Judaism Vs. Christianity

The first-century world contained all types of religion. For the clear majority, these were polytheistic in nature but among the few monotheistic cultures were some of the most longstanding. The Jewish communities across the known world believed that someone would be coming to make everything right. For this prophecy to come true all the world would have to ‘get better’ after his arrival. There are very high standards for the role of masiah, as the minute things start to go downhill, candidacy goes out the proverbial window. This savior theology brought about one of the largest differences in Judaism versus Christianity- the development of the eternal life after death. The religion practiced and taught by Jesus is much different from the doctrine

This distaste for the law could easily come from his past as a Pharisee. While not all of Paul’s teachings revolve around his aversion to tradition, most all of them make mention of Jesus as Christ. “I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!” This theology has had massive repercussions as followers grew in number and power. Paul’s Christianity advanced the idea that Jesus was a fully human, fully divine being sent by God to right the wrongs of humankind. The whole concept of a Christian’s redemption comes from Paul’s fervent belief the law was not good enough. “… the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” The modern worship of Jesus as the in-between for God and human comes from Paul’s epistles, not from Jesus’s teaching on the subject. Paul represents his feelings well in Galatians, “I never want to brag about anything except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through that cross, the ways of the world have been crucified as far as I am concerned. And I have been crucified as far as the ways of the world are concerned.” The implications of Paul’s split from the law are many. One example of this is the persecution of off-shoot believers. Irritation towards those who did not follow Paul’s model of religion is evident in the epistles. In Corinthians, Paul no less than condemns anyone who proclaims a truth other than his own, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.” The way this is injected with poisonous descriptive words like “deceitful” or “disguised,” has led to many conflicts over the course of