CHRISTIANITY IN CRISIS

 The religious mainstream that came into existence shortly after the lifetime of the Messiah, almost 2000 years ago, is generally referred to as “Christianity”.  There is little doubt that Christianity has made an enormous impact on the history of this world.  No other religion has accumulated more adherents than Christianity. No other religion has enjoyed such universal tolerance and acceptance. No other religion has brought about more social and cultural changes in the lives of nations and individuals alike.  

It must be said, however, that there is also a “darker side” to Christianity.  Christianity has not always enjoyed the respect of the masses.  Decisions being made and actions being performed “in the name of Christianity” have not always met with the approval of those who viewed themselves as part of Christianity.  Thousands of people over the past 2000 years have become disillusioned with what they have seen and experienced within Christianity.  Perhaps one of the best examples of the darker side of Christianity is the prolonged rejection by Christians over many centuries of “anything Jewish”.  The hatred, contempt and persecution that Jews have suffered under  Christianity, over a period of hundreds of years,  is widely recognized and clearly portrayed in books like “A legacy of hatred” by David Rausch and “The anguish of the Jews” by Dr. Edward Flannery.  In our day the ever-increasing antagonism against Christianity – for reasons far beyond Christianity’s record of Anti-Semitism - has reached widespread proportions.   

The question may be asked indeed whether the criticism against Christianity is justifiable.   It is true that some of the most successful movements in the history of mankind have occasionally met with severe criticism.   Something that is worthwhile will always be criticized in some way or other.  Many people will be quick to add:  “Nothing or no-one is perfect”.  It doesn’t fall within the scope of this book, however, to go into all the different kinds of criticism against Christianity and try to determine which are valid and which are not.  We will just take a brief look into some of the most relevant aspects of the dilemma of Christianity.  Our emphasis in all the articles contained in this booklet is, on the one hand, the way in which Christianity as a global religion has failed altogether to rid itself of pagan and corrupting influences from outside, and, on the other hand, the way, established by the Word of Yahweh, leading to truth, righteousness and life.    

The following is just a small selection of writers and scholars who have come to the shocking realization that through the ages Christianity has in many ways assumed the role of an “agent” of bloodshed, persecution, unrighteousness, paganism and deception. 

“The peace and security that Constantine offered the church (assembly) was a false peace and security. Look at the wars and evils perpetrated by the Christian kingdoms throughout the centuries. Much tribulation, suffering and death has been meted out by the heads of Christianity. The church took on the spirit of the Caesars and was more than willing to do the emperor’s bidding.”  (“Who – what – is the Beast?” by Jerry Healan). 

“A new religion "Christianity" was birthed out of the womb of Greek thought and culture. It became a religion separate from the Torah based belief of Yahshua and the original Good News proclaimed by His talmidim (disciples). It was a religion ABOUT Yahshua, but not the religion OF Yahshua! Rav Shaul (Paul) gave many warnings to the congregations that this would happen …The word salvation was redefined in Greek terms to fit the dualistic system of thought …” (“How the ‘Church’ went wrong” by Edward Levi Nydle). 

“As the apostolic age comes to a close, the Church seems to pass through a dark tunnel. When it comes out at the other side, the original bond of unity, the clear Standards, and the love of [Yahweh] seem to have been replaced by an unsettling, institutionalized spirit of domination and by beliefs which are more Gnostic than Christian. What happened? We are now confronted with the possibility that the original identity and true definition of Christianity have become lost” (“HOW DID WE LOSE THE FAITH ONCE GIVEN TO THE SAINTS?” by Craig Lyons). 

“The Roman emperor, by the office of Pontifex Maximus, directed all religious affairs. When Christianity became the state religion, Constantine [ruling 306-337] assumed all of the authority in the church, which he had exercised as supreme director of paganism” (“History of the Church” by Robert Brumback). 

“The rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, to imitate, or to sanctify the existing rites and customs of the population, as well as the philosophy of the educated class.  The use of … incense, lamps, candles … holy water, holy days and seasons, the use of calendars … blessings on the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the ring in marriage, chants … are all of Pagan origin, and sanctified by adoption into the church” (“Essay on the development of Christian Doctrine” by Cardinal John Henry Newman).

