CHRISTIANITY: THE HIGHER RELIGION?
Yeshurun Kayemet and
John Stone
Christians
believe that Torah, the Law of Moses, has been abolished in favor of a new,
better, higher religion. They claim that
the Torah is bad and gives death, but only their religion gives life.
Even a casual study easily disproves this false
claim of Christianity. Torah came from God, so how can it be cruel or
bad? Furthermore, the Torah itself says that it is our life.
“This day, I call upon the
heaven and the earth as witnesses [that I have warned] you: I have set before
you life and death, the blessing and the curse. You shall choose life, so that
you and your offspring will live; 20 To love the Lord your God, to listen to
His voice, and to cleave to Him. For that is your life …” (Deuteronomy
30:19-20).
“For a commandment is a candle, and the Torah is light…” (Proverbs
6:23).
"For with me shall
your days increase, and they will add to you years of life."
(Proverbs 9:11).
So you see, mankind gets life from God
directly―one does not need Jesus or Christianity. There is nothing higher
than the Torah.
King David says in Psalm 19:
The Torah of God is perfect, it restores
the soul.
The testimony of God is trustworthy, it turns simple people wise.
The instructions of God are proper, they make one's heart happy;
The commandment of God is clear, it enlightens the eyes.
The fear of God is pure, and endures forever.
The judgments of God are true, consistently righteous.
They are more desirable than gold, even more than the purest gold!
Sweeter than honey that drips from the honeycombs.
The Torah contains everything that a person needs
to restore his soul. It is the most perfect of teachings, and it is complete.
It lacks nothing.
"The
Torah of God is perfect, it restores the soul." Really
think about what those words say about the Torah. Yet Paul, the real creator of
Christianity, hated the Torah and said many nasty things about it. He had to, to have Gentiles believe in his
new religion.
What are some of the New Testament rules that
Christianity claims make their religion loftier than Torah Judaism?
“…If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to
the poor…" (Mat 19.21)
Do Christians sell everything they have and has and
give it all to the poor? NO!
By contrast, Torah Judaism does not want people to
give away all their assets, because that would make one destitute and dependant
upon charity yourself. This would then force others to support them, in essence
placing a burden on society. Torah Judaism insists that you not only give
charity, but also you must do your share to support yourself and your family as
well. Which then is the better and more reasonable Law?
A Christian once said to me that this rule only applies to those who want to be
perfect. But Jesus taught that you should be perfect! "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew
And according to Judaism, you can be perfect serve
G-d, even without giving away everything you own. Again I ask, which then is
the better and more reasonable Law?
From the inerrant
Christian new testament come the words of Jesus--we read:
When the young man heard
this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I
tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the
But is this true? NO!
Everyone truly believes that
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, will all be in The
Kingdom. Were they poor?
Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and
in silver and gold. (Genesis 13:2 )
Abram wasn't just wealthy he was
"very wealthy"
Isaac planted crops in
that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the L-RD blessed
him. The man became rich, and his wealth
continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants
that the Philistines envied him.
(Genesis 26:12-14)
Concerning Jacob:
Jacob heard that Laban's
sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has
gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father." (Genesis 31:1)
Surely all the wealth that Gd took away from our father
belongs to us and our children. So do whatever G-d has
told you." (Genesis 31:16)
You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my
hands have produced this wealth for me."
But remember the L-RD your Gd, for it is he who gives you the
ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore
to your forefathers, as it is today. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)
Is G-d double minded
that HE would give us the ability to produce wealth and then say, because of
it, it will be harder to enter into The Kingdom?. That would be
absurd thinking.
It is no wonder that Matthew quotes Jesus as saying
that the way to eternal life is narrow and difficult! (Matthew 7:13-14) The
Christian way is indeed difficult. The Torah way is obtainable as designed by
your Creator Himself.
"Judge
not, lest you be judged." And "Let
he who is without sin cast the first stone." This is why Christians
NEVER become judges, right? But they do. Almost every Christian Church has
tribunals. The various
Christianity has never been better than Torah
Judaism. When Christianity was first invented it was an alternative to the
pagan cultures. Perhaps it was something of an improvement over most of the
pagan faiths. It was never better than Judaism, though they would like you to
think it was.
The
Lubavitcher Rebbe was once asked what God's purpose
was in creating Christianity, given the nature of the Christian religion and the ways it's been practiced over
the centuries.
His answer was that Christianity gave the non-Jewish world
the concept of a moshiach and an eventual redemption. The fact that Christianity got all the details wrong doesn't
detract from the fact that they previously didn't even have the
idea in mind.
The teachings of most Christian denominations today contain some rather
horrifying things. For example, The Anglican Articles of Religion state, in
Article 13, that when someone who does not believe in Jesus does a good deed he
is really performing a sin and not a good deed at all! According to them, all
the non-Christian people who have ever given charity, helped a sick person, fed
a hungry person, clothed a needy person, prayed to God, or defended the weak,
every single one of them will go to everlasting hell, and cannot be
"saved."
But the Torah teaches us, "God does not bury the reward of any creature"
(Babylonian Talmud: Pesachim 118a; Nazir 23b; Bava Kama 28b; Horyos 10b).
Anyone, even an animal, that does a good deed, is rewarded for it.
The Christian bible practically claims to have invented love. It is interesting
to note that the Christians like to say that Jews did not and will not accept
Jesus because Jews are full of hate and sin. Jesus was a man who said that he
would have all his enemies destroyed. Where is the love in that? Indeed, the
Catholic Church has been directly responsible for most of the horror and death
that has taken place in the past two thousand (2,000) years. And they have the
nerve to say Jews are the ones full of hate?
