Quote (WiseBlood @ May 29 2016 07:29am)
Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
5:19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Luke 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one dot of the Law to become void.
The fact of the matter is that all mainstream Christian groups affirm both the Old and New Testament as canon. The Church fought off any attempts to “throw away the Old Testament”. In the second century of Christianity, Marcion of Sinope rejected the Old Testament because of the violence, war atrocities, and genocide contained therein. He was denounced by the Church, and his views towards the Old Testament were officially damned as heresy. Tertullian, the Father of Western Christianity, issued a rebuttal against Marcion.
Marcionism. Marcionism owed its existence to Marcion, an individual who gained popularity in Rome in 140-144. His theology was influenced heavily by the Gnostics, and he denied the power of the God of the Old Testament. He promulgated the use of a limited form of the New Testament, including Luke’s Gospel and Acts, and many of the Pauline epistles, the former since Luke was a Gentile and the latter since he was sent to preach to the Gentiles. He found the God of the Old Testament contradictory and inhumane. The “orthodox” Christianity of the time rejected his argumentation, upheld the value of the Old Testament, and dutifully began the work of canonization of the Old and New Testaments. The specter of Marcion loomed large enough so as to merit refutation by Tertullian at the end of the second century; nevertheless, Marcion’s movement mostly died out or assimilated into other Gnostic groups.
jesus himself kept the commandments of the Torah and never said anything about getting rid of them, just the opposite as youve said. no jew of the time would have accepted him if he had, and that was his target - jews. it was only later when paul sought to convert non-jews that he did away with keeping the commandments in order to make it easier for them. as has been the case with christianity throughout the centuries - it constantly changes and adapts new things (like christmas trees, etc) in order to make whoever theyre trying to get to convert more comfortable. ironically, the modern jews for jesus, which targets jews and therefore adopts jewish practices in order to make them more comfortable, is probably the closest thing to christianity in the times of jesus.
but good luck convincing modern christians of that. (its been hashed out here before, btw.) theyre too sure that their religion which has been reshaped and remolded dozens of times is the truth. nevermind that jesus would have no clue what theyre doing and would be totally against it.