The Judaizers

When did division start in the Church? What was the first sect to split from the Church the Apostles founded? The Judaizers were the first, a sect led by Jewish converts. They presented the first big challenge to apostolic doctrine in the history of the Church, and they’re still doing it today.

Many Messianic congregations, Sabbath-keeping churches such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Church of God, Hebrew Roots, and Jews for Jesus, focus on the Old Covenant Law. Most of these groups insist that you call Jesus Yeshua, and they’re very pushy with the Jewish traditions they have chosen.

These false believers as Paul called them, would have destroyed the Church from the start were it not for the apostles who took action to counteract their influence. Paul was one of those apostles. He clashed with the Judaizers frequently and described one confrontation with them here:

… I went up again to Jerusalem... I took Titus along also… Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised… This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved for you (Galatians 2:1, 3-5).

As Paul said, the Judaizers infiltrate the Church. They wage an undercover attack on our freedom in Christ. What do they promote to attack our freedom? The Old Covenant. One aspect of the Old Covenant they pushed in Paul’s day was circumcision.

The Judaizers taught that Christian men should be circumcised. Titus, a Greek companion of Paul (Galatians 2:3), was one Christian the Judaizers said needed to be circumcised. Since the Judaizers insisted on circumcision, Paul’s famous comeback was that the Judaizers should mutilate themselves. Sound a little harsh? It was! But it got his point across.

… if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the Cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. For you were called to freedom, brethren… (Galatians 5:11-13)

Called to Freedom

The New Covenant brings freedom, and that freedom is threefold: 1. freedom from the Law, 2. freedom from sin, and 3. freedom from condemnation. To this multi-dimensional freedom we have been called. Jesus announced it when he first preached at Nazareth, launching his ministry. Jesus started his Gospel ministry by announcing freedom!

… the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoner… (Isaiah 61:1)

As Paul said, ‘You were called to freedom, brethren’ (Galatians 5:13).

Now, how do we achieve this freedom? This freedom can only be achieved by being a follower of Jesus. But to be a follower of Jesus, the first thing you have to do is to stop being a follower of Moses.

Moses knew that things would come to this: a choice between him and another. Moses predicted that people would have to make the decision to follow either him or a new Jewish prophet. Just look at what he prophesied:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him (Deuteronomy 18:15).

So we achieve freedom not by following the Ten Commandments of Moses, but by following Jesus. Following Jesus means fulfilling his commandment ‘Love one another...’ (John 15:12). You will not be able to love others if your focus is the Ten Commandments. You won't be able to be kind. Enforcing the Commandments made Moses grumpy, and they'll have that effect on you too.

We follow Jesus by loving one another. But to love one another we have to put aside the Old Covenant focus of following the Ten Commandments. A focus on those (particularly the Sabbath command), will hinder us from loving one another. Following the Ten Commandments turns us into judgmental and critical people. Just spend some time in a Messianic church to find out.

Getting to God

Every human being needs to get to God. A Christian needs to get to God just like anybody else. The difference between a Christian and a Pharisee is that the Christian does not believe that he will get to God by following the Ten Commandments. He has learned from the history of the Jews (recorded for us in the Old Testament) that this will not work. A Christian has come to believe that Jesus is the Way to get to God, so he accesses God through the New Covenant in Christ!

Paul encouraged Christians not to be intimidated by Old Covenant rules. The Judaizers tried to impose Jewish laws on believers; but Paul never imposed rules for eating, drinking, holidays, or Sabbaths. Instead, Paul preached Christ and Christ alone.

Paul called his message ‘the stumbling block of the Cross’ because it offended Jews who thought that the Old Covenant was the way to God. Paul’s message proved that it wasn’t. Christ is the way to God, and everything the Old Covenant presented pointed to that reality.

The Old Testament Law can be summed up in Jesus. He is the essence of the Old Testament message, the Lamb of God who provides our Sabbath rest. All the things God asked the Jews to do in the Old Covenant were a shadow of another reality--and the reality is Christ Jesus.

… do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ (Colossians 2:16-17; LEB).

By the time the Council of Jerusalem was convened, the Judaizers had become the main cause of division in the Church. But they were roundly defeated by the argumentation of Paul and Barnabas. These two debated the Judaizers with strong and coherent arguments, and they won—saving the Church from the influence of the Judaizers.

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’ …Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them (Acts 15:1-2; NASB).

