 The formative area of the Christian belief system was the time that Jesus revealed his teachings to his disciples. The disciples believed that Jesus fulfilled certain prophecies of the Jewish scriptures and that Jesus performed miracles. These actions established his credibility in the eyes of his followers. Once his credibility was established, his disciples accepted his teachings. The entire Christian belief system should be contained within the teachings of Jesus. Judaism rejects the Christian belief system at its foundation. According to the Jewish belief system, the disciples of Jesus were mistaken. Christianity claims that Jesus thought that he is God. The disciples should never have accepted this claim. Both the national testimony of the Jewish people and the human conscience equate worship of a human being with idolatry. All the miracles which the disciples believed Jesus performed and all the prophecies that the disciples thought Jesus fulfilled cannot justify idolatry. Judaism does not recognize the authority of the founders of Christianity to have established the type of belief system which is credited to them. The formative area of the Jewish belief system was the time that the Jewish nation was in the desert, on its way from Egypt to the land of Israel. The national revelation at Sinai and the teachings of Moses formed the basis of the Jewish belief system. Christianity recognizes the authority of the founders of Judaism. Christianity acknowledges that whatever God revealed to the Jewish nation and whatever Moses taught is absolutely true. Christianity does not reject Judaism at its foundation. Christianity rejects Judaism because it questions the integrity of the transmission of the Jewish belief system. Christianity accuses Judaism of distorting the original teachings of their founders. Christianity makes this accusation despite the fact that, one, it was God himself who established the method through which the Jewish belief system should be transmitted to all generations. Two, from its inception the Jewish belief system was in the hands of an entire nation. Three, there is only one belief system which claims a direct line of tradition which goes back to Moses. And four, the Christian accusation is self-contradictory. Christianity accepts the Jewish scriptures while rejecting the testimony of the Jewish nation which is the only basis for accepting the veracity of the Jewish scriptures. Five, the scriptural evidence presented to substantiate this accusation is non-existent. Six, there is no historical evidence to substantiate the accusation. There is no point in Jewish history which Christians can point to and say, here is where the Jewish method of transmission went wrong. And yet in spite of all this, Christianity places its full faith in this accusation. If this accusation is false and the Jewish nation truly managed to preserve the original message of their founders, then Christianity has a foundation of no substance. Christianity admits to this. Still, they are fully confident that Judaism is a distortion of the teachings of its original founders. We will now turn our focus upon the Christian method of transmission. Which method does Christianity rely on to transmit messages throughout the ages? How does Christianity attempt to preserve the original teachings of Jesus? The evangelical Christian will answer these questions by pointing to the books of the Christian scriptures. According to evangelical Christianity, these books should have accurately preserved the message of the founders of Christianity. Let's note that, number one, Jesus, the God of Christianity, did not write any of these books. Neither did he specify that any of these books be written. In fact, Jesus did not authorize anyone to teach in his name except for his immediate disciples. Jesus expected to return in the lifetime of his immediate disciples, so he saw no need to establish a chain of tradition. Number two, the entire Christian tradition is founded solely upon the testimony of individuals rather than an entire nation. Number three, there were many groups in the early years of Christianity, each claiming a direct tradition going back to the disciples of Jesus. Each of these groups had a distinctly different belief system. Some of these groups had their own version of the Christian scriptures. Most of these divergent gospels did not survive the centuries of church censorship. In spite of all this, evangelical Christianity places its full faith in these books of Christian scripture. Evangelical Christianity is totally confident that these books represent the original teachings of Jesus. An unbiased reading of the Christian scriptures will reveal that this confidence is misplaced. Not only do the Christian scriptures reveal that Jesus did not teach evangelical Christianity, but these books also provide the historical evidence necessary to substantiate the accusation that the church distorted the original teachings of Jesus. Now, in order to level this critique against Christianity, it's not necessary to grant that the Christian scriptures are anything more than the words of men. We recognize that Christian scriptures were written in the later half of the first century of the common era. These books were written by men who believed a certain way, and we expect these books to reflect their beliefs. We do not read these books in order to discover direct words of truth. We can only hope to gain an understanding of how the writers of these books viewed the world. And more importantly, we will discover how these writers wanted the world to view them. The authors of the Christian scriptures described the development of the early church in the following manner. Jesus was a Jewish man who lived in the land of Israel. When he was about 30 years old, he began to travel throughout the country. For about three years, Jesus traveled and taught. By the time Jesus died, he had created a small following. All of his followers were Jews, prominent among Jesus' followers who were his twelve disciples. These disciples formed a community centered in Jerusalem. The community of Jesus' followers