No 12

(Judaism Y )

Judaism is one of the oldest religions of the world; actually, it is the oldest, not counting idol worship or satanic activity. It is the first religion that taught mono-theism (one God). It began with Abraham who was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and told by God to go from there to a place He would tell him – “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:” (Gen 12:1, 2). God lived up to His part of the promise; however, the Jews didn’t. Judaism is a very moral religion with customs and rituals dating back to early Biblical times. The Jews we see today are a far cry from the ones we read about in the Bible; mind you, they’re both stiff-necked and rebellious but in a different manner – in Biblical times they were idolatrous; today they are self-righteous.

The Torah or the Pentateuch and the writings of rabbis over the centuries compiled in book called the Talmud are the main sources of their law. There are different branches of Judaism – the Orthodox, the Reformed, the Conservative; just to name a few. There is no one person as head of Judaism; each local congregation chooses its own rabbi. Worship takes place in the individual homes and in the synagogues. The closest religion to Judaism is ours – the born-again Evangelical Christians who believe in the same God.