Question about Christianity and the resurrection - serious answers please!?

Most Christians don't give people of Jewish faith a "hard time."

Those that do so, do it out of ignorance and bigotry.

To answer the underlying question though, it is those that practiced the Jewish faith that put Christ to death. Regardless of what came of those actions, would you not be upset with a group of people who executed some one you knew?

There are a great number os Jewish people who still don't care much for a German or the German culture because of Hitler. (And on some level, rightfully so.).

I don't know if this helped at all, but I hope so!

Good luck and God Bless!

You have a very question and you're not the first to ask it.

Christianity's problems with the Jews go back to the earliest days of the faith. After Jesus's death (or ascension into heaven) The apostles Paul and James fought over control of the church. James wanted to keep it Jewish and Paul wanted to open it up to the pagan Greeks and Romans. Paul won that battle but then the Jews rejected the Christians in their temples.

Under Roman Law the Jews were exempt from certain obligations in respect it their faith. Christians would claim the same exemptions when it suited them but after 70AD when the Roman Army put down the Jewish revolt and sacked Jerusalem, Christians then distanced themselves from the Jewish community.

Normally the Romans were very tolerant of other religions but Nero in particular disliked the fast growing Christian faith. Some Christian beliefs did threaten the Roman Emperor cult where the emperor was seen as a god on earth and at that point in history the Jews distanced themselves from the Christians so they won't be fed to the lions too. Oddly enough the Christians during the Middle Ages took up a similar idea that their kings and nobility ruled in God's name here on earth.

The problems between Christians and Jews started off as political not necessarily spiritual.

Historically, Christian animosity toward Jews developed for other reasons. For example, in the medieval mind set in which people have their place in society just as the heavenly bodies have their place in the heavens, the phenomenon of Jews in Spain encouraging peasants to organize strikes for higher farm prices just "didn''t fit" that orderly view of the world. And of course Jews continually deviated from societal norms, sometimes disruptively, because such norms were based on a certain religious view of society, a view which Jews did not share.

It was a short step for Christians at the time to trace this rejection of the God-ordered feudal hierarchy back to the Jew's rejection of Jesus as Messiah. Hence, they got labeled "Christ-killers." But I think a case can be made that the real gripe was about contemporary societal issues.

This was a relatively late development in church history. The religious writings from the earliest Christian centuries do not focus on the "guilt" of the Jewish people. (Although there was some animosity early on: the first Christians saw themselves as Jewish, but before too long the Jewish synogogues excommunicated their Christian members. So there was some bitterness there.)

Of course, this attitude of "blaming the Jews" reflects a true ignorance of both history and theology. The way I see the gospels, they tell a 'Jewish story'. To put it in crass terms, the good guys are Jewish and the bad guys are Jewish. (not only were Jesus and his disciples Jewish, but the group of Jews who engineered his arrest did so under cover of night becuase they did not want to anger "the crowd", i..e, the Jewish majority)To call the gospels antisemitic is like labeling an account of the American civil war anti-american.

That's a really good question. I think it is just ignorance. The Romans were the ones who actually killed Jesus although the Jews get the blame for it. I am pretty sure the whole its-all-the-Jews-fault comes from time when Jews were often considered to be evil by many Christians. You are right we should not be upset about it. His death did set in motion the cycle for his resurection.

You're exactly right. There is a strong impulse in human perception to make even the most mythic stories personal and petty. So the metaphysical significance of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ is reduced to soap opera. The point of the manner of Christ's death is the quinessential example of ultimate self-sacrifice, and theologically the culmination of the divine plan to reconcile with humanity. It is not about establishing blame for a personal injury.

Biblically based Christian doctrine states that Christ was "crucified for OUR sins". Essentially WE (Christians) put him on that cross. But this is a daunting accusation, requiring a personal acknowledgement that many "Christians" are uncomfortable making. It is far easier to change the subject and find a "culprit" for the "murder" rather than admit one's own contribution to the evil in the world.

We want to be seen standing with Jesus, cheering him on, not standing back and mocking him by our every selfish act. But "feeling sorry" for Jesus is absolutely NOT the point. The only way we can truly support Jesus in his mission and his agony is to climb up onto our own cross of self-discernment and hang there for a while, realizing that we are responsible for the mess as much as anyone physically present.

