Nightshades,

I've tried to read your comments through in an effort to understand where you are coming from. It's difficult becasue you mix a little truth with error in your expression of Christianity.

Would it surpise you to learn that in God's plan it is Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, who is the center of everything? This is abundantly clear throughout the OLd and New Testament and in everything the Church teaches.

For the sake of Christ Jesus in whom God was well pleased, God created all things. The creation will forever have something unfinished about it until the time comes when it shall return to the Source of its perfection. All things are unto Christ, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Man having come from God must return to God, his final end. The Creation is a work of sheer mercy and the freedom which man is given assures God that praise for Him is spontaneeous. One day man in a gesture of pride and egoism refused to obey and the whole order of things fell apart...man shattererd the universe and sins forever more will shackle his former freedom.

Man created to be a friend of Christ has disobeyed and gone astray...and God Infinite Mercy, humbles Himself and becomes man....Christ comes to destroy sin, the wall of separation between God and man. Christ has not abandoned us...He is our Savior...He is life and He is love. God is love.

It was bearing His Cross that Christ who was sinless took upon Himself the sins of the world. On Calvary a terrible struggle takes place between hate and love and hate dies in the Blood of the immolated Victim.

God's plan now unfolds..the return to the Father is once again underway. By following Christ, the Way is now His sorrowful Way. We must each deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. Integrated into Christ at Baptism, I ought to die to self, and live life through, with and in Christ.

How? We must make heroic efforts to turn away from all the idolatrous self-love which is base upon earthly, sensual, and perhaps devilish wisdom leaving very little love for God although He was the first to love us to the degree of sending His eternally begotten Son that He might be the propitiation for our sins.

How do we follow the will of God as perfectly as Christ? In imitation of that perfect love let us make it our goal, our life effort to love one another as the eternal Father and His Incarnate Son love us wretched sinners that we are.

The reconciliation of mankind with God....whose friendship we lost through original sin...hs been brought about by Christ's death on the Cross. Jesus who is like men in all things except sin, bore the sins of men Isa. 53: 4-12, and offered Himself on the Cross as an atoning sacrifice for all those sins, thereby reconciling men to God.

On some level I think you knew. hahahaha

Faith/religion whatever you want to call it, tends to be life changing, all encompassing. That is why people are so passionate about it. Can you think of one other form of anything that illicits such a strong emotion, or produces such dramatic results in life or releases such potential, without completely destroying the individual? (Speaking generally here, we all know some faiths require you to do exactly that, and not metaphysically either.)

It doesn't surprise me that people are passionate and get so upset over discussions/debate/attacks/innuendo/you name it. As humans we want to protect that which is precious to us. And what is the point of believing in something, for something, if you do not count is as precious?

Lula, your thoughtful comments paint a clear picture as to why Christianity and Judaism are two different religions.  While Christianity shares its origin with Judaism, it has developed its own interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures which serves its own needs and at the same time separates it from Judaism. Both walk in God's light and grace.

Its rather like the rebelious daughter, Christianity, recasts her parent's family history in light of her own rebellion.  Care should be taken by the daughter, it seems to me, to respct the parent and the parent's point of view. The daughter has her own family tree, no need to disclaim the authenticity of the parent's roots. There's room for many trees in the forest.

 

Be well.

There is no error in what I've written.

Jesus died for the sins of the world. Not for your sins, and not even for the sins of the jewish nation. I've explained many times what sins of the world are, so there's no sense in going over it again.

Jesus gave over his self importance to god by giving over his own free will and self concern for his own life. The evidence of this is his words in the garden before his arrest. Jesus did not want to die, and asked god to take the cup from him, but ended up giving over his free will to god, when he spoke the words, thy will and not mine own. Sacrifice of the self is the lamb, the same lamb that that Abel sacrificed to god. The lamb is "self", self importance, self will, self concern. This is the sacrifice that god finds pleasing and acceptable. Cain offered a sacrifice of the world, not acceptable. One does not offer to god as sacrifice that which is already gods.

