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I'm a Jew, and I have many many christian friends. I don't want to bring up the discussion with them, and I hope that the christians here can answer my questions about the discrepancies i find in christianity. I'm just trying to educate myself about other religions.

1) How is worshipping a man not against the 10 commandments which claim that you are an idol worshipper for worshipping anything except for the God that you cannot see. The Old Testament claims that God should have no face.

2) How can christianity change so much? I'm wondering how the Pope can one day decide that God no longer hates Jews, and they can go to heaven now.

3)I've had Christians come to me and say that Christianity has a loving and forgiving God and Judaism has a Scornful God. However, Judaism doesn't taunt Hell over the heads of its followers to get them to fear and follow God or go to hell.

4) How can christianity be about love if it hates gays?

5)How can there be a father, a son, and a holy ghost? more..

2006-08-19 20:23:03 · 13 answers · asked by shachar86 2 in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

5) How can there be a father, a son, and a holy ghost? How can the father still be the son, and if God only takes the form of a holy "ghost" then how can he have flesh, and if he has flesh and died, doesnt that make him not omnipotent?

6)How did Jesus make the ultimate sacrifice? If he knew that when he died, he would be alive alongside God in Heaven, wouldnt his death on the cross not be the "ultimate" sacrifice. It would be if he didnt know or had doubts, but if he knew, i assume that he would find it worth several hours of death for eternity alongside God (which is him?)

Thanks for the answers guys, hope to learn alot from this!

2006-08-19 20:26:03 · update #1

13 answers

I am not one of the more popular christian religions. I'm not going to say just in case people in my religion get upset and think I'm miss representing or something, which I think is wrong. I do not believe most people, such as catholics, who call themselves christians are actually christians.

1.)I do not worship any statue of "Mother Mary," I don't believe in praying through her, I don't believe in a statue of Jesus is what he wanted when he commanded that all worship should be directed towards the father.

2.)Here's where most "christians" give the rest of us a bad name. The Roman catholic church originated when Ceasar realized, "You know what? To really unite the people, we must have one basic religion. The main base religion was christianity. The rosarie beads had nothing to do with judaism or Jesus' new instructions. It's all in the catholic encyclopedia too, they fess up. From these wrongs more and more kept being made to christianity.

3.)Hell is simply the common grave of man, not a place of eternal torment, check the records of original route words. Gehenna was originally a place outside of Jerusalem where the Jewish people threw garbage and dead criminals not worthy of a good burial. And hades has always just been the grave of men. If you have a son, would you be a loving father if you held his face against the burner whenever he messed up? How much more wrong would it be for God, who has been know as the God of love in the bible to let Satan eternally torment someone in a firey pit.

4.)Jesus taught for us to not to hate the people, it's the actions I don't like. Honestly, it's not for me to judge someone.

5.)If you're referring to the trinity, that was also included with the new and improved roman catholic church all thanks to ceasar. Originally it was only the father and the son, or was it the father and the holy spirit? Then about one hundred years later they added the other. The holy ghost is just God's active force, what he uses to accomplish his will. Like I referred to it before, I like to say holy spirit as that is a more accurate translation.

Sorry if that makes people mad. Just look in the catholic encyclopedia, it also says that the pope has power to change the bible, according to a rule they came up with later anyway.

2006-08-19 20:51:00 · answer #1 · answered by youarenotwill 2 · 1 1

1) Jesus is not a man, but the Christ, the messiah which your fathers predicted and you are still waiting for.

2)Don't follow the pope, follow Christ - the popes teachings are unbiblical

3)Judaism does not have a scornful God, our God is the same, but you do not accept his Christ the messiah Jesus.

4)This contradicts the OT that you cling to, read it, it also condemns homosexuals

5)how can't there ? David knew of the Holy Ghost - read the Old testament, try using web searches on a bible website looking for the words Holy Spirit, etc - Jesus is the Christ he covered his divinity with humanity, because it is true, most people would die if they saw God. Jesus gives God a face, and portrays his character - as you know also; God's character is outlined in his commandments.

