Staggering Mistake or Strengthened Argument?

Between May and July of 2017 I debated Dr. Brown under the title “The Real Jewish Messiah.” In the course of this debate, Dr. Brown presented a faulty argument. When Dr. Brown realized that he made a mistake he put forth the claim that this mistake does not affect his overall argument. Dr. Brown actually claimed that the discussion around his mistake “strengthened his argument” rather than weakened it. I strongly disagree with Dr. Brown’s assessment of the situation and I presented my opinion in various articles on my blog. Dr. Brown responded with some articles of his own and by now there are quite a few pages of discussion about Dr. Brown’s mistake.

The focus of the discussion has been Dr. Brown’s claim that his argument has been strengthened. I am more than satisfied to leave things as they stand now. I encourage you to read what I have written on the matter and what Dr. Brown has written in his defense and I trust that you have enough information to make an educated judgment.

The focus of this article is my claim. I have described Dr. Brown’s error as “staggering.” On what basis did I make that claim? Why did I use that word to describe his mistake?

Please allow me to explain.

The Christian sees Isaiah 53 as one of the most important if not the most important passages in the Jewish Bible. Dr. Brown acknowledges that the only honest way to read Isaiah 53 is in light of the chapters that lead up to Isaiah 53. In fact, this was the very basis for his argument in which he committed the aforementioned error.

Dr. Brown’s error revealed that he is not aware of the fact that Israel is the primary character of the chapters immediately preceding Isaiah 53. Not only was he not aware of this obvious fact but he was deeply convinced that in the four chapters preceding Isaiah 53 Israel is only a secondary character. This error was so deeply entrenched in his mind that when he was told, in plain English, that he erred he did not comprehend what he was being told.

Now this man has been preaching Isaiah 53 for about 30 years now and he has an inaccurate understanding of the chapters preceding Isaiah 53. He got confused between the primary and secondary characters of these chapters.

What word would you use to describe the error?