I've heard many christians talk about the blood of the lamb, and having to be marked with it. The statement is true, but the blood of the lamb is not Jesus's blood, nor his sacrifice. It must be ones own sacrifice. To claim his or anyones sacrifice as ones own is "covetousness". Such as in the commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house: neither shalt thou desire his wife nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor ANYTHING that is his." And it is strictly forbidden. One can not claim the sacrifice of one for ones own, not even Jesus's.

The lamb that was offered for sacrifice by the hebrews before the time Jesus was symbolic and was to remind the hebrews of the need for the sacrifice of the self (it is self that keeps us seperate from god). The hebrews however, like all of us, forgot it's true meaning. They no longer sacrificed to remember the need for overcoming self, but in thinking that all one had to do was sacrifice an animal without blemish. (The sacrifice of the lamb became the same as Cain's sacrifice of the world. Also an animal without blemish was also symbolic as well, symbolic of the self without the blemish self importance and self concern) This was why Jesus was so angered at the sellers in the temple. He came to remind the hebrew nation of the true meaning of the sacrifice of the lamb, and to show that it was not the end of life, although the physical life as we know it will end, but instead the beginning of a new life. This is why Jesus is called the "lamb", and why he said that he came to GATHER THE LOST SHEEP OF ISRAEL. They were lost because they had forgotten the true meaning of the sacrifice. He came as a witness to the Gentiles, so that they also could see, but he didn't come to gather them.

Jesus did overcome "original sin" which was the sin of self importance in the "garden of eden",(Adam and Eve chose "self will and importance" over the will of god.), but his overcoming of original sin was not an overcoming for all. (It was for an example for reminding the hebrew nation what the true meaning of sacrifice was, and that it could be done, what one needed to do to accomplish it,and what would beome of those that could overcome self.) Quite obviously he didn't wash away our original sin, since we all still have self concern, and self importance.

Yes Jesus did bear the sins of man, he was a man. He still had self concern, as, once more, evidenced by his statements in the garden. He had self concern for his own life (he did not wish to die and he acknowledged that fact to god and asked that god take the cup from him if it were possible). In the end however he gave over his own self will and the self concern for his own life to gods will. (Thy will and not mine own) When he gave over to gods will and not his own he did become sinless, because sin is having self concern and self importance.

Everything Lula said in her last post is right on from a biblical Christian POV. From this view Christianity comes naturally out of Judaism.

Sodaiho, forgive me but what you are saying is similar to what the Pharisees of Jesus' day said about Jesus. They looked at Jesus as rebellious and heretical.

We, as Christians, are only following him and those he put in place after him. The NT Scriptures were a fulfillment of the OT and a new covenant God had with the Gentiles. He never called the Gentiles to keep the OT Laws or covenants.



Paul taught that the roots of the tree is the Abrahamic covenant between God and the Hebrews. The Gentile believers (now the church) would be grafted into this tree as adopted. He said:

"For if their rejection (Jews) is the reconciliation of the world what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy then the whole batch is holy, if the root is holy so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off and you though a wild olive shoot (Gentiles) have been grafted in among the others and now share (both Jew and Gentile) in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

You will say then, "Branches were broken off (Jews) so that I could be grafted in." Granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural brances (Jews) he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sterness of God: sterness to those who fell (from unbelief), but kindness to you, provided that you contnue in this kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief (Jews) they will be grafted in, For God is able to graft them in again. After all if you were cut out of an olive tree (Gentiles) that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more really will these the natural branches, (Jews) be grafted into their own tree.!" Romans 11

you can go right back to the writing of Moses and see that he mentioned many times that all nations of the world would be blessed as a result of Abraham and that the decendants of Shem (Jews) and Japeth (Gentiles) would dwell in peace together one day. I believe that day is when Christ comes back for both Jew and Gentile believers.

Well it was according to John the Baptist who basically was like one who walked off the pages of OT history. He said:

"Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29

In the OT, the future Messiah was likened to a lamb.

"he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers in silence" Isaiah 53

IN the OT Jesus was referred to as the lamb of God. To say his sacrifice was not good in this aspect is to say he came and died for nothing. The OT sacrificial system starting right in the garden with Adam and Eve pointed to the future when God would sacrifice his own son in place of the lamb; a once and for all sacrifice. First you had sin, then sacrifice right there in the garden.

