Does
Christianity Preach “Another Christ?”
Some in the Torah Obedient Messianic/Nazarene
Movement hold to the belief that Christianity is utterly pagan and preach
another Jesus, a false Messiah, because they maintain that the Mosaic Law, the
Torah, has been done away with. Shamefully I must admit I too once held this
very belief. I even wrote an article on how Christians were like half-breed
Samaritans and that they were “neighbors” and not “brothers.” I thought I was
coming from a place of righteousness and truth but in all honesty, it came out
of a place of anger and disillusionment. Anger, because discovering that the Torah has
not been done away with and yet I was raised and taught to believe such. I felt
I missed out on much truth and blessing. Disillusioned because I discovered
that Modern Day Christianity is rife with paganism that they adopted or had
seeped in over the millennia. Angry and disillusioned because I felt I never
fit into or was accepted into the mass populace of Christianity, and that they
had let me down. But after years of the
LORD patiently working on me, and even stepping aside from ministry for a
season I finally could be honest regarding the origins of my feelings (Prov.
16:2), work through them and forgive others and myself. Now I no longer come
from a place of militancy and self-righteous anger, but honestly, balance and
love.
Sadly and to the shame and detriment of the Torah
Obedient Messianic/Nazarene movement, there are those who make a habit of
bashing Christianity solely on the basis of their misinformed stance that the
Torah has been done away with and their unwitting adoption of paganism and
paganistic practices within their various denominations and sects. I refuse to
engage in such haughty and high-minded acts which are unloving and therefore
anti-Messiah. To bash Christianity for most of us is equivalent to biting the
hand that fed us, for the vast majority of us came out of Christianity.
Christianity may have unknowingly kept us from Torah but it led us to Messiah.
I never doubted my salvation or personal relationship with Yeshua as a Christian;
it was because of that very relationship that Messiah finally led me to Torah,
the half that I was missing, from no outside influence whatsoever! So I refuse
to bash Christianity or make Christians look like unsaved and deluded pagans.
It simply isn’t true and plays right into the hands of our Adversary.
Christianity preaches the same Messiah as we Torah
Obedient Messianic/Nazarene Believers do; they are just mistaken on the purpose
and function of Messiah and the Law. After all, despite rejecting the parts of
the Mosaic Law that they see as pertaining only to Jews and the Jewish
religion, they by default keep approximately 2/3rd of the Torah and
therefore the “weightier matters of the Law” at that (Matt. 23:23). Many with
the former opinion I once held may argue, “What about Paul, talking about
others coming preaching “another gospel,” and “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:4,
Gal. 1:6-7), because they preach a Messiah that came to do away with Torah,
which Messiah himself denounced (Matt. 5:17-20). Historical context is what
must be sought and understood here. Paul was specifically addressing several
things in the texts cited above. For one he was addressing those that came in
preaching one had to keep the Rabbinic Law on top of Torah as well as others
claiming Yeshua did not come and suffer in the flesh, that the flesh is sinful
and evil (I John 4:1-3) and other views such as promotes Gnosticism, which were
circulating among the congregations at that time.
Both Christianity and Torah Obedient
Messianic/Nazarene Judaism teach the core cardinal, non-negotiable issues about
Yeshua, that He is the Way, the Truth and Life and no man comes unto the Father
but by Him (John 14:6). That He is the virgin born, sinless, redeeming, atoning
Messiah that died, rose again and will one day return. This constitutes the
SAME Messiah, not a different Messiah. Again, the issue of contention and
misinformation is on the function and applicability of the Torah (The Law)
which Christians approximately keep 2/3rs of it anyway.
Those who claim that Christianity preaches another
Jesus due to the uneducated and uninformed anti-nomian (anti-Torah) rhetoric
that is sometimes voiced and espoused, does not mean that this is another
Jesus. The way I see it is, just as Jews are blinded to the Messiahship of
Yeshua because of how Christians have Gentile-ized Him, Christians are blinded
to the Torah because of the how Jews Pharisee-ized it. Take Joseph for example,
just because he looked like an Egyptian ruler doesn’t mean he was an Egyptian.
Beneath the Egyptian garb he was circumcised and inwardly a Hebrew that
worshipped Adonai, the God of his forefathers; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So
too, Christianity has dressed Yeshua as a Roman or a Greek, yet this does not
make Him any less the Torah Obedient Jewish Messiah we Messianics/Nazarenes
know and teach. Our job is to lovingly and patiently expose the true Messiah
beneath the multiple layers of Gentilization, for both Christians and Jewish
People.
