Responding to Netzarim - Part 1

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There have been a couple of links that have placed on this blog pointing visitors to the site Netzarim (Hellinized "Nazarene"): Orthodox Israeli Jews, Ra'ana, Israel. I'm all for this blog being open to all viewpoints including idea counterposed to my own. This is why I keep the comments sections open and do not censer the comments. This particular web sites makes claims against Christianity that I do not agree with. I would like to have a dialog on the issues that are brought up on the site. Let me list the claims that I think should be discussed in more detail. The site attempts to make its claims starting from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic perspectives and then bringing them into a single argument. My problem is that the site misrepresents what I, as Christian, believes. Here are a few the statements I have issue with. I will be writing this response in 3 parts. This is part 1.

1. The doctrine that Tor•âh′ is the "law of sin and death" is a Christian canard, the epitome of misojudaism.
2. The original—and only authentic—plan of salvation is found only in Tor•âh′ . Everything subsequent is a supersessionist "pretend salvation" of Displacement Theology.
3. Those who castigate Tor•âh′ to rely instead on "pretend salvation" have doomed themselves to lack the ki•pur′ essential to co-mingle with the Perfect Creator in hâ-o•lâm′ ha-bâ′ ; misled by their own respective Displacement Theology
4. You, too, can be chosen—the same way Israel was: by abandoning Displacement Theology and turning to the practice of Tor•âh′

The thesis of the site seems very similar to many Islamic critcs that Paul taught separate doctrines that the 1st Century followers of Jesus Christ did not teach. Things such as His deity, and His being the only way to Salvation.

The only way to finally overcome Christianity, after 2,000 years of consistent failure, is by exposing the anti-Torâh Yësh"u as a counterfeit of the pro-Torâh original: historical Ribi Y^әhoshua!

Think about it… the original, historical Ribi Y^әhoshua, because he advocated Torâh before Paul's Hellenist apostasy, will lead Christians out of their post-135 C.E. Roman idolatry to Torâh – and the fulfillment of Z^әkharyâh 14.16-21 (which is already beginning) and related prophecies.

The site quotes Rabbi Michael Skobac charging Paul with the following crimes:

None of the charges and thoughts expressed are new. As a matter of fact, I've noticed that many of these things were raised to Jesus and Paul themselves in the first century! So where to start unpacking these ideas and examining them? Let's start with what Bible-believing Christians really believe: Paul did not make up his doctrines. He got it from the Torah, the prophets, the Psalms, the history books - in short the Testament. He was teaching the same thing Peter, John, James, and the rest. All of which came from Jesus!

1. Paul refers to the "Law of Sin and Death" because he recognized the inability of all people to keep it perfectly. The purpose of the Torah was not to save anyone but point out the need for a savior. Who can keep it? Can you? Do you perfectly? Breaking anyone of them breaks them all! We all have to admit that we don't keep it. In the Torah, we have prescriptions for how to atone for our sins and get back in right standing with God temporarily until we sin again. As far as I know Judaism no longer has a sacrificial system so how do Jews today atone for their sin!

2. Is the Torah the first covenant? Exodus and Moses are not the start of the story but the beginning they stand on the shoulders of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph! Were any of the patriarchs under Torah? No, there was no written Torah yet. While we are told that upholding the commands through Moses was the way Israel was to uphold their end of the covenant, what about Abraham and those who predated Moses? Are we going to say that before the Moses no one pleased God? No way.

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6

This was the center of Paul's whole argument and it's unassailable. No way did Paul castigate the Torah.

¹⁵Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. ¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. ²⁰A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ²²But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

²³Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. ²⁴So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. - Galatians 3:15-25

In addition, I realize that people may disagree that God supercedes one covenant for another. I agree. The covenant of grace that God has made through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ is a return to the Abrahamic covenant not the one through Moses.

³⁰ Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge.

³¹ "The time is coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.

³² It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to ^a]">[a] them, ^b]">[b] "
declares the LORD.

- Jeremiah 31:30-32

Skobac further alleges that Paul and James disagreed with one another about fundamental doctrine. I totally disagree. There are two verses that people use to defend this idea.

Paul wrote:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.- Ephesians 2:8,9

James wrote:

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^d]">[d]? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"^e]">[e] and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. James 2:14-26

Some erroneously interpret these passages as conflicting with one another. Paul is discussing a different context than James. Paul is referring to attempting to justify yourself before God by the things that you do. James is referring to showing that if you truly have saving the faith that Paul is talking about then you will be doing good things. Remember Paul said that we are saves so that we can do good works. They agree!

Paul and James had dealing with one another. Take note of 1st Corinthians 15:1-11

1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. - 1st Corinthians 15:1-11

Check Paul's testimony. He say explains compactly what he taught and then says he did not make it up. He received it! Where did he get it from? From God. What about the apostles who knew Jesus before the Crucifixion?

1Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. 3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. - Galations 2:1-5.

Paul is clear he checked out his understanding and teachings with the apostles themselves and they agreed with him. WE have testimony from one of them - no less than Peter. Peter tells us exactly what he thinks of Paul's teachings.

15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. - 2 Peter 3:15-16

I have much more to say. In part 2, I will write about how the Incarnation, Jesus
deity and substitutionary sacrifice is not part of Paul's imagination and nor did it begin with him but are rooted in the scriptures and his Christian contemporaries taught the same things. Part 3 will focus on the claims the site make concerning the manuscript traditions of the New Testament and the charges being made about corruption of the New Testament.