I have always wanted someone to answer this but no one has given me a really good answer.?

Question

If Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ... and JC was jewish.... why don't christians follow his religion? I mean wouldn't you want to be the same religion of the personal that you are following religiously? The last supper was a Sedar celebrating the jewish holiday of passover wasn't it?

Ok just want to add a couple things here. First I was raised jewish by a mother that was christian and a father who was jewish. I am also hearing that people are quoting the bible and how people are not supposed to follow the jewish religion. Isn't the old testamin the torah? Actually isn't it the entire tulmid? So it is part of the christian or king james bible (which was altered by james to fit his anti feminin agenda) but christians don't have to follow it? So why it is included? I do mean this as a serious question. I am not poking fun at any religion. I have always had these questions and this seemed like a good place to do it.

Answer 1

This is a very good question, and you raise a really interesting point. To a certain extent, Christianity does follow Judaism in that it accepts the canonicity of the Hebrew Scriptures and sees Jesus and his atonement for the sins of the whole world as the fulfillment of G-d's covenant with Abraham. Also Jesus not only accepted the written Torah but also the oral Torah. There is the gradual separation of Judaism and Christianity, first, with the controversy between St. Paul and the leaders of the Christian community in Jerusalem led by James the Just over whether gentile converts had to accept circumcision and Jewish dietary laws. This issue led to the apostolic council of Jerusalem around 51 C.E. at which Paul's position prevail. Observant Jews, including Peter, had a problem with this, and the rift within Christianity was paper over but remained an issue of contention with the greater Jewish community.

The second great issue was the Jewish Revolt that ended with the sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. For the most part, Jewish Christians opposed the revolt and fled the city either before the siege or arranged to pass through the lines and take refuge in Roman controlled areas. This was regarded as betrayal by many Jews. After the fall of Jerusalem, the Christian movement in Jerusalem disappears, we hear no more of James the Just, and the entire Jewish community, including the Christian portion, ,begins trying to understand how G-d could let this catastrophe happen. Orthodox Jewish rabbis, blaming Christians for the violation of the commandments against monotheism and idolatry and whom the Roman authorities allowed to settle at Yavneh, added what is now the 12th prayer to the Shemoneh Ezreh, which was a curse on slanderers, heretics and traitors, and is generally accepted as directed against the Christian community, both Jewish and gentile. Meanwhile, Jewish Christians, such as St. Mark in his Gospel, blame those Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah as bringing down the wrath of God, which led to the destruction of the Temple and, with it, the end of Jewish cultic worship. This is followed about 20 years later by the Passion scene in the Gospel of John, where the author portrays the blood curse that the Jews call down upon themselves giving rise to the charge of Deicide. So, between the end of Jesus's public ministry with the crucifixion and the end of the 1st Century, there occurred the mission to the gentiles followed by the catastrophe of the Jewish Revolt followed by a really nasty dispute between Christian and non-Christian Jews about who was at fault theologically for the destruction of Jewish cultic worship.

Since then, the long, sad history of persecution leading to the Holocaust is too well known to require repetition. However, some of the more interesting Christological work done recently has been portraying Jesus as a faithful Jew within the context of late Second Temple Judaism, such as Brad Young's "Jesus the Jewish Theologian," Wayne-Daniel Berard's "When Christians Were Jews (That Is Now)," and maybe most importantly Bishop N.T. Wright's "The New Testament and the People of God." So, at least some Christian theologians and Christians generally are looking more toward the Jewish basis of their own faith.

Will there be a reunion? Obviously not, although Messianic Judaism would seem to be a possible bridge movement, it does not appear to command the following in the Jewish community sufficient to provide a middle ground on which both Jews and Christians could stand. But 2000 years of persecution, mistrust, and diverging theology is unlikely to be overcome. Our best hope--and I say this as a Christian with a long history of Jewish friends going back 40+ years--is that people of good faith on both sides of the divide can talk to one another and come to respect the better parts of the 2 traditions that have grown up over the centuries. Recent moves by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion repudiating anti-Semitism and acknowledging the part played by historical Christianity in producing the mindset that led to the Holocaust are small but not inconsiderable steps. Jewish recognition at Yad Vashem of the "Righteous Gentiles," who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, is also a step to mutual respect and accommodation.

