What were the origins of Christianity? During the first half of my life of faithfully attending evangelical church services, I have heard several pastors, bible teachers, and evangelists say that Christianity began with the life and ministry of “Christ” (Messiah), but is this really the truth? I have even heard Christians argue that it began with the death and resurrection of “Jesus” (Heb. Y’hoshua/Yeshua; Gk. Iesous), while others argue that it began with the giving of the Spirit in Acts 2 in the Upper Room in Jerusalem on the feast of “Pentecost” (Heb. Sukkot/Tabernacles). But after researching the origins of it, there are indeed problems with this origin story that we need to address.

1. The First Use of the Word “Christians”

The most basic is that during these various times when they said “Christianity” began, the word “Christian” did not yet even exist. So if there was no such word as “Christian,” then how could there have been a “Christianity”?  According to the New Testament itself, the word “Christian” did not begin in Israel at all, but it began in the country of Syria.  In Acts 11, we read,

“…the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26)

This was about twenty years after the time of the resurrection. Antioch was not even in Israel as I said, but in the land of ancient Syria (i.e., modern-day Turkey). The disciples did not call themselves “Christians,” but they began to be called this by the surrounding Syrian nonbelievers. The word “Christian” originally was a derogatory term meant to mock, humiliate, and shame these new Syrian non-Jewish believers, so that they would leave this faith in “the new Jewish messiah” behind and go back to the beliefs and ways of their own people. This derogatory, mocking is only used a total of three times in the whole “New Testament” (Acts 11:26; 26:28; I Peter 4:16), and it carries this same meaning in all three references.  For example, in I Peter 4:16, Peter writes,

Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed but is to glory God in this name. (I Peter 4:15-16, NASB)

If the name “Christian” was seen to be something positive, why would Peter place this name in the same category as the rest of these evil things?  Also, why would Peter tell believers if they are being called this name while they are suffering, they are “not to be ashamed” or feel “ashamed”?  The only other time this name appears in the “New Testament” is in Acts 26:28 when Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) is standing trial before the Roman governor, Festus, and King Agrippa.  In this passage, we read,

“King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets?  I know that you do.”
Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.” 
And Paul said, “I would wish to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains.” (Acts 26: 27-29, NASB)

During his trial before Governor Festus and King Agrippa, Rav Sha’ul (Paul) is telling about his life experiences, and then he asks King Agrippa this question, King Agrippa responds with a mocking statement; however, rather than responding by getting angry and calling him a name as well, Rav Sha’ul (Paul) takes the mocking insult quite diplomatically, and responds that he wished all who were there would “become such as I am, except for these chains.”  In none of the “New Testament” Scriptures, do the Jewish disciples ever call themselves “Christians.”

2.  “Our View of the Bible”

The Bible, including the New Testament, was written by the hands of Jews – not Christians. Yeshua is an Israeli Jew, and all of his early disciples were also Israeli Jews, and they went throughout the land of Israel – the land of the Jews – teaching and preaching a message that was at the very hearts and minds of other Israeli Jews, making this a definitely “Jewish context.”  Yet instead of us being taught to interpret and understand the whole Bible from a “Jewish context,” the New Testament has been divided and separated from its original intended contexts – the Hebrew Scriptures, Second-Temple Judaism, and the history of Israel – changing the way we view and understand it, and then these writings were re-interpreted, refocused, repackaged, and even re-identified as being “Christian.”  However, they are not “Christian writings” since it was Jewish hands – not Christian hands – that wrote them, and it should be studied as ‘Jewish writings.”

