@Rasta Youth
You are asking good questions. Respect.
I would like to offer you a compromise between both positions, as someone who has thoroughly studied both testaments.
1. The "Bible"
The Bible is a library of books. When you call everything "the bible" you are pushing the notion that every book in the library has equal value. For Yeshua and every other Jewish character in the NT, their only "bible" was the "Hebrew Bible". This is called the TNK (TaNaKh) which stands for T (Torah), N (Nevi'im), K (Ketuvim). This makes up the "Old Testament". Even calling it the Old Testament is a little problematic, as I will explain.
As always, anything I say you can look up for yourself.
So if you want to use the same bible Yeshua (Jesus) used then only use the OT as your "BIBLE". However, that's not to say you shouldn't read the NT. Calling it the NT fits into the agenda of Christianity and NO, you should NOT be a Christian, and I'll explain the reason for that too.
Testament is another word for Covenant. It is a promise/agreement. The Hebrews believed that Jah had a covenant with their ancestors and if they followed Torah (The Law) then they would be covered under the same promise. This was the promise by which Jah agreed to be their God and Father and they agreed to be his children and live by his rules. A new covenant was promised in the future and Christians think the NT is a fulfillment of that prophecy. It is not. And this is the same reason why Judaism does not recognize Yeshua (Jesus) as the prophesied Messiah.
The problem with the NT is that there was an agenda which created conflicts of interests. The Israelites were under Roman occupation and had to pay heavy taxes. It was like their whole nation was a single slave of Rome but instead of working for individual Romans, they were all working as one and paying these tax collectors. Tax collectors, like Zacchaeus, were hated as a result.
The promised messiah was foretold to bring world peace and establish Israel as the dominant world power. But Israel was fractured by this point and split into 2 kingdoms. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the Israelites believed that only a new messiah (anointed king of Israel) would be able to unite the 12 tribes and fight against Rome for their independence. Therefore, there were agents trying to make this happen. Judas was likely one such agent; embedded with the disciples in order to see if Yeshua could be used for this purpose. And while it does seem like Yeshua wanted to become this king and talked about what he and his disciples would do in his (earthly/Israel) kingdom, he was sold out to Rome as a rebel leader; guilty of sedition.
The gospel story was then told after he died.
It is very likely this story was politically motivated and circulated in order to create a mythological martyr version of this Jewish Rabbi that could inspire people to fight. But since Paul was involved, and he was educated in Rome, he was able to use their pagan theology to his benefit. I don't know if this is the reason why Yeshua was reported as performing miracles or whether that came from a different faction of pro-Israelite zealots that really didn't include Paul and may have even hated Paul. But you also have to remember, that according to Paul, his name was Saul and he used to hunt down and inform on followers of Yeshua. At some point he stopped; or was he simply ordered to stop? Because at some point the Roman emporer stopped going after "Christians" because this new belief system was affecting too many Romans which was gaining power. So before it hit a tipping point, Constantine "converted" but at the same time he was basically the one who created Christianity.
And it bears his "mark" on it, as well as the "mark" of Rome (The Beast) because Constantine was a sun worshiper and he successfully merged Christianity in with paganism. That's the real reason Christians celebrate pagan holy days (they call holi-days) and pretend like they have something to do with Jesus.
So the whole NT is very questionable and it was twisted in order to support new pagan theology like the Trinity. The Trinity is the central doctrine Christianity created to differentiate itself as a new religion instead of a new sect of Judaism. There should be no question that the only reason to create a new religion instead of a new sect or branch of the existing religion Yeshua was a part of, is because the people who started Christianity wanted full power and control in the hands of the gentiles. If they were under Judaism then they would have been under the authority of the Jews. Creating their own religion allowed them to do their own thing.
The Roman form of Christianity influenced the Ethiopian church that Haile Selassie I was raised in, but it didn't have control over the Ethiopian Church. So if the Roman church went further and further off the deep end they were independent enough not to follow.
Eventually, the zealots got the fight they wanted; that they weren't ready for. They were slaughtered in 70 AD as a result. So Yeshua was used by them, but it didn't work and then Yeshua (as "Jesus") was later used by Christianity to support and promote pagan theology. Outside of being used by groups who claimed to follow him, I believe there was a real man who existed; who was a Jewish rabbi, possibly from the same sect and possibly a student of John the Baptist. But how much of the gospels are actually true and not just propaganda? That, I think, is impossible to know.
Therefore, as long as you understand the NT as a collection of myths and propaganda then you should be okay, because there are good teachings in the NT that are profitable for wisdom and understanding. The NT is probably the closest they came to real spirituality. It's the reason why many people follow laws but don't really understand them. The Hebrews in Yeshua's time were doing the same thing. And so many people actually gave up trying to keep the law, also because the Pharisees added more onto it. That's called Legalism. But the teachings of Yeshua weren't new. They were just well taught by a person that people wanted to use for their agenda. And maybe he did want to king but in the end he was hung as an example, to further break the spirits of The Israelites so they would stay under Roman occupation; which they did. Yeshua was not "THE" Messiah, The Christ, or whatever. He was a good teacher; a master teacher. And he is someone I still follow, love, and respect. But the NT shouldn't be treated as a "bible" or even part of a bible. It should only be treated as rabbinical teachings, lessons(parables), etc.
And as far as being a Christian... by the time Christians were their own new religion, they were no longer following "Christ" but rather other gentile Christians. This is how Christianity fell into idolatry.
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