“Easter, Ostara, or Eastre, was the goddess of Spring in the religion of the ancient Angles and Saxons.  Every April a festival was celebrated in her honor.  With the beginnings of Christianity, the old gods were put aside.  From then on it was celebrated in honor of the resurrection (of the Messiah), but was still known as Easter after the old goddess” (“Brittanica Encyclopedia”, 1934) 

“Emperor Theodosius, 378-395 CE, made Christianity the state Religion of the Roman Empire, and made Church Membership Compulsory. This was the Worst Calamity that has ever befallen the Church. The forced conversion filled the Churches with unregenerate people... The Imperial Church of the 4th and 5th centuries had become an entirely different institution from the persecuted Church of the first three centuries. In its ambition to Rule it lost and forgot the spirit of [Messiah]” (“Halley's Bible Handbook”). 

“Christianity had been successfully assimilated by a warrior nobility, a nobility which had no intention of abandoning its culture or seriously changing its way of life, but which was willing to throw its traditions, customs, tastes, and loyalties into the articulation of the new faith” (“The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity” by Patrick Wormald.)  

“Many of the beliefs and usages of the old Germans, and also of the Romans … passed over from heathenism to Christianity, and have partly survived to the present day” (“Chambers Encyclopaedia, 1908 Edition”). 

“In a famous letter to Augustine, Pope Gregory directs the great missionary to accommodate the ceremonies of the Christian worship as much as possible to those of the heathen, that the people might not be startled at the change, and in particular the Pope advised Augustine to allow converts to kill and eat at the Christmas festival a great number of oxen to the glory of (Elohim), as they had formerly done to the Devil” (“The Story of Christmas” by Michael Harrison). 

“Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history … but what a pity it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism” (“Paper on the sanctity of Sunday” by Dr Edward T. Hiscox).  

“This tendency on the part of the Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed ... Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition” (“The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hyslop). 

It needs to be pointed out that the word “Christianity” or “Christian” is not at all an accurate description of those who wish to be true followers of the Messiah.  The word “Christos” (the root word of “Christianity”) is a Greek translation of the Hebrew title “Maschiach” meaning “anointed one”, referring to Yahshua who came to this world as Yahweh’s anointed One or Messiah.  There is no need for us to use a word like “Christian” or “Christ” based on a Greek root (and almost identical to “Krista” the sun god of the Hindus) when the Messiah was not Greek at all, but Hebrew.  The fact that in the Greek orientated city of Antioch (Acts 11:26) the nickname “Christian” was used to refer to the believers in Messiah, does not mean that this is the name that they have adopted for themselves (at such an early stage), neither does it suggest that we are supposed to use a Greek nickname to refer to messianic believers in general.  The body of believers in the early apostolic era consisted mainly of Jewish followers of the Messiah and these would have preferred to be labeled as “messianics”, rather than “christians”.  From passages like Acts 2:22, Act 3:6, Acts 4:10, Acts 6:14, Acts 10:38, Act 26:8-9, and especially Acts 24:5, it seems, however, that the word most frequently associated with the early believers was neither “messianic”, nor “christian”, but “nazarene” – the same word used (approximately 16 times in the New Testament) when referring to Yahshua the Messiah.   

It is interesting to note that the root of this word “nazarene” is the Hebrew word “natsar” which means “to protect, to conceal, or to hide” or, in a secondary sense, “an offshoot, a branch, or a descendant”.  This word is used in one of the first and most explicit prophesies pointing to the coming of the Messiah in the book of Isaiah – Isa 11:1-2:  “There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch (“netser”, from the root “natsar”) out of his roots shall bear fruit. The Spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.”  This designation of the Messiah as a “Branch” is quite significant and it is obvious that during certain periods of time (and to certain people) Yahshua was indeed “concealed” or “hidden” as being the true Messiah.  The fact that He was from the town of Nazareth (from the same root, “natsar”), to a certain extend, contributed even more to the “hidden” nature of his true identity as the promised Messiah.  This is illustrated by the question of Nathanael in John 1:46:  “Can there be any good thing come out of Nazareth?” shortly after Philip had said to him: “We have found Him of whom Moses wrote in the Law and the Prophets, Yahshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 

