By Theodore Shoebat

I have always wondered why the Apostles spent so much of their time fighting the Judaizers, and why the they all gathered together at the Council of Jerusalem just to condemn those who said you needed to be circumcised in order to have attain salvation. Through modern eyes, these heretics would be seen as harmless people who need love and prayer, but the Apostles did not tolerate them, and condemned them. The Apostles worked very hard to refute them, with a substantial amount of the New Testament addressing the Judaizers. I did a video on this:

Why did God inspire St. Luke, when he was writing the Book of Acts, to recount how the Apostles conveyed a meeting just to condemn the Judaizers. It is in sacred Scripture, and we cannot just look at the story as a mere historical even, but as holy history that has eternal applications and significances. I would argue that the Council of Jerusalem was the most important council in the Church’s history. Why? Because Judaizing in the template of all heresy.

Islam is a judaizing cult, that demands that its male followers get circumcised and not eat pork. In his book, Memoirs of a Janissary, Konstantin Mihailovic, a former Muslim and Janissary of the 15th Century explains the Judaizing aspects of Islam:

These same [Muslims] hold the books of Moses but conduct themselves according to the accursed Koran, that is, the scripture of Muhammad, and believe one Lord God Creator of heaven and earth. …They practice circumcision. They do not eat pork. (Konstantin Mihailovic, Memoirs of a Janissary, ch. 1, trans. Benjamin Stolz, ellipses and brackets mine)

Mormons and Muslims practice polygamy because Muhammad and Joseph Smith took the stories of Old Testament figures having multiple wives and made the practice into a commandment. Thus is judaizing.

David Koresh and his evil followers all followed Saturday Sabbath, and the whole Adventist cult follows the Saturday Sabbath. David Koresh actually did an entire sermon on why God will destroy everyone who does not follow the Saturday Sabbath and observe Easter. Koresh taught all of the false conspiracy theories of how Easter and Christmas were pagan holidays invented by Nimrod. What is disturbing is how many Protestants will actually agree with the heretical and conspiratorial theology of David Koresh:

Muslims, Adventists, and all of the Judaizers condemn Easter and Christmas as pagan. This is the spirit of Judaizing. They take the verse from the Old Testament about not having graven images, isolate it, and falsely apply it to crosses, crucifixes, Christmas trees, and other Christian icons and symbols. They never mention the fact, that while God did tell Moses never to make graven images, He did command Moses to make statues of angels:

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. (Exodus 25:17-19)

This verse indicates that when God prohibits graven images He is referring to pagan images, not images of holy things, like angels and crosses.

The severe danger of judaizing is indicated by how much the Apostles fixated their time on it, more so even than paganism (and pagans killed Paul and Peter).

On the Council of Jerusalem, St. Luke tells us:

Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” (Acts 15:6-11)

St. Paul went so far as to say, concerning the Judaizers,

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! (Philippians 3:1-8)

St. Paul also warns not to let the Judaizers judge us on sabbaths, new moons, or Jewish feasts:

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)

Christ Himself told Peter to no longer calls food prohibited by the Law unclean, as we read in Acts:

The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”

But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”

And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. (Acts 10:9-16)

Some will argue that the command was applied only to Jews sitting and meeting with gentiles, since after Peter had dinner with the gentile Cornelius, and the Jews objected saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:3), Peter recounted the vision to them.

But we cannot ignore the fact that Christ presented food prohibited by Jewish law to Peter and commanded him to eat, and then declared, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” And also, the Jews objected to Peter by saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:3). Notice how they say “ate,” indicating that Peter ate the food of the gentiles. Did Cornelius keep kosher? Did he have food based on Jewish law? No, he was a European. But Peter had no problem with both eating with him, and eating his food.

So it is obvious the command of Christ applied to both food and meeting with gentiles.

If Christ Himself said to no longer call the prohibited foods unclean, this shows how much we should worry against any teaching that wants to enforce dietary laws.

Why all of this attention in the New Testament against the Judaizers? Because Judaizing is the template of all heresy. Islam is judaizing, Mormonism is judaizing, Adventism is judaizing, and all the rest of the heresies have elements of judaizing. Judaizing is the most dangerous heresy to have come into existence.

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