7. The present status quo of the Christian churches

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And where are the Christian churches holding that claim to go by the New Testament?

The biggest branch, the Roman Catholic Church, is deeply immersed in idolatry. G-d says: "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image nor any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Exodus 20:4. Please notice that it is not only forbidden to worship idols, but even making them is forbidden. However the whole Roman Catholic Church is filled with idols that are worshipped by the whole congregation. What does the Bible say about this? "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not, they have ears but they hear not, noses have they but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not, feet they have, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them." Psalms 115:4-8.

The Protestant churches are doing slightly better in the sense that they have no statues which they worship, but praying to and worshiping a human being, whether dead or alive, man or woman, Jew or non-Jew, is also idolatry. They think that they are fulfilling a divine commandment when they rest on Sunday, the first day of the week. However nowhere in the Old or New Testament is it written that anyone should rest on the first day of the week. As a matter of fact, a non Jew is not commanded to rest on any day of the week. The commandment to rest on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is given by G-d to the Jewish people: "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever." Exodus 31:15-16. A non-Jew is bound by the covenant that G-d made with Noah; "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22. Seedtime and harvest shall not cease. G-d did not command a day of rest for the Noachide's (non-Jews). Therefore a Noachide can not stop working on the Sabbath or on any other day, thinking he is doing that because G-d commanded it to him. Of course he can take a vacation and stop working, but he can not do that, thinking he is fulfilling a Scriptural commandment. What did Jesus, who was a Jew, do in this respect? Luke 4:16: "And as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day." So what is the reason for resting on Sunday? Resting on Sunday is an invention of the Roman Catholic church, and has no basis in the Scriptures whatsoever.

The same holds true for Christmas, Easter and other pagan festivals that the church adopted. The exact date of birth of Jesus is not given in the New Testament, but it is very unlikely that it happened in the winter, because the shepherds were out in the field at night (Luke 2:8-11), and this was not the custom in the winter, the rainy season. The pagan tribes that worshipped the sun, used to celebrate on the 25th of December the rebirth of their god, the sun. In order to make their conversion to Christianity easier, they were allowed to continue celebrating their pagan festivals, but now under a Christian heading. The Christmas tree is the remainder of another pagan custom, namely the worshipping of trees.

Did you ever wonder where the name Easter is coming from? Look in the MacMillan Contemporary Dictionary: "From Eastre, the Teutonic goddess of the dawn, whose rites were also observed in the spring."- The Easter eggs and bunny are pagan fertility symbols.

From this we see that the Christian churches are immersed in paganism and idolatry, and follow customs and celebrate festivals that have nothing to do with either the Old or the New Testament.

How can anybody expect a G-d fearing Jew to become a Christian?

The Christian churches believe in the theory that G-d rejected His chosen people, and that instead the Christians are the new spiritual Israel. However,G-d says clearly in the Holy Torah that He will never break His covenant with the Jewish people, even not when they stray away from Him. When the Jews go astray G-d will punish them. (Leviticus 26:14-17) And if they then still don't listen, G-d will punish them seven times harder. (Idem:18-22) And if they then still don't listen, G-d will punish them another seven times harder. (Idem:23-24) And if they then still refuse to turn back to G-d, He will punish them another seven times harder. (Idem:27-28) But despite all this, G-d will not break His covenant with the Jewish people: Leviticus 26:44-45; "And yet for all that, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: For I am Y-H-W-H their G-d. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their G-d: I am Y-H-W-H."

"Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying: The two families that the LORD hath chosen, He has even cast them of? Thus they have despised My people, that they should no more be a nation before them. Thus saith the LORD: If My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: for I will cause their captivety to return and have mercy on them." Jeremiah 33:24-26

If G-d rejected the Jews, why then is He now fulfilling the prophecies that He will gather in the Jews and bring them back to their land? "Fear not, for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north; give up, and to the south; keep not back: Bring my sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth." Isaiah 43:5+6  The whole world witnesses this miracle, how after almost 2000 years of dispersion over the whole earth the Jews are returning to Israel. In just 50 years a state has been built from scratch, the Hebrew language has been revived. Is there any precedent in history for this? Is there any other people that was dispersed throughout the whole world for almost 2000 years that held on to their identity and their religion?- Surely we see here the hand of G-d. However, this is not the final ingathering of Jews that is to be done by the messiah. The final ingathering will be after the war of Gog from Magog with Israel. This is described by the prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Please read these two chapters in order to get a good overview of this. Ezekiel 38:8; "In the latter years thou shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel." Here it is prophesied that Gog will attack Israel, a land that is brought out of many nations. We see now that the Jews from the whole world are coming home. The Jews are coming from Africa, America, all the European countries have given their share of Jews, we have had mass immigration from Russia, the Jews are coming home from all over the world. But, the final complete ingathering of the Jews will be after the war of Gog from Magog with Israel. This war and G-d's terrible punishment upon Gog are described in the latter part of chapter 38 and the beginning of chapter 39. And after that it is written in chapter 39, verse 25: "Therefore, thus saith the LORD G-d: now I will bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel… " So the final complete ingathering will be later.

Why is Gog attacking Israel? Ezekiel 38:12: "To take spoil and to take a prey". Idem verse 13: "Art thou come to take spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold? To take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" Here we see that the attack is in order to carry away large amounts of riches that have accumulated in Israel. Fifty years ago the state of Israel started with less that 500,000 people in a piece of desolated desert, with no natural resources whatsoever. On the contrary; even water is a problem. It was attacked right away by fifty million Arab neighbors, yet by a miracle it survived. The state was faced with major problems, like constant terrorism from hostile neighbors and full-blown wars. Israel has to spend enormous amounts of money for defense in order to survive. Israel has been faced with mass immigration. For instance, since '89 almost a million Russian immigrants arrived, which is an enormous strain upon such a small nation. But nevertheless, what is the result? Israel has a level of prosperity comparable to many western countries. Israel has joined the twenty richest countries in the world, and financial experts think that Israel is fast on its way to the top. Surely the blessings of G-d are worth much more than an abundance of oil or gold mines.

You may think to yourself: But there are 1,000,000,000 Christians,

they cannot all be wrong?

......But then, what about the 1,000,000,000 Muslims, aren't they all wrong?

Maybe the question arises: If you can prove, in a small paper like this, that the New Testament is unreliable and leads to idolatry, then how is it possible that for 2000 years all the Christians never recognized this fact? --

In order to understand this, we must realize that for almost 16 centuries the Bible was not available to the common people. Only in the middle of the 15th century was the technology to print books invented. Before that time every copy had to be written by hand, which made it very expensive, and absolutely unaffordable for the common people. After the invention of the printing press the Bible was almost exclusively printed in Latin, so that it could not be understood by the layman, but only by the clergy. The Roman Catholic Church did not want the Bible to be available to the common people, because they were afraid that when the people could read the Bible themselves, they would realize how they were cheated, and stray away from the mother-church. This was a justified fear, because as soon as the Bible became available to the masses, a major Christian reform movement arose. Hence the church used all means available to prevent Bible translations from reaching the common people. ...

The first translation of the whole Bible into a spoken language was into English, made by John Wycliff in 1380. But the church was not as grateful as you would expect. Forty-three years after his death, in 1428, his bones were dug up and burned at the stake, by command of the synod of Constance. Pope Martin V personally confirmed this order.

In 1525 William Tyndale gave the English people his translation of the New Testament, and later of parts of the Old Testament.

On the sixth of October 1536 he was strangled to death, and afterwards burned at the stake in Vilvorde near Brussels.WW

Luther, who translated the Bible into German, was excommunicated and outlawed by the church, but died a natural death before the church could get its hands on him.

