Most people think that Jesus was the inventor of high moral teachings like “You shall love your neighbor like yourself” and “If somebody hits you on one cheek, turn the other cheek” However, he was just quoting the Jewish teachings. In the Torah, given by G.d to the Jewish people, it is written in Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” –
Look what is written in Lamentations 3:30: “He giveth his cheek to the one that smiteth him.” So these teachings are not coming from Jesus, but from Judaism.
Jesus says: “Love your enemies”. Judaism says: “If you meet your enemy’s ass or ox, going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the ass of him that hateth you lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, you shall surely help him.” Exodus 23:4-5.
Jesus says: “You have heard that it has been said: you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” Matthew 5:43. It is a Jewish commandment to love your neighbor, but is absolutely not a Jewish commandment to hate your enemy. Instead Judaism says: “If your enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he be thirsty give him water to drink, for you shall heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD (Y-H-W-H) shall reward you.” Proverbs 25:21-22. This statement is later used by Paul, in Romans 12:20.
From this we see that all the high ethical teachings come from Judaism, therefore we don’t need Jesus or Christianity in order to live according to high moral standards.
And did Jesus himself live up to these standards? He says in Matthew 5:22: “And whosoever shall say to his brother Raca (a not translated Aramaic term, meaning fool) shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say: You fool, shall be in danger of hellfire.” And how does he speak about his fellow Jews, the Pharisees? He calls them hypocrites (Matthew 23:13), fools and blind (idem:17-19), full of all uncleanness (idem:27), and serpents, a generation of vipers (idem:33). So he did not really live up to his own teachings, and, according to his own teachings, he brought himself into danger of hellfire.
And what about turning the other cheek? After his arrest, during his interrogation, an officer struck him. Did he meekly turn the other cheek? No. He protested. John 18:22-23 —The prophet Isaiah however, did give his cheeks to his abusers: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked of the hair: I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6
Jesus said (Matthew 10:34) “Don’t think that I come to send peace on the earth, I came not to send peace but a sword.” But this is not the messiah the Jews are waiting for. In the messianic days the wolf and the lamb must feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpents meat (Isaiah 65:25). We already have an abundance of swords, wars and misery on earth. We don’t need a messiah who brings more misery.
Jesus taught not to take revenge but to love your enemy. But when he was on the road, hungry, and came to a fig tree and found no figs on it, he cursed it and it died right away. Matthew 21:18-19 Is this an attitude of loving-kindness? In Mark 11:13 we can read that it was not even the season for figs. What did the poor fig tree do wrong to deserve such a fate?
In Luke 19:27 Jesus says: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”-
This surely is a very strange way of loving your enemies. This statement was a motivation for the crusaders to slaughter many Jewish communities.
Another poor example of loving your enemies is John 15:6 : “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and man gather them together and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”— This terrible statement is later used by the Catholic Church to justify their practice of burning Jews alive at the stake.
From all this we learn that even for Christ it was difficult to be a good Christian.
Now let us take a closer and open-minded look at The present status quo of the Christian churches.