Why Go Back to Judaism, Jesus is Better – Fighting for Real Estate – Part #32

“An Unanswerable Argument from the Book of Hebrews” (Hebrews 7:23-24)

By Richard Allen – May 25, 2026

Several years ago, I wrote a 16-Blog Series on the ‘Book of Hebrews,’ highlighting how a correct understanding of Hebrews cancels any possibility of an ongoing ‘human priesthood’ for the Church. For those ‘magisterial denominations’ like Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Anglican, having a priest pretending to minister at an altar – offering sacrifices nowhere commanded by the Apostles or New Testament writers – Hebrews provides the doctrinal basis for rejecting this type of ‘Sacral Ministry.’ Hebrews points Christians back to Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and Man (1 Timothy 2:5). In short, I’ve always been fascinated by this book of Scripture for six reasons: 1.) Hebrews supplies a rational understanding of First Century Jewish Christians after the Death of Jesus the Messiah, and prior to the Destruction of Jerusalem. 2.) Hebrews makes it clear that accepting Jesus as God’s Anointed One, the Lord who rose from the dead – is an ‘all or nothing’ proposition. After committing to Jesus Christ - there was no going back!  3.) Jesus’ “once for all sacrifice” was Never to be Repeated Again!  4.) The Book of Hebrews was written by someone well versed in all components of the Old Testament Scriptures: The Law, Prophets, Old Testament Saints and the foreshadowing of the coming Messiah. 5.) The writer to the Hebrews displays a very “Pauline” understanding of Grace.  While Hebrews 13:23 makes it clear that this Writer knew Timothy, Paul’s companion and young protégé, this is not definitive proof that Paul did or did not write this book. We won’t have that question answered until the next life! And finally, 6.) The writer to the Hebrews had a very strong ‘New Covenant perspective’ of fulfilled Judaism. Once it was clear ‘the last days’ had come upon that generation of Jews, things drastically changed.

As many commentators have repeatedly observed, the most common word that the writer to the Hebrews mentions as his “raison d'être” for writing this Book to First Century Jewish Christians was that “Jesus Christ is Better!” These First Century Jewish Believers were tempted to go back to Judaism and all of its religious trappings. He tells them that Jesus wasn’t just one of the ‘messengers’ from God (the actual meaning of the word, Angel), Jesus was the messenger of the New Covenant, ‘one made in the express image and likeness of God’s person’ (Hebrews 1:3).  And as the Son of God – He was better than all of the angelic ministrations over the course of Old Testament – “having received a much superior name to any Angelic being” (Hebrews 1:4). ‘Angels were servants,’ but ‘Jesus was the Son!’ (Hebrews 3:6). The Jewish-Christians to whom Paul wrote – were likely Jews who were part of the ‘diaspora,’ that is, ‘the dispersion’ – and had some strange ideas about the ‘ministry of Angels,’ specifically ‘those who had given the Law to Israel.’ They were also fascinated by a ‘mystical’ Old Testament figure named Melchizedek. This mysterious “High Priest of Salem” is only found in one Old Testament reference, Genesis 14:18-20, and mentioned once again concerning the Messiah in Psalm 110:4 – that he would be a ‘Priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek.’

If this were not enough, the writer to the Hebrews goes on to say that Jesus Christ was Better than Moses, the Law, the entire Levitical Priesthood, all of the Sacrifices offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and even Better than the Temple itself! I could easily fill up a dozen Blogs just extoling who Jesus is, and what He accomplished in God’s Redemptive Plan. But I’m hoping that my readers have a clear understanding who the ‘Son of Man’ (Daniel 7:13) was, relative to Old Covenant Scriptures.  Jesus didn’t come to ‘set aside the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Priestly Sacrifices offered in the Temple, the Land of Palestine or any of the ‘physical props’ of Judaism.  No. Jesus Came to Fulfil them all!  I bring all this up to my Dispensational friends who insist that God Himself wants to ‘set up all these carnal trappings of Judaism again.’ They insist that God will be most glorified when Israel dwells safely again in the land, rebuilds the Temple and reinstitutes the Priesthood and Sacrificial System – Including the ‘Day of Atonement!’  They do this because they fail to grasp that “someone greater than the Temple had come” (Matthew 12:6). I’m not making personal commentary by noticing these things – this is the clear teaching of the New Covenant Scriptures!