Are you prepared to debate with the Judaizers of this generation? If not, do you support a teacher who does? We cannot fold our arms in times like these. The Judaizers are on the rise. They will get stronger as the End draws near.

Eyes on the Legalism Trend

You may think the Judaizers are long gone, but they are not. Their legalism remains. The Judaizers have not been vanquished. As we said before, you’ll see them hard at work through Messianic congregations. The trend is that pastors will get more legalistic with their congregations as we get closer to the Last Times, culminating in Mystery Babylon and a new Temple where the Antichrist sits. Many false shepherds will impose dietary laws, restrict marriage, and set other rules such as the observance of Jewish holidays.

… evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13).

The Spirit clearly says that in Later Times some will abandon the Faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods… (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this World rather than on Christ… do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ…

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this World, why, as though you still belonged to the World, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’?

These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Colossians 2:8, 16-17, 20-23).

Legalism is not the Gospel, but the Antichrist will make it pass as Gospel. To combat this trend, the faithful pastors today must teach the balanced doctrine of the New Covenant: liberty in love.

Striking the Gospel Balance

The balanced message we call the Gospel is that through the Spirit we actually fulfill the Law of God. In Christ we have true liberty, freedom from sin. Overcoming temptations by faith in Jesus, we walk in the Spirit. That’s our freedom. Following Jesus' exemplary life equips us to obey God. He is the model of a free human will. How was he free? He was free from sin, with his will in sync with the will of God!

God worked in Christ. He worked through him to heal, to teach, to speak, to perform miracles. But most importantly, God worked through Jesus to reconcile us to himself. Are you letting God work through you to reconcile other people to God?

… the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick (Luke 5:17).

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know (Acts 2:22).

God was reconciling the World to himself in Christ… (2 Corinthians 5:19)

The sound Christian faith is that God works through us. God worked through Jesus, and he’ll work through us. The key to a sound interpretation of the Gospel is not that it’s “all God” [Calvinism] and it’s not that it’s “all us” [Arminianism]. Don’t get sucked into these two extreme theologies, Calvinism or Arminianism.

The Gospel is God’s power in us. That’s the balance you must live out: ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:27). Your free will fits perfectly well within the sovereign will of God.

Calvinists and Arminians have held debates for centuries on the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. Why not quit the debates and acknowledge both? Why not strike a Gospel balance? Nobody should sit around waiting for God to do everything [Calvinism], but nobody should deny God’s sovereign power either [Arminians]. When you take initiative and act prayerfully, you’ve decided to carry out the will of God. You’ve become balanced, and God will work through you.

… work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13; NASB).

Through faith in Christ, we can synchronize our will to the will of God. The holiness the Judaizers tried to impose on Christians through the Old Covenant Law will never come close to the holiness God can produce in us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel produces in us a healthy balance of faith, a living active faith. And that's something the Ten Commandments could never do.

Usefulness of the Law

The New Testament teaches that the Ten Commandments are good. Jesus taught them in the Sermon on the Mount. Paul says that they are useful for evangelism. If you share them with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, you’ll help people to see that they’re sinners.

We know that the Law is good if one uses it properly (1 Timothy 1:8).

The Law is good. The Law is holy. The Law is spiritual. It demonstrates to us that without God’s grace we are none of these things: We are neither good, nor holy, nor spiritual.

… the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good… We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin… Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me… (Romans 7:12, 14, 21-23)

So, the Old Testament Law is a mirror to our souls. It shows us that we are sinners, and it's good, but where does it fall short? It does not free us from the law of sin.

Grace in Jesus Christ

Jesus came to free us from the law of sin by giving us the grace the Law never provided. Now, as Christians freed from sin by faith in Jesus’ death, we are free from the law that governs our flesh. Now we are free from our sinful human nature. We can do what we want to do. We can serve God.

Furthermore, once we believe in Christ and are baptized, we obtain a new kind of righteousness, an imputed righteousness. Christ's righteousness is credited to us!

… now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21).

This righteousness given to us by God through faith in Jesus Christ is not based on our keeping of the rules of Moses. It’s not based on the Law. It’s based on grace. We begin a new life of faith in Jesus, and Christ begins to live in us through his Spirit. Wow!

So, we don’t become righteous by checking off a list of commandments we have fulfilled. Salvation is not keeping the Ten Commandments. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise! The Judaizers are still among us.