Everything you need to know about the Noahide Laws, a universal religion without Christ

“…the eternal validity of the Seven Noahide Laws, a moral code for all of us regardless of religious faith,” President Ronald Reagan, First Education Day USA proclamation, April 4, 1982.^[1]

(LifeSiteNews) — In the previous parts (Part I and Part II), we have been considering what Catholic theologians tell us about the Antichrist, whom St. Paul describes as follows: 

[T]he son of perdition who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God. (2 Thess. 2.3-4) 

Therefore, when the Antichrist persecutes the Church, it seems that it will be at the expense of a false religion of his own. This religion will be based around the Antichrist himself, who will sit in the temple of God.  

Catholic authorities do not agree whether this “temple of God” is a metaphorical expression relating to the Church or Catholic buildings, or to the Temple itself – whether fully or partially rebuilt. 

However, many fathers and theologians and some mystics thought that the Antichrist would be received by the Jewish people as their awaited Moshiach (Messiah King). This was based, in part, on the words of Our Lord: 

I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. (John 5.42). 

This idea is also based on the great similarities between what we Catholics expect from the Antichrist, and what some adherents of the Jewish religion expects from the Moshiach. 

One crucial shared expectation is that he will rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. According to the enormously influential twelfth-century rabbi Maimonides, if someone does succeed in rebuilding this Temple, it is a sign that he “is definitely the Mashiach.”^[2]

Once the Temple is built, some hold, it will become the focus of a worldwide religion. Maimonides continues: 

He will then improve the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve God together, as Tzephaniah 3:9 states: ‘I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose.’^[3] (Emphasis added) 

In other words, the Moshiach will establish a new universal religion, in which all people will (supposedly) serve God – in accordance with what they are taught by Moshiach, the Jewish religion and the Jewish people, who are to be “a light to the gentiles.”  

The prophet Isaias wrote: 

Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth. (Isa. 49.6) 

As Catholics, we are aware that this idea is a distortion of what has already happened through the work of the true Messias, Jesus Christ, and the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church. 

In this piece, we are going to see how some Jewish writers understand this worldwide religion of the supposed Messianic age, and how this is incompatible with Christianity. In the final part, we will see that these understandings coincide with what will occur under the Antichrist, according to Catholic authorities. 

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The Noahide Laws themselves 

It is well-known that, as a whole, the Jewish religion does not actively seek converts.  

One reason for this is that, in that paradigm, it is not necessary to be an adherent of “Judaism” in order to have a “portion in the world to come.” 

The Jewish religion and its laws are considered to be for the Jewish people themselves. The Torah was given by God to Moses so that they could be a “light to the nations.” One aspect of this, some believe, is that they have been commanded to teach the rest of the world how to follow “the Seven Laws of Noah” (the “Noahide” or “Noahide” laws). 

These laws appear in the Talmud. Here they are, as given by Maimonides: 

Six precepts were commanded to Adam:  

1. the prohibition against worship of false gods; 
2. the prohibition against cursing God; 
3. the prohibition against murder; 
4. the prohibition against incest and adultery; 
5. the prohibition against theft; 
6. the command to establish laws and courts of justice. 

[…] The prohibition against eating flesh from a living animal was added for Noah, as Genesis 9:4 states: “Nevertheless, you may not eat flesh with its life, which is its blood.” Thus there are seven mitzvot.^[4]

It is not improper to speak of a “Noahide religion,” and to note that it is quite simple: it is comprised of these laws, and the belief in one single God.  

This is why the respected Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh could say, “the concern is for Gentile observance of the ancient religion of Noah, the only religion which is incumbent on all who are not Israelites.”^[5]

A popular site on the matter explains the origin of these laws:  

G-d gave the first six commandments to Adam and Hava (Eve). These were repeated to Noah after the Flood, and a seventh was added, when G-d established the Covenant of the Rainbow with Noah and all of the world’s creatures.  

At Mount Sinai, G-d taught the Torah’s precepts through Moses, including G-d’s directive for all Gentiles to observe the 7 Noahide Laws.  

A Gentile merits to receive a place in the eternal future World to Come, in the Messianic Era, through careful and pious observance of these universal commandments.^[6] 

Noahide Laws are the laws of the messianic era 

Maimonides teaches that in the supposedly messianic era, the Gentiles “will all return to the true faith” – namely, that faith of which Judaism and the Noahide religion are the respective expressions.^[7]

He also writes of this supposedly messianic era, in which the Moshiach will exercise influence over the whole world:  

The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know God. Therefore, the Jews will be great sages and know the hidden matters, grasping the knowledge of their Creator according to the full extent of human potential, as Isaiah 11:9 states: ‘The world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the ocean bed.’^[8]

In addition, some believe that by following the commandment (mitzvah) to promote the Noahide Laws amongst the Gentiles, they are hastening the coming of the Moshiach. 

In the abstract, these laws appear to be similar to the Ten Commandments and compatible with Christianity. But to whom does it fall to decide this, and to administer and interpret these laws?  

