If you follow the word of Jesus aren't you Jewish...

[deleted]

Jesus was Jewish in race not religion. You cannot choose to become part of the Jewish race, just as you cannot become an Italian, you have to be born that way. You can become part of the Jewish religion, but Jesus was very anti-religion in His teachings. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God through works. God wants us to accept the reaching down that he has already done when He was sacrificed on the cross. Religion muddies the water.

Being Jewish is an ethnic heritage, like being Italian or Irish. Judaism is the religious faith that people of Jewish ethnicity usually adhere to. Gentiles, any person of non-Jewish heritage, can convert to Judaism. People who believe in Jesus and have accepted them as their Savior do not have to convert to Judaism. The Bible teaches throughout the Old Testament that God would send a Messiah or Savior to provide a way of salvation and that the Messiah would be of Jewish heritage. Jesus, who was of Jewish heritage, born in the lineage of King David as the Old Testament prophecies foretold, was that Messiah. Jesus, however, did not come only to provide salvation for the Jewish people but for all people. After Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, anyone who places their faith in Him alone for their salvation is a Christian. Unfortunately, many Jewish people during Jesus' time up until today, do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament because they expected a triumphant conquering King who would relieve them from their suffering. They did not expect a baby born in a manger, a man who was a carpenter, who washed his disciples' feet, who had interaction with "sinners" and who would die on a cross.

True Christians should not "hate" Jews - their Savior was Jewish. The Bible states that anyone that honors God's people, the Jews, God will honor - anyone who curses the Jews will be cursed.

Here's the thing - the Jewish faith of today is very different from the Jewish faith of Jesus' day. There were different groups then - the Essenes, the Zealots, the Pharisees and then the odd prophet (like Jesus or John the Baptist) who would spring up and gather followers and soon as not, dry up and blow away. The thing is the Roman invasion after the great Jewish revolt utterly destroyed the Temple and the Essenes and Zealots were wiped out while the Pharisees ended up morphing into the Jewish faith of today.

During Jesus's lifetime it was simply Jesus as a self-made rabbi having religio-philosophical arguments with other rabbis which didn't make them any less Jewish. It's only much later in Christian history, particularly when Christianity's relationship with its 'mother faith' became strained and hostility (w/c sadly developed into Christian anti-semitism - though anti-semitism had existed BEFORE Christianity, ask Haman or the Seleucids if in doubt) that there came to be a great divide between Jews (who held to ritual and tradition and the various laws) and the Christians.

Shalom and Happy New Year,
Tom516

P.S.
I'm not Jewish though - I just like the old Jewish peace greeting! Reminds me of the roots of my faith.

"It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons."
- Pierre Rissient

goddessxinda,

I know that I’m starting two posts on the boards for this film with the same paragraph, but I can’t help myself. Your post was one of the stupidest things (if not the stupidest thing) that I’ve ever read, and I used to teach High School English! Your post reminded me why I gave up posting on IMDb for a while.
I’ll refrain from correcting your misuse of punctuation, your poor spelling, your atrocious grammar, and the like.
Instead of pondering something for years, why don’t you read a book or two? Maybe even look it up on wikipedia.
I’ve also taught Social Studies, and I feel like someone needs to start from scratch with you to explain what is wrong with everything that you said. I’ll try to be brief, though.
Yes, Jesus was a Jew. Jesus proclaimed himself to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.
His original (Jewish) followers believed him, and spread this belief throughout the Roman Empire.
The overwhelming majority of Jews did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, nor did they believe that he was even a good teacher or anything of that sort.
Many Greek-speaking non-Jews did believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
The many differences between these two groups (the ones that believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and the ones that did not) quickly became apparent, as did the need for terminology to distinguish between the two groups.
Those who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah continued to call themselves Jews, just as they had for a very long time.
Those who did believe that Jesus was the Messiah began to be called “Christians” by others, and accepted this name. “Christ” comes from a Greek word that has roughly the same meaning as “Messiah.”
There has been hatred towards Jews on the part of people who claimed to be Christians in the past. However, this has died down considerably in recent times. Most knowledgeable Israelis will tell you that their country’s “best friends” are American Christians.
I haven’t ready any of the other posts on this thread made in reply to yours, so please forgive me if I repeat something that’s already been said.
If you need any more help clearing this up, please just let me know.

Great post. I am a Christian and I simply don't get how people claiming to be Christians can be anti-Semitic (or intolerant of any group for that matter) as Christianity was indeed an offshoot of Judaism and Jesus said "Love thy neighbor as thyself". I have grown up with a number of Jewish friends and I have never once witnessed anything that validates the horrible things some people say about them. Stereotypes are based on the few rotten apples that exist in EVERY ethnic group. I have both European and Native American ancestry so I should know.

Over the last 2,000 years the two religions have certainly picked up a lot of outside material and drifted further apart as a result, but bottom line, the same God is still worshipped.

The following statement is true
The previous statement is false

Jesus was a rebel, he constantly taught things differently than the Jewish rabbis. You need to study more to get it. Christians are followers of Christ.

Following Jesus does not make one Jew. Galatians 3:28 says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Being a follower of Christ does change who or what we are- we are just followers of Christ.

And in 1 Peter chapter 2 "9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. "

Christians are the chosen people- those who follow Christ.