Cults And Jews
Cults are becoming more and more of an issue for Jews every day. Many cults are beginning to target Jews. They say you can believe in Jesus yet remain a Jew, or many other things like that. It is important for people to educate themselves of these cults and their recruiting techniques so that they will not be taken advantage of by these cults. Cults now are very different than they were in ancient times though. The Jews, rather than being targeted by cults, were themselves a cult. In fact they were one of the first documented cults.
Now, Judaism is not considered a cult, it is a religion. Back in the ancient days many aspects of the Israelites' laws made them a cult. The Israelites had sacrifices for many occasions. Sin-offerings, guilt offering, fellowship, votive, freewill, dedicatory, and ordination are all documented reasons for sacrifices to God. These sacrifices are what made the ancient Israelites different from the modern day Jewish people. Those sacrifices are also what made the ancient Israelites a cult instead of being a religion like now. After the destruction of the second temple sacrifice was replaced with prayer and prayer still stands now.
Mishna discusses the different sacrifices the Israelites made and the reasons they were made. The rabbis say that sacrifices were not a bad thing. Because the sacrifices were made to God and represented different things between God and the people, the sacrifices were allowed. Sacrifices were made for apologies to God, for holidays and many other purposes, but they were always animal sacrifices and they were always to God. ...