It will surely not fall to Christians. It also seems less likely that it will fall to the Noahides themselves, but instead to those deemed to be the “light to the gentiles.”   

Further, whether it be through direct rule or otherwise, the supposed Moshiach – whom we have good reason to suspect will be the Antichrist – will exercise some level of influence in these matters over all of humanity.  

However, this is problematic on two counts.  

The Noahide religion considers Christianity to be idolatry 

While some take more ambiguous or nuanced views, the Noahide laws are understood by many to prohibit the worship of the Triune God.^[9] 

Some argue that they are hostile toward Catholicism since some wordings forbid “idolatry,” of which the Church is supposedly guilty (both in the adoration of Christ and the veneration of the saints).^[10]

For instance, Maimonides himself states that Christians do not serve the true God: 

Christianity caused the Jews to be slain by the sword, their remnants to be scattered and humbled, the Torah to be altered, and the majority of the world to err and serve a god other than the Lord.^[11](Emphasis added) 

In his book Miraculous Journey, Yosef Eisen paraphrases the third point in relation to a disputation of Nachmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman – “Ramban”): 

Third, Ramban demonstrated how the Christian belief in the Trinity and Yeshu’s birth could not be believed by any thinking Jew. The Trinity is outright idol worship, for it is belief in three gods, while the Virgin Birth is wholly foreign to Jewish tradition and logic. 

Interestingly, Christian missionaries still attempt to convince Jews of the truth of their religion, and the refutation of their so-called proofs is exactly the same as the Ramban used more than 700 years ago.^[12]

Eisen also states elsewhere, about the origins of Christianity: 

Eventually, the Christians realized that the Jewish people would not accept their idolatrous beliefs, and decided to introduce their religion to the Gentile world.^[13]

Both Eisen’s and Nachmanides’ books are included as “Recommended books for Learning and Living the Noahide Code” on a website for “Noahides” (those following those laws).^[14]

We should also note in passing that, according to Maimonides and some others, Noahides are to be at a considerable civil disadvantage in comparison with Jews.  

For example, Maimonides teaches that, unlike under the stringent safeguards for Jews, Noahides can be executed “on the basis of the testimony of one witness and the verdict of a single judge,” and “[n]o warning is required.”^[15] Noahides are also punished more harshly for crimes against Jews than Jews are for the same crimes against non-Jews,^[16] and are held to legal obligations to which Jews are not.^[17] 

Maimonides also states: 

It is a positive commandment to destroy false deities, all their accessories, and everything that is made for their purposes […] 

In Eretz Yisrael, the mitzvah requires us to hunt after idol worship until it is eradicated from our entire land.  

In the diaspora, however, we are not required to hunt after it. Rather, whenever we conquer a place, we must destroy all the false deities contained within.^[18]

In a commentary on this text by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, we find the following: 

[E]ven according to the opinions which permit gentiles to believe in Christianity, Jews are obligated to destroy their objects of worship and churches.  

This raises a question regarding the churches that exist in Eretz Yisrael today. Should their existence be tolerated, or are we, as a people and as individuals, obligated to destroy them?^[19]

In light of this, we may be better placed to understand Maimonides explanation of the punishments to be inflicted on idolaters:  

A Noahide is executed for every type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would consider worthy of capital punishment.  

However, a Noahide is not executed for a type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would not deem worthy of capital punishment. Nevertheless, even though a Noahide will not be executed for these forms of worship, he is forbidden to engage in all of them. 

We should not allow them to erect a monument, or to plant an Asherah, or to make images and the like even though they are only for the sake of beauty.^[20] 

It does not seem clear or agreed whether Christianity is considered worthy of capital punishment in this school of thought or not.  

We can see how “acceptable” Christianity is to some by considering the prevalence of the hostile treatment of Christians in the Holy Land. Christians, especially priests, are spat upon, and churches and cemeteries are vandalized. In 2023, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa indicated that this has increased with the election of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.

This is because these attitudes also exist amongst those in power. Certain elected politicians propose legislation to criminalize attempts to tell others about Jesus Christ and Christianity. Atamar Ben-Gvir, a key figure in the coalition, has praised activists such as Bentzi Gopstein, who called Christianity “that accursed religion” and Christians “blood-sucking vampires.”^[21]

The Lutheran minister Munther Isaac recounts more such examples in a 2024 interview with Tucker Carlson. 

We can also see how “acceptable” Christianity is in Maimonides’ claims that it is a form of idolatry, which serves a false God, has spread error throughout the world, has altered the Torah, has many forbidden monuments and images, and is responsible for much humiliation and death amongst the Jews.  

Either way, Maimonides states that all idolatry, including Christianity, is to be forbidden, at least in Israel itself. 

Can Christianity be ‘purified’ to make it compatible with Noahidism?  