It would be nice to think that leaders of both faiths could agree that people of faith of both traditions are looking forward to and trying to bring about the Kingdom of God. As long as we all acknowledge the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a starting point but not necessarily an ending point, anything is possible.

Grace be unto you and peace.

Answer 2

You make a good point. Many of the first Christians were also Jewish. But Jesus gave the command after his resurrection, what we call the Great Commission, (Matthew 28:18-20) "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Many gentiles were converted, and they were not required to follow Jewish tradition. There are many references to this in the New Testament books (such as whether or not gentiles should be circumcized or follow Jewsh food restrictions,etc.)As Christians we are not required to follow the Jewish traditions. We do not believe that you can do enough or be good enough to earn your way to heaven but must be saved by accepting Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross to cleanse us of sin. There are some Christians today that do follow Jewish traditions also, they are called Messianic Jews. Most were raised in the Jewish faith but have converted to Christianity. We had a man speak at our church a few times who is a Messianic Jew. He explained so many things that I didn't know about the Seder meal (yes, the Last Supper, which in the Christian church is celebrated as Communion), the feasts of Israel and the prophets of the Old Testament. It was awesome how everything fit together with Christ. More information can be found at
http://rockofisrael.org and http://jewsforjesus.org
I hope this was helpful.

SN

Answer 3

Well I will try to satisfy your answer:
First, there are some that do, they are called: Jews for Jesus. They have all of the Jewish traditions down, but believe in Christ as the Messiah. Christians don't really appreciate them because they are still "Jewish" and Jewish people don't accept this because it pretty much goes in reverse to what Judaism is based on....
The reason that Christians do not follow Jewish traditions is because the New Testament is in slight contradiction to Judaism and Jewish tradition. I forget what book it was in the New Testament that JC calls out the Jewish Leaders and pretty much tells them that they are wrong and that though their religion was that of God's chosen people, they had lost their way.
So this is why the Gospels were written so that people would know that the new teachings of Christ were what is supposed to be followed, not the old teachings.
But if you ask me personally, there is so much bias, in the end you make up your own mind. If you are Christian, but love Judaism, why should you be so dutifully scrutinized if you want to celebrate Yom Kippur and Christmas?

And FYI to all of your critics: Christ WAS Jewish, and though it is not a secular "race" it is a culture.
Also, there is no such thing as race. Race is a word invented by sociologist to categorize people. Categorizing, separating people by physical characteristics does not seem to be very Christian, wouldn't you agree?

Answer 4

This is too complex to answer here but do go and do some searching about the origins of Christianity and look in your bible at Romans, Corinthians etc.

You will see that early christians were Jews who followed Judaism, after Jesus' death and resurrection they came to understand Jesus teachings fully. They then struggled for quite a while with following "The way" (Jesus' teachings) and keeping Judaism this was further complicated by Gentiles becoming christians. Along it continues evolving into what appears to be two entirely separte religions but any christian worth their salt will tell you that christianity is entwined with the Jewish people and their religion. But that they follow Jesus' teachings rather than the religion, culture and race he was born into.

Answer 5

He offered a new interpretation of Jewish sacred texts and the traditional belief in a coming Messiah, by embodying the transformational process required for restoration of the authentic (Christ/messiah) Self which is a personal interior journey of transcendence. He obviously intended that a new sect be established that offered relevance at that point in history - NOT that a political Messiah would appear to save the Jews from the Roman oppression, but that internal transformation was the way to overcome and change the world. All of his miracles demonstrated the malleableness of reality - if one was purified of the religious indoctrination and psychological conditioning of the culture/village.

Modern Christianity has degenerated into social clubs, trivializing his unique insights. He was an adept on the order of a Buddha - with a profoundly powerful approach to transcendence of the ego and the ultimate practicality of enlightenment.

