Two Different Eras

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Two different Eras:

Mosaic Law vs. New Testament

At the coming of Jesus, the Judaism of the age had to decide on his authenticity. Let us not forget that the whole belief system was at stake. We know their decision well, reading the struggles and lives of the apostles, but many times we do not grasp the spiritual connections: what is happening in our daily lives, according to the Law.

A XX. century 'gospel movements' - although they unable to efface the horrific memories of the Holocaust - have great, active sympathy for Israel, knowing that "to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all ..." (Rom. 9:4-5)

In Matthew 5:17, Jesus / Yeshua also emphasized the role of the Mosaic Law and the Prophetic writings:

Do not think that I have come to invalidate the Law or the teaching of the prophets. I did not come to invalidate them, but to fulfill them.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that modern Judaism sees this "fulfilment," the Messianic Role, quite differently - and in this regard it must be acknowledged that many of the 'Evangelical Christian' theologians are very political to conflict, avoiding many sensitive points. The resurgence of anti-Semitism in the 2020s also obscures the essence of the conflict between the Messiah ruling system and the pseudo Judeo Christian believe system.

Therefore in the following paragraphs, I will approach the focus of the original messianic idea expressed by Moses, and the New Testament teaching expressed by the apostolic circles.

The measure

Gd instructed Israel to live and walk within the framework of His words and the Law principles of the Covenant of Moses, based on the religious society, led by the levitical system. So, an individual, moral and a social level was established — they could not turn in any direction and in any way.

Deuteronomy 5:32-33 says:

You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Deuteronomy 4:2
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.

Joshua 23:6
Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left

Proverbs. 3:5
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.

Psalm 119:33-34
Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;
and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your Law
and observe it with my whole heart.

Incidentally, this is the basis of known Judeo-Christian morality, ethics.

Question: To what extent do modern Judaism or the Judaizing tendencies / movements {often referred to as the evangelical} meet the expectations of these particular verses?
Did our teachers keep the designated path, or did they deviate from it, "adding something plus" to the word of the Lord? OR.. did they simply apply the Word to the present days mindset?

If we are not entirely sure of the answer, we must seek and learn about the biblical sources. Yes, this question was already answered by the Reader of the Hearts, Yeshua the Messiah, at his first coming:

Matthew 15: 8-9
Well did (aptly) Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Mark 7:6-7).

At the first coming of the Messiah, the then Judaism had to decide on the messianic authenticity of Yeshua. The relatively few Jews who accepted him at that time went into the prophesied new phase of the covenant with Israel, which we therefore call the New Covenant. Others - didn't choose him.

The New measure

The New Covenant followers entered the era of the Kingdom and Sonship. Here we can see not only the Messianic King as the Son, but also his whole family as sons:

Galatians 4:4-7
Gd sent forth his Son.. to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sonS.
And because you are sonS, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Daddy!”

This is a kind of 2 steps authentication, following the Christian's redemption. Moreover: its an intimate relationship.

Every Christian should be aware of the Jewish nation major's decision: Its a big "NO" on the Sonship through Yeshua. One of the basic tenets of modern Judaism is that the Christian-accepted Yeshua did not fulfill the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible regarding the Messiah, so he could not be the true Anointed One…

Yet the real, the original order of Moses, the Old Testament, had/has a definite messianic aspect, which Moses succinctly stated:

"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers— it is to him you shall listen...
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him."
(Deut. 18:15-19; see: Acts 3:22-26)

And we can read that Yeshua himself testifies:

John 5:46-47
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

But do we really understand what Yeshua was saying here? The Jews who do not believe in him do not believe in Moses either, that is, they do not follow the Old Testament order because all its elements pointed to the Messiah. All the sacrifices were pointed out to him and the prophecies spoke of him. The apostle Paul explains precisely that after Israel was "baptized into the cloud and the sea", Moses received all his spiritual food and drink from the Messiah, for he was the spiritual rock that accompanied them in the cloud.

(1 Cor.10:1-4)
I do not want you to be ignorant /unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food,.. drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

The elementary teacher

The Law was the educator of Israel for a while,* with the intent of leading them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. And where faith comes adoption comes. Paul's comparison is a bit drastic:

Gal. 3:23-24-26
Before faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed... the Law was our ~~guardian~~* until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

*The time-limited tutor, his teaching and upbringing is described here by the apostle Paul. It was a well-known slave status in the ancient Rome. Paul tells us that the Law acted like a children carer, a teacher-slave: the 'paidagogos' for younger children, an educator servant who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and morals of boys before their arriving at the age of manhood. He the 'paidagogos' had rigorous rights like physical punishment.
On the day of maturity, the family made a celebration, the children's clothes, the roman tunics were finally replaced by the toga, and from now on the young people had the right to vote, and finally, this taskmaster servant disappeared from their lives, forever.

Rethink: Moses’ late descendants abandoned the Mosaic order, not finding the new way, not understanding the changes of Time: the changes around the Temple and the priesthood.

They sought to accomplish

This spiritual blindness, alongside the trouble Israel suffered strongly influenced {later, modified} the practice of the Levitical system. Gradually a completely different path began to emerge, forcibly adapting to the disappearance of the Temple building and its services during the big destruction by the Romans — and thus adapting, reshaping the sacrificial system too.
This heavily affected the vision of the future kingdom and eventually the prophetic picture about the Messiah had to be changed too because Daniel had already predicted all those destructions and marked them right after the death of the Messiah.

