Poisonshady,
I believe Jesus is the promised Messiah, but I also understand where you're coming from with respect to how the early Christian community reinterpreted the Tanach in light of Jesus. The early church basically re-read the Tanach in light of Jesus ministry, death and resurrection. Not only did this involve a reworking of the notion of the kingdom of God, but it also demanded a thorough reworking of the concepts of Messiah and resurrection. It was in light of that that the church (all Jews in the beginning) looked back into the scriptures and saw many of its passages in a whole new light. The question is, why would the church have done such a thing?
Here's my guess, because I don't believe anyone really knows.
Some of the Jews at the time grew so weary of the Roman oppression and domination of Judea, that they gave up hope and decided that God wasn't going to follow through with His promise (much like those who demanded that the golden calf be built). So, they redefined the concept of the Messiah... instead of the righteous Torah observant king who would lead Israel to victory and peace... they decided to resign themselves to their hopelessness and create a figure whose life wouldn't really make life any better, but whose death would secure for them a glorious afterlife.
They were so hopeless that their only comfort could be in death. This is an indication of someone who no longer believes in God.
Judaism was never concerned with heaven or hell. It was always about how to be blessed by God with long life and many children, peace and success here on earth.
God didn't put us on Earth to make us walk a tightrope, as if one little mis-step is a leap to our doom. He put us here to conquer and subdue the earth. To be fruitful and multiply. We're not supposed to deprive ourselves of all the pleasures the world has to offer. We are supposed to control ourselves so that everything we use, we use it for good.
The Messiah, from all the actual and true messianic prophecies, is supposed to be righteous like Hezekiah, wise like Solomon, humble like Moses, a great king and warrior for Israel like David, kind like Abraham. We're not looking for a guy to be hated by the nations. As it is, Israel is hated by the nations. We're looking for the guy who will bring peace... a time when nation will not lift up sword against nation, and men shall not learn war anymore.
The men who changed the Tanach and wrote Jesus into it gave up hope. They decided that the only legitimate reason for the conditions of their existence was that there was nothing they could do to make God happy. So they figured they'd make a miserable existence worth having by making the afterlife the greatest goal.
They'd cast aside the promises that God gave them and create for themselves a new hope. a "new testament". But, rather than acknowledge that this is what they were doing, they had to demonize Judaism... which also meant demonizing God.
You'll hear plenty of people claim that "The god of the NT is much nicer than the cruel OT god". Something in the words of nonbelievers makes it clear that the religion of the NT is most obviously separate and distinct from that of the OT.
The original Christians were Jews who lost the faith... and all they wanted was a way out. So, they did what they could to make Judaism seem burdensome, too legalistic, cold, non-spiritual, non caring, without compassion, unconcerned with the spirit/purpose of the law, selfish, etc. This way, they could claim that one man's life and death was the change from bondage to freedom. They had to equate God's law with sin... and declare that the death of this one man made them free from sin... free from God's law... but they never called it God's law in the NT... it was always called Moses' law... denying one of the fundamental principles of Judaism, that the Torah came from God.
They were like the Jews in the desert who cried "Why did you take us out of Egypt, so that we will die in the wilderness?" Deliverance from Egypt was one of the two greatest gifts they were ever given. (The other being the Torah)... and they threw it in his face... demanded to be brought back to Egypt, as if suffering were greater than accepting God's gifts. Consequently, the generation who left Egypt never stepped foot in Israel. Their children did.
The original Christians committed the same sins that caused all the misery and suffering in the desert after the Jews left Egypt. The golden calf, the sin of the twelve spies (showing a lack of faith in God and His promises), the rebelliousness against the authority of the law and it's teachers (Korach).
But that didn't matter to them... because for them, the law was dead. It was obsolete... a stepping stone to this new way of being.
It's the very definition of rejecting personal responsibility... the very sin that got Adam and Eve banished from Eden... the very sin that got Cain cursed to roam the earth.
"I didn't mean to eat the apple... the woman made me do it... the woman that YOU gave me"
"I didn't mean to eat the apple... the snake made me do it."
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
"We are all sinners because of Adam and Eve... who YOU created... so we are incapable of doing good... but don't punish me... Jesus paid my debt so that I don't have to do what you told me to do."
It's all a rejection of personal responsibility... an insult to God. A rejection of God's authority. A rejection of God's will. A rejection of God.
Changing the Tanach just made it easier for either hopeless or ignorant people to buy their story.
The next question that comes from you is "Why would the early Christian martyrs who were eyewitnesses for Jesus die for a lie?"
Perhaps their hopelessness is so tremendously overwhelming that they'd prefer death anyway. And all future generations would be convinced that what they did was true, simply by their willingness to die for it. And they knew their death would have that effect.
To put it in modern terms... it's like a poker player going all in when he knows he has a losing hand, because he's hoping his opponent will fold.
The Jews of the first century that believed as I do had truly winning hands... but because everyone else folded (converted), the player that went all in with a losing hand (Christianity) figured it could still win by killing, or otherwise oppressing/hating the Jews to get them removed from the table, or at least count their hand as invalid.
The fact that Jesus is not the Messiah is a fact. Not an opinion. And nothing you ever say or do is going to make me fold.
I hope I've answered your question.
