By Jim Myers
The choices families make over the next three years will create the United States that their descendants will live in for decades. There are many groups that are targeting the traditional organic families that many of my fellow senior citizens grew up in – grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. When a new family member arrived, its extended family members were notified. We felt a connection to our newest family member.
Today we know that one-half of each child’s DNA comes from a male and female. But proving DNA does not make people parents. Commitments, in the form of a contract, to raise the child as its mother and father is what creates a family. Many people are surprised when they learn that the first story in Genesis is about the creation of the first family.
Stories about families are found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (Jewish Tanach / Christian Old Testament.) The Bible our preacher used at church had an Old Testament and a New Testament. He used family stories from the Old Testament in his sermons, but the central focus of his sermons was the New Testament and stories about Jesus Christ. This is easily understood. Much of the information I use today was not discovered until the 21st century CE. Understanding three key events will help you understand how Judaism and Christianity evolved over the centuries and became what we see today.
1. About 20 years after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the Jewish Sanhedrin met in Yavneh and made a decision that made it impossible for members of the Yeshua Movement to attend synagogues any longer.