was led by James, a brother of Jesus. This community is referred to as the Jerusalem Church. In the years following Jesus' death, the Jerusalem Church grew in size. At one point, the authors of the Christian scriptures claimed that they numbered several thousand. But the members of this church were all Jews. Christianity reached a non-Jewish world through the person of Paul. He traveled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean region, teaching the Gentile world about Jesus. Paul founded many churches throughout the Roman Empire, the churches which Paul established were predominantly Gentile. The Christian scriptures end their narrative at this point. They leave the reader at the historical point where there are two churches, the Jewish Church of James and the Gentile Church of Paul. History tells us that the Jewish Church of James did not survive as a separate entity. By the time Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire, there were almost no Jewish Christians left. The few Jewish Christians who remained were persecuted as heretics by the Gentile Church. Christianity, as it exists today, was transmitted through the body of the Pauline Gentile Church. The books of Christian scripture were products of the Gentile Church. They may have included in these books material which came from the Jewish Christians. But the Gentile Church was the editor of this material. It was the Gentile Church who determined the contents of the Christian scriptures and who transmitted these texts to future generations. In order to be convinced that the Gentile Church is truly transmitting the original message of Jesus, one must determine that Paul's teachings conformed to the teachings of Jesus. The Gentile Church only learned of Jesus through the teachings of Paul. If Paul's teachings were not synonymous with the teachings of Jesus, then the Gentile Church does not possess the original message of Jesus. In order to determine Paul's connection to Jesus, we will turn to the testimony of Christian scripture. It's clear that the editors of these books were strongly motivated to present Paul as one who is faithfully transmitting the original message of Jesus. Yet even these biased writers were not able to do so. The Christian scriptures describe the basis of Paul's mission in the following manner. Paul never meets Jesus in real life. Neither did Paul learn of Jesus' teachings through the disciples of Jesus. Paul emphatically states, in Galatians 1 and 2, that no living person was involved in transmitting Jesus' messages to him. Paul only learned of these teachings of Jesus through a series of visions. In these visions, Jesus appeared to him and imparted his teachings. Paul's entire message was the product of these visions. The only way we can verify the truth of Paul's claim is by determining the reaction of Jesus' disciples to Paul's message. These men who lived with Jesus and heard and teach could compare the teachings that they heard to the prophecy of Paul. How did the Jewish followers of James react to Paul's claim to prophecy? Paul makes the claim, in Galatians 2, verse 9, that the leaders of the Jerusalem Church acknowledged that he was appointed by Jesus as a messenger to the Gentiles. But was Paul telling the truth? James and the Jerusalem Church never acknowledged the validity of Paul's visions. It is the Christian scriptures themselves that contradict Paul's claim. The Book of Acts, chapter 15, describes how the leadership of the Jerusalem Church disregarded Paul's claim to prophecy. Paul had come to Jerusalem, he had been preaching to the Gentiles that they were not required to follow the laws of Moses. Some members of the Jerusalem Church disagreed with Paul. They felt that in order for a Gentile to join their movement, he should be required to observe the Law of Moses. This question was brought before the leadership of the Jerusalem Church. The elders of the Church discussed the question and James handed down his decision. His judgment was that the Gentiles were not obligated to observe the entirety of the Law of Moses as a prerequisite to joining the Christian community. However, he stipulated that the Gentiles were obligated to observe certain dietary laws and to avoid immorality. Now, if Paul was telling the truth when he claimed that the leadership of the Jerusalem Church acknowledged him as the true prophet, then this story makes no sense. Here we have Paul who claims to have been personally appointed by the dead Jesus as his emissary to the Gentile world. Whatever Paul taught was supposedly revealed to him in these prophetic visions. One of the central teachings of Paul was that the Gentile world is not bound by the Law of Moses. Yet, when the leaders of the Jerusalem Church are in doubt as to what Jesus would have said concerning the Gentiles, they discuss the question and look to James for guidance. If there was any truth to Paul's claim that these leaders acknowledged the truth of his prophecy, then they should have simply asked him, what did Jesus tell you? The fact that they considered the question and the method that they used to resolve the question clearly tells us that these men did not believe that Jesus had ever spoken to Paul. Now the author of the Book of Acts, his bias notwithstanding, cannot hide the simple fact. The difference between the Gentile Church founded by Paul and the Jerusalem Church founded by Jesus was not limited to the question of the authenticity of Paul's prophecy. These two institutions espouse two totally different philosophies. The central teaching of Paul in Christianity is that faith is the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus is the only valid method through which atonement of sin can be achieved. The entire philosophy of Paul revolves around this one teaching. Evangelical Christianity is founded upon this basic teaching of Paul. If you were to ask an evangelical Christian to sum up his belief system in one sentence, he would respond with this point. Faith in Jesus is the only redemption from sin. In fact, the entire concept of the Messiahship of Jesus is basically limited to this one