In 1527 the Antwerp edition of Tyndale's New Testament was burned at St. Paul's Cross, London, and a little later mass burning of these works and the works of other translators began. (These facts and dates can easily be verified by means of the New Catholic Encyclopedia, by an editorial staff at the Catholic University of America, Washington, or through the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, by Cross and Livingstone.)

Later, when translations became widely available, the translations were usually corrupted at critical points, as shown before.

The Roman Catholic Church was not very patient with dissidents. The Jewish people suffered immensely under the church. They were subject to discrimination, stashed away in ghettos, they were deported, they were tortured, they were killed. Under these circumstances reaching out to the nations and telling them that their religion is a fraud, was for the Jews tantamount to suicide. .But now the time is right for the truth to come out.

It is very simple and very clear: There is one G-d, and that one G-d is one. Give up your idol worship and turn to the one true G-d. Do you want to be amongst those of whom the prophet Jeremiah says: "The gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say: Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." Jeremiah 16:19.

Wait for the true messiah who will bring peace and prosperity to the whole world in his first attempt.

"And the LORD (Y-H-W-H) shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one LORD (Y-H-W-H) and His name One." Zechariah 14:9.`

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you." Zechariah 8:23.

What does this all mean? Does everybody have to forsake his religion and embrace Judaism?

This is not necessary. Although anyone who is driven by the right motives can become Jewish and join the Jewish people, this is not a necessity in order to enter heaven. Noah was not Jewish, but nevertheless it is written about him in Genesis 6:9: "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations." And what was his reward? "And Noah walked with G-d." The same holds true for Job. He was also not Jewish. "Job was perfect and upright, and one that eschewed evil." Job 1:1. So you don't have to be Jewish in order to be a G-d fearing and righteous person. The Jewish people have a different mission in life: "And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." Exodus 19:6. For this reason the Jewish people have to live according to 613 commandments. For the Noachide (non-Jew), life is a lot easier; he has far fewer commandments. Seven of them are particularly notable, because if he transgresses them, he will be punished by a human court. These are:

1) Establish courts of law.

2) Do not murder

3) Do not worship idols

4) Do not blaspheme

5) Do not steal.

6) Do not commit adultery

7) Do not eat the limbs of a live animal.

These seven are the minimum that a Noachide must fulfill. All together there are about 30 commandments that a Noachide must fulfill. He is obligated to do everything that has to do with the understanding of the heart, but if he transgresses these, he will not be punished for it by a human court. If you want to go deeper into these laws, the following books are recommended:

The Seven Laws of Noah, by Jacob Joseph, School Press. 1981 New York.

The Path of the Righteous Gentile, Targum Press, Southfield 1987.

The International Lubavitch Organization, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, is also active in informing non-Jews of their G-d given code of law.

There is also a possibility that there is in your neighborhood a B'nai No'ach (Sons of Noah) movement.

In the Temple times non-Jews living in Israel and observing these seven universal laws, were permitted to offer sacrifices in the Temple. Because of the constant persecution that has befallen the Jews since the destruction of the Temple, it was not possible to teach these laws to the world. But now G-d is bringing the Jewish people home, and the Jewish people can once again reach out to the nations of the world and teach them G-d's laws.

"For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD (Y-H-W-H) from Jerusalem." Isaiah 2:3, Micha 4:2

In the Midrashic literature a Rabbi declares: (Tana De Bei Eliahu Rabba)--" I call heaven and earth as witnesses: Any individual, whether Jew or non-Jew, man or woman, servant or maid, can bring the Divine Presence upon himself, in accordance with his deeds."

Keep the seven, go to heaven!

Look what happened when mankind abandoned these laws: "And G-d looked upon the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all the flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. And G-d said unto Noah: The end of all flesh is come before Me for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold; I will destroy them with the earth." Genesis 6:12-13.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear G-d and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For G-d shall bring every matter into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastis 12:13-14.

Let us hope and pray that the real Messiah may come speedily, in our days, and that the third everlasting Temple shall be build rapidly.

"For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." Isaiah 56:7.