UNVEILLING MODERN DAY JUDAIZERS

Jesus and the Judaizers

A cursory study through the New Testament will show that the gospel of Jesus Christ had enemies from its inception. First century Palestine was a deeply religious one and the world Jesus was born into had some individuals who had constituted themselves as authorities: they were the Pharisees and Sadducees – sometimes seen as teachers and scribes.

The gospel Jesus preached stood in stark contrast to that which the religious leaders of his days taught. While Jesus preached a message of inner renewal and sanctification, these men emphasized externalities. While Jesus encouraged frugality and faithfulness with money, the Pharisee and Sadducees were said to love money and encouraged people to give money to the synagogue over and above taking care of their families. While Jesus encouraged liberty amongst his followers, these people were known to tie up heaven burden on people that they could not carry themselves. While Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom to come, these men knew nothing but earthly things. While Jesus taught with authority and in the power of the Holy Ghost, these men were clouds without rain. It is important to note that Jesus did not have kind words for these men. Hear him in Matthew 23:

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:  3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do;  but do not ye after their works:  for they say, and do not.   4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders;  but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.   5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men:  they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, 6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.   8 But be not ye called Rabbi:  for one is your Master, even Christ;  and all ye are brethren.   9 And call no man your father upon the earth:  for one is your Father, which is in heaven.   10 Neither be ye called masters:  for one is your Master, even Christ.   11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.   12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased;  and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

For those who make a case for not criticizing men of God, they should hear what Jesus said of religious leaders of his day above.

This position that Jesus took did not go without a price. The religious leaders saw to it that Jesus was killed. In fact as early as Mark 3, the Pharisees were already planning to kill Jesus:

6. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

They succeded at it eventually and the Lord of glory was crucified. When Paul discussed Jesus death in 1 Corinthians 2, he called those who crucified Jesus “princes of this world”.

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew:  for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory

The phrase “princes of this world” could be interpreted “rulers of this world” – the political, religious and demonic rulers of the world. The princes of this world will include Pilate, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and the devil himself.  In their morbid jealousy and hatred, the Pharisees and Sadducees, had teamed up with satan to bring about his demonic work.

We all know now that God was using all this to birth his eternal purpose on earth in sending a savior to mankind to redeem us from our sins. But because the religious leaders of that time were so demonic compliant, they were ready tools in the hands of the devil.

I introduced this piece with Jesus’ experience with the Judaizers of his time so that I can proceed into what Paul himself experience with Judaizer of his own time before finally discuss the Judaizers of our time. We will see that except in very minor details, the judaistic religion has not changed since the days of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Paul and the Judaizers

Paul the apostle can only be described as a remarkable man when we realize that he confronted Judaism both in the world and in the church. Jesus had given a brief remark on the kind of suffering this man’s ministry was going to encounter when he was speaking to Ananias at Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:15-16).

From Paul’s own testimony, Paul was born a jew. He grew up and was discipled under the strictest form of Judaism – he was a Pharisee. He was taught by Gamaliel; a man of such profound knowledge of the Torah and who was held at the highest esteem by the Jewish leaders that a word from him got the release of Peter and John from the murderous grip of the Jews in Acts 4. So Paul was well taught.

Paul, however, had an encounter with Jesus on his way to Damascus, as he was persecuting Christians with authority from the Jewish leaders. He was born-again, and scripture records that immediately he began to preach Jesus whom he had been persecuting. Paul’s account in Galatian 2 shows that sometimes between the period of his conversion and the time he visited Peter and James, Paul was on a retreat in the wilderness and their God revealed the gospel of grace to him. Jesus himself had preached bits and pieces of this gospel in his earthly ministry but because he was born under the law and had to be subject to the law so as to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law for those of us who will subsequently come to have faith in Him, Jesus could not preach the gospel of grace (completely) as he would later reveal to Paul (this is the only way to explain why Paul’s message differed from Jesus’ without discussing the doctrine of dispensation). Jesus had however told the disciples that he could not teach them everything now but will reveal things to them bit by bit (John 14:26).

The gospel of grace was part of the revelation that Peter got when he had the encounter with God on the top of a house subsequent to his meeting Cornelius in Acts 10. Though what Peter understood was that the gospel had been sent to the gentiles also and was not to be confined to Jews, alone. The fact that Peter’s ministry was limited to the Jews shows that he did not completely grasp the gospel of grace like Paul did and even if he did, he could not pay the price to preach it.

But Paul paid that price. Why? Because God had given him the grace to do so (1 Corinthians 15:10).