If you go back to Abraham and study the story about his willing to sacrifice his own son, you'd see many parallels with the future sacrifice of God's only son. Isaac was a picture of Christ. Abraham was a picture of God the father. You have the wood of the cross and Mount Moriah all figured into this picture. God provided a sacrifice in place of Isaac then (with the ram) and later (with Christ). It would not be Abraham's only son, it would be God's only son who would die for the sin of the world.



well this is in direct contradiciton of scripture both old and new. So do I take your word for it or do I take scripture's which has stood the test of time? Where are you getting your info?

"He was pierced for our transgression."

He was crushed for our iniquities."

"For the transgression of my people he was stricken."

"For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" Isa 53

His sacrifice was a personal one. It was made from love. He loved mankind so much he was wlling to die for them, if they would only believe.

So in order for this to "take" we must accept HIS sacrifice, NOT our own meager one.

To say our sacrifice is what is needed for our own salvation comes right from the pt of hell. Right off in the garden that sneaky devil convinced Eve to recognize she could do quite well on her own and turn her back on God.

Remember Peter being rebuked by Christ? Christ looked right at Peter and said "get behind me Satan" when Peter attempted to deter God's will for his own. Just like Christ recongnized the voice of Satan in Peter so can those who hear and obey the voice of Christ hear Satan in the words of others.

It also says:

"He came to his own (Jews) and his own received him not." John 1

"But his citizens hated hm and sent a message after hm saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." Luke 19:14

Paul said to the Jews in Acts 13:

"On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews (leaders) saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them bodily; "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

"I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

Paul quoted Isaiah in Isa 49:6 btw. How many Jews know this scripture? All was going according to plan, all was going as prophesied by the OT prophets. For those who have eyes to see.

Nightshades,

For those who have ears to hear, Christ is still after the lost sheep of Irael..."Come follow Me" is a universal call.

In St.John 10 Christ describes Himself as a Good Shepherd and explains:

Verses 11-12, 16-21, 24-26, 30

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

"And I have other sheep that are not of this fold: I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, becasue I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from My Father."

There was again division among the Jews becasue of these words. Many of them said, "He has a demon, and he is mad; why listen to Him? Others said, "These are not the sayings of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

So the Jews gather round Him and said to Him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, " I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me; but you do not believe, becasue you do not belong to my sheep. I and the Father are one."

So, there you have it. In the end, there will be one flock, will you be part of it?

There is no doubt that Christianity and modern Judaism, that is the one that developed after 70AD are two different religions.

What's religion all about? It's about God telling man the truth and asking them to pay Him the homage of their reason of the acceptance of that truth thus acknowledging His Infinite wisdom and Almightyness. This baffles a finite mind to some extent, but we must not be so foolish as to deny a truth declared by God only becasue we don't fully grasp it. We learn what God has spoken by examining the evidence...and even though it might still seem mysterious, reason demands that we accept it and that takes a wide-awake reasonable obedience.



From Sacred Scripture which history bears out, we know that God gave His holy religion to mankind gradually. It started with the religion of Adam who was instructed immediately by God. Adam handed to his children the truth about God and the duty of worshipping HIm. Thus Abel offered sacrifice. The traditions were handed on to Adam's posterity, and conscience always dictated what was naturally right and so this period was called the period of Natural Law. God gave occasional revelations to the Patriarchs over and above the Natural Law, and this would be the period of pre-Mosaic unwritten law. After the remultiplication of the race from Noah men again began to forget God and so He gave them a clearer written law of religious duties. The 3rd stage came with covenantal law with Moses. Finally, God sent His Son to give the more perfect Christian law which will last until the end of the world.

In this way, the method of progress from the less perfect to the more perfect noble truths. As we've discussed, God sent Moses the lawgiver and after that a series of prophets to explain the law and prophecy the coming of the Messias. Christ fulfilled those and taught the perfect law of God. So, the religion known by the Israelites before Christ, Hebraic Judaism, was prepartory. The religion of Christ, Christianity, was Hebraic Judaism's perfect fulfillment.