Jesus' suffering is a metaphor for what we do to life by drawing back from service to those who need it, superficially evaluating the worth of people, and grasping at the trappings of honor and privilege. Jesus was killed because he was uncompromisingly honest, sincere, authentic. His sacrifice calls us to our own self-sacrifice. And that sacrifice includes abandonment of hubris and false outrage. "The Jews" are peripheral characters in the story. WE are "the Jews".

"Forgive them Father, they don't know what they do," was not a hollow platitude. Jesus was acknowledging and absolving the ignorance and fear that drives most "evil" acts. The Resurrection illustrates that no injury, even death, is unforgivable or unrecoverable. A Christian who does not observe himself enthusiastically participating in the Crucifixion cannot see what the Resurrection truly means.

That is kind of like asking why Hitler was such a bad guy, when the medical experimentation his henchmen perpetrated on Jewish prisoners may have helped advance medical science.

While Christ knew He was coming to die as the atoning sacrifice of mankind, it was the sin of His fellow Jews that brought it about. They were culpable, and they were still murderers of their own Messiah.

But I don't know of any Christians that are so antisemetic as to hate Jews today for the sins of their ancestors. Perhaps you have experienced something like this?

The fact is, the Jews are credited for killing Jesus, because they demanded his crucifixion from the Romans. The Romans did the dirty work, but no person on earth is guiltless in this. Christ died for the Jew and the Gentile. The thing is, while the earliest church was almost entirely comprised of Jews, the official position won out and now the church is comprised mainly of non-Jews (though there are thousands of Jews who do believe in Jesus Christ now, and they do not give up thier ethnic identity). So if there is any antagonism, it may stem from the fact that modern Judaism still rejects Christ, and in so doing exists in a state of condemnation; not from Christians, but from God. Everyone who continues to live in disbelief and rejects God's atonement for their sins (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah, is no better than the ones that nailed Jesus to the cross in the first place. They will wind up in hell because they have rejected peace with God, and on this side of the veil they draw others away from Christ, further compounding their sin. The answer is, be a Jew who receives messiah, despite the self-imposed closed ears and eyes of your relatives.

When you seriously study the Bible, you will see that those few who actually go to heaven (to be kings, priests and judges over the earth - Revelation 5:9,10) will give up their physical bodies. They will then be spirit creatures. The Bible says "flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom." (1 Corinthians 15:50) However, there's no reason to believe that we won't continue in our physical bodies here on earth, because we'll have much work to do after Armageddon. Isaiah 65:21,22 says "They will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full." Also see Psalm 37:10,11,29. Remember, Adam and Eve were created to live on the EARTH. If they hadn't disobeyed, where would they be living today? (Genesis 2:15-17) In heaven, or still on earth? And where would all their decendents be living? (Isaiah 45:18)

The reason for this is because religions like to argue over who has the right beliefs. None is any better than the other. Yes if it wasn't for the story of Jesus we would not have Christianity. But Jesus was born a Jew and practiced Judaism until he left his family as a teenager and traveled to other countries to learn other religions and philosophies. From that point on Jesus was a Gnostic (a constant seeker of truth). People focus too much of Jesus' death. That was not the whole point of the story. It was his teachings before that, that are important. He taught love and equality. He wanted people to be good to themselves and each other and to love God. That's all he wanted. He didn't want to be remembered by the awful death he supposedly had nor did he expect us to worship him out of guilt for his death. He just wanted us to hear his message. Nothing more, nothing less.

Excellent question, but it does have a biblical answer.

Christians who know their Bible know that Christians are NOT to hate the Jews.

Psalms 122:6  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Romans 11:1  I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.

Romans 11:25  . . . blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26  And so all Israel shall be saved:

So why are they almost universally hated? They put themselves under a curse.

Matthew 27:24  When Pilate . . . saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

25  Then answered all the people, and said, HIS BLOOD BE ON US, AND ON OUR CHILDREN.

God allowed their declaration to stand. That nation has been punished at the hands of others ever since. The holocaust is just one example.

And for that reason, some Christians (or so-called Christians) have 'caught' the 'hate the Jews' virus.

Actually, BOTH Jews and gentiles were responsible for the crucifixion. It was Rome that actually did the deed. They could have prevented it.

God knew exactly what the outcome would be which is exactly why all of this happened. So, just because the unintensional outcome is favourable does not make the deed acceptable.

That's like saying it's fine for your son to shoot the neighbour's dog with a pellet gun IF he accidentally hits a tick that would have given the dog tick fever.

Easter by the is not a biblical feast. I don't think Jesus ever knew any giant bunnies who hid chocolate eggs in the garden for the kids