Answer 6

A good answer comes from Paul a Jewish Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrein.He says (Collosians 2) all those things (from Genesis 3:15 through Malchi) were example (shadows) of the things to come.The substance was Christ himself.The early Jewish Christians wanted the new Gentile believers to follow all the rules and regulations they did but Peter protested and said (Acts 15:6 and on) "Now therefore why are you putting a yoke upon their neck that neither our ancestors nor we are able to bear?"
In other words 'We can't keep the Law,no one can,that's why Jesus came.Let's not put that pressure on them'.
See,Peter learned his lesson from Paul (read Galatians 2: 11 Cephas is the Greek word for the Aramaic "Peter" or Petros(a stone)Paul let him have it for being a hypocrite.The Gentile church should be separate from the "Old way".The same way Jesus said "No one puts new wine in old wineskins" The new wine being Christianity,the old being Judaism.When a skin is fresh it is plyable but after it has dried out if you put wine in it it tries to expand and the dried old skin bursts.Paul also gives a good example in Galatians about Abraham and his two sons and wives .One was of the promise one was not .Do a study on that for good info.Hope this helped.

Answer 7

Partly it has to do with Jesus' and the early Christians reinterpretation of the Torah, but that case is probably overstated. There were plenty of doctrinal disputes within Judaism itself. The biggest reason is that in the 80's CE, after the destruction of the temple, the Jewish synagogues banned the Christians from synagogue-worship. (This was largely a political gesture - not a religious one - to reassure the Romans that, after the political resistance in Palestine was crushed, the remaining Jewish community were not troublemakers, and weren't affiliated with the troublesome Christian sect.) At first there were plenty of Jews who followed Christ. But once you have no temple to worship at, and no synagogue, how do you religiously affiliate yourself with Judaism? At that point it was only a matter of time before they went their separate ways.

Peace to you.

Answer 8

The Sedar celebrated by Jesus was totally contrary to the Law of God in the Old Testament!!! All his disciples broke away and abandoned home life. The Sedar is to be celebrated in one's own home!

Luke 14:26 (NIV) Jesus Christ said, "If anyone comes to me and does not HATE* (*Greek=”miseo”=to abhor!) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple."

Luke 14:33 (NIV) In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Mark 10:28-30 (NIV) Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age [RIGHT NOW!!!] homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.

The Sedar is celebrated in a family setting where the child ask the father, "Why is this night different from the other nights?" and he father tells everybody around he table the exodus story... Jesus totally disregarded the traditional celebration of the Passover and instead instituted the Rite of the Holy Eucharist, or Holy Communion. He was already teaching his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood (again, against the Law of God), but he had to correct himself saying that he meant to be "in a spiritual way" because a lot of his followers quit on him when he started to talk like that!

Answer 9

Yes Jesus was a Jew.. the gospel of Jesus Christ is called the new testament but the truth is it is the end of the old testament.. and up until Paul was anointed to be the disciple of the gentiles, then gentiles were not a part of the equation.. Once Paul began as the disciple of Christ then all people other than Jews were then privileged to earn their way to Gods kingdom.. look it up and you will see how that came to be.. though it is okay to do so, it is not necessary to practice Judaism.. you really need to be a Jew to do that.. unless you can convince a rabbi that you truly want to convert.. if you are allowed to convert to Judaism then you have to conduct yourself as a Jew. As a christian you are not compelled to practice Judaism.. Read the books of Paul and you will have a better understanding.. we are not Jews.. we were not chosen.. as a result we are free to practice whatever religion we chose so long as it is Christianity and you do the three things that Christ said.. Accept him as your savior.. obey the laws of God and be baptized.. check it out.. good luck

Answer 10

Jews were given prophecies by God that pointed to Jesus Christ as the savior. The jews were required to perform sacrifices, and perform certain rituals to atone for their sins. Once those prophecies came true, and Jesus was born, died, and rose from the dead, then he stood in place of all of the rituals/sacrifices that were followed by the jews. God created a covenant with the Old Testament Jews and once Jesus's life/death/ressurrection came to pass, then the people of the earth entered into a new covenant. So, Judaism is no longer a "valid" way to heaven (more or less), if you believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. One thing you can research if you're interested in learning ALOT more on the subject is Messianic Jews. This is a group of people commonly called "complete Jews." Because they were once Jewish, but now believe in the fulfilled prophect of Christ. Just search on Yahoo, Google, Ask, or whatever your favorite search engine is, and you're sure to find a plethora of information.