3.  “The Gospel of the Kingdom”

“The gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 4:23; 935) was also not a “Christian teaching” – but a thoroughly Pro-Torah, Pro-Israel Jewish teaching.  In fact, this teaching today would be described as a Zionist message.  “The gospel of the Kingdom” was not about “a spiritual kingdom,” nor was it about an event, the “death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah for the forgiveness of sins.”  Instead, it was announcing the beginning of the next phase of the Kingdom process – God redeeming and restoring the descendants of the two ancient kingdoms of Israel – the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah – plus any non-Israelites who have willingly attached themselves to Israel by placing their trust, faithfulness, and loyalty to the Jewish Messiah of Israel, and He has been in the process of bringing them back to Himself and to one another for the past two millennia, and for the goal of reformulating them once more into One Kingdom, One Community, One People, and One Family once more under one new king, the son of David, the Messiah.  This is the process that God has been working on during the last two millennia.  He was not attempting to begin a new religion, nor was He doing away with the Jewish people and replacing them with the Christian Church, nor was He doing away with the Hebrew Scriptures and the Temple system, as Christians have also falsely been teaching.  This process that God has been working on in Judaism is called, “the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel.”  This is “the gospel” that Yeshua and his disciples taught throughout the land of Israel.

But this is not the gospel message that Christians preach or teach. They preach and teach a message about “Jesus” (Heb. Y’hoshua/Yeshua; Gk. Iesous), but they don’t teach the actual Jewish message that Yeshua himself and his disciples taught. Christians teach that “Jesus came to die for all our sins and to reconcile us back to God,” but Yeshua said the reason he had been sent was to preach “the Kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43).  Yeshua was sent by the God of Israel to do the following:

  • He was sent to announce and teach the beginning of the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel (i.e., “the gospel of the kingdom”);
  • He was sent to lay the groundwork for the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel;
  • He was sent to open the way for the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration by allowing God to work in and through him to keep the covenantal oath that God made to Abraham when He walked between the pieces.  This is why he died upon the cross and was resurrected three days later.
  • He was sent to address some issues that the Jewish rabbis and religious leaders had gotten wrong.

It was for these four reasons why Yeshua was sent by God.  For example, it was because of the sins, abominations, and idolatries of an anointed son of David, King Solomon, committed during his older years.  After his death, God opened the way for the United kingdom of Israel to be divided (I Kings 11:1-13).  Therefore, if the death of the wicked, sinful anointed King can bring division to Israel, then the death of the righteous and holy anointed King of Israel can bring about healing and restoration.

Prophetic Contexts of the “New Testament/Covenant”

Did you know that the following major passages in the “New Testament” all come from passages whose prophetic contexts are about “the restoration of Israel”?

  1.  The Calling of Yeshua’s Initial Disciples.  In Matthew 4, Yeshua calls his initial four disciples with these words: “follow me and I will make you FISHERS OF MEN” (Matthew 4: 19).  This refers to a prophecy in Jeremiah 16,

Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.  “Behold, I am going to send for MANY FISHERMEN,” declares the Lord, “and THEY WILL FISH FOR THEM;…” (Jeremiah 16:14-16a).

The context here is “the restoration of Israel,” and God is going to send for “many fishermen,” and what did they initial disciples of Yeshua do for a living?  They were FISHERMEN, and what did he tell them he would teach them, “I will make you FISHERS OF MEN,” just as the prophecy.

2.  The New Covenant.  The prophetic context of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34 is “the Restoration of Israel.”  In Jeremiah 30:1-33:26, God instructs Jeremiah to write a “book of consolation,” and this book is about “the restoration of Israel,” and it is in the midst of this book that we have the prophecy of “the new covenant.”

3.  “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:11-32). Yeshua’s renown parable, “The Prodigal Son” is actually about “the restoration of Israel.”  “The Father” represents God, the “elder son” represents the Southern Kingdom of Judah (the Jewish people), and the “younger son” represents “the Northern Kingdom of Israel.”  God through the anointed-Messiah Yeshua was promising to bring the descendants of the Northern Kingdom back to the Father, and then the elder brother, the descendants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (i.e., the Jewish people), but Yeshua leaves the decision of how the “elder brother” is going to react to this up to the Jewish leaders.

