Article #387
by Bill Nugent
One of my cousins recently asked me to view a podcast video of Aaron Abke. Abke was being interviewed about his spiritual teachings. Abke was raised in a Christian home as the son of an Evangelical pastor. He briefly entered pastoral ministry himself but soon had a crisis of faith and turned away form the Evangelical Christian faith. He embraced eastern religions including Buddhism and Hinduism.
In the interview, Abke claimed that Jesus was an Essene and that Jesus was influenced by eastern religious teachings. The claim that Jesus was an Essene sounds ridiculous but many young people are being deceived. This heresy must be exposed and refuted.
Abke tried to connect eastern religions to the Essenes and to Jesus. However, the Essenes were a Jewish splinter group. They copied and preserved many books of the Old Testament in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It’s highly unlikely the Essenes had any contact with east Asian people or pantheistic religious teachings.
The Essenes
The Essenes were essentially a radical Jewish separatist group. They lived in a monastic style community separate from mainstream Judaism in Qumran by the Dead Sea.
Jesus never mentioned the Essenes by name. Jesus traveled around Judea and Galilee, which is recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament. There’s no mention of Jesus and His disciples traveling to the area of the Dead Sea where the Essenes lived.
The Essenes were separated from the Jerusalem temple and the animal sacrifices offered there. The Essenes did not partake of the benefits of the atoning blood of the animal sacrifices which covered sins and provided the basis for forgiveness of sins in ancient biblical Judaism.
The Essene religion which Aaron Abke described is a religion of self-salvation. It’s a religion in which you develop yourself, develop your righteousness and develop your inner peace without coming to God first to receive forgiveness of sins and receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live right.
The religion which Abke described is antithetical to the Judeo-Christian biblical faith.
The New Testament Gospels contain passages in which Jesus rebuked people who stood in their own righteousness. Jesus said “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, who thought that, by their own intense keeping of every minor command of the law, they would qualify for heaven. The Pharisees claimed to be righteous and so they saw no need of repentance or turning to Jesus. The Pharisees thought they were good in their own sight.
Animal Blood Sacrifices were Substitutionary Atonement
Much of the message of the Abke’s podcast was a rejection of the Old Testament biblical concept of animal blood sacrifice.
Animal blood sacrifice is substitutionary atonement in which the sins of the people were transferred to an animal and the animal was sacrificed and the blood sprinkled on the altar. This is central to biblical Judaism.
The Jewish people were sacrificing animals in accordance with the commandments that were given in the first five books of the Bible called the Torah or the Pentateuch.
I’d like to quote an Old testament verse that refers to substitutionary sacrifice of animals. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).
Jesus Affirmed the Animal Blood Sacrifices
Jesus affirmed the sacrificial system in the temple at Jerusalem. The podcast mentioned that Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables and freed the doves as if He was disapproving of animal sacrifice but that’s not the case. Jesus was disapproving of the financial fraud that was going on in the temple which was overcharging people for sacrificial animals.
In John chapter 4, Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and the woman brought up the subject of the place where the Samaritans worship as opposed to the place where the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem (which was the temple). The temple was where the animal sacrifices were offered.
To answer the woman, Jesus said “salvation is of the Jews”(John 4:22). Notice that He said salvation is “of the Jews.” He didn’t say salvation is of the Essenes in which a person must learn to discipline himself and foster the inner light or any such terminology. Jesus said that salvation, which at that time was before Jesus’ death, was centered in Jerusalem in the temple of the Jews where animals were sacrificed.
“He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23)
Aaron Abke and others who take the position that Jesus was an Essene make the claim that there was a northern branch of Essenes called the Nazarenes. The many references in the scriptures of Jesus being a Nazarene is something they put forward as evidence that Jesus was part of an alleged Nazarene branch of the Essenes.
The Bible in Matthew 2:23 clearly explains why Jesus was called a Nazarene. It’s because when Joseph returned from Egypt “he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth.” Jesus was raised in Nazareth. Anyone from Nazareth would be called a Nazarene.
Matthew 2:23 also asserts that the prophets foretold that He would be called a Nazarene. The term Nazarene is actually a play on words from what is written in Isaiah 11:1 which describes the coming Messiah as being a branch. “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1 NASB).
In other words Jesus is like a living branch of a tree that springs forth and bears fruit. The Hebrew word for branch is “netser” and it’s similar to what is pronounced in the word Nazarene.
It’s like Nazareth in our language would be called “Branchville”. So if the English language was in use at that time they would have called Christ “Jesus of Branchville.”
There is a reference in Acts 24:5 that describes the Christian faith as the “sect of the Nazarenes.“ This is put forward as alleged evidence that Jesus was a member of the northern branch of the Essenes, allegedly called Nazarenes.
When the followers of Christ were few in number and living among the Jewish people they had to distinguish themselves and call themselves something. It’s not any stretch to say they took the name the Nazarenes because they follow Jesus of Nazareth.
In Acts 9:2, and 24:14, Christianity is called simply “the Way.” Nazarene and Way are merely convenient descriptive names.
Jesus is the Ultimate Blood Sacrifice
Jesus came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies. Many of the prophecies, such as the prophecies in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, foretold that he would take the penalty of our sins upon Himself and suffer and die for our sins.
The animal blood sacrifices were commanded by God as a temporary means of atonement until Jesus the Messiah came to Israel. The animal sacrifices were a prophetic picture of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the animal sacrificial system. Since Jesus fulfilled the animal blood sacrificial system, it’s no longer necessary to offer animals in sacrifice. The New Testament does not command animal sacrifice.
Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus referred to His sacrifice for our sins in his teachings in the Gospels. Jesus said, about Himself, that He came “to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Giving His life “as a ransom” is obviously a direct reference to the substitutionary atonement where Jesus would give His life and take the penalty of our sins upon Himself so that we can find forgiveness of sins through Him and obtain entrance into heaven in the afterlife.
Let’s Do Some Good Deeds
I realize that there are passages in the Old Testament that emphasize obedience and good works. In the same way, in the New Testament, there are many passages that emphasize living right and doing good to others and loving thy neighbor as thyself.
The Bible commands us to get right with God through substitutionary atonement and the Bible also commands us to do good works. The apparent discrepancy is resolved when we see that blood atonement is where we start. We receive forgiveness of sins through the atoning death of Jesus. We pray and ask God to forgive our sins on the basis of Christ’s death on our behalf.
We start by receiving Jesus as Savior. We receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts when we receive forgiveness of sins. It is after this conversion experience that we are enabled to do good works for the rest of our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
If you were an Old Testament person living a thousand years before Christ you would receive forgiveness of sins by offering animal sacrifices. In addition to this, you would obey God’s Law and do good deeds.
Peter
The apostle Peter clearly affirmed substitutionary atonement. Peter wrote of Christ: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Peter 2:24 NASB).
Peter also wrote: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18 NASB).
Jesus is the Only Religious Leader Who Actually Saves Us
Only the Judeo-Christian biblical faith has substitutionary atonement. The Judeo-Christian biblical faith is the only religion that has a Savior. Jesus is the Savior who actually saves us from our sins.
Every other man-made religion is essentially teaching people how to save themselves by their own righteousness. That’s the major difference. Jesus fulfilled prophecies and He worked miracles to prove He is the Son of God. The apostles worked miracles in Christ’s name.
Christian people all down through the centuries have worked miracles through the grace of Christ. Even I saw a miracle of healing occur under my own hands in the name of Christ in 1994. The miracles prove that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind.
The religion with the best miracles is the one true religion. The one true religion is Christianity!!
I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive the forgiveness of sins!
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!