Top Reasons Why My Family and I don’t believe in the Christian Messiah

It has certainly been an interesting journey over these past few months since coming to the belief that Jesus is not the Messiah. While I initially had doubts, because it is vastly different than what I was taught in Church, I now 1000% believe that Jesus is not god or the promised messiah of the Hebrew scriptures. 

My family and I all came to this belief for different reasons and because of that, I believe that writing these reasons in a blog post would be helpful to anyone who is on a similar path. It’s all of our “ah-ha” moments that lead us to be sure that Jesus is not the messiah or god. Some might resonate with you or they might cause you to think about this issue differently which is always good! 

I know for me these weren’t things I thought about as a Christian, by now that I’m not in Christianity they make so much sense to me. I think it’s mostly because I didn’t have a firm understanding of the Hebrew Bible and whenever I did read it – I mostly read the Hebrew bible even as a Christian, I read it through the lens that Jesus was the Messiah. I saw, like you probably do as well, that everything was a type and shadow and that everything pointed back to Jesus. All the feast days, sabbath, circumcision, Israel as a nation, etc, etc, everything pointed back to Jesus -who was the most important part of our lives. The only part of our lives that truly mattered. 

There’s this quote that says – “Only what’s done for Christ will last.” -C.T. Studd. This is how we were taught to believe. Not what’s done for the Father for Elohim is what will last, but what’s done for Jesus is what’s most important. 

But now since coming out of Christianity entirely, reading the Hebrew scriptures without that Christological lens of Jesus, everything makes soooo much more sense. Scriptures in the Hebrew Bible that speak plainly I can see that they are plain and they don’t point to a New Testament Messiah but only to Yahweh. 

No one besides Elohim

Isaiah 45: 5 – 6: “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.”

It is positively awe-striking how many times Elohim says that there is no one beside him. One of the first commandments is that there is one God and that we are not to have any gods beside him or before his face(Exodus 20: 1 – 3; Deuteronomy 5:6; ). This issue was one of the main reasons that the Hebrews were repeatedly overtaken by their enemies and eventually taken captive and scattered across the earth because we repeatedly worshipped other gods instead of Elohim and/or in addition to Elohim. 

In Christianity, we are taught to worship Jesus alongside the Father. So much so, that we were taught to believe in, trust in, and pray to Jesus much more than the Father. I believe this is idolatry because we are trusting and believing in someone in addition to Elohim, which he forbade us to do(Exodus 34: 14; Deuteronomy 6: 14-15). The doctrine of the Trinity is also in direct opposition to the Torah and Elohim. 

The NT also teaches us that Jesus is the expressed image of the Father(Hebrew 1: 1-3; Colossians 1:15 – 16), however, In Deuteronomy 4: 15 – 16 God tells us that when he appeared to the Hebrews at Mount Sinai he purposefully didn’t show us his form because he didn’t want us to make an image of it and start to worship it. Why then would he 1500 years later come down to earth inside a body that we could then make into an image and start to worship? That was what he didn’t want us to do. 

Human sacrifice

Ezekiel 18 : 4: “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 21 But if the wicked will turn from his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”

There are many debates about this issue, but the bottom line is God hates human sacrifice. He punished us severely because of it – a very famous example is King Manasseh. One of the many things that Manasseh did wrong was causing his children to pass through the fire – child sacrifice (2 Chronicles 33: 6). Elohim never required human sacrifices of his people and hated it whenever it was done (Jeremiah 7: 31; 19:5; Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 12: 31; 8:10; 2 Kings 16: 2 – 4).

A few arguments that many Messianics point to as the Bible supporting human sacrifice are:

A high priest dies so the accidental murderer can return to his home (Numbers 35:22-28 ). The high priest had to die before a person who committed murder could return to his home without being killed by the avenger of blood. This is not a sacrifice because he was a man and not an animal and he died of old age or whatever else and not on the altar. A perfect sacrifice to God had to be just that, perfect without blemish, an animal and killed in a particular way. The high priest dying before the person who killed someone accidentally didn’t count as performing a sacrifice, but it was the necessary action for this person to return home in peace. It was a time period, almost like being in jail for a period of time. He couldn’t leave until the time was up, not because the death of the high priest “paid” for his release.