Christ retained all the basic laws of religion and morality contained in the progressively revealed Hebraic Jewish preparation, abolishing only the particular rites and ceremonies and also the imperfections of the initial religion.



Some Jews recognized it and accepted it and some did not and won't. So, Christ sent His apostles to preach it to the Gentiles. Christ therefore didn't establish another religion. Christianity is the perfect development of the Hebraic, Old Covenant Judaism, just as the perfect tree is the perfect development of the seed from which it grew.

#257 KFC, wonderful exegesis.





#257 KFC, wonderful exegesis.


Also, we might think of it this way: as with Adam's sin, death started in the Garden and with Christ's Passion beginning with His agony in the Garden of Gethesame, life was restored and the gates of Heaven were once again opened.

Nightshades posts #255


Re: the highlighted. By your use of the words "self importance", self concern, sacrifice of the self, the lamb is "self", self will, are you applying the meaning of Christ's prayer in the Garden to Buddhist philosophy?

Here's a passage from Psalm 39 and Hebrews 10:


"Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of me: that I should do thy will: O my God! I have desired it and Thy law (is) in the midst of my heart!"

"Going out (from the Cenacle), He went according to His custom to the Mount of Olives...And kneeling down, He prayed, saying" Father, if thou will, remove this chalice from Me! But yet not My will, but Thine be done." And there appeared to Him an Angel from Heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed the longer." St.Luke 22:39-43

These passages from Psalm 39 and Hebrews refute your idea that Jesus did not want to die which means that when Jesus asked the Father to take the cup from Him something else was going on.

I agree there was a struggle going on in the heart of Jesus, but will never believe it was over giving over His self-importance. No, Christ had no self importance whatsoever for He was Humility personified.

In St.Matt. 26 we read that "He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad." He said to Peter and the 2 sons of Zebedee that "My soul is sorrowful even unto death:" Christ was on His way to that fulfillment of that longing of His heart. Picture Jesus in His agony...struggling, His whole human nature rebelling and recoiling; his heart and soul wrenching from this mysterious confession, My soul is sorrowful even unto death."

Grief took possession and He became pale, weak and trembling as blood flows from His pores enough to drench His garments and trickle to the ground. St.Luke 22:44. What was going on?
God is laying down the iniquity of us all, "the sin of the world",upon Him. God is weighing Him down with all the sins of mankind, from the first in the Garden of Paradise to the last at the end of the world. Here, He, Jesus is the Lamb of God weighed down by this load of sin of the whole world, prepared to offer as a voluntary and free sin offering His Body, and Blood and Life. "Verily, Him, that knew no sin, (not even that of self-importance), for us God hath made sin; that we might be made the justice of God in Him." 2Cor.5:21, 25.


The passage, "And kneeling down, He prayed, saying" Father, if thou will, remove this chalice from Me! But yet not My will, but Thine be done." is probably one of the greatest lessons we can ever have on prayer.

Here's Jesus, the Lamb of God kneeling in the Garden defiled with, completely enveloped by, and saturated with the sin of the world. What does He do under this intense agony?

st. Luke tells us: "And being in agony, He prayed the longer."

In His agony, Christ prayed the longer. Oh what a lesson for us! What are we to do when we feel sorrow beyond belief, humiliation that's too hard to accept, or pain? Surrender ourselves to some form of inordinate pleasure or indulgence or nervous brooding, trusting our own devices for relief to make ourselves better or even run to our chums for their advice?

Or be like Christ here in the Garden and pray to God our Father?

No worries, nothing to forgive, I am a Jew and "Pharisees" is not a bad word in my religion.  I do, indeed, look at Jesus as rebellious and heretical.

True within your religion, absolutely false within mine.  As I said, they are two separate religions. As to the Gentilesm, true again.  You are only bound to the Noahide law.

Paul could say this till the cows came home.  He had no authority in Judaism since he became an apostate. Its more like Paul took his own sample and planted it in a Gentile pot.  No longer Judaism. Then grafted on all the Gentiles.  They were not Jews, but Christians, and have no claim to Jewish history, customs, or anything else. Of course, they are always welcome to become Jewish.  But then they would have to swear off Jesus.

