Tell Them … Jeremiah 10:11
Trinitarian Christians believe that it is entirely appropriate for a person to direct absolute religious devotion towards one Jesus of Nazareth.
Throughout history the Jewish people have proclaimed, often at the cost of their life, that this aforementioned belief is idolatry.
The Jewish position is quite easy to understand. After all, Jesus looked like a man, walked like a man, breathed like a man – as the common adage about a certain water-fowl goes – he was a man!
A common Christian reaction to any insinuation that their belief is idolatrous is to launch an offensive, as if those who don’t worship Jesus are the ones who are lacking in their faith in God. “Don’t you believe that God could do anything?” the Christian challenges. “If God wants to make Himself into a man – who are you to tell Him that He can’t?”
There are several ways to respond to this “challenge”.
First, it should be pointed out that such arguments could be used, have been used and are being used to justify worship of any idol. “Who are you to tell God that He can’t become a graven image? or a cat? or a holy cow?”
Second, try asking the missionary if God could commit suicide? Or if He could get appendicitis or a hernia? Could he get lost, confused or disoriented? How about losing his mind – could God do that to Himself?
Could God make Himself “not God”?
The basis of our worship of God is that He is the Creator of all. By definition, any created being – is “not God”. For God to turn Himself into a created being – and to then go and demand the worship that is coming to Him as Creator is like saying – light turned into darkness and it still provides illumination.
Finally – you could tell the missionary that God taught us everything we need to know about worshipping Him at Sinai (Deuteronomy4:35) – if He would have wanted us to worship Jesus – we would have seen Jesus at Sinai.
Chances are that you will not convince the missionary – but at least he or she will not use that argument in your presence anymore.
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Thank You
Yisroel C. Blumenthal
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 
Nice article Rabbi. I hope my response to Bru wasn’t too presumptuous?
the truth comes out with our joint efforts – can I be presumptuous and ask you to contact me at iblumenthal@yeshivanet.com – No pressure – but if you can – I’d appreciate it
Thanks
Yisroel B
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https://answering-judaism.blogspot.com/2024/07/what-of-jeremiah-1011-response-to-rabbi.html
I was just looking at some posts and came across this one. As always, interesting points you raise.
Did you write that article?
Yes indeed.
When I click on answering judaism it says
“answering-judaism.wordpress.com doesn’t exist”
“Of course God himself would never take the form of an idol or a cow”.
So God taking the form of a human, is not considered an idol.
Worshiping a statue or a tree, is different than worshiping a man?
Regarding the website, the wordpress version doesn’t exist anymore. The one on blogspot does.
As for God taking the form of a man, If Jesus was who he claimed to be and the Trinity is part and parcel of the TANAKH and the New Testament (Of which I am convinced.) There is no risk of idolatry, instead it’s a safeguard, as Christians worship the one who took on flesh, not the flesh itself.
That’s like saying if night is day then there is no need to turn on the lights
Answering judaism
The Torah is a book of distinctions, God-Man, God-Nature, Man-Animal, Good-Evil, Male-Female, Life-Death, etc. Without these distinctions, would mean the end of Our world as we know it. In this crazy era on college campuses it’s almost required To believe that men can have babies, or that men can menstruate like a woman. Without these distinctions how do we know if Jesus mother was not a trans Man who got pregnant? Or If Jesus himself was not a trans man? Getting rid of these distinctions anything is possible. The first verse of Genesis, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” , there was One creator, God, humans cannot create they can only make, something from something. At Sinai we read “God Spoke all these words, I am Adonoy, your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves. You must not have any other gods before My Presence”. Forgive my crudeness but by getting rid of these distinctions christians have inserted this new Trans God, Jesus, into the picture, and now we have the end of the Torah as we know it. God is man – Man is God. Your trinity is not a safeguard it’s just a group of trans gods.
It’s an interesting point you make.
Though I admit it is one that I have no satisfactory answer for, even a comparison between the sun and the moon would be a flawed one.
It’s an interesting point you make Rabbi Blumenthal.
Though I admit it is one that I have no satisfactory answer for, even a comparison between the sun and the moon that I had thought of would be a flawed one.
I do apologise for the repeating of the comment, I hadn’t an option to edit the document.
https://answering-judaism.blogspot.com/2024/07/idolatry-incarnation-and-definition-of.html
I hope this answers a few points.
As for the articles Rabbi Blumenthal, I can take a look at those.
Larry B, with respect the points raised, there is no question of your point regarding the Torah being a book of distinctions, especially with all the craziness of the trans ideology. Carrie Gress wrote a book on the subject and it’s origins, going back to feminist ideology.
So really, there isn’t too much for me disagree with in that respect though it’s not quite the same regarding the Trinity.
It’s a lengthy topic but the church had to wrestle with the statements made by Jesus and his apostles and how this didn’t violate the monotheism of God himself of which the Trinity provides the answer.