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Many Christians do not recognize that the Original Church was a branch of Judaism ( hence, they are grafted into the Vine ). The Judea-Christian Church of the 1st Century embraced the Torah and all of the Jewish festivals as expressions of Jesus (or Yeshua, in Hebrew). In fact, Jesus of Nazareth ( Yeshua, the Nazarene ) was an avid Jew and not once did He discourage these adherence's. This divorce of Christianity from Judaism was first installed after the emperor Constantine announced Christianity to be the sovereign faith of the Roman Empire. It is ironic that the Romans would eventually embrace the essential book of Judaism after centuries of slaughtering and oppressing the Jews in the preceding Jewish Wars and their destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
As more gentiles were converted into the faith in Rome, as such, the Jewish and Hebrew origins and practices of the Jewish Christians were liquidated. After Constantine, Judaism and Christianity became two separate religions. New rules were imposed that widened this gap between them; such as:
1. Disbarment of the celebration of Jewish festivals
2. Changing the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday to appease the Pagan converts
3. kneeling rather then standing and raising one's arms in devotion to the Most High
Subsequently, Christianity became increasingly anti-Jewish in their drive to separate the Church from its Jewish origins and the Hebrew people. Christians lost their earlier loyalties to their fellow Jews as they were once fellow "under dogs" succumbing to the persecutions of the Romans. The gifts of the Jews were forgotten and suppressed. The label "Judaizers" became distorted to mean anyone who reminded them of the Jewish Origins of their faith. However, Christian scholars are now unearthing this true history. Jesus ( Yeshua ) is now being recalled as the very Jewish Messiah, and not in any way the white- Anglo Saxon that is often portrayed in American films and in the stain glassed windows of the Roman Catholic Church.
I believe, that if Christians today would investigate for themselves the 1st Century Jewish Christian Church led by the Apostles: Peter, Paul, James, Matthew, John, and Luke - that they would discover the deeper meanings behind Jesus' own words and parables as reflections of the ancient Talmud; the purification ritual of Baptism that was commonly practiced by the Jews of the Temple period called "mikvah", and recognize the Torah and Laws of Leviticus as being not the distortions of these laws that Paul was referring to in the numerous letters and Epistles of the New Testament. To truly understand Yeshua ( Jesus ), one should understand Him in context to the Jewish history and exegesis from which He emerged. I leave you now with one question: " Why shouldn't you?"
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