Christians and Jews

OK, here goes...  I have been young and now I am old and all my life I have been told certain things about Christians and Jews.  Most of them have been wrong because Jews have told me things about Christians and Christians have told me things about Jews.  So, lets review a few things that Christians have said about Jews and why Christians think that Christ was necessary. 

• Jews depend on their obedience to the law (Torah) for salvation
• Jews depend on their good works for salvation

This is really interesting since

• If any Christian had ever attended a Yom Kippur service they would have understood how Jews feel about repentance.  The words Yom Kippur mean "Day of Repentance."
• Deut 24:16 teaches that parents shall not be put to death for the sins of their children nor children for the sins of their parents.  Ergo, to teach that one person can be put to death for the sins of all mankind is anathema to a Jew.
• All of Ezekiel 18 teaches that repentance is part of Judaism.  If anyone repents then HaShem will forgive that person regardless of their past.  The death or life of another person is not mentioned here and neither is the blood of bulls nor goats as is preached in Christianity.
• The sacrifice of a person's son to ANY god is an abomination to HaShem.  This is stated over and over when HaShem says this in reference to Molech.  See Deut 12:31.
• HaShem specifically warned Jews in Deut 13:2+ about following prophets or dream-diviners who come to you with signs and wonders, whether these signs and wonders come true or not, and try to get you to follow other gods.  HaShem is testing you.  It goes on to say what you are to do with such people or even with such towns.
• In Isaiah 42:8, 43:10b and 42:12b HaShem says that He alone is G-d and He does not share His glory with anyone else, not even this Christ person.

 By the way, a Jew should not even mention the name of this Christ person, nor the name of any other false god.  See Ex 23:13b for more on this.  That is why Tevyeh ("Fiddler on the Roof") always said, "... that man..." when referring to "the Christ".

All of that just to say this:  Jews did not need the Christ to redeem them.  They were redeemed from Egypt over three thousand years ago by the mighty hand of G-d himself.  And we can be forgiven from our sins just by asking HaShem for forgiveness.  We don't need the blood of Christ nor anyone else as an intermediary - not Mary, not a saint, not a redeemer.  We need only HaShem as our G-d.

So, what do Jews say about Christians?  That's a subject for another post at a later time when my son gets involved.  Maybe next year.  :-)

Shalom

[BTW, if you leave a comment, all comments are moderated so make it clean and tasteful or they won't be published.  However, all comments that are clean and tasteful and/or thoughtful will be published however contradictory to my own theological leanings.]