6)How can sacrificing animals cleanse your sins? If it does, how moreso does the sacrifice of Christ?
Christ had to leave the beauty of Heaven, for this hole. For 33 and a half years he did not sin not once!! But being in a human body, he was tempted so much. The most pain Christ suffered was seperation from the Father - he felt the physical pain but it was minimal in comparison. Satan made our sins look as tho they reached heaven, and Christ had to rely on his humanity to overcome him as the Father had forsaken him for a time. Even though Satan made us seem so much more sinful then we really are, Christ still died for us, because he loved us sooo much.

I think it a good idea to study the book of Daniel, as it is what you believe in. Especially that of Daniel chapter 9, Messiah was supposed to come to earth and die in 31AD. If Jesus wasn't the Messiah, then where did he go? Start with my link and draw your own conclusions

2006-08-20 04:06:51 · answer #2 · answered by Sky_blue 4 · 0 0

1) Worshipping a man is wrong. Jesus is God. That is why worshipping him is not wrong.

-- Please email me the reference in the Tanach which says that God should have no face... The Tanach speaks of the eyes of God that range the earth looking for righteous men (and women).

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2) The Christian gospel has not changed since the time of Jesus Christ. The Pope is not the representative of ALL Christians.

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3) The Tanach does present more of the Disciplinary Side of God than the New Testament does. Christians live in daily relationship with the God of the Bible, because we love him, not because we are afraid of Hell.

Also, Hell is Just. Hell is a place where people experience the Just consequences for the harm they did to others (by their actions or by the inaction). God's rules are intended to minimize the harm that we do to each other... and when we violate the rules, we increase evil and harm and pain in human society.

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4) Christianity does not hate gays.

To say that a behavior can be changed does not mean that Christianity hates gays.

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5) This is a trinity question... Here is a brief synopsis of the Trinity:

There is only ONE God. He manifests himself in three personas/persons/manifestations for the purposes of the redemption of, and relationship with, human beings.

Contrary to what some people say, there is nothing irrational or illogical about this concept (of the Trinity).

For an explanation (and defense) of the doctrine of the Trinity, see http://www.godsci.org/gs/sect/doc/trinity.html
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6) Jesus suffering and death on the cross were the sacrifice. The resurrection and return to heaven does not negate the reality of the suffering on the cross.

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Feel free to email me if you wish for further dialog.

Cordially,
John
http://www.GodSci.org

2006-08-20 03:29:04 · answer #3 · answered by John 6 · 2 0

1) Christians [most forms, anyway] believe that jesus was g-d, incarnate....not just human, but [somehow] a part of the g-dhead. This would be close to the Jewish figure of the "suffering servant"...one who is sent by g-d to suffer for the sins of the people.

2) not all christians follow the dicta of the pope....not even all catholics do...All religions change with the times...At the time of jesus, there were probably no less than 4 "types" of Jewish religions

3) christians often are not taught anything about Judaism except that christianity came [somehow] from it and is better than it...of course, what would you expect a believing christian to say.???
It is somewhat simplistic, but....the Jewish g-d rewarded Jews for their faith or punished unfaithful Jews in THIS world...christians just postponed the verdict to after death...Both g-ds are loving , forgiving and scornful...depending on what passages you are reading....

4) Some "early" christian writers...not g-d ....were really conservative ....extremely so....their writings influenced christian theologians... strange views on a lot of issues...particularly Augustine and to a lesser extent Ambrose...NOT much different from the views of Shammai -as opposed to Hillel

5) the "trinity" was, has been and is a thorny theological issue.
There is no simple answer....any one that uses the excuse that it is a "mystery" and therefore beyond understanding is just repeating a grade school explanation that they heard and haven't thought past ....the book " A history of god" by Alexander has a couple of really good chapters on this subject....Even Judaism had a form of trinity -and beyond, with the Kabbalah...


6) See "suffering servant" of g-d...this is a JEWISH concept..also refer to the Essene writings concerning the "teacher of rightousness" . One christian explaination goes something like......jesus was the fufillment of the covenant first established by moses....the "sacrificial lamb" was a ritual in Judaism that honored this original pact...as does the Seder...but just as the blood of the lamb allows the angel of death to pass over the Jews and save the faithful...so then,,,jesus as the successor to moses...establishes a new covenant with his blood...again,,, this is only one view...you might get many, but this one is as close as any and better than most

