What was the state of Judaism when Jesus began His earthly ministry?
By the time of Christ's earthly ministry, Judaism had degenerated into a dead, man-made religion with nothing left of the power of God. It had been in constant decline from the giving of the Law to Moses, though temple worship and ritual continued outwardly.
Les teaches that from the Law given to Moses around 1500 B.C. in the desert, Judaism as a religion was in a constant state of degeneration. Things seldom reach a peak of perfection and stay there; they generate down, like entropy moving everything into a less usable state. So by the time of Christ's earthly ministry, Judaism was nothing but a dead, man-made religion, with nothing left of the power of God in it. They still went through temple worship, but even Israel's religion came up into God's nostrils as a stench, as Isaiah chapter 1 beginning at verse 11 shows. Les also wonders how many church services today God may feel the same way about, because this is where mankind can get when they follow their own devices.