By Robert Wurtz II
Because of 'Talmudic Revisionism,' little is left to be known of the various competing sects of Pharisees that struggled and ultimately lost to that elite group of Pharisees within the Pharisees under Yohannan ben Zakkai. Little is ever told about the many 'Judaisms' that existed before the destruction of the Temple. History is often told through the eyes of the victor and in this case we already know that the 'end' of their movement was an abomination to God in the highest imaginable regard. If the Messiah was standing at the door and knocking to get in to the Church in Revelation, He was thrust straitway out of the city in Rabbinic Judaism and utterly slandered and defamed almost beyond hope of being accepted.
Getting past this deeply intrenched deception of the Rabbi's TOTAL AUTHORITY is perhaps the single greatest obstacle to helping a Jew see Christ for who He is. They were trained from birth to believe in the authority of the Rabbi's.
It may be hard for us as Christians to understand this, but in a very practical way Rabbi Akiba with the help of his disciples had exalted himself and been exalted by his latter followers to a status higher than Abraham, Moses, David, and God Almighty. This is verified in the simple fact that the Rabbi's after his time literally userped the authority of God in all matters of the word of God. To the Jews, NOT EVEN GOD CAN CONTRADICT A RABBI. They have ultimate authority. It is a vicious circle of deception that kept the Rabbi's in control of God's word through what we will discuss later as the 'Oral Law' and later the Talmud through a process of halakah (keeping the Law's of God modernized) that did 'way back then' to the Word of God what modern judges have done to the American Constitution- only much worse. This is likely where the whole concept of a 'living Constitution' even came from.
The Rabbi's after Akiba began using the word of God to make all sorts of traditions and doctrines of men until the original document (Torah) has almost no real meaning in a LITERAL sense anymore. They call it 'A FENCE AROUND THE TORAH', but it is really a shield. It is a shield that keeps the light within the Law of God from being able to convert the soul. What Origin did to butcher many of the literal concepts of the scripture through the hermeneutical practice of ALLEGORY, Akiba took on to the next level and made the Law of Moses utterly of NONE EFFECT by the introduction of a library of halakic rulings and writings.
Beloved, if the VAIL that Paul spoke of on the hearts of the unbelieving Jewish people had a tangable representation it would be the Oral Law and later the TALMUD. In this condition the only hope for a Jew to receive their Messiah is to see the Glory of God in the lives of genuine Holy Spirit filled people whose life is a very expression of the shekinah. It has been said that to read a mere 'translation' (KJV, NIV, etc.) of the word of God instead of the word in its original tongues is akin to a man kissing his bride through her vail on their wedding day; but if the reality of that were true, then what the Rabbi's have done would be like kissing your bride through the face shield of a motorcycle helmet. Is has NO effect whatsoever.
In our next lesson we will look at the concept "It is not in Heaven."
Notes:
Issues and key words can be used to expand on each of these topics I have introduced. This lesson is extremely truncated and introductory. See previous references for ideas on more sources.
