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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Did Jesus found the church? | Matt 16:18 | Magnum | 37142 | ||
Jesus was not the founder of the church for many reasons; the "founders" of the church were men who created the church after Jesus's death, burial, and resserection, and I do not believe he had any intentions to form a church. When we study Jesus within the proper Jewish context, we discover a Jew. At every point, what the Gospels tell us about Jesus, where we have reason to believe that their information is authentic,fits into Judaism. It does not fit very well into present day Christianity. In fact if we start from Christianity and work back to discover that it began with Jesus, we find very few links from the early Christian church to Jesus-so few, indeed. that only with some ingenuity can any connection be traced between them. Let us put the matter in more pictorial terms. In our western world, we imagine Jesus as a tall, blond hair and beard,blue eyes, and wearing a white robe(as Hollywood has in their many portrials of him). The truth is he was probably short by modern standards, dark-skinned, black beard, long untrimmed hair, and earlocks worn by all Jewish men of his day. We know he wore fringes on his garments(tzitzit), as commanded by G*D in Numbers 15:37, he wore tefillin(called phylacteries in the Gospels)as outlined in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 when he prayed formally, and perhaps at other times, and took it for granted that others would do the same; he objected only when they were ostentatious in wearing them in public, as some did in his day. He personally obeyed all the commandments, ethical and ritual, and took part in the sacrifical worship of the Temple when he was in Jerusalem. As did Paul who followed him, see Acts 21:26-29. I could go on and on but I will finish up with this, Jesus was scathing in his criticsm of religious phoniness, it was not because he opposed Judasim, or regarded it as intrinisically defective, but because he wanted the Torah(Law) to be fulfilled by everyone as completely and perfectly as possible, from the heart. In Yeshua's name | ||||||
2 | Did Jesus found the church? | Matt 16:18 | Hank | 37151 | ||
Magnum, Jesus indeed WAS the founder of His church! What on earth do you think He was talking to Peter about in Matthew 16:18? --Hank | ||||||
3 | Did Jesus found the church? | Matt 16:18 | Magnum | 37165 | ||
Dear Hank, I will tell you what I think Jesus was saying in Matthew 16:18. It seems that the main source of confusion comes from the mistranslation of the word "Church", this word as we know and think about did not exsist in Jesus's time. The Greek word ekklesia which means "called-out ones"and is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew kahal,"assembly, congregation,community." The usual English translation of ekklesia is "church" and from it comes the word "ecclesiastical," meaning, "having to do with the church." What is being spoken about is a spiritual community of people based on trust in G*d and his son the Messiah Yeshua(the name his disiples called him by). The phrase, "the ekklesia that meets in their house"(Rom 16:5), refers to a particular congregation. Unlike "church"ekklesia never refers either to an institution or to a building.Yeshua(Jesus),if anything might have been the founder of a new sect of Judaism, there were many in his day,what was one more ? If Jesus founded anything he founded the Messianic Community, that is he ushered in the Messianic Age to the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles(the group I fall into). I pray that this helps. | ||||||