Today we don’t give much thought to the origins of Christianity. Most people just assume that Judaism has always been Judaism and Christianity has always been Christianity. While Yeshua (Jesus) walked this earth there was only Judaism, Christianity didn’t exist. Yeshua was a Jew in every way; He was Jewish by blood, by culture, and He observed the law in its fullness. Yeshua’s disciples were also Jewish in every respect. Christianity didn’t come about until after the resurrection of Yeshua. Even then it wasn’t called Christianity; it was just another minority segment of Judaism which was rejected by the other segments of Judaism.

The term Christian was first used in Antioch ( Acts 11:26 ). It isn’t clear if this was a complement or, more than likely, a back handed way of identifying a group of Jews that was considered heretical by all other forms of Judaism. Over the years the term Christian has come to mean “Christ like” but this isn’t correct, if it is used correctly it means “follower(s) of Christ” which in the beginning was mostly Jews but this was changing quickly because Yeshua was the savior of the world ( Gen 22:18 , Matt 28:19 , John 3:16 ) not just the Jews.

At first it was simple, Jews reaching out to Jews because gentiles were viewed as unclean. More and more Jews were accepting Yeshua as their savior ( John 3:16 ). Then Peter was given a vision, that on the surface appeared to be a dietary correction, but in reality it was God telling Peter that salvation was not only for the Jews but also the gentiles ( Acts 10:9-15 ). This vision is summed up saying “what God has cleansed you must not call common.” As the Gospel started going abroad more and more gentiles were accepting Yeshua as their savior.

Here is where the conflict started. The Jews used the reasoning that “Yeshua was a Jew and followed the Jewish law and if a gentile wanted to be a follower of Yeshua he had to become a Jew and live as a Jew, observing the complete law.” For males this meant becoming circumcised which was not a pleasant process, especially as an adult.

On the flip side you had a person named Paul, a devout Jewish Pharisee ( Philip 3:4-6 ), who was called to be an apostle to the gentiles who said “no, gentiles didn’t have to observe the laws that identified Jews as Jews,” hence things like circumcision, dietary laws didn’t have to be observed by the gentiles; these things were the identity of the Jews. Paul said the gentiles should observe things like worship only the true God, don’t murder, honor your father, don’t have idles or as Yeshua put it, honor God and love your neighbor ( Luke 10:27 ).

This caused a huge conflict which Paul wrote about in Galatian’s, the theme through the whole book. Paul wasn’t the happy camper when he wrote this letter; it is more than obvious he was pissed off ( Gal 5:12 ) when he wrote this letter. There were “false teachers” that were teaching that the gentiles had to follow the Jewish law, right down to being circumcised. The reality is that Paul said “no, baby no” to which gentile men rejoiced!

This rift became more apparent between the Jews who believed that gentiles had to follow the law and the growing populous who were becoming more and more gentile followers. It became a battle between the Jewish follows of Yeshua and the gentile followers of Yeshua. It became ugly! Eventually, because the gentiles that followed Yeshua became the vast majority, the Jewish side was made of no effect and was pushed aside. After the 1st or 2nd century “Christianity” became a gentile religion and the Jewish followers of Yeshua became marginalized.

The Jews and Christians became two separate groups with the only common thread being the Tanakh. To be an accepted religion by the Roman Empire the religious group had to be considered ancient. The Jews said “we are thousands of years old because our religion goes back to father Abraham and our written scriptures go back to Moses. This group that calls themselves Christians only started when they claim Yeshua was raised from the dead.” To which the “Christians” replied “Our scriptures are the same scriptures but they are for us because they testify of the Messiah who would fulfill the scriptures and this was done when God raised Yeshua from the dead.” At this point the Jews and Christians became rival powers that needed favor with the Romans who were in charge and either group was more than willing to throw the other under the chariot. It was a power grab for whichever group had favor with the Roman Empire because they were granted rights and privileges the other group would be denied. If you didn’t have the “favored” status you were typically persecuted and ridiculed. Simply put, think politics today.

Today, it is commonly believed that the Jews live by the “old” covenant and “Christians” live by the “new” covenant, which nullifies the “old” covenant ( Heb 8:9 , Heb 8:13 ). This is an erroneous teaching called “replacement theology” which teaches that the “old” covenant was to the Jews and that God has disowned them for breaking the covenant, hence the Jews are out and the gentiles are in with God. This is wrong in so many ways:

The reality is the two covenants co-exist harmoniously. Just like the Noah covenant exists harmoniously with all other covenants.

The “old” covenant contains laws that are for Jewish identity. The other laws still exist in the “new” covenant; these laws pertain to morality not identity. The “new” didn’t cancel out the “old” because they pertain to two separate covenants.

Let’s get this right, Christianity is NOT being Christ like! Christianity is being a follower of Yeshua. Make no mistake, you CAN be a gentile or Jew and be a follower of Yeshua!

With this in mind it is a shame that “Christian’s” don’t co-exist with messianic Jews (Jews that are followers of Yeshua); they should! This means that gentiles that are followers of Yeshua should co-exist with Messianic Jews. The only difference is that Jews are under the “old” covenant to maintain their identity and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Their justification is their faith in Yeshua, NOT the keeping of the law! They still observe the law and festivals but those are NOT their source of salvation.

You will note that I say “Messianic Jews”, what about the Jews who don’t follow Yeshua? They are just like anybody else; they need Yeshua to be in right standing with God. They have a special place with God but they will only realize it when they come to know Yeshua.

Life was simply ugly between the two groups and it seems like this hatred hasn’t ceased for thousands of years. I get a lot of anti-Semitic crap from one side and from the other side I get a lot of crap how a Jew can’t be a Christian or holding grudges over things that didn’t happen to them. All of this hatred is fueled by the lies that have been propagated over 2000 years about each other. It is high time that people swallow their pride and set aside their bigotry and preconceived notions and look at things with an open mind. More importantly, it is time we do things the way God says to, NOT the way WE think we should. We are supposed to encourage and love our brothers and sisters in Yeshua ( Heb 10:24 , Rom 12:10 , John 13:34,35 ). Everything is about glorifying God!