Jewish Christians

[LV426]

I always wondered why christians never reconized and celebrated jewish holidays and observance. I mean all christians were at one time jewish. They believe in the same god and even recognize the Old testament as God's word. In fact the only thing that separated them was the New Testament and the birth of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Messiah. The Jewish religion does not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. They think he is still coming.

So christians think that the Jews are wrong and the Jews think that the Christians are wrong. But basically they have the same beliefs in God. So why don't christians celebrate Passover? I mean it may be jewish observances but seeing as how Christians were jewish, well, it seems to reason that they should celebrate the same holidays, at least up until the religion became divided.

[chriz]

I mean all christians were at one time jewish.

You might want to rephrase that. ;)

Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, but it would be very difficult to find a Christian today who was once Jewish.

The reason the holidays are different is precisely because a holiday is a ritual based on interpretation, and difference of interpretation is what defines the difference between Christianity and Judaism.

[LV426]

You might want to rephrase that. ;)

Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, but it would be very difficult to find a Christian today who was once Jewish.


:rolleyes: You know what I meant :droolbloo

[Ash]

but it would be very difficult to find a Christian today who was once Jewish.

Not neccesarily you should both look into Messianic Judaism, its basically judaism only practiced by those who beleive christ was the messiah, my congregation has MANY former orthodox jews, as well as a former catholic nun and people like me who were raised protestant and found messianic judaism to be a truer interpretation of the bible and christianity.

We follow jewish holidays as well as many christian ones (not as has been pointed out that there's a lot of difference between the two) we also follow some of the dietary laws (not mandatory by any means) we have church on saturdays, we hold lessons to learn hebrew and greek since those were the original languages of the bible, a great deal is lost in translation. Such as the plural you and the singular you, which has no correlation in english but nearly every other language on the planet has that distinction. If you're interested go to www.beithallel.org (http://www.beithallel.org) that is my church's website, I live in Japan now, but the church is located in western washingon, there are messianic organizations all over the U.S. and the world if you are interested.

[McKitty]

Jewish gal here and one of the reasons that I figure Christians don't follow Jewish holidays like passover is like what Chriz said, interpretation. For some reasons most Christians just don't follow the Jewish faith (as in holidays: If it wasn't for Passover, the Christians most likely would never have been brought into a religion), heck, some Christians believe that the Jews were the ones to murder Jesus ...and those people will do anything to stay away from all that is Jewish. Trust me, I go to school with them everyday.

[Ash]

Trust me, I go to school with them everyday.

I'm sorry for that, bastards, ignorance and faith are a deadly combination, look at the crusades. I don't understand other christians, every time i went to a new church i was made to feel like the odd man out, wet fish handshakes and sidelong looks for the 'outsider'. I hated it, it took me 15 years to find a church i actually liked and felt i was learning from then i got shipped off to Japan :D go figure :D

[purinpuff]

Well, I don't know if this counts, since this has to do with rules and not celebrations, but if my memory serves me right...

Early Christians were pretty much Jews. Some followed the rules more, some less. There were a lot of gentile converts who weren't familiar with the rules, and there were a lot of arguments over whether they should follow the rules or not.

At some point, it was decided they didn't have to.

And then there was the whoel thing with the Jews' problems with the government. The Jews needed to unite in a time like this. Were the Christians Jewish or not? They wouldn't stand with them, so now they had to really show they were separate.

[girlXN]

You're kind of right! the very first Christians were actually Messianic Jews. However, these first Christians tried to take the gospel to synagogues after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed
(70 ad), and were rejected. Paul and his students took the gospel to the Greco-Roman gentiles after that. Paul tried to keep the gentile churches connected with Jerusalem (mostly through financial ways), but it looks like the church in jerusalem rejected the money.

so, it turns out now that most modern Christians are descendents of Gentile Christians...which may be why we don't celebrate Jewish holidays very often. lots of churches are picking up passover though. you're absolutely right about passover being a big part of the Christian story as well.

as far as Jews murdering Jesus...EVERYBODY murdered Jesus. The Jews convicted him, then turned him over to the Romans (Gentiles). before that, his own disciples betrayed and denied him. so, even Christians had a hand in killing Christ.

look at that! my seminary education actually coming in handy!