Was Jesus A Pharisee? Is Spiritual Israel Synonymous With Judaism?

I recently replied on a Nazarene-Judaism forum to a person who attempted to portray Yeshua/Jesus as a Pharisee (see Netzarim - Jews? Christians? Or Judas Reborn?).   My reply holds an important statement of reality that is just as relevant to Netazrim or Messanic Judaism, as it is Christianity.

You are teaching others to go and learn from other men -- ignoring and throwing out the very essential spiritual tenets of the teachings of Yeshua and TheWay.    In the words of Ya'kov (James?): "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).     And in these words is embodied one of the primary teachings of the New Covenant that has been discarded and rejected by Christians and Jews alike.   Now of course if you feel that Shmuley Boteach or Hyman Maccoby  knows more about the teachings of his brother, the historical man Yeshua, then you are keeping company with the spiritually disenfranchised such as Martin Luther who portrayed this Epistle as being one of "straw".    But Martin Luther was merely expressing his condition of profound ignorance from which Protestantism was born during the Reformation -- Shmuley Boteach and Hyman Maccoby were peddling their books as a source of gaining mammon -- but what is your excuse?    Do you really think that Yeshua was a member of a sect which he portrayed as the "offspring of the Devil"? -- i.e., "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:43-44 NKJ).

The foregoing words were spoken just after Yeshua said to the Jews who had become his followers: Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him: "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you" (John 8:31-32 TheMessage) -- and once again, neither Christian or Jew understand even these words which are of the utmost importance.   Yeshua didn't say that they would believe the truth -- or that they would discern what they believed would be dogmatic truth out of the scriptures or some book written by other men -- but rather, Yeshua conveyed to them that if they follow in TheWay, that they "...will experience for yourselves the truth, ...and it is this SELF-EXPERIENCED TRUTH that ...will free you" from the error and ignorance that consumes the people of this world -- and especially the blind guides who portray themselves as rabbis and teachers.  

The teachings of Yeshua and TheWay are representative of a purely spiritual path.   By properly applying the Key of Knowledge -- and transforming one's own self into the Final Temple -- the objective of these teachings was to enter the Inner Kingdom through the "narrow strait gate" (see http://GateOfEden.com ) and learn directly from the One Teacher that the Original Ebionite Nazirenes called The True Prophet.   But, the carnal Jews who had been slain by the "letter that killeth" (see Spiritual Defeat) -- as well as the vast majority of the Gentiles who were too heathen and pagan in their thinking to comprehend and embrace a purely spiritual religion -- continued to interpret the Gospel teachings in accord with their spiritually disenfranchised mindset and thinking.   

Quoting the opening of An Inconvenient Truth: Who was Jesus?  Man, Myth or God?   Theologian Albert Schweitzer suggested that there will never be one answer to that question.   He said that looking for Jesus in history is like looking down a well: You see only your own reflection.  The “real” Jesus, Schweitzer says, will remain “a stranger and an enigma”.   You portray the historical Yeshua as a "learned Pharisee", because that is your own image that you see when looking down the proverbial well.   And in the same way, others see a man, a myth, and even a god -- and they too are looking down their own dogmatic well.   But it is because of the  Key of Knowledge and the teaching that (as the lost prodigal son) each and every person has the innate ability to enter the Inner Kingdom and learn the Truth that will set them free from the dark error of this world, that Ya'kov warned that those who portray themselves as teachers -- when a True Guide and Shepherd conveys to the seeker how to enter the presence and learn directly from the True Teacher -- and why these pseudo-teachers and counterfeit shepherds ...will be judged more strictly"  

What this means is that these words now apply to you -- i.e., "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin"  (John 15:22).   Why do you no longer have a cloak if you continue to sin knowingly?   Because at the above links the original teachings of Yeshua have been restored, and the path to proving the Truth that sets a seeker free is no longer shrouded in dogmatic folly.   Quoting from The Third Fatal Mistake - Not Proving The Truth:  While the Christians, like the Jews before them who threw away the Key of Knowledge, look for the Kingdom to come outwardly upon the earth, the Gospel itself states that the Kingdom will never come upon the earth, because it is within you -- and it is therein that you must seek it: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, See here! or, see there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21).   If it is true and the Kingdom is within you, then the question that Christians should be asking, is how must it be entered?   The answer is the proper application of the Key of Knowledge by turning the scriptures within your own mind and being -- i.e., "How terrible it will be for you experts in religious law! For you hide the key to knowledge from the people. You don't enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering" (Luke 11:52).  Thus, in understanding these words spoken to the Pharisees, the questions must be asked: How did the Pharisees and Jewish authorities "...hide the key to knowledge from the people"?   Why did Jesus condemn the leaders of the Jews for failing to enter the Kingdom themselves? -- i.e., "...You don't enter the Kingdom yourselves"!   And how did the religious leaders of the Jews"...prevent others from entering?"   That the primary objective of the Gospel is to prepare and enable the seeker/disciple to enter the Kingdom, is further demonstrated in Jesus' condemnation of the blind religious leaders as seen in the words: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to" (Matt 23:13 NIV).  Which means that the Kingdom of God is not something that will come if we wait for it -- but rather, it is a reality which man must seek and find -- within himself.     

Now that you know the Truth and TheWay, you have the greater responsibility to remove the beam from your own eyes by seeking to fulfill the Law within yourself in the manner that our Brother Yeshua did (see The Ten Words) -- and once you have proven your faithfulness to the Word, then you will be able to see clearly and remove the specks from the eyes of your brothers and sisters, and guide them in TheWay of the Truth and the Kingdom.