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Judaism vs Christianity
Difference Between Judaism and Christianity?
An Orthodox Jew was interviewing a well-known “Christian Pastor”. The Jewish man stated, “other than a certain story”…. This sounded personally and painfully vague on his part, but some Jews refuse to say Jesus’s name because of Exodus 23:13: “Make no mention of the name of other Gods”.
Back to the question, “Other than a certain story, what are the philosophical differences between Judaism and Christianity?”
The Pastor said he preferred thinking of it as a Theological difference, not Philosophical.
That question got my brain engaged. One answer I considered was since the Old Testament contains prophecies of Jesus, that:
1. The Old Testament God makes promises. 2. The New Testament God keeps promises.
He then went on to correctly state several similarities such as,
1. Both religions teach to love God.
2. Both religions teach to love your neighbor.
3. Both religions teach repentance and forgiveness.
The Orthodox Jew then stated, “In fact we have an entire National Day set aside on this called, Yom Kippur”.
Without realizing it, the Orthodox Jew answered his own question! That is what Hebrews teaches.
Before expanding on that, I thought of other possibilities such as:
1. The Old Testament God dwells with his people through things (i.e., Tabernacle and Temple).
2. The New Testament God dwells with his people through a Person – God in the Flesh (John 1:14).
That is an important distinction. However, I want to go back to a major difference rather than a continuation.
1. In the Old Testament God forgives while remaining apart from His creation, without personally suffering, and allowing an innocent animal to die. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were “pleasing aroma”. God doesn’t suffer.
2. In the New Testament God forgives by becoming part of this creation, part of the sacrificial system, and by doing something even more. God forgives by God suffering pain and shame, and by being the innocent one who dies. In the New Testament, the Father was “pleased to crush” for our sake His own Son (Isaiah 53). God suffers.
Jesus is the ultimate difference between Judaism and Christianity because Jesus is the fulfillment of promises, the dwelling place of God among us, and God Incarnate who suffers pain and suffering for our sins. Jesus is that story left unnamed by the Orthodox Jew. Jesus is the difference.
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