Ok, so I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about the Catholic Church. I am a strong Catholic myself and so is he. We were talking about what defense we had to know that the Catholic Church is the one true church. We are talking about it from the non-Bible believer point of view, and neither one of us had a good answer to begin with. After discussing it for a little longer, we came across the question:
“Why isn’t Judaism the correct religion since we split away from them? (Similar to the other Christian religions split away from us.) We could claim they refused to believe; but Calvinists could also claim that.”
Any incites on how to answer that question?
Well, let’s take a look at it.
Proposition: Judaism is the correct religion because it predates Christianity, and Christianity “split away from it.” (Like others in this thread, I disagree with the idea that Christianity split away from Judaism, but I’ll leave that for now)
But if we decide that Judaism is the correct religion, we are then hit with the task of trying to discern exactly which
type of Judaism is the correct religion. After all, there is a big difference between the practices of Abraham and the Patriarchs (which I will refer to as Abrahamic Judaism) and the practices which were instituted during the time of Moses (which I will call Mosaic Judaism). As a side note, I am aware that the term “Judaism” did not exist in the time of Abraham because it is derived from the name of Judah, son of Jacob/Israel, but I’m just using this term for ease of conversation.
During the time of the Patriarchs, the head of each household was considered a type of priest, and there was no Temple nor synagogues. The head of the household simply erected an altar outside and offered sacrifices. During the time of Moses, as a result of the Golden Calf event, God commanded that only men from the tribe of Levi could be priests, so they were in charge of making sacrifices on behalf of the people. Eventually the Temple was constructed (during the reign of King Solomon) as the only place where sacrifices could be offered, and therefore the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 effectively ended the Levitical priesthood.
So which form of Judaism is supposed to be the “correct religion”, Abrahamic or Mosaic?
If, when compared to Christianity, someone says that Mosaic Judaism is the correct religion because it predates Christianity then using that exact same line of reasoning, one could argue that Abrahamic Judaism is the correct version of Judaism. After all, Abrahamic Judaism predated Mosaic Judaism. And if people decided to practice Abrahamic Judaism, they would have to emulate the practices in the Book of Genesis and throw out the rest of the Bible. Hence, I doubt if many people would sincerely consider this the “correct religion”.
On the other hand, if people decide that the “correct religion” is Mosaic Judaism rather than Abrahamic, then this means that they believe that, even though the Abrahamic version is the oldest type of Judaism, it is important to accept the revelation which God gave through Moses. Hence, it is ok that Mosaic Judaism has many significant changes from Abrahamic Judaism, because God is the one who made the changes.
But while being obedient to what God revealed to Moses, we would naturally be compelled to accept the messianic prophecy from Deuteronomy 18:15 which indicates that the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses, and God commanded the people to heed the Messiah when he comes. According to Christianity, Jesus is the Messiah described in that passage from Deuteronomy, and therefore we are to heed him. This would include being a part of the Church he founded on the Apostles. Therefore, the exact same line of reasoning that allows one to accept Mosaic Judaism over the older Abrahamic Judaism also allows one to accept Christianity over the older Mosaic Judaism.
