Will the Real Jesus Please Step Forward?

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

Matthew 16:15–16 (LEB)

There is so much confusion surrounding the person, Jesus Christ, to the point that there are multiple versions of Jesus Christ spread throughout Christianity. One could look at Christianity in 2023 as a polytheist religion because of the way each of the thousands of denominations define their own “Jesus Christ”.

Some regard Christianity as a polytheist religion due to the doctrines of the trinity. Polytheism is where members of a religion believe in multiple gods. These people outside of Christianity believe Christians have three gods, where some sects in Christianity view the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three separate gods, similar to other ancient trinities. I am not addressing that situation at all. I am looking at all of the fabricated versions of “Jesus Christ” and defining each version as a separate god. All the thousands of denominations fall under the label “Christianity”, even though the individual denominations many times do not view their counterparts as true Christians.

When one thinks of paganism in a historical framework, the religions of the Greek and Roman gods come to mind. These are polytheistic religions where there are many gods that are paid homage by their patrons.

Britannica.com definition of paganism:

paganism, Christian term used to designate those religions that do not worship the God of Abraham, the figure central to both Christianity and to other Abrahamic religions like Judaism and Islam. Christians have used the terms paganism and pagan, which typically carry pejorative connotations, to draw clear distinctions between themselves and those who they believe are worshipping false gods.

Do Christians today worship the God of Abraham? I would argue that they mostly do not. There are stipulations in order to worship a god, especially the Creator God of Abraham, Yahuah, who told us to declare His name by the four Hebrew letters, Yod, Heh, Waw, Heh. The Creator told Isaac, son of Abraham, the world would be blessed through his offspring because Abraham “listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Genesis 26:4–5 (LEB): And I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these lands. And all nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring, because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

The Father told the people at Mount Horeb, in an audible voice, what they must do to worship Him .

Exodus 20:4–6 (LEB): ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a divine image with any form that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth below or that is in the water below the earth. ⁵ You will not bow down to them, and you will not serve them, because I am Yahweh your God, a jealous God, punishing the guilt of the parents on the children on the third and on the fourth generations of those hating me, ⁶ and showing loyal love to thousands of generations of those loving me and of those keeping my commandments.

If we examine Christianity today, we can conclude that for the most part, no one is keeping the commandments of the God of Abraham, thus by default, putting them into the pagan classification by the definition of paganism. Paganism: “Christian term used to designate those religions that do not worship the God of Abraham“. A Roman pagan from antiquity would feel at home at most Christian assemblies, and wonder who this new “Jesus” god is, especially when we look at all of the borrowed traditions, symbolism and holidays of Christianity from the ancient religions of Babylon and Rome.

Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” when Jesus asked “Who do you say that I am?”. Due to all the misrepresentations of Jesus, I prefer to use his Hebrew name, Yeshua, to ensure we are talking about the real Messiah. Peter called him the “Christ”.

Matthew 16:15–17 (LEB): ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ And Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

In these verses it shows that Jesus was pleased that the Father revealed to Peter that he was the Christ and the Son of God. What is a “Christ”? The following is from the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology :

Χριστός G5986 (Christos), Christ; χρίω G5987 (chriō), spread, (in biblical Gk.) anoint; Μεσσίας G3549 (Messias), Messiah.

Christ is derived via the Lat. Christus from the Gk. Christos, which in the LXX and the NT is the Gk. equivalent of the Aram. mešîḥā’. This in turn corresponds to the Heb. māšîaḥ and denotes someone who has been ceremonially anointed for an office (→ Anoint).

From this definition, we get the term Messiah, and someone that is anointed for an office, given for the definition of “Christ”. From other places in scripture we can gather that Yeshua is the anointed King and Priest similar to the Melchizedek king and priest of Salem.

Hebrews 5:8–10 (LEB): ⁸ Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, ⁹ and being perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey him, ¹⁰ being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Andrew uses the word Messiah referring to Yeshua in John’s account.

John 1:40–42 (LEB): ⁴⁰ Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. ⁴¹ This one first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated “Christ”). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, “You are Simon the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is interpreted “Peter”).

Messiah is the Hebrew word “mashiach” meaning someone anointed, to anoint someone, to smear, or spread oil over. Therefore, when Peter declared Yeshua to be the “Christ” and Son of the living God, they were not just speaking about any random person that was anointed for some random office. They knew this was the Elect One that had been prophesied to come. Enoch is a book that was found in the dead sea scrolls along side the oldest copy of Genesis that we have. The disciples of Yeshua quoted from this book and were well aware of its contents. The following is from the R.H. Charles translation of the book of Enoch:

XLIX. The Power and Wisdom of the Elect One.
CHAPTER XLIX.

l. For wisdom is poured out like water,
And glory faileth not before him for evermore.

