I don’t know how to say it then just being blunt! I know of God. I believe in God. I worship Him, love Him, and praise Him. But I don’t know God. I’ve heard that small voice speaks to me several times, had prayers answered. I’ve studied Him, read His word, taught His word but there is one thing that keeps nagging at me. The more I know, the less I know. Knowing the Lord is like understanding not only the universe and Einstein his theory of relativity vs. quantum mechanics. Ain’t gonna happen. In other words, our intelligence and brain capacity are miniscule regarding what is needed to have the capacity to understand the Universe and the theories of how it operates. I have resigned myself to trying to understand what the Lord wants me to do. Nothing more. Having said that, man, since the beginning of dawn and believing in a God or gods, has tried to understand that higher power. In doing so, they have defined God/gods ad-infinitum. As it pertains to Judaism and Christianity, much of what we believe and understand does not come from our holy scriptures but from mans interpretation thereof. For Judaism this is called the Talmud and Mishnah are the main manmade interpretations, oral law and rabbinical structures that govern Judaism. Like the Jewish people, Christians too have the same thing, commentaries, rules and regulations, liturgical structure. Both Judaism and Christianity offer various flavors, denominations if you will. Christianity; however, has far out paced Judaism in divides by tens of thousands. In both cases, these writings, rules, structures are all manmade. Only a handful of doctrine comes out of the bible for Christians. Of Jewish folk, a great deal more doctrine does come from the first five books of the Torah. Nonetheless, Jews still have a ton of manmade doctrines and ideas that guide them. For both, it is equally distracting from the central point the Lord makes in the scriptures. Man, as always, must be in control, even in control of God.
In Christianity, much of our traditions, be holiday or church service is manmade. There are no instructions in the scriptures saying, “Christian church looks like this!” The only example of a “Christian” meeting we find is in 1 Corinthians 11. We have tidbits here and there about the early followers of the way meeting, not just on Sunday, but everyday of the week. What we don’t have in these examples is what they did. In 1 Corinthians 14:26 we see a vague discussion by Paul of a church meeting. What we see paints a picture of a free-flowing service where people participate. Paul expands on the Lord’s supper; mainly because people who can get to the house church early are eating all the food and drinking too much wine. The poor blue-collar workers who must wait until the end of the workday arrive and they get scraps. These are meetings every day and Sunday. The early follower’s idea of communion was different than ours, they had a full meal. This is but one example of the differences between let’s say, 70AD and 370AD. With the advent of Constantine’s conversion, the modern institutionalized church was ushered in.
As Christianity spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, gentles brought into the Jewish sect, Greek philosophy, and paganism. Try as you might to deny both or the latter you cannot. Even in Paul’s time, the first gentle believers and Hellenistic Jews were trying to inculcate Greek philosophy into “The Way.” You can read all about it in Paul’s letters. As for the latter, paganism, we need look no farther then the concepts of hell and the devil that Christians have. The vast majority comes from Greek mythology. Consider this, during the first century church, the meetings were not centered around an altar, not centered around one man, a priest, but as noted, free-flowing and open. In paganism of the times, rituals were led by a priest, centered on an altar. Ceremonies were not free flowing but totally controlled. An informative book to read is Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola who advocates a return to a freer flowing type of worship, better put, a spirit lead worship service.
be it as it may, none of this is meant to convince you of anything. Instead, I would ask you to empty your minds of years of indoctrination, being told what to believe, what to think, what this or that means, even what you think you know of Judaism. Read the scriptures with a clean slate. Do not read one or two verses, a quarter of a chapter. Read the whole chapter. Note at the end of many chapters is a transition word that connect one chapter to another. Recall, in ancient writing, there were no paragraphs, no chapters, no chapter headings. Read for context, what is the author totally saying. When we grasp one or two verses without putting them into context, we are proof texting. Reading into the passage what we desire it say. Instead, let the WHOLE text talk to you. A fitting example if the often-misused passage “Judge not least ye be judged.” A simple extraction of one verse. The context is judge fairly and do not judge someone when you yourself are guilty of the same thing. Take it as you may. Do or do not, it is your choice.
As for me, I want to be closer to the Lord, walk the path He calls me to walk. To live my life as He wants us to live our lives as he outlined in His life guide called the Torah. Jesus tells us to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. He goes on to tell us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Finishing, he states, doing so will fulfill the law/Torah, and prophets. These two items make up a great deal of what Christians wrongfully call the law, a subject for another time, the Torah, instructions on how to live, encompasses your relationship with God and with your fellow man. Just something to consider. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
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