Jewish concept of Messiah (Christ) is identical
to our Christian concept of Anti-Messiah (Anti-Christ), brief
comparison of Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox Christianity
I'm reading for quite some time a Jewish website which explains
thoroughfully the basic beliefs in Judaism.
The website was quite an interesting one to read just to get a bit
closer look to Jewish religion and rituals attached to it.
You might want to take a look at the website
JewFaq.org
From this website I've extracted the Jewish definition for Messiah
or as we know it also in Christianity the title
Christ which
our saviour and Lord Jesus Christ is wearing.
It was very interesting fact to know that the Jewish definition to
the
Christ the jewish people expect is identical to our
Christian definition of
the AntiChrist
Below is definition of the "Messiah" or "Mashiach" as they call
their still expected saviour to come:
"Anglicization of the Hebrew, "mashiach" (anointed). A man who
will be chosen by G-d to put an end to all evil in the world,
rebuild the Temple, bring the exiles back to Israel and usher in
the world to come. It is better to use the Hebrew term "mashiach"
when speaking of the Jewish messiah, because the Jewish concept is
very different from the Christian one."
Moreover I found it interesting to show you here few more things
that the Jewish belief about their eventual Messiah, the info is
again extracted from
jewfaq.org;
* The idea of mashiach (messiah) is an ancient one in
Judaism
* The Jewish idea of mashiach is a great human leader like King
David, not a savior
And now the most funny one:
* Jews do not believe in Jesus because he did not accomplish
these tasks
The belief of the coming Jewish Christ and therefore in reality the
Anti-Christ is a basic belief of the Jewish faith and is one of the
13 P rinciples of Jewish Faith
It's absolutely striking for me and I guess for each Christian out
there that the Jewish people plainly tell that they're looking
forward for t he coming of the Anti-Christ, that we tremble at and
are constantly warned about in our Orthodox Christian
Churches.
Of course getting to know Jewish tradition and faith is a good
thing especially in order to complain and see how much similar
Orthodox Judaism is in many aspects to Orthodox Christianity.
For instance they also hold their holy book the Torah and walk with
it through their Synagogue, they kiss the Torah. They also have a
sort of o ur Holy Liturgy, they have an early cycle of book
readings assigned Jews read in the synagogue throughout the
year.
However there I can find so many differences. For instance in some
cases Orthodox Judaism allows abortion, whether our Orthodox
Christian Churc h strictly prohibits it as one of the biggest sins
one can commit.
Another similarity between Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox
Christianity was the daily (morning and evening prayers), prayers
before eating, thank sful prayers after eating etc.
It's apparent from that short comparison that the Orthodox Church
that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has established has
continued the jewish ancient traditions and passed it over to us
the Orthodox Christians.
In so many things I've red on that Jewish website I've found
clearly the references to the
Holy Trinity - The Father, The
Son and the Ho ly Spirit to whom glory to be now and for ever and
ever! Amen!.
It's so strange that Jewish people cannot see their fallacy in
non-believing in the Son of God and the rejection of the tri-unite
nature of God .
One clear very ancient symbol that testifies about the Tre Holy
Trinity is the Jewish
Hamesh Hand
Here is the picture of the Hamesh Hand:
The hand as you can see in the picture presents a hand with three
primary fingers each one of each holds three identical rings and
the all seeing eye that, we also have as a Christian symbol within
a pyramid (symbolizing the the tri-unite nature of God).
The rabbin's dressing as shown in some pictures I've checked on
jewfaq is also quite similar to our Orthodox Priest's
dressing.
Another interesting moment from me from exploring the Jewish
culture was the 613 (Mitzvot) commandments which one should follow
and which are actually impossible not to break throughout a life
time.
As an Orthodox Christians we believe that our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ has fulfilled and kept all the
613 Jewish
commandment in order to be able to become a sinless sacrifice
for our sins.
Some things concerning the daily speaking that I found as a Jewish
beliefs I liked a lot and I should say some chunks of things about
what is allowed to talk and what is prohibited is really something
that seems right.
However we don't have it in a such strict and clearly divided way
in the Orthodox Church. Even though we know that we're told in the
New Testament that we who believe in Christ as a saviour should
speak only good and bad word shouldn't get out of our mouths.