Robert
Gaffey
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
If Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the Apostles
were practicing the Jewish religion, why
did Jesus start His Own Religion?
Robert
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{
If Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles
practiced the Jewish faith, why
did Jesus start His Own Religion? }
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Mary
Ann replied:
Hi, Robert —
He was the fulfillment of the Law
and the Prophets, the fulfillment
of the Jewish religion.
If they had accepted him as the Messiah,
He wouldn't need to start a new organization,
because the Old one, Judaism, would
have been transformed completely.
Mary Ann
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John
replied:
Hi, Robert —
To be more specific. The Jewish religion,
at the time, required animal sacrifices
for sins at the Temple in Jerusalem.
Those sacrifices were shadows that
pointed to the sacrifice that Jesus
would make for all of our sins at
Calvary. Once that sacrifice took
place, there was no need for Temple sacrifices. From history, we know
that within one generation (as Jesus
predicted) the Temple would be destroyed and
the sacrifices done away with. This
happened in 70 A.D.
Since then, Judaism is no longer
practiced as it was at the time of
Jesus.
Jews today go to a Synagogue. They
have no Temple or Temple Sacrifices.
The Temple can only go on one spot
and sacrifices can only happen there
but that spot is now beneath a Muslim
Mosque: Al-Aqsa Mosque.
That said, Judaism is no longer the
Judaism of the Bible. It is still
a wonderful faith, based on the Old
Testament, and many Jews still await
the Messiah, but it's not the same
faith as when
Our Lord walked here on Earth.
The Sacrifice of the Temple was replaced
by The One Sacrifice of Calvary.
That same Sacrifice is made present to Catholics and Orthodox Christians
at the Divine Liturgy or Holy Mass
so the Sacrifice still exists. It
is the One and Only True Sacrifice
of Jesus Christ.
While it happened in 33 A.D., you can
witness it at the Mass. The Sacrifice
is not repeated. It is made present.
We don't fully understand this Mystery,
except to say we know it to be true.
So Catholicism is the fulfillment
of Judaism as Mary Ann has stated.
John
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Eric
replied:
Robert —
To dovetail with what my colleagues
said, Jesus and the Apostles did
not believe they founded a new religion.
(Christ, of course, foresaw what
would happen, but He did not intend
it.) Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.
During His whole ministry, He ministered solely
to Jews. He inaugurated the New Covenant
which all the Jewish prophets foretold.
In fact, Mary and the Apostles (Joseph
was dead by this time) and early
Christians continued to consider
themselves Jews and continued to
go to synagogue (though probably
not offering sacrifices in the Temple) until,
essentially, they were thrown out
by the other Jews after the Temple
was destroyed in 70 A.D.
The destruction of the Temple as
my colleague noted destroyed the
old form of Judaism.
Prior to that,
Judaism consisted of believers in
Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah and disbelievers
who mingled together. After that
point, each went in a direction different
from the Temple Judaism. Christian
Jews quickly died out (or assimilated)
as the ranks of the Gentiles surged
and rapidly drowned out most cultural
traces of Jewish Christianity.
We believe that we are the authentic
spiritual Jews (Galatians 6:16, Romans
11:17). So we would argue, we are
the same religion, despite the apparent
differences.
Eric
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