2006-08-20 03:54:19 · answer #4 · answered by Gemelli2 5 · 0 0

Go ask a Zoarastrian, because it's they who influenced your people(or your people influenced them) to merge the two respective religions together to create christianity when your people coexisted in Persia a couple thousand years ago. Nothing but respect for you, though. I'm an atheist, but I've run across far more respectable Jews than I have christians. As far as the whole scornful/forgiving god thing goes, however, it seems that they only believe this because the Torah contains a spiteful god who exacts punishment on the non-believers, but that the new testament centers around jesus coming to earth and forgiving those who have sinned against his father(which may or may not be him). christianity is not about love, it is about brain-washing the masses, which also explains the whole hellfire and brimstone thing(which was a creation of Dante Alligheri in his Divine Comedy)-not from the bible.
Chrisitianity changes so much because it is the most adapted religion throughout history, which is why there are so many christians and so many denominations. If they don't like a certain aspect of christianity, they either water it down, remove it, or invent things to apply to them.
christians are fickle and way too pushy for being such an improvised "religion".

2006-08-20 03:36:30 · answer #5 · answered by rhambass 4 · 0 2

1) Jesus christ is not a man he is our Lord
Days of the Old Testament when man sins he
deserves to die for his sin , also no one see
God and live that's for man's sins which standes
between man and God, so there were a veil surrounding
the sanctum sanctorum so that when god is there during
the praying , the people don't die but when our lord
Jesus where crucifixing on the cross ... that veil
torned in two peases , that's a sign of how closeness
the man got near to God without dYing

2) God always has the best of every thing , God means love
God hates no one , God gives people million of millions
of chances , every body got equal chances to go to heaven
but you got to have a pure heart .. in other words you got
to have jesus heart cause no one on this earth have a heart
like he is ..

3) Execuse me here , but we are talking about the same God
here the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New
Testament just in the Old Testament the Jews people didn't
obey God and always worship idol whenever for Moses take his
sign out of them .. i'm giving you an example and you can read more and more examples in the Old Testament of how the Jews
acts againts God , that God had to be hard on them , but through
the New Testament a new testament were made with mankind
and God ..

4)We love every one , we are all brothers from the same father
and mother so if your brother is bad , is wrong about something ,
if different than you , you don't hate him , you may try to him
advices over and over , you might stay away from him , but you
keep on loving him deep in your heart .

5) The father is the begining of all beginings , he is like the sun
you cannot get that near to the sun or you will burn , Adam
sinned the whole human race after him , sacrifices made by
Lambs was not enought for all human sins , so a greater
sacrific had to be made , of course no human were without
faults , so that sacrificion had to be made with someone who is
human and didn't sin , so if God came on earth on his form as
the father , impossible as of his nature as the sun so he send
his only son or the form that we can see and accept to be
sacrificed with His holyghost helps his faithful survents ..

2006-08-20 05:40:57 · answer #6 · answered by shady 3 · 0 0

That's a whole handful of questions, isn't it?

1) Worshipping a man is directly against the ten commandments, since you should have no gods besides God. However, according to Christian beliefs, Jesus is God, in human form. Isaiah 7 brings the prophecy of the Messiah. The Messiah would be God in human form, which is the meaning of the name Immanuel, "God with us". God came down with us in human form in Jesus Christ, called Immanuel. The verse you're referring to regarding God not having a face I believe would be Exodus 20. If we look closely, it is talking about erecting statues to be the image of God to worship. This was a common practice of pagans, who believed that their gods actually would take residence in the statues for them to worship. This of course is an obvious problem. It is said in Exodus 33 that God's face could not be seen because of his immense glory, and Moses was permitted to see his back. The difference here is that Moses was seeing God the Father, and Jesus is God the Son. We'll get to that when we get to 5.

2) Christianity, much to the Catholic's chagrin, is not based on the pope. The position of pope has no biblical foundation. He is not like the high priest of Israel. I'm going to make a lot of catholics mad at me with this, but truth is truth. As a human, the pope is fallable, just as any other person. What he says at any given time may or may not be in accordance with Scripture. God of course has never hated Jews. The Jews are God's chosen people. God has special responsibilities reserved for the Jews.

3) The Christians that say that Judaism has a scornful God are failing to realize that God is the same God in the Torah as the New Testament. However, that in mind, in the Torah it does say that those who do not follow God are punished. Those who oppose God are not spared, and it takes little searching the Scriptures to find that evidence. He thwarted entire nations of people for rebellion against him. God is not just God of Christians and Jews, He's God of the entire world, every knee shall bow to him eventually. It's best if we do it now while we still have the choice.

