Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Mission of Jewish Disciples

Upon being appointed to go into "all the world and make disciples," the disciples of Christ did not revoke the fact that they were Jewish.  The distinction that made them different from other Jews in Israel was that, the others did not recognize Yeshua as Messiah.  Did they deny their Jewishness, no they did not?  Basically the difference between the two were on how things were being fulfilled in Jesus Christ? Abrogation of the Torah was far from their mind rather demonstrating how Christ fulfilled so many passages in the Scriptures was their priority. Simply, as those in Israel would be dispersed again by the middle of the second century, the landscaped changed and effected how matters of Scriptures would be interpreted.  The Body of the Messiah would primarily deal with the heresies that would spring up over the next two centuries and began to define the theology of the Body in defense of specific biblical truths.  When Constantine decriminalized Christianity, the faith centered on a declaration of those biblical truths and assemblies in began to formed upon these teachings but the Jewishness disappeared due to the diaspora and the fact the Jewish synagogues would ban those who did make a confession of faith.  As a result, the councils would move away from Jewish expression as well and consider such expression of days and festivals as heresy and anathema to the faith (Council of Laodicea).  And yet in this, the Roman days and months in name would still be dedicated to the gods of the empire.  As a result, assemblies that were dedicated to Hebraic expression, like the Nazarenes, still faced persecution.

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