See ya.

 

 

 

No he wasn't.  This is an after the fact attribution made by Christians.  The prophets

certainly did not have Jesus in mind.

 

IN the OT Jesus was referred to as the lamb of God. To say his sacrifice was not good in this aspect is to say he came and died for nothing.

I never said that his sacrifice was for nothing, you are putting your words in my mouth. He died to become closer to god, I wouldn't call that nothing. And I did not say that he wasn't the "lamb of God". I said that he was called the lamb because he represented in the flesh, or human form, a reminder to the Hebrew nation as to the real reason behind the sacrifice, which was a reminder for them to put self aside and follow GOD. His willingness to die and the resurrection itself, was to show them that if they did they would find a new life closer to god. That also is not nothing, that is UNSELFISH LOVE.

He also came to gather the lost sheep of Israel. Many of you say that they didn't follow him. They weren't to worship him as they would worship God. JESUS IS NOT THE I AM. "THOU SHALT HAVE NO GOD BEFORE ME" They were to follow his example and put self aside so that they could be closer to god, and take up a new life. You talk as though all the hebrew nation rejected him and his teachings. NOT SO! Try, if you can, to keep in mind that the apostles, the disciples, and all most all of the crowds that he ministered to WERE HEBREWS. Jesus himself said he came to find the lost sheep of ISRAEL, AND TO BE A WITNESS TO THE GENTILES. Why are you rewriting his words?

I've already explained about the difference between Cain and Abel's sacrifice, and what the two represented, and why one was favored and the other not. And yes sacrifice is all throughout the Old Testament. Over and over again God has been telling the Hebrew nation, you must put self importance and self concern aside, because I am your god, and because it is a barrier between us.

You are of the mistaken notion that I am saying that his life had nothing to give you. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that you are not automatically "saved" because he died, other than he is for you also an example of how to put self aside in order to become closer to god and enter a new life. That is why he stated that he was to be A WITNESS FOR THE GENTILES. He did not die for your sins, nor the sins of the hebrew nation. Dying for the transgressions of the world simply means that he renounced sin, (sin is of the world, you can only sin when you are physically alive not when you are dead) and all sin comes from self and self importance. And when we do that we do physically die and enter into a new life and by the way a new body. That doesn't mean that when you die of old age, or disease, or by accident you will enter into that new life. You won't. Not until self importance is overcome. You must do as he did and die for your own transgressions of the world willingly, if you want to find that new life. And that doesn't mean that you must be crucified or some such either.

Where am I getting my info? From personal experience, and it's not info, but knowledge.

The passage, "And kneeling down, He prayed, saying" Father, if thou will, remove this chalice from Me! But yet not My will, but Thine be done." is probably one of the greatest lessons we can ever have on prayer.

If Jesus wanted to die he would not have asked God to remove the chalice from him. No human ever wants to die. We spend thousands just to keep ourselves alive. We worry that we have enough earthly goods to keep ourselves alive. We worry that someone will take our lives from us. Doctors enter their profession in "order to save lives". We are very obsessed with life and maintaining it.

The words you quoted are slightly different, but the meaning is still the same.

Yes!!!!! "But yet not My will, but thine be done". God your will is more important to me than my own and my own life which is important to me. When your life is important to you that is self importance.

Yes, we Christians are to keep the Ten Commandments. they are an expression of the natural law written on our heart and which every one can know by the inner voice of reason and conscience.

The Ten COmmandments apply to all mankind at all times and will until the end of the world. It is said this is the reason that Almighty God wrote them on stone to signify that they were durable and to last for all ages.

As a matter of fact, we Christians ought to observe the Ten Commandments more perfectly than was expected of the Israelites for Our Lord said, "Think not that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill."

To enable us to keep the Commandments of God perfectly, we receive an interior influence of love of God and love of neighbor. For when the supernatural virtues of faith and charity motivates us, we give what is due and more besides to Him (and him) whom we love.

Romans 13:8-10,

"Owe no one any thing, except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For, "Thou shall not commit adultery; Thou shall not kill; Thou shall not steal; Thou shall not bear false witness; Thou shall not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law."

