I have compiled a list of verses that Christians neglect. They practice what is called ?'selective morality' when it comes to the Bible. They choose verses and jam it down ours throats, and the rest they ignore and reject vehemently. Its about time we have exposed this truth about those who claim to be followers of Christ. They really don't follow him at all. My comments are in red.
(1) Do they fast like Jesus?
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. (Matthew 4:2)
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:29)
People had complained to Jesus saying, "Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?" (Luke 5:33). But Jesus replied that as long as he is with them his disciples should not fast, but after he is taken away then "they will fast in those days" (Luke 5:35).
So after they had fasted and prayed
(Acts 13:3)
* Christians do not fast. The disciples fasted like Jesus after his departure, and Muslims fast like them too!
The true followers of Jesus were not called "Christians" at first, they were collectively known as the Nazarenes and Ebionites, the headquarters was based in Jerusalem, not Rome. The verse Acts 11:26 state how the pagans ridiculed the early disciples of Jesus with insulting remarks such as "Christian". This title was very offensive to the followers of the Way. (Acts 9:2, 19:23, 24:14, 22)
The first ?'Church' was founded by James the brother of Jesus, prior to the existence of the Pauline Church. I suggest you study the history of Christianity to learn about the Nazarenes and Ebionites, who were the true Christians from Jewish descent, and they no longer exist today.
Jesus never said anything about Rome being the centre of his teachings. He never once traveled to Rome, his teaching were only meant for the Jews (Matthew 10:6, 15:24) and he ignored a Gentile women begging for help (Mark 7:25-28).
There is absolutely no evidence that Peter went to Rome, the Protestants do not believe Peter set foot in Rome. The 2nd century apocryphal fable called the "Apocalypse of Peter" records that Peter was ?'crucified upside down', which is totally unhistorical.
Clement of Rome (d. 97) who was the first to write about the death of Peter and Paul, never mentioned his alleged crucifixion, the epistle of 1Clement only states that Paul was beheaded under Nero (64 CE) and Peter was "martyred at Rome". There is no reference to ?'upside down crucifixion'.
Once again, I urge you to study how the Pauline Christians overtook the Jerusalem Church by power and control, gradually fixing Paul's religion of "Christianity" throughout the Roman Empire.
By the 4th century, Christianity was firmly established from the roots of Paganism and Mithraism. At least two hundred years earlier, the ?'Jerusalem Church' was defeated by the Paulians who are now called Christians, the doctrines of Paul replaced the Teachings of Jesus.
After the Jewish War (66-70 CE), the Nazarenes turned poor, they became known as the Ebionites which means ?'poor ones'. Jesus is recorded to have said "Blessed [are] the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
Furthermore, Jesus did not establish "Christianity" on earth.
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The first difficulty is that the word ?'Christian' is only encountered three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26, 26:28, Peter 4:16), and all three mentions occurred long after the ministry of Jesus. None of these three verses utilize the label ?'Christian' in a context which bears the authority of Jesus or of God. In other words, Jesus never identified himself as a Christian and never proclaimed himself to have established Christianity on earth. In fact, while the word ?'Christian' is encountered only three times in the Bible, the term ?'Christianity' is nowhere to be found". (Laurence B. Brown, The First and Final Commandment, p. 28)
Given the fact that there has never been in the history of the Torah (Old Testament) the religion of God to be named after a Prophet (i.e. Adaminity, Abrahamity, Mosanity, etc.), I hope to explain that Jesus did not preach the religion of Christianity, but a religion that gives all Praise and Worship to The One God. One of the questions I asked myself as I took an objective (second) look at Christianity was; where did the word Christianity come from and was the word ever mentioned to Jesus? Well, I did not find the word Christianity in the Bible, not even in a Bible dictionary. Specifically, I did not find in the Bible where Jesus called himself a Christian. The word Christian was first mentioned by a pagan to describe those who followed Jesus. It is mentioned one of three times in the New Testament by a pagan and Jew in Antioch about 43 AD, (Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16) long after Jesus left this earth. To accept the words of pagans as having any value or association with divinity, Jesus or God is contrary to the teachings of all Prophets. (Abdul Malik LeBlanc, The Bible Led Me to Islam)
Christians have abandoned the Mosaic Law because the Pauline Church requires them to have "faith only". The Christians today ONLY follow what the Church tells them, not what the Bible says, therefore they practice selective morality. Anyone who questions the doctrines of the Church, even a small child, is strongly rebuked and told "just to believe".
