Hi all, I have heard this term (JUDAIZER) used alot here on the forums. From historical records it seems that the Catholic Church used this term a lot in persecution of believers from the times of the reformation but I have never seen this term used in the scriptures or any place in God's Word. I do have my own thoughts but wanted to ask you all what does a Judizer mean in your understanding of the word in the way you may use this term here at CC?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Hope this can be a friendly chat with the scriptures
Blessings to you
A Judaizer is someone who meets this qualification:
But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Gal 2:14
So, there is Scriptural basis for use of the term "Judaizer". It describes an individual who seeks to bring others under the bondage of Mosaic Covenant observances, inferring that they are requirements or conditions of salvation. In this case, Peter was behaving like a Judaizer.
There were Judaizers in Paul's day. Often, they followed him around, preaching to new congregations after he left, attempting to require Gentiles to observe Mosaic Law requirements, such as calendar and dietary observances. If one looks at Paul's writings closely, he will find references to these individuals under "those of the circumcision" causing problems, like a mongrel dog sniffing around for scraps (Philippians 3).
There are Judaizers in the professing Church today. They focus mainly on insisting that believers must observe physical circumcision, calendar observances or dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Covenant.
In fact, some go beyond that, and require other weird observances such as vegetarianism to be considered a super-duper believer.
These are non-moral, ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Law.
Quite often, they insist that non-observers are under the Mark of the Beast, or will be under the Mark of the Beast in the end-times.
In history, Ebionites would have qualified as Judaizers.
In modern day, some members of the Hebrew Roots Movement, Seventh Day Adventists, and the various sects related to Armstrongism would qualify as Judaizers.
Quite often, the accusation that non-Judaizers are morally loose is leveled. This is because they consider calendar and dietary observances to be moral issues, and measure themselves as compared to others by external measures rather than the internal matters of the heart.
There are many non-Judaizers who are zealous for good works and obeying their LORD. However, they do not agree the calendar observances and dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law are moral issues. This caricature leveled by Judaizers is often their first line of attack in order to discredit the Church.
The issue of days is a big one with Judaizers, often considering believers to be pagans due to the observance of Sunday rather than Saturday. An insinuation is made that the Roman Catholic Church or Constantine changed the day of worship. This is inaccurate, though, as the movement away from Sunday began in the apostolic era, and by AD 135, the vast majority of Christians were not Sabbath observers. Rome was a mere bishopric at that time, and Constantine wasn't even in existence.
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