To say our sacrifice is what is needed for our own salvation comes right from the pt of hell. Right off in the garden that sneaky devil convinced Eve to recognize she could do quite well on her own and turn her back on God

No it doesn't come right from the pit of hell. And the sneaky devil in the garden of eden tempted Eve with self importance. The serpent told her that she could be like god, and know good and evil, and because she had self importance she disobeyed the word of God.

Why should god hold another responsible for your sins? Do you hold another responsible for someone elses actions and lock them up in prison instead to pay the penalty for breaking the law? What if your neighbor committed the crime of murder and the authorities came arrested you for it and executed you when they knew that indeed it was another that had committed the offense. Would that also be correct and good? No, it wouldn't. Do you think that God is not correct and good?

Dear So Daiho,

No longer Judaism is right!

Once Christ died and the Temple was rent from top to bottom, there was no more Hebraic Judaism from which he could apostate from!!!

He couldn't be an apostate of Talmudic or Phariseetic Judaism becasue that wouldn't be developed until 135AD.

Of your use of self importance, I agree with you here...for you seem to regard self-importance the same as the sin of pride?


If yes, what else beside pride is self importance?

Of your use of self importance, I agree with you here...for you seem to regard self-importance the same as the sin of pride?


If yes, what else beside pride is self importance?

Every one of those "shall nots" listed in the ten commandments, in addition to avarice, greed, pride, and anything else that puts ones needs and wants first before the needs and wants of another or of Gods law and will.

It is for instance self importance that causes one to steal. The person doing the stealing reasons that because "I wanted, or I needed" I can take what I want or need. They aren't thinking about the wants and needs of the person that they are stealing from, they are only thinking about themselves. They are putting their own wants or need first and the wants and needs of the one they are stealing from last, if they consider them at all.

It is the same as the driver that cuts another off on the road. They are thinking only of themselves and the fact that THEY are in a hurry or are late, etc. They aren't thinking about the fact that their actions might cause an accident, and perhaps injure or kill another. They are putting their reasons for doing so above the safety of others, because what they are hurrying to is more important because it concerns them. In other words they become more than the other drivers on the road.

For instance the man that would go out and kill another because his child was molested by them, yet he would not do the same thing for another persons child that had also been molested. Why? Because his child is an extention of him. And therefore the child that belongs to him is important than the child that does not.

These are only a few examples of self importance, there are probably a million more, but I think that the idea is clear.

No longer Judaism is right!

That is not true. It is not a question of which religion is right or wrong, it is a question of which individual follows the word of God or not that is right or wrong. Religion is not a living breathing being. It is simply a set of rules that one follows in order to find and become one with THE I AM. Christians should keep in mind that the basis of their own faith exists in Judaism. The commandments that you follow were given to the Hebrew nation by god, and he made his covenant with them. God does not make promises and then break them. Also Jesus was jewish, never a christian, and being the Christ didn't make him not Jewish. He followed the laws of his religion. He kept the passover and the sabbath, and he went to temple just like every other Hebrew.

KFC POSTS:

St.Paul heard it from God so he was good to go.

He knows that there is no longer an Israelite nation consitututing a disntince covenantal People of God, but only the church, the New Israel, to which all men embraced by the New Covenant belong without distinction between Jew and Gentile.

As a convert, St.Paul was baptized into the New Israel. Under divine inspiration, St.Paul infallibly teaches it is Christ who is the seed of Abraham and thus whoever is incorporated into Him, that is into His Mystical Body, the Chruch, by baptism, inherits the promise God made to Abraham and becomes a member of God's covenant people. Read Galatians 3: 16-27.

Sorry about the way I phrased this...

If you'll note above, I am actually agreeing with SO Daiho..he wrote: No longer Judaism and I agreed, but wrote it rather poorly.

As I recall the seed of Abraham according to the bible was multiplied thousand fold, and God made a covenant between God and Abraham and his seed until the end of time. When God made this covenant God did not make the stipulation that it would last only until Jesus came. As I said before God doesn't make promises and then break them.