The Apostle Paul and his opponents in Galatia, who say, "Wait a minute, Paul told you a very simplified gospel, it makes it easy for you to become a member of this new group, but we know, after all, that if you're really going to be a real Christian, first you have to be a real Jew and that means, you have to be circumcised and you have to keep certain regulations out of the Torah. So Paul has not got it right. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/diversity.html)
I've always had doubts about "christianity", or should I say "CHURCHIANITY", since I was old enough to know how to tie my shoes. I never felt quite right at "church", and now I know why. When I look at "church" in a new light, that is, the light of the fraud (ahem) that it has turned out to be, and that it's all about power, control, and mostly money, (A reviewer of The Bible Fraud, Amazon.com)
Many Christian sects flourished by the 2nd century throughout Palestine and beyond, yet the Pauline Church succeeded with the support from the Roman Empire that overpowered the Jerusalem Church, founded by James the brother of Jesus. The "Christianity" brought by Paul is NOT the Gospel preached by Jesus, but the Gospel of Paul, which is the foundation of Christianity.
What is the significance for our faith and for our religious life, the fact that the Gospel of Paul is different from the Gospel of Jesus?
The attitude which Paul himself takes up towards the Gospel of Jesus is that he does not repeat it in the words of Jesus, and does not appeal to its authority.... The fateful thing is that the Greek, the Catholic, and the Protestant theologies all contain the Gospel of Paul in a form which does not continue the Gospel of Jesus, but displaces it." (Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus)
There were very different views of Jesus in the various types of Christianity.... Perhaps the starkest contrast was among those who considered themselves as gnostic Christians, and those who considered themselves Christians in the old Pauline view of things. On the one hand, Paul, and Pauline Christianity, would have placed all of the emphasis on Jesus' death and resurrection, and the saving power of that death and resurrection. Gnostic Christianity, on the other hand, would have placed its prime emphasis on the message, the wisdom, the knowledge, the gnosis, that's where the word gnostic comes from, the Greek word for knowledge, the knowledge that Jesus transmits, and even the secret knowledge that Jesus transmits. So one would have on the one hand faith in the saving event of Jesus' life and death, and on the other hand knowledge as the great source of adherence to the Jesus movement on the other hand. (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/diversity.html)
The point I am trying to make is that the early Jewish Christians, known as the Nazarenes and Ebionites, were the true Christians, they never practiced ?'selective morality'; they accepted the Torah as the complete embodiment of Jesus' teachings. For example, Jesus was circumcised (Luke 2:21) but how many Christians are circumcised?
Jesus usually prayed in the synagogue. He prayed at appointed times each day, in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening. The exact form of his prayer is no longer extant, but it is known that it was based on the prayer which Moses was given. Jesus said that he had come to uphold the Law and not to destroy it one jot or one tithe.
Jesus was educated in the synagogue in Jerusalem from the age of twelve. He preached in the synagogue. He used to keep the synagogue clean. No Christian today can be found performing these actions. How many Christians have even been circumcised in the manner that Jesus was?
The services now held in today's churches were developed long after Jesus had disappeared. Many of them come directly from the pagan Graeco-Roman mythological rites. The prayers they use are not the prayers which Jesus made
Due to the innovations of Paul and his followers, there is no revealed teaching left as to what to eat and what not to eat.
Anyone given a "Christian education" today eats what he feels like. Yet Jesus and his true followers only ate kosher meat and were forbidden to eat pig's flesh. The last meal Jesus is known to have eaten before his disappearance was the Passover meal. No Christian today celebrates this longstanding Jewish tradition to which Jesus so meticulously held.
(Muhammad, Ata-Rahim, Jesus Prophet of Islam, pp. 199-200)
Muslims are circumcised; therefore they are the true followers of Jesus.
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/rebuttal_to_quenalle_gale_1.htm