Is there any Scriptural reason why the early believers have chosen the word “nazarene” as a collective designation for the body of believers in the Messiah, other than the fact that the Messiah Himself was also called “the Nazarene”?  I believe there is.  In Isa 60:21 it is said of the future Jerusalem:  “Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch (same root:  “natsar”) of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.”  The early believers have clearly recognized Yahshua as the Branch or the Nazarene, anticipated by the prophets, offshoot of David, hidden by Yahweh.  But this is not all.  They have thought of themselves as Nazarenes in the true sense of the Word – not only because they were followers of the Nazarene, but also because the prophesy of Isa 60:21 indicated that they were the branch (“natsar”) of Yahweh’s planting and the work of his hands.  Who they were, was not their own doing.  On a natural, visible level many of them could not even be recognized as descendants of Abraham or David.  But they believed with all their heart that by the sovereign, hidden work of Yahweh’s own hands, they have become inheritors of the land and the privileges promised to Abraham and his seed.  The apostle Paul used the same concept of natural and wild olive “branches” (Hebrew: “notserim”, from the root “natsar”) to explain the hidden mystery of how people other than physical Jews may become “partakers of the root and the fatness of the olive tree (Israel)” (Rom 1:1-36). 

Another Scripture that may have contributed to the choice of “Nazarene” as a designation of the group of people who followed the teachings and the example of the Messiah, is Isa 49:6:  “Is it too light a thing that you (i.e. Messiah) should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones (Hebrew root:  “natsar”) of Israel?  I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth”   This Scripture is a most accurate description of what the Messiah came to do in this world:  to restore the preserved ones (the nazarenes) of Israel.  Notice that the Messiah came to raise up and to restore, not to abolish.  He did not come to establish a “new” religion called “Christianity”.  Not for one moment.  Nor did He come to abolish or annul the torah, containing the Father’s “design for living”, the Father’s perfect commandments aimed at establishing a people set-apart unto Him.  Christianity has opted for a strategy of adopting the practices of the people they tried to reach with the gospel, rather than being set-apart for Yahweh. History shows that during certain periods of time Christianity has done more to restore pagan customs than to restore the eternal values of the Word of Yahweh.   

The word “natsar” is used frequently in the Old Testament Scriptures to convey the meaning of “keeping” and “protecting”.  I am sure that this aspect had also influenced the choice of believers in New Testament times to refer to themselves as “Nazarenes”.  Scriptures indicate that the true believers are, on the one hand, those whom Yahweh will keep and protect in times of difficulty and persecution (e.g. Ps 12:7 “You will keep them, Yahweh, You will preserve [‘natsar’] them from this generation forever”), and, on the other hand, those who will not abandon, but keep and preserve the commandments of Yahweh (e.g. Psa 25:10  “All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep [‘natsar’] his covenant and his testimonies”). 

I do not deny that the lives of thousands of people through the centuries have changed for the better, because of the influence of Christianity.  The same may be said, however, of almost every other known religion.  Our true criterion should be:  To what extend has Christianity succeeded in resounding the message of Yahshua the Nazarene, the One who was sent to this world to restore the preserved ones of Israel?  Yes, He was also given for a light to the Gentiles and the salvation He proclaims truly is for the ends of the earth.  But there is absolutely no Scriptural support for the idea that the message to be proclaimed to the Gentiles – even to the very ends of the earth - is different from the one being proclaimed to the “preserved ones of Israel”.  As a matter of fact, in some mysterious, hidden, sovereign way, Yahweh has established a plan of salvation so perfect and so extraordinary, that those who decide to put their trust in the true Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile, essentially become part (again) of Yahweh’s people who will “inherit the land forever”  (Isa 60:21).   

For this very reason, if someone would put me in a position where I had to give a name for the belief that I share, I do not wish to be regarded as a “christian”.  There are many doctrines included in Christianity that are not based purely on the Word of Yahweh, but on human, and more often than not, pagan tradition.  I do not wish to be associated with any religious system where truth is mixed and diluted with pagan and idolatrous elements.  Nor do I wish to be associated with the dubious practices of Christianity through the centuries.  I do not necessarily identify with (nor do I know much about) religious groups officially known as “The Nazarenes” or something similar.  But purely on Scriptural grounds I would be quite happy to be labeled as a Nazarene, or even to be ridiculed as part of “the Nazarene sect” – knowing that this would put me in the company of an original group of people who had received their knowledge of salvation from the Messiah Himself and was not prepared to make the slightest change to this knowledge and this message (cf. Acts 24:5; 2 Cor 11:4; Gal 1:7).