Some writers believe that Christianity could be tolerated amongst Gentiles if it were “purified” of elements which are incompatible with the Jewish understanding of the first Noahide law (against idolatry).^[22] 

Rabbi Benamozegh believes that such a “purification” is possible, necessary, and even inevitable that it will be drawn back into an alliance and union with Judaism: 

[T]hey will know at the proper moment how to join their energies of spirit and intelligence, so that in serene contemplation of the truths of history and doctrine, they will recognize their original kinship, and through an appropriate alliance resume their common work for the accomplishment of their great destinies.  

Why should this hope not be realized? Why should Judaism and Christianity not unite their efforts with a view to the religious future of mankind? Why should Christianity find it difficult to collaborate with this religion from which it came, whose fundamental truth it recognizes, and which possesses, to a higher degree even than itself, all the qualities of which it is so proud: antiquity, historical continuity, authority, vitality?   

And if from these deliberations with the Jewish mother-religion could emerge a Christianity which preserved its character of divine authority – a Christianity, may we venture to suggest, all the more orthodox as it would have strengthened itself by drawing on an orthodoxy older than itself, but which, as we firmly believe, would satisfy the needs of men better than the present Christian churches can do, and which would be better prepared to provide against the perils of the future – can one imagine a happier portent for mankind, or a more admirable solution to the great religious problems of our day?^[23] (Emphases added)  

He then tells us that this will be achieved by a reconsideration of the Holy Trinity and what he calls “the problematic personage of Jesus,”^[24] and by Christianity reconciling itself with “Hebraism”:   

[I]t is Christianity, reformed to be sure on its first model, which will always be the religion of the Gentile peoples.  

And this will come about through Judaism itself. […] This will be the reconciliation of Hebraism and the religions which were born of it.^[25]

Another rabbi has suggested that Trinitarian Christians might be considered as observant of the Noahide laws, but even his reasoning makes clear that this would only be so with a significant redefinition of dogma of the Holy Trinity, such that the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity are not really each God, but rather “smaller deities,” in “partnership” with God the Father.^[26]  

Such a redefinition of the Holy Trinity would also entail redefining the dogmas of the Incarnation of Christ and the Redemption, because if God is not really triune, then there is no real Second Person of the Holy Trinity to become incarnate and to be fully God and fully man. This would appear to fall into the heresies of Arianism or Subordinationism. 

But if Jesus of Nazareth is not both fully God and fully man, then his crucifixion was not an infinitely pleasing sacrifice in atonement for sin. If this is so, then Jesus has not redeemed us.   

And if this in turn is so, then the merits of a non-existent redemption cannot be applied to us; we cannot be supernaturally sanctified by grace which He has not won; nor can we be incorporated into a mystical body which would not exist.  

As we can see, such a “purification” necessary for Christianity to be compatible with the Noahide religion, would result in the fundamental denial of the most basic dogmas of the Christian religion. This new and “more orthodox” Christianity which would “emerge” would not be Christianity at all – even if it paid lip service to Christ and retained some existing terminology. 

In fact, this idea of “purifying” the Christian religion by redefining and rethinking what is meant by her dogmas is impossible for Catholics,^[27] and is precisely how the theologian Pietro Parente defines the system of “modernism” condemned by Pope St. Pius X: 

A heresy, or rather a group of heresies […] with the pretense of elevating and saving the Christian religion and the Catholic Church by means of a radical renovation. […]  

[A] hybrid amalgamation of verbal Catholicism with real naturalistic rationalism…^[28] (Emphasis added) 

If this is what is entailed in the “Noahidation” of the Christian religion, then it is not a purification at all. This denial of the Holy Trinity and of Christ’s supernatural redemption is impossible, and it is apostasy. 

Conclusion 

Overall, it appears clear that a significant school of thought believes that Christianity is a form of idolatry, and thus contrary to the Noahide laws, which appear to be central to the religion to be imposed on the world by the Moshiach awaited by the Jews.  

Even if belief in the Trinity might be considered tolerable amongst some Jews now, it seems that many expect this to cease under the Moshiach. It is also unclear, given the generally negative animus towards the person of Our Lord, whether a “purified” Christianity treating him merely as a great teacher would be acceptable.   

The imposition of the Noahide religion seems to necessarily entail the persecution of the Church, either through the legal and bloody prohibition of Christianity or through a “purification” which would constitute an apostasy from the faith. 

There have been many instances of Christianity being outlawed and persecuted throughout history. Each instance has been considered as a foreshadowing of the final and worst persecution which will take place under the Antichrist – whom, as we have seen, Catholic authorities expect to be acclaimed by the Jewish people as the Moshiach. 

In this part, we have seen that for many authors, Christianity is incompatible with the Noahide religion, on the grounds of supposed Christian idolatry.    

In the next part, we shall consider the matter from another perspective, and see that the Noahide religion is also incompatible with Christianity, because the former is naturalistic and thus fundamentally opposed to the supernaturalism of the latter.   

In this, it is also uncomfortably close to both Freemasonry and the religion which Catholic authorities expect to be imposed by the Antichrist himself.  

LifeSiteNews’ Dr. Maike Hickson contributed to this report.