The gospel of grace as revealed to Paul was revolutionary. The core point of it was Justification by grace through faith (alone), Ephesians 2:8-9. The implication of this gospel meant that everything Moses gave as law was defunct and obsolete Galatians 3, 2Corinthians 3. There has been a change of law from the law of sin and death to the law of Spirit of Life, Hebrew 7:12; Romans 8:2. Rather than be led by law written of tablets of stones, the believer was now to be led by the Spirit of God, Romans 8:14.

This gospel preached by Paul was against the Judaizers both in the Church and in the world. The latter part of the book of Acts gives an account of what Paul experienced in the hands of worldly Judaizers. But if his contention was with those in the world alone, it would have been a small matter. But Paul also had to contend with Judaizers in the church.

The main object of contention with the Judaizers of Paul’s time was the question of whether gentile believers were to be circumcised or not. In Acts 15:2 it is recorded that Paul and Barnabas had no small dissention with these group of people. The matter was taken to the Jerusalem church and the verdict read:

28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;  29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication:  from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well.   Fare ye well.  

Paul Accuses Peter of Judaism 

The case seem to have closed there, not until again we see Paul in Galatians 2 saying that he had to withstand Peter to the face because he was acting hypocritical. What was the matter? Some Judaistic Christians had come from James, and Peter was now beginning to withdraw from the gentiles Christians who prior to those people’s coming, he had been eating with them. Following this rebuke, Paul laid down the eternal foundations upon which the gospel of grace is founded on in the book of Galatians:

•  There is only one gospel: the Gospel of Grace, any other is an accursed thing. And anyone who preaches such is accursed. Galatian 1:8,9
• Justification is by faith(Galatians 3:6-7) and the subsequent life that the believer lives must be lived by faith, Galatians 2:20. Nothing in the law could secure a man’s salvation, v.21.
• To start in faith and then to think you can secure your salvation by doing anything else in addition to it is foolishness. Galatians 3:1-3
•  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Galatians 3:13 (including the curse of not tithing in Malachi 3) and the blessing of Abraham comes to the believer by faith and not works, v.14
• The purpose of the law was to reveal what sin is and the utter sinfulness of man that tries to keep it, and thus our need of a savior. Galatians 3:19-24
•  The law is weak and beggarly. Galatians 4: 8-9
•  God calls the believer to stand in liberty and not bondage to the law. Galatians 5:1
•  Those who seek to be justified by the law have fallen from grace. Galatians 5:4
•  Christ fulfilled the law and those of us who obey the law of love, have fulfilled the law also; for all the law is fulfilled in the law of love. Galatians 5:14
• The call on all believers is not to keep any aspect of the law but to be led by the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit; for when we do this we are obliged to keep the law. Galatians 5:22-23

An in depth study of Galatians will reveal much more than these things enumerated above.

My point in this piece is not to discuss what the gospel of grace is but to show that the gospel that Paul preached was not the ones the Judaistic Christians preached and it was a source of offence to these people, for which Paul suffered through out his ministry.

Paul did not take it kindly with these people. Because in the bid to walk in love and discern the body of Christ, we are not to condemn other believers because they are weak (Romans 14), but the fact that Paul used the strongest terms possible against these people showed that these people were not Christians but the enemies of the gospel.

Paul's Disgust with Judaizers

In Galatians, Paul suggested that any one who wanted to circumcise others to be saved should not only circumcise himself but totally cut off his own manhood:

Galatians 5:12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.  

Paul talked about how some people came in to secretly spy on the liberty they enjoyed as Christians in Galatians 2

3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:  4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:  5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour;  that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. 

In Phillipians 3, Paul used the strongest word ever to describe the sect of the circumcision: dogs

1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.   To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.   2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.   3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Paul emphasized in Colosians 2 so many times the phrase “let no man…”; to drive home the 

point that people of the Judaistic religion must be resisted at all cost:

16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:  17 Which are a shadow of things to come;  but the body is of Christ.   18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.   20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21 (Touch not;  taste not;  handle not;  22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?  23 Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body;  not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.  

In verse 18, the apostle leaves a word for those who, like today, are always coming up with a new revelation of heaven and hell. He says it is the outcome of their fleshly minds.

In Titus 1, Paul says the mouth of these Judaizers should be stopped

10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:  11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.   12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.   13 This witness is true.   Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;  14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.   15 Unto the pure all things are pure:  but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure;  but even their mind and conscience is defiled.   16 They profess that they know God;  but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.  

Paul contended these men to the end. I have an intimation that the thorn in the flesh God gave Paul was the opposition to the gospel he was going to be preaching and these opposition, though from many sources, came primarily from the Judaizers of his time.

Modern Day Judaizers

If any of us had lived in the time of Apostle Paul, there is likelihood we also would have opposed his teachings. That is why I think Peter said his teachings are difficult to understand. Take for example, the circumcision that he was so vehemently opposed to. God himself had given the ordinance of circumcision to Abraham before the coming of the law and had instructed that it was to last to all generations in Genesis 17:

7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.   8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;  and I will be their God.   9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.   10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee;  Every man child among you shall be circumcised.   11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin;  and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.   12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.   13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised:  and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.   14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people;  he hath broken my covenant.  

