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What Have You Been Taught that God Wants You To Do?

In Christianity and Judaism, the answer to that question is based on which institution you belonged to or identify with. However, historically, the answers of Christian and Jewish institutions fall into two groups and they reflect how members of the religion describe themselves. Since Judaism has been around much longer than Christianity and Yeshua, the Jewish Jesus was “Jewish,” I will begin with Judaism.

Jewish groups describe people who are members of the group as “observant” or “non-observant.” Observant Jews follow the laws in the Torah, as per the explanations and instructions of the Talmud. “Talmud” is the generic term for a large collection of documents that comment and expand upon the Mishnah (Oral the Law), which was written down around 200 CE. Today there are two Talmuds. The Talmud used by observant Jews is the Babylonian Talmud, which was completed around 500 CE. “Non-observant” refers to Jews who are more secular. People who are not Jewish are called “Gentiles.”

Christian groups generally describe people as “believers” or “unbelievers.” “Believers” are people who “believe the right things.” “Unbelievers” are people who “believe the wrong things.” “Right beliefs” are determined by Christian institutions or individuals who “self-identify as Christian.”

The bottom line is that Judaism is about what people do
and Christianity is about what people believe.
   
This creates some very confusing situations:

Jews that are atheists keeping Jewish Laws and
Christians that are believers not doing what Jesus taught.

During the time of Yeshua, the Jewish Jesus, what Jewish people viewed as “observant” was determined by different sects – Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Yeshua Movement -- and the Sanhedrin (highest court of the land). Yeshua called his movement the “Kingdom of Heaven” and membership was based on what people did – not what they believed. Interestingly, the Jewish Jesus, observant Jews of his period and observant Jews today all agree on pikuach nefesh:

The principle in Jewish law that
the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule.

But today there are thousands of Christian groups and denominations with belief systems that are completely disconnected from human actions. Many believe they have their “ticket to heaven” regardless of what they do or how they treat other people. In my opinion, the primary question for Christians today is:

Should Christians today do what Yeshua taught or ignore him
and believe things people who lived centuries later said they should believe?

The answer to that question plays a big role in how Christians respond to bad things done to other people and themselves. Thank you for reading this. Please share and discuss it with others.

May your life be blessed with an abundance of TOV,
Jim Myers

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