Christianity
lays claim to the phrase, "Love your enemies." Yet, as I said above,
Christians have been more responsible than anyone else for killing their
enemies, and even their friends who slightly disagree with them. If you don't
believe this, ask the next Abigensian you meet. I'm willing to bet that unless
you are a history buff you have never even heard of the Albigensians. That's
because the Christians killed them all out in the twelfth century. You know why
they killed them? Because the Albigensians believed that all physical things
are inherently evil, so the preached against wealth and physical acts of
ritual. Unfortunately for them, the Catholic Church was rich and fat on the
wealth of Jews and everyone else they didn't like, and they didn't take too well
to people telling them it was wrong to have material goods. Furthermore, the Catholic Church was offended
because the Albigensians were against the wafer and wine sacraments, which is a
ritual that the Catholic Church claims literally brings Jesus down from heaven
into each Catholic church. So, the Catholic Church simply killed all the
Albigensians, showing their Christian love and tolerance.
You
might think that the Catholic Church is better about these things today. You'd
be mostly wrong. They are not apologetic at all about it. In the Catholic
Encyclopedia, I found these words:
The
death penalty was, indeed, inflicted too freely on the Albigenses, but it must
be remembered that the penal code of the time was considerably more rigorous
than ours, and the excesses were sometimes provoked....Pope Innocent III was
justified in saying that the Albigenses were "worse than the
Saracens"; and still he counselled moderation and disapproved of the
selfish policy adopted by Simon of Montfort. What the Church combated was
principles that led directly not only to the ruin of Christianity, but to the
very extinction of the human race.1
No
apology, no contrition, no acknowledgment that the Albigensians had done
anything wrong―just the Albigensians deserved it, because they supposedly
attempted the "very extinction of the human race
This
is just one example. The Catholic Church has been responsible for more acts of
hatred than any group ever to exist.
Admittedly, they have been around very long, but there are groups who have been
around even longer and have not been responsible for such death and
destruction. Buddhism existed at least 400 years before Christianity, and they
are not known for such wholesale destruction.
The Protestants have been no better.
For
example, the Protestant persecution of the Society of Friends, otherwise known
as Quakers, had to escape England and come to America, Unfortunately they
continued to again be persecuted again by Protestants! The first American
Protestants had themselves escaped persecution from other
Protestants I England, and then turned around and persecuted everyone else who
came to
The
Lutherans denounced and excluded the reformed Calvinists from salvation. The
Calvinists roused up the people against the Lutherans. Zwingli, who started his
own Christian sect in
C.
Johannes Janssen, author of a 16-volume history of
"At
So
you learn that the Catholics had no monopoly on torturing dissidents.
Protestants
do not generally spread around the fact that Martin Luther himself wrote that
Jews should be murdered or forcibly converted, and that all the synagogues
should be burned down.
And
Luther wrote about fellow Christians who did not
go to church:
"It is our custom to affright those who . . .
fail to attend the preaching; and to threaten them with banishment and the law
. . . In the event of their still proving contumacious, to excommunicate them .
. . as if they were heathen."
Here are some more choice statements by Martin Luther, the
Protestant, the “reformer” of Christianity.
"The Pope and the Cardinals . . . since they
are blasphemers, their tongues ought to be torn out through the back of their
necks, and nailed to the gallows!"
"It were better that every bishop were
murdered . . . than that one soul should be destroyed . . . If they will not
hear God's Word . . . what do they better deserve than a strong uprising which
will sweep them from the earth? And we would smile did it happen. All who
contribute body, goods . . . that the rule of the bishops may be destroyed are
God's dear children and true Christians."
And
as I mentioned above, the Anglican Church teaches that anyone who does not
believe in Jesus and does something good has really done something evil.
How
is that a religion of love and tolerance? By contrast, Torah teaches that all righteous, of every
religion, go to Heaven. Not only that, but Torah teaches that a
Gentile can go to Heaven by keeping only Seven Laws (which mostly they do
anyway, today) wheseas Jews have to keep the Commandments of the Torah and
their Laws. So actually, according to Torah Judaism it is easier
for a Gentile to go to Heaven!
In
what way is any branch of Christianity better and more loving than Judaism?
"Turning
the other cheek?" "Resist not evil?" Most denominations of
Christianity have not kept those teachings in any way, shape or form. Most of
those who have claimed to espouse such platforms have turned out to be the
worst offenders. Such "high moral" claims are not practical, and no
one keeps them. Certainly, if someone robbed you, you would take them to court
to try and get your money back.
This
has always been the problem with Christianity. They talk a lofty talk. It sounds
so holy, and spiritual, and beautiful. Forgive everyone! Love everyone! How
sweet. So why has this not worked in practice? Because it can't! When you are adamant in teaching an
unreachable trait, it backfires. History has shown that unattainable and
unrealistic ideals are very dangerous.
This
was perhaps the source of one of their greatest errors. They thought they could
improve on the Torah; they thought they could improve on what G-d Himself
taught.
It can't be done. Hashem knows what humans are capable of, and what
we are not capable of. And Hashem commanded us according to our
ways.
Christian practice is simply NOT higher or better
than Hashem's word. It is a lot less practical than Torah Judaism By contrast, Jewish practice is Hashem's
word, and it is entirely practical.
The
Torah has everything in it that a person needs to restore his soul. It is the
most perfect of teachings, and it is complete. It lacks nothing. It was given
directly from G-d to Moses and
NOTES:
1 The
Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I, by Robert Appleton Company, 1907, Online
Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
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