Why Were the First ‘Christians’ Jews?

   Athanatos Christian Ministries is hosting its second annual festival August 3-5, in Greenwood, Wisconsin.  The festival will have all the kinds of things that festivals have (like live music) but it will also have something new and unique: a dramatic re-enactment of the trial and death of Jesus, called “The Passion Experience.”

   It is not commonly known that the first Christians were Jews.  It is not commonly understood why this fact is significant.  Attending “The Passion Experience” will help explain everything.

   The first century Jews were fiercely monotheistic, guarding their religious purity with intense fervor.  This led to many violent confrontations with the Romans, who ruled them.  For a modern perspective, consider the many Muslims who would literally kill you if you claimed to be God or slandered Mohammed.  First century Jews were just like that, leading to the Romans finally getting fed up in 70 A.D. and utterly destroying the nation of Israel.

How is it possible that a people that believed that there was only one God, and were willing to kill or die for that belief, could come to accept that a man claiming to be God, was God?

   There are many reasons.  Two of them that will be brought out in “The Passion Experience” concerns the anointing of Jesus and Jesus&rsq ...

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