Phineas and the Midianites (Numbers 25: 1 – 13). When Phineas killed the man and woman and the plague stopped in Israel, many cite that this was a human sacrifice because the plague stopped and others were helped because of their deaths. This wasn’t a human sacrifice because that man and woman lead the people to sin and we were supposed to die as per the Torah(Deuteronomy 13: 12-14). The plague stopped among the nation of Israel because the sin was stopped – aka the people who caused the people to sin were dead so the plague stopped. Also, plagues were often sent by God when the Hebrews were disobedient to his commandments(Exodus 32: 35; Deuteronomy 28: 59; ), so it’s reasonable that once the reason for the disobedience was stopped (i.e. the man and woman who helped to lead Israel to sin were killed) the plague was stopped as well.

Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11: 29 – 40). Jephthah sacrificed his daughter in order to keep a vow to Elohim. This is a really sad story and one that I don’t like reading, but God never commanded Japtheth to sacrifice his daughter, and he probably didn’t want him to either. Just because he did it doesn’t mean that God accepted it or was happy about it. It just happened. 

Abraham almost sacrificed Issac (Genesis 22: 1 – 14). Again we don’t know why God asked this of Abraham. But at the end of the day, it was a test and God forcibly didn’t allow Abraham to actually sacrifice Issac. Because of this, this story shouldn’t be cited as a case where human sacrifice was required or accepted, because if Abraham did go against God and sacrifice Isaac anyway, God would not have accepted it. 

New Testament contradicts the Old Testament

As I’ve covered before in this post the NT directly and blatantly contradicts the OT, a few examples are 

Change in the priesthood. The Aaronic priesthood was changed to the Melchizedek priesthood through Jesus even though God said many times (Number 25:12 – 13; Deuteronomy 18: 5; Exodus 40: 12- 15;) that the Levitical priesthood would be forever. On top of this Jesus is supposed from the tribe of Judah a tribe that wasn’t allowed to perform sacrifices (2 Chronicles 26: 16 – 20), it was only the priests through Aaron’s lineage who could perform any sacrifices in the temple. 

Perpetual atonement. This was never something that could be achieved in the Levitical priesthood. And it wasn’t something that God said could be achieved at all. 

Atonement on behalf of others. God never allowed someone else to bring a sacrifice on behalf of others or take the punishment of another. He said that everyone would be accountable and responsible for their own sins. Our sins were completely atoned for on Yom Kippur, outside of this day our sins are forgiven through repentance through prayer and following the commandments in the absence of a temple(Exodus 32: 31 33; Deuteronomy 24: 16; Ezekiel 14: 14 – 20; Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 18: 10 – 12; Jeremiah 7:31; Ezekiel 23: 37 – 38 ). 

Gospel writers were not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

These were not Hebrews and they didn’t write these books. It is a known fact among bible scholars that the authors who wrote these books were not the disciples of Jesus. We don’t know who they are, their backgrounds, or anything. 

(Catholic Identity “Who wrote the Gospels and when?“)

(Jews for Judaism “The New Testament Some Call it Jewish“)

(NPR “Jesus and the Hidden Contradictions of the Gospels“)

Most of what we know about the NT is that it was put together hundreds of years later by church fathers. They were Greeks, Romans, Italians, etc. They were not Hebrews, and nor did they respect us or our scriptures. They were notoriously against the Hebrews and spoke very disfavorably towards our people. God gave his oracles to his people (Deuteronomy 7: 6 – 8; 14: 2) and not the Greeks or the Romans. Because of this, why should we listen to these men who were not the chosen people and who were not even in favor of the Hebrew scriptures, but changed and altered them to their liking? 

The NT books were written from fragments, that were later pieced together so how is it the irritant word of God?

United Church of God (“The Surprising Origins of the Trinity Doctrine“)

Ehrman Blog (New Testament Manuscripts: Good New and Bad News)

Wikipedia (Rylands Libray Papyrus P52)

Constantine orders Christians not to associate with Jews (Wikipedia “Constantine the Great and Judaism“).

