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If you are a traditional Christian this is possible the most important series of articles you may ever read in your life. As a Pastor I am deeply concerned for the state of the Christian believer, both in this life and the next. The whole purpose of a person becoming a Christian is that he desires to please God with his life. One attempts to follow the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament in that regard. One goes to church and models his religious belief system as well as his life after sermons he hears. Some even read and study the Bible to the best of their ability. But many are not advantaged to have at their disposal the necessary background knowledge, time, and finances necessary to approach the study of the Bible constructively. What the vast majority of Christian believers fail to recognize is that within the Bible, especially the New Testament, are many ideas totally foreign to what the Early Jerusalem Church believed. Even more much has been put forward in the New Testament which is totally foreign to what Yeshua both believed and practiced. Without such knowledge one only reads the New Testament trusting everything within it never aware that Yeshua could not believe much which is recorded within it.
This has been my experience as my studies over the last 20 years has scrutinized in-depth such areas within the Bible. The “Yeshua” you look to as a Godly example to be followed would shudder in your presence at much which is taught in his name or under his supposed sanction. Nothing could be further from the truth. I desire for you that you prosper spiritually. As a Pastor I desire that for you so much. But you are disadvantaged by what you don’t know since your studies are deficient in many necessary areas which impact your religious belief system. I don’t want anyone’s money only their attention for in sharing with you such truths it is my hope your repentance in such areas will benefit not only you but your relationship with God as well.
Most will approach such a subject without any idea that Paul’s message of salvation as contained in the New Testament could be wrong. I did for many years. In Seminary we never learned about these things to which I will address in these articles in this series. They were never mentioned. It seemed everything was assumed to be correct because it was in a book that had been handed down for centuries by an organization which "deemed" it correct. Only over time in my pursuits for truth and knowledge about the God I loved did I "stumble" into such information. It was only by investigating "footnotes" in the many books I read over the years did I locate the hundreds of resources that contained such information which I somehow had managed to overlook in my years in Seminary and before. But lets be honest. No one person has the cumulative knowledge possessed in this world and "blind spots" are prevalent in many "religious belief systems". After tracking down such challenges to my religious belief system by scholars who knew better than I the facts to which I now address these articles, was I over time utterly convinced and startled at which I discovered. Paul's religious concepts as recorded in the New Testament were almost a parallel to what the Gentile nations had possessed in their pagan religious beliefs since time began. One could, if equipped with this knowledge, draw a continuous synthesis beginning with Sun worship by primordial man on to the current religions of the Gentiles of Paul's day. The facts and parallels with Pagan religions and Paul's doctrines were too numerous and unique to be left up to coincidence. Understanding finally that I had possessed "falsehoods" which were only "carried over" by the Gentiles who were responsible for the documents which comprised the New Testament which was canonized in the 4th century by the Gentile Roman Church, I quickly could see so clearly how much within Paul's doctrines and the New Testament was nothing more than the "same old things" rewritten with some Jewish terminology which was a clever attempt to "legitimize" what was being presented.
But let us never forget that these "tenants" of Paul's doctrine of salvation had no precedent in Biblical Judaism or the Old Testament. That means that Yeshua, a Jew, and whom is believed by many to be Messiah, did not nor could not have ascribed to such pagan concepts. This is what you have failed to be taught or studied out for yourself. In place of being a true follower of Yeshua by imitating him and letting his mind be in you, you have unwittingly let "another's" mind be in yours whereby you accept unknowingly a false salvation and will not be aware of such tragic consequences until you die. It is with this hope that I present a detailed understanding of Paul's religious belief system with an emphasis upon his message of salvation. I challenge all to read the evidence presented and refute it. But please don't quote more me more misguided New Testament scriptures for your authority for I know better and it is our hope at Bet Emet that you will come to know better for yourself and turn to the Torah with complete faith whereby you begin to esteem and love what Paul would have you believe is a "curse"…the Torah.
Now on with the second in this series. Shalom.