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POSTED
26 SEPTEMBER, 2005
Is
the Story of Yeshua Pagan?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
Yeshua the Messiah issues a very strong warning to His followers in
Matthew 12:35-37.
He says, “The
good man brings out of his
good treasure
what is good; and the evil man brings out of
his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell
you that every careless word that people speak,
they shall give an accounting for it in the day
of judgment. For by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be
condemned.”
How many of us take these words seriously, and
realize that what we say affects others?
As a Bible teacher, I must be very careful with what I say. James
the Just tells us that as teachers, “we
will incur a stricter judgment”
(James 3:1). Whether this judgment is a positive
one or a negative one is entirely up to us. As
Yeshua admonishes us, the good person brings
forth the good treasure out of his heart. This
good treasure must be that which blesses people
and helps them to grow spiritually. This good
treasure must help people have a better
relationship with God and with one another. This
good treasure must include helping people have a
greater respect for the authority and value of
the Bible. It is the evil person who brings
forth what is evil, that which curses others and
leads them away from the Lord.
Today, many are wondering why there is a sector of individuals in
the Messianic community who have denied Yeshua
and either converted to Judaism, or their own
primitive form of “Yahwism.”[1]
While the reasons vary, one thing that is
occurring in our midst is that idle words have
taken root in the hearts of people, which are
now coming to full fruition. One of the
statements that is made far too frequently among
certain Messianics today is:
“Christianity is
pagan.” This statement, while often said
“innocently” to describe the ills and some
non-Biblical practices of mainstream
Christianity, can cause the naïve and
spiritually unstable person to begin to think
that if the pagans believed something, it must
therefore be rejected.
The problem with this line of reasoning is two-fold: (1) The
problem is not with non-Biblical and
questionable practices in contemporary
Christianity; the problem is rather with the
fact that all of us have strayed from God’s
Word. God’s people have not widely made the
Bible and being Scripturally compliant their top
priority. (2) If you believe that the message of
the Apostolic Scriptures (New Testament) is
“pagan,” you must hold the Tanach (Old
Testament) to the same standard. If you believe
that the story of Yeshua the Messiah and His
resurrection is copied off of pagan myths, then
you also have to believe that the Bible stories
of the Tanach are also borrowed or copied from
the mythology of the Ancient Israelites’
neighbors.
As you can see, this can be a slippery slope—and unfortunately,
there are many people slipping.
End of sample excerpt.
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Confronting Critical Issues
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J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
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