"Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards."
-Soren Kierkegaard
I would say there are two superstars most revered by the modern day Christian. Jesus, of course, and in my opinion, Paul. Paul, the author of most of the New Testament, was pretty cool for several reasons, but that is not the topic of today's post. Today, we're going to talk about replacement theology, or rather, how much of the church today is the way it is as a result of the titanic influence tradition has had upon it. Paul has something to do with it however.
The most famous of Socrates' students was Plato who, after Socrates died, opened his own school where Aristotle would become its most famous pupil. Obviously, all three of these guys were extremely influential and I think they still are. Nevertheless, fast forward to the time of Christ: Gentile believers at the time were heavily influenced by this Greek philosophy.
Now, Paul was going to preach to the Greeks who were obviously worshipping other gods...like ZUES? We are all familiar with at least some greek gods, I think, thanks to movies like HERCULES! Anyhow, in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to men, that I might by all means save some."
Now, what Paul is saying here is that in order to convert some of the Greeks, he was going to use Greek philosophy. Obviously, this wasn't the best idea he ever had, and luckily Paul did change his mind about it later. However, at the time, Paul thought this would work.
So there Paul was, in Athens, where everyone was worshipping a bunch of different gods and discussing philosophy. Paul hung out in the synagogue and the marketplace everyday trying to tell anyone who would listen about Yeshua (Jesus). One day, a couple of Stoic and Epicurean philosophers bumped into him there. Naturally, they thought he was a bum. "What does this babbler want to say?" They said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods!"
[Note: Epicureans were a lot like buddhists in that they believed the best way to be happy is to not want anything. Wanting things leads to pain. This group had a large influence on Christianity. Think of priests/nuns not marrying? Monasteries? Stoics, on the other hand, believed there was no universal criterion of truth. They said truth was based, not on reason, but feeling and the best way to live was in moderation.]
It's safe to assume that Paul read all of these different kinds of philosophy. When he was preaching, he often used some of it! Check it out:
In Acts 17:22-28 Paul says ..."for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'"
Here, Paul is QUOTING Aratus from Cicilia (300 BC)! From his poem the "Phaenomena."
"Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zues. For we are indeed his offspring..."
Interesting! Paul is a wee bit of a plagiarist! Here's another example:
Tit 1:12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
Here, Paul was quoting Epimenides of Knossos who, when writing about Zues, said "They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one. The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!"
(The 'lie' of the Cretans was that Zeus was mortal.)
Here's another:
1 Corinthians 15:33 "Do not be decieved: 'Evil company corrupts good habits.'"
There, Paul is quoting the playwright Menander!
Oh Paul. YHWH is SO not the same as Zeus! He had good intentions, though. He wanted to be all things to all people, but it's kind of like quoting the Qur'an to teach about the Torah. Allah is SO not the same as YHWH either. But I digress.
Paul comes to his senses later when he says, "My mission from Christ was not to baptize, but to tell the good news; not, however, in the language of philosophy lest the cross of Christ should be robbed of its meaning..."
The mistake Paul made is an example of what this post is going to discuss: replacement theology.
Let me elaborate.
When the Roman Catholic church originated, it was the end of the persecution of Christians and the beginning of discrimination and persecution of the Jews which continued throughout history. Tertullian said that God had rejected the Jews in favor of the Christians. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, declared, "Jews are disinherited from the grace of God."
This is just the BEGINNING.
In the 4th century, Eusebius wrote that the promises of the 'Hebrew' Scriptures (the Torah) were for Christians, not the Jews, and the curses were for the Jews. He said the church was the Old Testament continued and that superseded Judaism.
Remember the Council of Nicea? They wrote, "In rejecting [Jewish] custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter; we ought not therefore have anything in common with the Jew, for the savior has shown us another way."
Uh, really? When was THAT?
They continue, "Our worship following a more legitimate and convenient course...to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jew. For it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast...For to celebrate passover twice in one year, is totally inadmissible. But even if this were not so, it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communication with such wicked people."
Remember Martin Luther? He wrote a book called, "The Jews and their Lies." Here's a bit of it:
"I shall give you my sincere advice: First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn....Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues..." This goes on and on! Look it up.
In 1492, Jews were kicked out of Spain. If they converted to Christianity, they could stay but they could not keep a Torah scroll or keep the sabbath. If a Jew was caught keeping a sabbath or with a Torah scroll, they would take the ENTIRE TOWN, (including women and children) lock them in a synagogue and burn them alive! All the while singing Christian worship songs!
The problem with all of this, besides the OBVIOUS violence and despicable ignorance, is that the church rejected the Torah, writing off its commandments as 'Jewish' customs that were beneath the new Christian ones, in the name of Christ no less! Replacement theology.
God's greatest commandment is IN the Torah! "...you shall love the LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart." (Deut. 6:4-8)
Remember when Christ said in John, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE."?
Check this out:
Psalm 119:1 Blessed are the undefiled in the WAY, who walk in the LAW (TORAH) of the Lord."
Psalm 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy LAW(TORAH) is the TRUTH.
Prov. 13:14 The LAW(TORAH) of the wise is a fountain of LIFE, to depart from the snares of death.
The Torah is the way, the truth, and the life. Yeshua (Jesus) was the Torah in the FLESH. He taught it, Paul taught it, and the early church rejected it associating it with the Jews! Henceforth, the church today is more Roman Catholic than anything else! We keep pagan holidays over the feasts of the Lord because we think the feasts are Jewish, when YHWH commanded us to keep these feasts before Judaism even existed.
Now the interesting thing is, most of us have a copy of the Torah. It's in the bible! We just don't really pay attention to a lot of it. Sure, we like the stories, Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark...but we have no idea that we are still supposed to be DOING what it SAYS. We think that the ten commandments are the only instructions in the Torah and as a result we miss out on a LOT.
I would even go so far as to say that the separation of the "Judaism" in the bible from Christianity is why Christianity doesn't make any sense to the believer who decides to dig a little deeper beyond what they learned in Sunday school. We learned it wrong, we teach it wrong, and as a result, no one believes in it anymore. You simply can't understand the New Testament without the Old.
I'm just laying the GROUNDWORK!
Keep reading! I'm going to go in depth about modern church customs, where they originated and a lot more!
Ashley