But here was Paul saying that anyone who allowed himself to be circumcised had fallen from grace. How then are we to reconcile Paul teachings with the whole of scripture: First we must understand that God in his wisdom chose Paul as an apostle (maybe in replacement of Judas) to propagate this gospel. Also, there was nothing Paul preached that the apostles who had witnessed the Lamb in the flesh did not know. That they did not preach it is another issue. And lastly, anyone who witnessed Paul’s ministry, the grace on it, the signs and wonders, and the sheer fact that God was with this man could not but agree that what he was teaching was sound doctrine.

Today we have a whole lot of folks who are still opposing Paul, long after he has left. I came across one Femi Aribisala who feels that Pauls writings are not scripture but mere letters. Paul himself had warned that in the last days men would no longer endure sound doctrine. The reformation of the sixteenth century gained it strength from the writing of Paul the apostle – so that in Martin Luther and John Calvin, the Roman Catholic Church was confronting Paul again. Everywhere institutional church is created, there is a head on collision with Paul’s writings. Why? Probably because Paul’s teaching were not suited for organized church but for every day Christian living.

For example, Paul’s writing did not support tithing. And tithing is the only means of supporting organized church today. No where in all his writing did Paul ask anyone to pay tithe to a church or to himself. But modern day Judaizer would have us believe that tithing is an ordinance of God. When they say pay your tithe, Malachi 3: 8-10 is quoted:

8 Will a man rob God?  Yet ye have robbed me.   But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.   9 Ye are cursed with a curse:  for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.   10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.  

If we assume the scripture quoted above was not addressed to Levites and Priest (though some of us contend it was) and actually take it as God’s word, how do we reconcile the above scripture with another already quoted above (Genesis 17) where God was saying that Circumcision was to be an eternal ordinance in Israel and anyone who doesn’t practice it would be cut off? The truth is that whether Malachi 3 is addressed to Levites or Israelites or Abraham does not matter; if the doctrine Paul preached made it clear that gentiles where not to be circumcised, it is easy to conclude that gentiles are not to pay tithe either.

Now the tithe doctrine is even less arguable than circumcision even though both of them are pre-law and both of them were practiced by Abraham (By the way Abraham paid tithe only once). But tithing was never a subject for disputation in the time of Paul because most Jews of that time where not tithing. The tithe that God describes in Malachi, as well as other part of the Old Testament, was 10% of agricultural produce. And by the time of Jesus most Jews were not agriculturist so the tithe was not an issue. Even Jesus was never said to have tithed because Jesus was not a farmer but a carpenter.

So Paul again finds himself contending modern day Judaizers who are bent on ensuring that redeemed gentiles pay tithes to established church institutions.

Modern day Judaizer are also, always, dictating to their church members, the rules they must keep and not keep. Unfortunately the women folk, who have very little to say in church administration, are the ones that suffers the most. “You must not wear ear-rings”; “You must not wear trousers”; “You must not wear make up”; “You must not wear tight fitted clothing’s”. They could easily compare these rules and regulation to Colossians 2:20-22 to find out the scriptural basis of what they are doing. It does not end there. Modern day Judaizers have turned the church of God to their own by posting lists of things that make an individual a bona fide member of (their) church. Recently a prominent Pentecostal church, with a large mission base on Lagos-Ibadan express way announced to its members that anyone who doesn’t tithe would no longer enjoy the church support during wedding and other ceremonies.

The core doctrine of modern day Judaizers is that church must regulate how its members live and behave: thus the need for the rules and regulations. If this is not done, church members will bring reproach to the organization or they will sin and loose their salvation.

At the center of this thinking is ignorance of the doctrine of grace that Paul the apostle taught and lived. If this message is however shared with these people, they malign it and say people are being encouraged towards lawlessness. There are many ways to answer this but the best is to paint the picture of our Lord Himself. If Jesus, the owner of the Church, had such proprietary kind of mentality towards the church, he would not have left 11 unschooled fishermen to propagate his gospel after him. But the chief proponent of a gospel of grace that encourages freedom and trust in God, through the Holy Spirit, is Jesus Himself. He knew that days after his ascension the Holy Spirit will come and use mere, weak, infallible and untaught men to turn the world up side down for God.

This is the sort of mentality the church should have: if men have been truly converted, the church should trust God to establish those men. The God that is able to save, is also able to keep safe: genuine believer cannot loose their salvation. This God is able to also justify, sanctify, and eventually glorify those he has saved. When the church takes up the duty that only God can do, they turn themselves into modern day Judaizers.