acknowledged the fact that he was

appointed (by the dead Jesus) as a messenger to the gentiles.

But Paul was lying. James and the Jerusalem Church never

acknowledged the validity of Paul’s visions. It is the Christian

scriptures themselves who contradict Paul’s claim.

The 15th chapter of the book of Acts, describes how the

leadership of the Jerusalem Church disregarded Paul’s claim

to prophecy. Paul had come to Jerusalem. He had been

preaching to the gentiles that they are not required to practice

the law of Moses. Some members of the Jerusalem Church

disagreed with Paul. They felt that in order for a gentile to join

their following, he should be required to observe the law of

Moses. This question was brought before the leadership of the

Jerusalem Church. The elders of the church discussed the

question, and James handed down his decision. His judgment

was that the gentiles were not obligated to observe the entirety

of the law of Moses as a prerequisite to joining the Christian

community. But he stipulated that the gentiles were obligated

to observe certain dietary laws, and to avoid immorality.

If Paul was telling us the truth when he claimed that the

leadership of the Jerusalem Church acknowledged him as a

true prophet, then this story makes no sense. Here we have

Paul, who was personally appointed by the dead Jesus as his

emissary to the gentile world. Whatever Paul taught was

personally revealed to him in these prophetic visions. One of

the central teachings of Paul was that the gentile world is not

bound by the law of Moses. Yet when the leaders of the

Jerusalem Church are in doubt as to what Jesus would have

said concerning the gentiles, they discuss the question, and

look to James for guidance. If there was any truth to Paul’s

claim, that these leaders acknowledged the truth of his

prophecy, then they should have simply asked him “what did

Jesus tell you?” The fact that they considered the question, and

the method that they used to resolve the question, clearly tells

us that these men did not believe that Jesus had ever spoken to

Paul. The author of the book of Acts, his bias

notwithstanding, could not hide this simple fact.

The difference between the gentile church founded by Paul,

and the Jerusalem Church founded by Jesus, was not limited to

the question of the authenticity of Paul’s prophecy. These two

institutions espoused two totally different philosophies. The

central teaching of Pauline Christianity is, that faith in the

redeeming sacrifice of Jesus, is the only valid method through

which atonement for sin can be achieved. The entire

philosophy of Paul, revolves around this one teaching.

Evangelical Christianity is founded upon this basic teaching of

Paul. If you were to ask an Evangelical Christian to sum up his

belief system in one sentence, he would respond with this

point. That faith in Jesus is the only redemption from sin. In

fact the entire concept of the messiah-ship of Jesus is basically

limited to this one point. Jesus is the messiah of Evangelical

Christians, only because they believe that his death provided

atonement for sin.

But the Jerusalem Church which was established by Jesus,

and which was guided by his disciples, did not believe in this

teaching of Paul. They did not believe that faith in Jesus could

effectively atone for their sins. This is demonstrated by the

testimony of the Christian scriptures. The 21st chapter in the

book of Acts reports that the normal activities of the members

of the Jerusalem Church included the offering of animals for

the explicit purpose of the expiation of sin. The book of Acts

describes how four members of the Jerusalem Church had

taken a Nazirite vow. This means that they had voluntarily

brought themselves into a situation where they would be

required (by the law of Moses) to bring an animal as a sin

offering. It is clear that these people saw in the temple

offerings a valid method for the expiation of sin. If they

believed as Paul did, that Jesus died for their sins once and for

all, then there would be no point in bringing a sin offering in

the temple. The fact that the Jerusalem Church still

participated in the temple offerings after Jesus had died, tells

us that they did not see in Jesus’s death an all atoning

sacrifice. These people were not Evangelical Christians.

The Christian scriptures provides both the theological and

the historical justification to the accusation that Christianity

has failed in the transmission of its own message. The

Christian scriptures tell us that the disciples of Jesus never

believed the fundamental teaching of Evangelical Christianity.

These people who lived with Jesus and heard him preach did

not believe, that with the death of Jesus, the world is redeemed

of its sins. The Christian scriptures also tell us, at which

historical point the break in the transmission occurred. These

books tell us that Paul, the father of modern Christianity, had

no connection to Jesus. Christianity is an edifice erected upon

the testimony of one man. All of Christianity stands upon

Paul’s word that Jesus appeared to him. The only people that

were qualified to verify Paul’s claim, contradicted him to his

face. This emerges from the pages of the very books which

Christianity regards as true witnesses to its claims.