4.  “The Parable of the Good Shepherd” (John 10:15-16) During the “parable of the Good Shepherd,” God says through Yeshua, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, even as the Father (God) knows me (Yeshua) and I know the Father (God); and I lay down my life for the sheep [people and nation of Israel].  And I have other sheep [the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel], which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My [God’s] voice; and they shall become ONE FLOCK WITH ONE SHEPHERD [the restoration of the two kingdoms into one].

5.  The Atoning Death of Messiah.  The renown chapter, Isaiah 52:12 – 53:12, which describes the atoning death of Messiah comes in the midst of Isaiah 41:1 – 66:24, which deals with “the restoration of Israel.”

6.  Empowering the Disciples for the Kingdom Mission.  In Acts 1:3, the Resurrected Yeshua spends 40 days with is disciples, and he “shows them many convincing proofs” of his resurrection and speaking to them of “the kingdom of God.”  And when he is done, they ask him, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Yeshua did not correct their understanding of the message, he only corrected their concept of the timing.  He responded to their question,

It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit [Heb. Ruach HaKodesh/Ruach Elohim] has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses [of the Ge’ulah and the Restoration of Israel] both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth. (Acts 1:7-8, NASB)

7.  The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.  When the disciples come together to try to decide with all these Gentiles (non-Jews) who were coming into the movement, Ya-acov (Jacob; trans. “James”) supports his decision by quoting from Amos 9:11.  Amos 9:11-15 deals with “the restoration of Israel,” and the verse he quotes begins this section of the book.

Now there are more references I could give, but are these coincidences, or do they indicate that the framework that we should be using to understand the “New Testament” is actually “The Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel.” But is this the framework that Christian leaders teach when instruct people the Bible? No, it is not.

The Two-Part Message

So if “the gospel of the Kingdom” that Yeshua and his disciples taught was actually about “the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel,” then what happened so that we are not taught this in churches today?  First, after the death and resurrection, the disciples added the accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Yeshua to explain who brought “the gospel” to Israel, and what had to happen to open the way for “the gospel,” but these accounts of Yeshua were not “the gospel.”  For example, these two parts can be seen below in the book of Acts:

But when they believed Philip proclaiming the Good News (i.e., “gospel”) about THE KINGDOM OF GOD [The Ge’ulah and the Restoration of Israel; the National Kingdom of God] and the name [or person] of Messiah Yeshua, both men and women were immersed. (Acts 8:12, TLV; emphasis added)

Paul remained two whole years in his own rented quarters [while awaiting trial] and continued to welcome all who came to him – proclaiming THE KINGDOM OF GOD [the Ge’ulah and the Restoration of Israel] AND teaching about the LORD YESHUA THE MESSIAH with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:30-31, TLV; emphasis added)

Notice the two parts to their message: “the gospel of the kingdom,” i.e., “the Kingdom of God,” which Rav Sha’ul (Paul) proclaimed or preached, and about “the Lord Yeshua the Messiah,” which he taught.  They continued to teach these two parts of the message, but then a terrible thing happened.

The Pharisee’s Prophecy

Upon completing his third missionary journey outside the land of Israel, Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) was heading back to Jerusalem to observe the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) when he decided to first stop at Miletus.  When he arrived he sent a messenger to all the leaders in and around the city of Ephesus.  When they arrived, he gave not only his farewell speech, but he also included a prophetic warning to the leaders.  In Acts 20,

I know that after my departure [death], savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Even from among yourselves will arise men speaking perversions, to draw the disciples away after themselves.  Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning you with tears.  (Acts 20:29-31, TLV)