point. Jesus is the Messiah, evangelical Christians only because they believe that his death provided atonement for sin. But the Jerusalem Church, which was established by Jesus and guided by his disciples, did not believe in this teaching of Paul. They did not believe that faith in Jesus could effectively atone for their sins. This is demonstrated by the testimony of the Christian scriptures. The Book of Acts chapter 21 reports that the normal activities of the members of the Jerusalem Church included the offering of animals in the temple for the explicit purpose of the expiation of sin. The Book of Acts describes how four members of the Jerusalem Church had taken a Nazarite vow. This means that they had voluntarily brought themselves into a situation where they would be required by the Law of Moses to bring an animal as a sin offering. It's clear that these people saw in the temple offerings a valid method for the expiation of sin. Now if they believed as Paul did that Jesus died for their sins once and for all, then there would be no point in bringing a sin offering in the temple. The fact that the Jerusalem Church still participated in the temple offerings after Jesus had died tells us that they did not see in Jesus' death an all atoning sacrifice. These people were not evangelical Christians. Now the Christian scriptures provide both the theological and historical justification to the accusation that Christianity has failed in the transmission of its own message. The Christian scriptures tell us that the disciples of Jesus never believed the fundamental teachings of the evangelical Christianity. The people who lived with Jesus and heard him preach did not believe that with the death of Jesus the world is redeemed of its sins. The Christian scriptures also tell us that at which historical point the break in the transmission occurred. These books tell us that Paul, the father of modern Christianity, had no connection to Jesus. Christianity is an edifice erected upon the testimony of one man. All of Christianity stands upon Paul's word that Jesus appeared to him. The only people who are allowed to verify Paul's claim contradicted him to his face. Now this emerges from the pages of the very book which Christianity regards as the true witnesses to its claims. So my friends, let's summarize what we just discussed. Judaism and Christianity are two different belief systems. Each one of these belief systems categorically rejects the fundamental teachings of the other. Christian missionaries attempt to persuade Jews to abandon Judaism in favor of Christianity. In their efforts at achieving this objective, the missionaries try to present logical arguments which would justify a conversion from Judaism to Christianity. The typical missionary sales pitch has the missionary pointing to a verse in Jewish scriptures to be supporting the Christian belief system. Essentially, the missionary argument is that the original teachers of Judaism, the authors of Jewish scriptures, were Christians by belief. Now if Jews today are not Christians, it's only because they have distorted the message of their original teachers. This is the thrust of the missionary argument. Now the Jew cannot accept this argument for several reasons. First of all, it was God himself who established the original Jewish belief system. The missionary admits as much. It is clear that God expected the message of Judaism to be available to all generations. The means through which God transmitted his message is the national testimony of the Jewish people. If God deemed the living testimony of this nation to be a reliable method of committing this message, the Jews will not differ. Two, the missionary argument assumes that an entire nation unanimously corrupted the essence of their belief system. Now in order for the missionary argument to be true one must accept the following scenarios. Either a national conspiracy is involved or a nation unanimously made the same theories of mistakes. Both of these are statistical probabilities. Number three, the missionary argument is self-contradictory. If the Jewish nation managed to corrupt the very essence of their belief system, then there is no reason to accept the sanctity of Jewish scripture. It's only through the testimony of the Jewish nation that we know that these books are sacred. If the national testimony of the Jews can't be trusted, then there is no way of knowing there is any authenticity to the books of Jewish scripture. Number four, the authors of Jewish scripture were quite clear about their beliefs and they were not Christians. As a general rule, the Jew felt no need to counter every missionary argument. However, it often happened that the church would force a Jew to respond to each of the missionary arguments. Many books contain a record of the Jewish responses to various missionary arguments. Any Jewish library will include some of these books. In addition, many of the prominent Jewish commentators of scripture will explain why Jews do not accept the missionary interpretation of a given verse. These include but are not limited to the commentaries of the ibn Ezra and the ibar bin El. It's not difficult to find Jewish responses to the individual missionary arguments. Furthermore, many Christian scholars have come to recognize the fallacies of the missionary exploitations of Jewish scripture. There's yet another factor which should be taken into consideration when we examine the missionary argument. There's an old Jewish saying which advises before you point to the splinter between the eyes of your friend, remove the beam from between your own eyes. If the missionary demands that the Jews search the Jewish scriptures for evidence that the original teachers of Judaism were not Jews by belief, then the missionary should first search the Christian scriptures. If missionaries had the honesty to undertake this search, they would discover sufficient evidence to substantiate the reality that Jesus, James and Peter were not Christians. In place of the futile attempt to assail the solid foundations in Judaism, the missionary should examine the breaches in his own house.