4) There are radical groups which claim to be Christian that hate gays. However, this is not a Christian view. Christians do believe that homosexuality is wrong for a number of texts in both the Torah and the New Testament. God hates sin. However, through Jesus Christ He has shown that he does love sinners, and has come to redeem the whole world. The classic phrase to describe this is "Love the sinner, hate the sin."

5) Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is actually a concept that goes back to many Torah Scriptures, as well as New Testament Scriptures. Jesus did have the power at any time to stop his execution, but he chose not to. Just because he could doesn't mean he would. He knew in his perfect knowledge what was perfectly holy for him to do. The best explanation I have for the concept of the Trinity is an analogy of a cherry pie. God is one, but existing in three persons. A cherry pie has three parts: the topping, the filling, and the crust. If you remove any one of these parts, you don't have a cherry pie. None of these parts are considered separate from the pie, but they can be all identified as separate entities. God is all three persons at once. All three are separate, but they are not multiple gods, they are the One God. This shows even greater an ability for God to be three, but yet only be one.

6) Jesus' ultimate sacrifice is not to be understood in the sense of the ultimate suffering possible. Though if we consider, he gave up the free use of all of his power, came down into a fragile human body, lived as a man, was crucified by those he came to save and rejected by those he loved. That's a pretty terrible tragedy if it were not for his resurrection. The ultimate sacrifice referred to though is that this sacrifice, unlike all the sacrifices before him, was perfect. In previous sacrifices, God still required more blood to be spilt for the forgiveness of more sins. When Christ came, he became a sacrifice for all sins, not just past sins. In that sense, he is the ultimate sacrifice because we no longer need sacrifices to approach God, we can now approach God individually, for Jesus has paid the price for that blessing to us.

2006-08-20 04:04:08 · answer #7 · answered by GodsKnite 3 · 1 0

I am seventy years old and still struggle with your questions. A good place to start is reading ' A History of God: The 4000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam', by Karen Armstrong.

2006-08-20 03:37:50 · answer #8 · answered by weewilly 2 · 0 1

Dear Jew a chosen one of God.. thanks for your questian if asked this questian in an eager to know the truth and come closer to God.... I welcome you to the Kingdom of God's family...

Jesus Christ was a man but God came in to the form of man and the revelation of the Trinity of God is awsome if you want to know really I cannot explain in this small place but if you dont consider my contact as one among 100 and if you dont think you cannot any thing from me my email is Davidrajkumar7@yahoo.co.in contact me I will tell you.. any how you are waiting for the Messiah to come and restore the Jews and build the Temple is it? what are you expecting a Man or God himself...... if you expect man name Massiah to come that Man Jesus came already

2. Christians or Christianity never hate gays or sinners of any form of people but only hate the sin in them. God in the old testement destroyed Soddom and Gomarah: one among the prime reason is Homosexuality.. So God Loves Gays and waits for them to change their attitude towards life and sexual diseres..

Pope is not the representative of Christianity and the activities of Roman Catholism is not the act of Christianity since they are not following the Biblical commands in practicing their faith.
so pope's statement on Jews never representate the Christianity's.... We love Jews and we always believe that Jews killed Jesus Christ but according to the will of God so there is no reason to hate of put Jew on the line to hate....

As I told in the biginning if you mail me please I will write you about the revelation of the Trinity ... How God, is the Son and the Holy Ghost.


your addtional questian is Jesus' Death...... Death in the Humen words and understanding is passing away fromt this side of life to the other side which means its not only Jesus but each and every humen after death they live on the other side either in the tormenting place if they deny Jesus Christ, in the Paradise if they acknowledge Jesus And Posronalise Him as their saviour....

Jesus death is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice to the mankind....

God bless you, when you know more and more you will Serve to Jesus Christ. I love you Brother / Sister...

2006-08-20 10:20:08 · answer #9 · answered by ponder of God's Desire 3 · 0 0

read the old testament closer it specificly talks about a savior and jesus forfilled all 333 old testament prophecies therefore the old testament clearly states that he is god not a man

On your point on gays
one the old testament says it's immoral
two true christians do not hate we only see a state of sin
three it breaks the first covenent that God created marriage

2006-08-20 03:40:45 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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