2. For he is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness,
   And unrighteousness shall disappear as a shadow,
   And have no continuance;
   Because the Elect One standeth before the Lord of Spirits,
   And his glory is for ever and ever,
   And his might unto all generations.
3. And in him dwells the spirit of wisdom,
   And the spirit which gives insight,
   And the spirit of understanding and of might,
   And the spirit of those who have fallen asleep in righteousness.
4. And he shall judge the secret things,
   And none shall be able to utter a lying word before him;
   For he is the Elect One before the Lord of Spirits according to His good
   pleasure.

We see similar language in Isaiah.

Isaiah 11:1–5 (LEB): 11 And a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit. ² And the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him— a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. ³ And his breath is in the fear of Yahweh. And he shall judge not by his eyesight, and he shall rebuke not by what he hears with his ears. ⁴ But he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and he shall decide for the needy of the earth with rectitude. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and he shall kill the wicked person with the breath of his lips. ⁵ And righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

Messiah Yeshua, the Elect and Anointed One from the Lord of Spirits, who is the creator God and Father, told us he did not come with his own agenda and that he only did what he saw the Father do and only said what he heard the Father say.

John 12:48–50 (LEB): ⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and does not accept my words has one who judges him; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. ⁴⁹ For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So the things that I say, just as the Father said to me, thus I say.”

By telling us this, we can conclude that everything Yeshua says must be in agreement with what the Father has said through His prophets. We can identify the fake Jesus Christ figures by seeing how they align with the words from God. After all, Yeshua is called the Word of God and only delivers this message. He is the way and the truth which is the same as the way and truth of the laws of God. Yeshua is the manifestation of the instructive words of his Father.

John 14:6 (LEB): ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 86:11 (LEB): ¹¹ Teach me, O Yahweh, your way, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.

Psalm 119:150–152 (LEB): ¹⁵⁰ Those who pursue a wicked purpose draw near; they are far from your law. ¹⁵¹ You are near, O Yahweh, and all your commands are truth. ¹⁵² Concerning your testimonies, I knew long ago that you have established them forever.

Psalm 18:30 (LEB): ³⁰ This God—his way is blameless. The word of Yahweh is flawless. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Any “Jesus Christ” that does not align with the Father’s ways can therefore be labelled as a different god (“gods of others”, literally). So then, we can now see how each denomination of Christianity has different versions of Jesus Christ. Some say Jesus declared unclean animals fine to eat when the Father said “be holy for I am holy”. Some say Jesus changed the Sabbath to Sunday from the seventh day. Others say every day is the Sabbath because we rest in Jesus now. Those versions of Jesus cannot be Yeshua.

Exodus 31:12–17 (LEB): ¹² And Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, ¹³ “And you, speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, in order to know that I am Yahweh, who consecrates you. ¹⁴ And you must keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; defilers of it will surely be put to death, because anyone who does work on it—that person will be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ On six days work can be done, and on the seventh _⌊is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy day for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death. ¹⁶ The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.”

Some will say, “I am not an Israelite, so those verses do not apply to me. I am a gentile Christian!”. However, there is no such thing as a “gentile Christian”. One is either a gentile, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, or brought near to God and His covenants of promise through the Messiah. As we just read, the Sabbath is part of the lasting covenant.

Ephesians 2:11–13 (LEB): ¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ.

We could go on and on about the characteristics of the different versions of Jesus in the Christian religion today. We have some more progressive versions of Jesus that condone same-sex marriage, while others would have Jesus wearing two six shooters like someone from the wild west. We have the King James only Jesus and the social media Jesus that loves everyone, despite their unwillingness to repent.

This is the reason Christianity could be labelled a polytheistic religion. It does not matter if the sect says they follow Jesus Christ if they assign a different identity to him, other than his own. If their version of Jesus Christ disagrees with the ways and truth of the Creator, it is not Messiah Yeshua. Each version of Jesus Christ could have a different name, just as other religions have Buddha, Mohammad, and Hare Krishna.

John 4:19–24 (LEB): ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, that an hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But an hour is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for indeed the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and the ones who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Yeshua’s function was to enable people like the adulterous woman from Samaria to return to the Father. The Samaritans were part of the northern kingdom of Israel that had been divorced from the Father due to adultery with gods of others. They were in the same standing as the rest of the people from “the nations”, labelled as gentiles, after He issued them a certificate of divorce.

Jeremiah 3:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, “Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted herself there. ⁷ And I thought, ‘After her doing all these things to me she will return,’ but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ And I saw that _⌊for this very reason, that_⌋ on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also.

Worship in spirit and truth by searching the scriptures for the real Messiah Yeshua for yourself. Do not be content in one of the thousands of sects of Christianity with their every changing versions of “Jesus Christ”.