World Religions and Cults Vol. 1 by Bodie Hodge & Roger Patterson

Author:Bodie Hodge & Roger Patterson [Hodge, Bodie & Patterson, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL067030, REL017000
ISBN: 9781614584605
Publisher: Master Books
Published: 2015-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

The infiltration of man’s ideas has been a major issue in the history of the Israelite nation. How often does the Old Testament record deviations from the Word of God where Israelites began worshiping Baal or setting up high places to false gods? How many times did the Lord send prophets to call the Israelites back to His Word? Even the wise Solomon himself succumbed to the worship of false gods!

These types of seeds finally flourished into a version where man’s interpretations of the Old Testament (in the form of the Talmud’s Gemara) began to supersede the very Word of God. It becomes a major problem when man’s ideas are elevated to be greater than the Word of God. Consider the words of Isaiah:

Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed? (Isaiah 2:22; NASB).

What Are the Beliefs within Judaism?

Of course, it would require extensive time to develop all the beliefs within Judaism. So I will be concise in this section. But something must be stated up front: many who are Jews do not hold to Judaism. There are many who are secular (that is, the primary humanistic religion) and are of Jewish heritage. So just because someone says they are Jewish doesn’t necessarily mean they hold to the tenets of Judaism. However, for the sake of simplicity, when I say “Jew” in this chapter on Judaism, I mean those who hold to the religion of Judaism, unless the context warrants otherwise.

Judaism is a set of informal beliefs about the world and how people should live their lives. Although Jewish beliefs vary, they can be summed up by medieval Jewish scholar Moshi ben Maimon’s (Maimonides) 13 articles:

1. God alone exists and is Creator

2. God is one and unique

3. God is incorporeal and incomparable

4. God is eternal (both first and last)

5. We are to pray to God alone and to no other

6. The words of the prophets are true

7. Moses was the chief prophet, and Moses’ prophecies are true

8. The Torah (first five books of the Bible) and oral Torah (Talmud) were given to Moses and divinely preserved

9. There will be no other Torah since it cannot be changed

10. God knows all things including the thoughts and deeds of men

11. God will reward the righteous and punish the wicked

12. The Messiah will come

13. The dead will be resurrected.4

Take note that Christians easily agree with most of these points. However, a Christian would disagree with the idea that the Talmud is of divine origin. Replacing the Talmud with the New Testament (along with the remaining Old Testament books) in point 8 would make this statement accurate. And in point 12, we would change “The Messiah will come” to “The Messiah has come, and He is Jesus of Nazareth.”

In addition, although true, I would clarify point 11. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Psalm 116:11; Romans 3:23, 5:12), thus all would be classed as sinful, hence wicked in God’s eyes. The only way to be made righteous would be for God to assign the righteousness

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