This is not just some casual warning, nor was this some suspicion that he had might happen.  He was certain that this would happen.  He says, “I know..,” not “I think,” or “I believe…”  He was also certain that it would happen after his “departure” (or death).  What did he mean by “savage wolves”?  In the prophets, “a wolf” is often used in association with people who disobey the commandments of God.  These “savage wolves” will come in to the congregations from the outside, and they will “not spare the flock.”  They will not spare it by killing them, or they will change the character and nature of the congregations from being “obedient to the commandments” to becoming “non-obedient to the commandments of God.”  Other changes would come from the inside the congregations, the leaders themselves.  “Even from among yourselves will arise men speaking PERVERSIONS, to draw disciples away after themselves” (emphasis added). The word “perversions” is the English translation of the Greek word, diastrepho (G1294), which means “to distort, i.e. (figurative) misinterpret, or (moral) corrupt: – perverse (-rt), turn away.”   For centuries, Christian leaders have misinterpreted and distorted the writings of the New Testament, particularly Rav Sha’ul (Paul), and turned people away from keeping and obeying the commandments of God that were handed down from God on Mt. Sinai.

So What Happened?

Two years after the martyrdom of Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) in Rome in 68 C.E., according to tradition, Jerusalem and the Holy Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.  After their many of the Gentile (non-Jewish) believers, who were being called “Christians” by the nonbelievers, saw this destruction as a sign from God that He had turned His back on Israel and the Jewish people.  These Gentile (non-Jewish) believers, or “Christians,” began to see themselves as the “New Israel,” the “New People of God,” and that now they got all of the blessings, and the Jews only got the curses. This erroneous belief is called “Supersessionism” or “Replacement Theology.” And it is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of Jews and Christians throughout the two millennia, including the Inquisition, the various Pogroms, and the Holocaust.  And to support this heinous view of “Supersessionism,” they began to teach that the “New Testament” (which they believed represented the Christian Church) “annulled,” “replaced,” and “did away with” the “Old Testament” (which they believed represented Israel and the Jewish people).

It was in this mire of misinterpretations of “Supersessionism” near the beginning of the second century, C.E., that Christianity as a distinct and separate religion was born.  Also it was when the Romans had finished destroying Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 C.E., that the Romans renamed Israel “Syra-Palestina” (Palestine) or the Latin for the “Philistines,” the arch-enemy of the people of Israel, just to wipe the name of Israel off the face of the earth.   In seeing this, these “Christians” believed there was no longer a need to keep preaching Yeshua’s and his disciples’ message about “the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel.” Most of the land and most of the Jewish people had either been destroyed or taken away into slavery back to Rome, where they would be sold as slaves or used to further give victims to the “Coliseum games” in Rome.  Therefore, the Christians then made the decision to replace “the gospel” that Yeshua and his disciples taught about “the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel” with another message about the accounts of “Yeshua’s life and ministry, and his death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.” Thus, what had been ADDED after his death and resurrection was now used to REPLACE “the gospel of Yeshua.”  And Christians have preached this “replacement gospel” ever since.

For example, in his letters “To the Milesians,” Ignatius, the first Christian Bishop of Antioch (98-117 C.E.) wrote,

For if we CONTINUE to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace.(8:1; Lightfoot, Harmer, Holmes, trans., The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., p. 95)

Why is Ignatius speaking about “continuing to live in accordance with Judaism,” if Christianity actually began with Yeshua, as Christians maintain? He then goes on to say,

Therefore, having become his disciples, let us Learn in accordance with Christianity (10:1; Lightfoot, Harmer, Holmes, trans., The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd ed., p.96).

Again, why do they need “to learn to live in accordance with Christianity” if Christianity actually began with Yeshua about 75-80 years before?  it seems evident from the Scriptures and the extra-biblical evidence that Christianity did not begin with Yeshua, but it broke away sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E., and the second century, C.E., Christians began to mold and shape themselves into their own syncretic religion, called “Christianity.”

Conclusion

This is the hidden history of the origins of Christianity. Yeshua and his disciples began a Political Kingdom Restoration Movement within Second Temple Judaism, but Christianity then came along and spiritualized the kingdom, and they have also appropriated the writings of these Jewish disciples, and they have re-interpreted, refocused, repackaged, and even re-identified their writings as being “Christian.”

As we can see things are not nearly as “simple” as Christians have led us all to believe.