This is precisely my point. I find it most frustrating that Catholics and Orthodox don't understand this.
I grew up in the Bible Belt believing the outspoken Nazarean had died in my place, making all human activity towards "salvation" utterly unnecessary. However, from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches I learned that he didn't die in my place but apparently merely replaced one calendar with another, one legal system with another, and one set of rituals with another. What was the point? If chr*stianity is merely a cheap inauthentic imitation of Torah then it most certainly was never needed.
OTOH, if Judaism is complete in itself why all the fuss in their prophecies about some Messiah or "chosen one"? Or rebuilding the Temple for that matter? Really, when something's complete it's complete, no?
Because a messiah is coming who will rebuild the Holy Temple and restore the full Temple service. This hardly means the Torah is incomplete; the Torah is eternally valid. He will merely restore the situation where all the mitzvot, including those which can't be observed right now (ie, the qorbanot) will once again be observable.
Honestly, I don't see anything in your questions/arguments that go against a single thing I've said. The Prophets prophesy a restoration of full Torah observance, not Torah's replacement by a "superior" religion (G-d forbid!).
So it's either Protestantism or Judaism, no other. Protestantism easily degenerates into Christ as fetish: as long as I say Jesus is my personal savior, I'm saved. No ethical observation or consideration is necessary on my part. Whereas, the Orthodox and Catholic believe in working out our salvation. God gave us salvation like paying off all our debts and giving us a million $$$. Do we then go into more debt and spend our inheritance like prodigals? I think not. What we are is God's gift to us, what we become is our gift to God.
If chr*stianity is merely a cheap inauthentic imitation of Torah then it most certainly was never needed.
Indeed.