Constantine on the Keeping of Easter (CCEL “On the Keeping of Easter“)

Yashanet (“Anti-Semitism of the Church Fathers“)

God is silent in the New Testament 

This is a side point, but isn’t interesting that Elohim doesn’t say anything in the NT except to confirm this NT messiah? (Matthew 3: 17; 17:5) He doesn’t have a word of wisdom, admonishments, praises, instructions, or anything except in relation to Jesus, which his very presence is in violation of the Torah, and if God truly did confirm Jesus as his son and our savior, Elohim would be violating his own laws. God forbid! 

It is troubling that Elohim is silent in the NT, because in the Hebrew Bible he spoke quite a bit. The prophets were always conveying the words of Elohim to the Hebrews. We hear mostly from Paul, who doesn’t say “thus says the Lord” and is preaching a different commandment, a different set of rules, laws, and beliefs than the Hebrew Scriptures a few are:

Confirming Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 16: 15 – 17; Acts 2: 31- 38; )

Saying circumcision is unnecessary (Galatians 5: 2 – 6; 11 – 12)

Says we must partake in communion (Matthew 26: 26 – 29; Mark 14: 22 – 25; 1 Corinthians 10: 16- 17; 11: 24 – 29)

Says that forgiveness of sins must be preceded by the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9: 14; 22; )

Says everything is a type and shadow that points to Jesus(1 Corinthians 10: 1 – 6; Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2: 16 – 17) – even though everything had its own meanings (Genesis 17: 9- 14; Exodus 12: 14; 20: 8 – 11; Deuteronomy 5: 15; Leviticus 11: 44 – 47). 

God also never told us to worship someone else that will come in his name. 

This ties into the first reason, but God never told us that there would be someone who would come to earth in his name that we needed to worship. On the contrary! He says many many many times that He was the only God, the only Savior and that there wasn’t anyone besides Him(Isaiah 43:11; 44:5-8; 45: 21 – 22; 46:9 ). 

His ‘sacrifice’ was done in a manner that wasn’t proscribed by God

How was the temple sacrifice supposed to be done? There were to be performed by the priests – the sons of Aaron at the temple. A spotless and blemish-free animal was to be brought and it was slaughtered on the altar for the sins of the people or the person who brought it (Leviticus 16). 

This wasn’t how Jesus was killed. The Church told us that he was the perfect sacrifice for all mankind, but he wasn’t killed in the manner that God told us how to bring sacrifices.

Instead…it was done by Romans – who weren’t levitical priests, he was beaten which wasn’t the manner of sacrifice that God wanted to be presented to himself, and it wasn’t on the altar in the tabernacle. This was not an acceptable sacrifice by God strictly going by his commandments in the Torah. 

In the Church, we were always told that everything was a type and shadow, that the holy spirit needed to reveal everything to us, or that there were secrets in the Bible that needed to be sought out. While there are hard things that we don’t understand about the Bible, God said that he spoke plainly, that he didn’t speak in secret and that he never told Jacob to seek out vanity(Isaiah 45: 19).

In conclusion…

So, therefore, if we are supposed to believe in Jesus as our lord and savior, that we will be doomed to eternal hellfire, and condemnation if we don’t – why wasn’t it clear? Why do we have to dig for shadows, signs, and symbols in the Hebrew Scriptures? If God told us everything else in crystal clear detail, in repetition like the sabbath, like keeping the commandments, like turning from wickedness and repenting and worshiping Him alone, why would He leave something so big, so important to our souls and our very eternity up to types, shadows, and symbols???? 

When God gave Moses the High holidays, details about Sabbath and what to do and what not to do, the instructions for building the tabernacle, He didn’t give them once, or twice, but He gave them time, after time, after time. He went into great detail – painful detail at times, because He is a great God and a detailed God, a clear God. He wanted us to understand the importance of Shabbat and how to keep it and what the penalty was for not keeping it, as with everything else. 

If God truly wanted us to worship someone other than himself – he would have said so… and very clearly at that. But he didn’t, instead, he said over and over again that he was the only God, that there wasn’t anyone beside him, and for us to only worship him alone. Because he is the only one who can save, deliver, and make alive. Shalom.