06/11/2024
THE CURIOUS (RE)RISE OF JUDAISM
Numbers and extremes of false religious teachings are surely on the rise. We are seeing a curious increase in the number of Christian-like influences that (i) reject the divinity of Christ, that (ii) “demythologize” and reject the Bible’s miracles including Christ’s Resurrection, and that (iii) blend Progressive social causes into the work of the church. This article addresses another of those curious false religious teachings, the reimposition of Jewish religious influences on Christian doctrine and practice.
Jewish religious influences were the first counter-Christian influences to strain the orthodoxy of first-century Christianity. Acts 15:5 records that “some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’” These were described as Judaizing Teachers for their effort to (re)Judaize Christianity. Their influence is also reflected in Colossians 2:16.
Long observant of the Law of Moses these recent Jewish converts sought to impose the Law of Moses on recent Gentile converts. All of Acts 15 is dedicated to resistance against the reimposition of the Law of Moses. Peter asked, “Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear” (V:10)? This reimposition had taken place without apostolic authorization (V:24).
Much of Galatians parallels the Acts 15 incident and reaffirms the fulfillment and end of Old Testament authority in the new Law of Christ.
· “A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (2:15).
· “All who rely on the works of the law are under a curse…Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith’” (3:10-11).
· “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Gal. 3:23-25).
· “The women (in the story of Sarah and Hagar) represent two covenants…One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves… But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal. 4:21-31).
· “You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4).
Despite this overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there are those today who want to return to many or all ceremonial, civil, ethical, and religious Laws of Moses. Messianic Judaism is the most formal of these neo-Judaizing influences. “I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty” (Gal. 5:10).
