Acts, THE Foundational Book of the New Testament

Traditional Christian leaders almost unanimously promote the idea that the book of Acts is little more than a record of the earliest history of the "church" or an introduction to the apostle Paul, while down playing its doctrinal significance.  It is rare to find pastors or theologians that promote Acts as a book which defines THE foundational principles of the true Messianic (Christian) faith.  Instead, the most common book they label as foundational is Paul's epistle to the Romans.  The gospel of John is also considered by most Traditional Christians to be foundational.  In fact, it is not uncommon to hear Christians boldly state ALL one needs to understand the principles of Christianity is John and/or Romans.  Strangely, these two most exalted writings of the New Testament are also the most difficult for a novice to understand.  To properly understand John and Romans one must have a substantial knowledge of Torah, and the Hebraic mind.  Since most Christians possess little or no knowledge of these necessary ingredients, they are "dependent" upon their pastors to educate them.  Thus, the controlling power of their religious leadership is assured.  Also, since very few pastors have the necessary background knowledge, they virtually never properly interpret John or Romans.  It is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.  In Messianic circles the same problem exist.  Since virtually ALL Messianic groups and leaders actually originate from traditional Christianity, they interpret from exactly the same "basis" as traditional Christian leaders.  Though they claim knowledge of Torah and Hebraic things, they wrongly filter that knowledge through their biased Christianized personal mindset.

I very much disagree with the Traditional lessening of importance placed upon Acts and feel a novice believer can easily grasp ALL basics of salvation and godly living from the simple and precise information found ONLY in Acts.  I often wonder if Traditional Christian leadership's intentional avoidance of Acts as a foundational writing has an ominous and obvious motive.  I question if the motivation behind the refusal by Christian leaders to promote Acts' clear and precise gospel message is because within the pages of Acts Yeshua is never presented as being God, none that responded to the message ever acknowledged him as God, and, therefore, he clearly is NOT God!  These facts are devastating to the Trinity doctrine or any other doctrine that promotes Yeshua's deity; thus, in order to perpetuate the false doctrines of the paganized church, Christian and false Christianized Messianic leaders (vs. TRUE Monotheistic Messianics) MUST steer people away from Acts as a source of foundational doctrine.

Acts is THE clearest presentation of the foundational principles of the TRUE Hebraic, Messianic faith that can be found in the entire New Testament.  No other New Testament writing even comes close!  How often has your pastor or Messianic "rabbi" revealed this fact?  Have they ever?  Acts is the ONLY writing in which you find all of the following:

1. Entire sermons are recorded to assembled crowds (BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES) in which the gospel message was presented with the intent of soliciting from the listeners a TOTAL embrace of the gospel.  These sermons were presented "from scratch" to individuals with little or no prior understanding of the gospel.  Therefore, the gospel was obviously being presented in a COMPLETE redemptive form that was necessary for a FULL recognition of the FOUNDATIONAL doctrines.
2. There are also direct appeals to SPECIFIC individuals to accept the gospel of the Kingdom.
3. Presentations to the very highest Jewish spiritual leaders as well as highly placed Romans are recorded in which the apostles put forth the defense of Truth.
4. The actions - hearing, believing, repentance, confession, baptism, etc. - of respondents is recorded along with, of course, THEIR understanding of Yeshua.
5. The actual day the believers gathered to worship (Sabbath) and hear the gospel is recorded.
6. The foundational beliefs of the apostles - most notably Paul - and their unambiguous personal embrace of Torah are clearly shown.  Acts, therefore, provides a basis for understanding the personal beliefs of ALL Yeshua's followers, and thus all of their epistles, especially those written by Paul and falsely promoted by most Traditional Christians as teaching against Torah.  Search as you may, it is almost impossible to find any Christian or false Messianic leaders that apply the necessary principle of the "Acts Basis" for their understanding of subsequent epistles or the Gospels.
7. The actual "Christology" (the requirements one must accept regarding the person and mission of Yeshua) is recorded.
8. In short, there is NO OTHER New Testament book that presents ALL of the above points.  NO OTHER!  Others may present in far less clarity some of the points; however, Acts, far and away, is THE most explicit and complete foundational presentation of the gospel message in the entire New Testament canon of Scripture!  Perhaps of greatest importance, Acts is also THE most easily understood!

For the reasons stated above, Acts is a thorn in the side of those that promote the Trinity and deity of Yeshua or that Torah (Law) is abolished.  The only way to avoid the problem is to remove the thorn.  Since they can't strip it from the New Testament, they do the next best thing.  They redirect the sincere, yet misinformed Christian or Messianic to other more complex writings and diminish the perception of Acts in the minds of their followers - from being the best source of foundational principles of the faith, to a book of simply historic relevance.  They persuade sincere Christians that one must look somewhere other than Acts for foundational doctrines while, at the same time, deceiving these same trusting believers into accepting unexplainable and ridiculous "mysteries" that are impossible to prove.  Similarly, they direct focus to confusing theological discussions of Torah instead of the clearly understood examples in Acts that ALL apostles kept and taught observance of Torah.  When the "Acts Basis" is used, Yeshua is clearly shown to NOT be God and Torah is clearly shown to be endorsed.

I stress again that within the COMPLETE presentations and responses recorded in Acts, in which all the points above are included, Yeshua is never presented as being God, none that responded to the message ever acknowledged him as God, and, therefore, he clearly is NOT God!  Acts, when properly elevated to the position of doctrinal prominence it deserves, deals a mortal blow to the Trinity and all of the other various false doctrines that present Yeshua as God.  It is for this reason leaders of Christianity and false Messianism hope you never recognize it as the foundational book that it actually is.

1. There is not one, single recorded example of conversion in Acts where a follower of Yeshua (Jesus) was told he/she must acknowledge Yeshua is God in order to be saved.  NOT ONE!
2. There is not one, single recorded example of conversion in Acts where one being baptized into the TRUE Kingdom faith stated during their conversion that Yeshua is God.  NOT ONE!
3. Yet, Traditional Christianity teaches and often REQUIRES one accept Yeshua is God.
4. Also, the false Messianic Judaism movement, which follows the primary doctrines of its Traditional Christian mother, teaches and often REQUIRES one accept Yeshua is God.

PLEASE LET COMMON SENSE AND REASONING OF WHAT THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY SAY DICTATE YOUR BELIEFS.  Do not allow yourself to be victimized by unexplainable, "blind-faith mysteries."