Comparing Christianity and Judaism

If Jesus returned to earth today, which church would He go to? A

Catholic church, of course, replies the Catholic. No, a Protestant
church, argues the Protestant. I think both are wrong. I think he would
begin as He did 2,000 years ago in a Jewish synagogue.
The long history of Christian anti-Semitism, in thought and deed, is
perhaps the worst scandal in all the Churchs history. It is the Oedipus
complex, for Judaism is Christianitys father. All Christians are
spiritually Jews, said Vatican II, echoing St. Paul. Christianity subtracts
nothing from Judaism, but only fulfills it.
This is the point of the Jews for Jesus, who insist that a Jew who
becomes a Christian does not lose anything Jewish but completes his
or her identity. When a Hindu or a pagan becomes a Christian, he is
converted. When a Jew becomes a Christian, he is completed.
This is surely Jesus point of view too, for He said He came not to
destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. From His point of
view, Christianity is more Jewish than modern Judaism. Pre-Christian
Judaism is like a virgin: post-Christian Judaism is like a spinster. In
Christ, God consummates the marriage to His people and through
them to the world.
What have Christians inherited from the Jews? Everything in the Old
Testament. The knowledge of the true God. Comparing that with all the
other religions of the ancient world, six crucial, distinctive teachings
stand out: monotheism, creation, law, redemption, sin and faith.
Only rarely did a few gentiles like Socrates and Akenaton ever reach to
the heights and simplicity of monotheism. A world of many forces
seemed to most pagans to point to many gods. A world of good and
evil seemed to indicate good and evil gods. Polytheism seems
eminently reasonable; in fact, I wonder why it is not much more
popular today.

There are only two possible explanations for the Jews unique idea of a
single, all-powerful and all-good God: Either they were the most
brilliant philosophers in the world, or else they were the Chosen
People i.e., God told them. The latter explanation, which is their
traditional claim, is just the opposite of arrogant. It is the humblest
possible interpretation of the data.
With a unique idea of God came the unique idea of creation of the
universe out of nothing. The so-called creation myths of other
religions are really only formation myths, for their gods always fashion
the world out of some pre-existing stuff, some primal glop the gods
were stuck with and on which you can blame things: matter, fate,
darkness, etc. But a Jew cant blame evil on matter, for God created it;
nor on God, since He is all-good. The idea of human free will, therefore,
as the only possible origin of evil, is correlative to the idea of creation.
The Hebrew word to create (bara) is used only three times in the
Genesis account: for the creation of the universe (1:1), life (1:21) and
man (1:27). Everything else was not created (out of nothing) but
formed (out of something).
The consequences of the idea of creation are immense. A world
created by God is real, not a dream either of God or of man. And that
world is rational. Finally, it is good. Christianity is a realistic, rational
and world-affirming religion, rather than a mythical, mystical, or worlddenying religion because of its Jewish source.
The essence of Judaism, which is above all a practical religion, is the
Law. The Law binds the human will to the divine will. For the God of the
Jews is not just a Being or a Force, or even just a Mind, but a Will and a
person. His will is that our will should conform to His: Be holy, for I am
holy (Lev. 11:44).
The Law has levels of intimacy ranging from the multifarious external
civil and ceremonial laws, through the Ten Commandments of the
moral law, to the single heart of the Law. This is expressed in the

central prayer of Judaism, the shma (from its first word, hear): Hear
O Israel: the Lord, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might Deut. 6:4).
Thus, the essence of Judaism is the same as the essence of
Christianity: the love of God. Only the way of fulfilling that essence
Christ is different. Judaism knows the Truth and the Life, but not the
Way. As the song says: Two out of three aint bad.
Even the Way is foreshadowed in Judaism, of course. The act brought
dramatically before the Jews every time they worshiped in the temple
was an act of sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs
foretelling forgiveness. To Christians, every detail of Old Testament
Judaism was a line or a dot in the portrait of Christ. That is why it was
so tragic and ironic that He came to what was His own, but his own
people did not accept Him (John 1:11). Scripture is His picture, but
most Jews preferred the picture to the person.
Thus the irony of His saying:
You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life
through them; even they testify on my behalf (John 5:39-40).
No religion outside Judaism and Christianity ever knew of such an
intimate relationship with God as faith. Faith means not just belief
but fidelity to the covenant, like a marriage covenant. Sin is the
opposite of faith, for sin means not just vice but divorce, breaking the
covenant.
In Judaism, as in Christianity, sin is not just moral and faith is not just
intellectual; both are spiritual, i.e., from the heart. Rabbi Martin Bubers
little classic I and Thou lays bare the essence of Judaism and of its
essential oneness with Christianity.
Christians are often asked by Jews to agree not to proselytize. They
cannot comply, of course, since their Lord has commanded them

otherwise (Matt. 28:18-20). But the request is understandable, for

Judaism does not proselytize. Originally this was because Jews believed
that only when the Messiah came was the Jewish revelation to spread
to the gentiles. Orthodox Jews still believe this, but modern Judaism
does not proselytize for other reasons, often relativistic ones.
Christianity and Judaism are both closer and farther apart than any two
other religions. On the one hand, Christians are completed Jews; but on
the other, while dialogue between any two other religions may always
fall back on the idea that they do not really contradict each other
because they are talking about different things, Jews and Christians
both know who Jesus is, and fundamentally differ about who He is. He
is the stumbling stone (Is. 8:14).