The writer to the Hebrews makes a strong case for Jesus being Better, that is, superior to all the ‘shadows and types’ used by God during the Old Testament economy.  And he makes it clear that ‘Redemptive - Progressive History’ moved forward, away from the imperfect by which God “spoke to the fathers in times past through the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). Now in “these last days, God has spoken to us through His Son!”  Let me ask a sober question: “How then can anyone who believes the inspired Scriptures – especially the Book of Hebrews – imagine that God would long to again rebuild all those ‘weak and beggarly elements that were ready to vanish?’ ” (Galatians 4:9; Hebrews 8:13). Many argue that this is just part of God’s mysterious ways to ‘fulfil His promises’ and be faithful to His Prophetic Word.  Truth be told – THIS IS A RETURN TO JUDAISM, there is no other way  to describe the ‘pop-end-times’ myths that rebuild all the components of Judaism – of which Hebrews says Jesus is Better! This kind of thinking only leads to more strife and “Fighting for Real Estate!” Jesus could flatly state that ‘someone greater than the Temple had come,’ because He knew that the “Age of the Spirit” had been inaugurated with His Birth and Ministry.  He also knew that the Spirit would be given to Male and Female, Jew and Gentile, Slave and Free – By Faith!  The Spirit was the ‘gift of God’ so the blessings of faithful Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by Faith – all to “build a habitation for God the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).The Temple that God is now building is not temporary, neither will it rust, decay or fall.

If Jesus is Better, why do we need another High Priest sacrificing daily in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem?  If Jesus is Better, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that “we seek a better country, not the land of Palestine – whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). When Peter was confronted by a group of ‘Judaizing Christians’ (as recorded in the Book of Galatians), and Peter went back from ‘freedom in Christ’ to practicing outward Judaism, Paul confronted him to his face. Paul then explains:

“But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and that we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn’t we need to say that faith in Christ had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord. Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying – and failing – to obey the laws.  I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ” (Galatians 2:17-19).

The question for those who want to ‘rebuild Judaism’ – either now or in a future Jewish Millennial Paradise is: “Are you desiring to go back to those 'wonderful days' before the Cross of Jesus Christ’ set up the Age of the Spirit?” All of the props of Judaism: The Land, the Priesthood, Circumcision, The Law, the Temple, Bloody Sacrifices, Separation by Race, Gender and Social Status were all eradicated by the Cross of Christ. And there is no indication from the 39 Books of the Old Testament, that trying all these physical props will work – no matter how many times it’s tried.  The problem was not all those ‘carnal-physical props,’ it was the Jewish people!  God found “fault with the people” (Hebrews 8:8), people still in the flesh.  Without the abiding presence of the Spirit through the New Birth, they repeatedly failed. How ironic, major proponents of Dispensational myths, proudly proclaim that during the Millennial Age earth will be populated by mostly fallen human beings – Who Do Not Possess the Spirit!  And even more scary, they proudly proclaim that:

“Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2).

How will that future Millennial Age – with the Law written on Tables of Stone, turn out differently than all the other attempts?  People of God – we can never go back because God’s Better purposes in Jesus Christ have moved on to the Age of the Spirit! As I close this Blog, let me remind you of one of the most important messages the writer to the Hebrews tells us throughout Chapter 9: That the ‘ministrations, sacrifices and gifts offered by the Levitical Priests couldn’t give us access to God.’ In fact, he makes clear the limitation of Old Covenant Law, Temple, Sacrifices and Priests:

“And the Holy Spirit uses all this to point out to us that under the old system the common people could not go into the Holy of Holies as long as   the outer room and the entire system it represents were still in use. This has an important lesson for us today. For under the old system, gifts and sacrifices were offered, but these failed to cleanse the hearts of the people who brought them. For the old system dealt only with certain rituals – what foods to eat and drink, rules for washing themselves, and rules about this and that. The people had to keep these rules to tide them over until Christ came with God’s new and better way. He came as High Priest of this better system that we now have. He went into that greater, perfect tabernacle in heaven, not made by men nor part of this world, and once for all took blood into that inner room, the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled it on the mercy seat; but  it was not the blood of goats and calves. No, he took his own blood, and with it he, by himself, made sure of our eternal salvation” (Hebrews 9:9-12).

“Now, when sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to offer more sacrifices to get rid of them. And so, dear brothers, now we may walk right into the very Holy of Holies, where God is, because of the blood of Jesus. This is the fresh, new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us by tearing the curtain—his human body – to let us into the holy presence of God” (Hebrews 10:18-20).

If we follow the logic the writer to the Hebrews provides, we can only arrive at the following conclusions: 1.) Jesus insured our ‘eternal salvation’ by entering into the perfect tabernacle in heaven with His own Blood! 2.) Jesus’ Priesthood offered ‘a once for all sacrifice,’ so there’s ‘no need to offer any additional sacrifices for sin.’ 3.) Because of Jesus’ Better Sacrifice, He has opened a new ‘life-giving way,’ opening the curtain (veil) and giving us access to God!  4.) The earthly priesthood of Aaron ceased after Jesus’ death, and the curtain was ripped wide open, giving access to God! These are no small accomplishments. But they beg the question: “Why would anyone want to put that Curtain [RA1] back, or why would anyone want to reinstitute imperfect sacrifices?” The curtain showed that ‘while it was present, there was no access to God!’  I pray all of God’s Children would fully embrace Jesus’ Better Salvation!  We can never go back!

Soli Deo Gloria!