Dan.9:25-26
Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood.. {like a flood}

They couldn't accept the historical "coincidence" – so they were unable to realize the real, arriving Messiah and recognize the new era! Messiah is coming according to the order of Melchizedek,far above the Mosaic Law. Here there is no more separation of God and man, no more hand-built Temple with its priesthood.
We must Remember: At the death of Jesus, the Sanctuary was opening as its unique role reached the end …

Mk 15,37-38
Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

It is written in the Heb 7:11-19:

“.. if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the Law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the Law as well.…
This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement* concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
For it is witnessed of him,
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”

*Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, which has nothing to do with the tribe of the Levitical priests: the Aronites.
This is very important! Yeshua could not technically be any kind of priest, let alone a High Priest. Moreover: He is The Great Everlasting High Priest according to Melchizedek's spiritual lineage.

As Paul writes:

Romans 9:31-33
Israel, which sought the law of truth, did not attain to the truth of the law.
Why? Because they sought to accomplish this not by faith, but by works;
as it is written:
"Behold, I lay in Sion the stone of stumbling, a rock of stumbling; and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded."

(see. Is.28: 16)
The author of the Hebrew letter sees in the same way:

Hebrews 4:1-2
“...while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it... For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.”

What they have been following since the cataclysm of Jewish history the dramatic and devastating destruction of the Temple building {AD 70}, is a belief system, a doctrine, based on many, modified human teachings and newer and newer "neologue" traditions.
Yeshua pointed out, citing Isaiah 29:13:

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (see Mark 7:6-7).

This religion, which only "expects" the Messiah, and tragically denies Jesus as the Christ/Anointed, is today "Judaism".

Meanwhile, the basic premise of Christianity is pure and simple: that Yeshua was / became the expected, and saving Messiah - sent by Gd:
The apostle Peter once said:

Act. 4:10-12
Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is a salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

The Judaism ceases to be Judaism if you accept Yeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah. Christianity ceases to be Christian if you deny Him.

One party has denied this restorative covenant, the other "party" has been recruited, contracted, AND adopted as a member of the Heavenly Family. Unfortunately the two systems can only be mixed by extremely naively mindsets or on a basis of ignorance and false doctrines.

We tend to forget that the apostles risked their lives for this conflict, always bringing out the good news of the new life and the escape, in every possible occasion when they met an Israeli audience {and even waved to each other if they were to let go of it under pressure}. (see Gal. 2:11-14)
The clashes were so real that the apostle Paul describes:

2Cor.11:23-25
... I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned..

(Acts 5:40-42)
(The Members of the Grand Council of the Jews) had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Even in terms of truth and identity, any compromise is out of the question, and people who profess to be Christians should be concerned the wisdom of the teachers in "Judaism," which is often not a divine one but from the worldly wisdom:

1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
(see. Job 15:13)

The apostle Paul declared the above-mentioned thoughts on his own personal conversion. He was originally a Pharisee himself, who, as a disciple of the most renowned master of the most renowned school at the time, surpassed his disciples in the Pharisee / Rabbinic sciences (Gal. 1:14), but after his conversion he literally called everything he left behind for Christ:

Phil.3:5-8
..I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

In light of this, he rightly cautioned the church not to listen to "Jewish tales, the commandments of people turned away from the truth" (Titus 1:14; see. 1 Tim.4:7).

Question: But why would we do that, what could benefit a Christian from the wisdom of people who deny Christ, the promise of Gd, the Incarnate Truth, the heritage of the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Family?

Family in Love and Truth

The question is not poetic at all, for there are apparently those who disregard Christ’s promises that the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to the faithful (John 14: 16-17), who will teach everything (14:26). For it is the Spirit of God who leads believers to all truth, according to God's will, He teaches them and works in full synchrony with the scriptures, both in the Old and New Testaments.
Because it was written of him:

Jer 31:31-34
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me.

Finding, recognising and catching false doctrines and sources is not really complicated in the apostolic guidance:

1 John 2:22-23
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? It is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
He who denies the Son does not have the Father. He who confesses the Son is the Father.

The apostle John also points out that the Christ-denial / imitators [Antichrists] want to mislead the righteous, but the anointing of the Spirit of truth on them will keep them:

1 John 2:26-27
I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

2 Peter 1:16
“we did not follow cleverly devised a myths {or: “arbitrary interpretation,"} when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty... ”

And when Peter says "arbitrary interpretation," we too must be concerned keeping a sincere heart and thus teaching the Word honestly and in purity. We have plain words and pure message. It is not our hidden mystery but the declared good news for everyone.

Summary

While the Mosaic order pointed to the Messiah embodied in Yeshua, today’s Judaism is fundamentally unbelieving in it..
The essence of Christianity is that Yeshua is the foundation of the Anointed and He is the New Covenant prophesied by Moses. The determined proclamations alongside the witnessing conflicts of the apostles testify to the difference between the two systems.
Christianity is a salvation-centric way of life, following Yeshua’s redeemer mission - not a sin-or-Law-centric religious system.

God so loved {Agape: devoted, inviting love} the world {therefore all nations and tribes} by giving His only begotten Son ...
John 3:16

Members of the faithful communities, following Christ, represent the call of the new covenant, regardless of where they came from, from an Israelite or pagan background of "the nations."

The Word became flesh, forever (Jn 1:14) – and we are not to restore principles based on mere words and orders.
Therefore our calling as Christians is to proclaim and express the good news all the way to the ends of the earth. This identity is well expressed in the words of Peter:

(1 Peter 2:9-10)
.. you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may ~~proclaim~~* the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

* the Greek says: "you may express, exhibit his noble character"

Finally: Words from apostle John,
good for further meditation & consideration:

...you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge... you do know the truth, and.. no lie comes from the truth.
Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.
.. I have written these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you..
1Jn 2:20-29

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