Who gets to decide that a verse is Messianic? You, or God?
Who gets to decide whether a verse carries a theological obligation? You, or God?
Who gets to decide whether a verse is prophetic, or narrative? You, or God?
Who gets to decide what happens if the Jewish people sin? What happens if the Jews break the Covenant- and who gets to decide? Who gets to decide whether the Jews are rejected by God? Who decides what the Jewish people should do if they find themselves without temple, king, or land? You, or God?
If it’s the reader who decides, let him say, with honesty and trustworthiness, “These verses don’t prove my worldview in the least. After all, they’re just a personal interpretation. Obviously, my own interpretive choices cannot send anybody else to heaven or hell. However, it feels good to give this verse a double-meaning, like a clever pun, or a satisfying turn of phrase.”
If it’s God who decides, then I won’t claim a verse is Messianic, unless the verse claims to be. I won’t say a verse is prophetic, unless it says it is. I won’t say the verse is teaching us the nature of God, or how Man is to relate to God, unless the verse says it is.
This is why Orthodox Jews spread between 100s of communities, separated for 1000s of years, and speaking/dressing/eating in the diverse cultures that nurtured them, have IDENTICAL beliefs theologically. An IDENTICAL belief about what constitutes correct or incorrect thought (though we might disagree about what kind of wrong belief labels you a heretic). What a neat trick!
But the secret to Jewish belief is easy. We never made it up ourselves; we checked the word of God instead. (Is it just me, or is it hard to find 2 Protestant Churches where each believes the other isn’t eternally damned?)
When your spiritual leader turns out to be a fraud, you are a victim. Even if you were not the direct target of the leader’s abuse, but the betrayal of trust is devastating. You trusted this leader. You invested respect, power and financial support (in some cases, much more than that) and you now realize that you were conned. The feeling is devastating.
Part of what makes this situation so painful is the realization that the abuser used your energy to fuel his crime. The leader built his power base on the foundation of the respect and admiration that he deceived you into giving him. And he used that power to destroy lives and to bring darkness while you gave it to him for the purpose of building and spreading light.
There is a painful question that needs to be asked. Could I have known? Was there any way that I could have seen the colors of corruption through the veneer of holiness? Is there a method of identifying hypocrites so that I can protect myself and others?
I believe that the answer to this question is yes.
Indeed, if the abuser is extremely careful and hides the corruption that is festering in his heart, then it is very difficult to identify the problem. However, most predators do show their true colors. In some cases the veneer of holiness is more persuasive and in others less so, but the inner heart of self-centered iniquity is often on public display.
You just need to learn how to read it.
The following is a list of behaviors that can help us identify abusive leadership. I am sure that this list is not exhaustive or entirely accurate, but I do hope that it serves as a starting point for this discussion.
1 – Me, Me, Me
In the setting of a spiritually abusive leadership there will be an excessive focus on the personality of the leader. The positive qualities of the leader will be thrust into the minds and hearts of the following. This may be done in a subtle way, but it will be done. An outsider will generally find it odd when they encounter the disproportionate amount of attention given to the leader.
2 – Cosmic Mission
The mission of an abusive leader is seldom limited to his local neighborhood. In the mind of the followers, their leader is impacting the world or even the cosmos. And those who oppose the leader are seen as representative of cosmic evil.
3 – No Questions Asked
Abusive leaders do not allow questions that may uncover their flaws. If a follower questions the leader’s word or deed that follower is quickly put in their place. They are told that they did not see what they saw (gas-lighting), they did not understand the leader’s actions and that they the mere fact that they allowed their mind to imagine negativity about the leader is a sign of their spiritual deficiency.
The leader expects his followers to trust him without questioning, to take his word on blind faith.
Once the leader is effectively outside of any critical scrutiny, an environment of one set of rules for the leader and another for everyone else is developed and maintained.
4 – Victimhood
Another tactic used by abusive leaders to deflect criticism is to play victim. Their self-sacrifice for the following or their difficult personal circumstances (real or imagined) are called upon in order to deflect any criticism. The critic is made to feel guilty for not appreciating the hardships of the leader’s life.
A byproduct of this abusive behavior is the creation of two scales of pain. With the leader’s personal life magnified in the hearts of the following, the personal life of others becomes smaller. The pain of the leader is sharp and acute in the minds of the flock while the pain of the individuals in the flock fades into the background.
5 – Heads, I Win; Tails, You Lose
The leader’s success is considered a sign of his or her greatness. Their failure is always the fault of others.
6 – The Hypocrites Across the Street
Abusive leaders often spend time and energy calling out hypocrisy and corruption amongst others. This conveniently lends the leader the spiritual aura of being above hypocrisy and corruption.
7 – Expect Disappointment
The abusive leader has no problem disappointing their following. Promises do not have to be kept and expectations do not have to be met. They are oblivious to the emotional investment that their followers have entrusted to them.
8 – Zero Tolerance
Abusive leaders may be understanding and forgiving when people violate laws in a way that doesn’t detract from their own standing. But there is absolutely no tolerance for violations that affect the leader.
9 – The Elect
When people see through the corruption of the leader and distance themselves from his following, the leader will be satisfied to keep a narrow following of people who are blind to his faults.
10- Pain
Where there is abuse there is pain. The career path of an abusive spiritual leader will leave wounded souls on the road behind him.
These are some of the behaviors of abusive leaders. Not every abuser displays all of these behaviors and these behaviors are often hidden behind a veneer of professed humility and friendliness. Some of these leaders are not as intense in their abuse as others and these behaviors will then not be as obvious. But if you see several of these behaviors in a given leader, your antennas should go up.
A Word to the Leader
You don’t have to be a sexual predator or a financial scammer in order to be an abusive leader. Even if you are clean from those sins, you may still be abusing the power your following has invested in you. In fact, there is no question in my mind that you are abusing that power, the question is only to what degree.
These may sound like harsh words, but they are directed first and foremost to me. I am a leader and I know that I am not perfect. God alone is perfectly righteous and all of His creations fall short of perfection. In the context of the human experience, righteousness in any given aspect of our personality is never a final destination. It can only be a journey.
According to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, justice is the foundation of spirituality (Micha 6:8; Jeremiah 22:16). And justice begins at home.
If you are a spiritual leader you have power in your hands. The respect that your position commands, private information that is entrusted to you, the expectation of true guidance that your followers hope to receive from you and so much more. The principle of justice demands that you never lose sight of the fact that these powers do not belong to you, but rather, they belong to the people who invested you with them.
I have a few suggestions to make that will perhaps help you in your journey towards justice, because, again, it will always remain a journey. Never tell yourself that you have reached the destination of being perfectly just.
1 – Its Not About You
If you need to be told not to lift yourself up in the minds and hearts of your followers, then I am wasting my words. I will however tell you that even if you find your followers lifting you up in their own minds, try to minimize the damage. Try to keep your own personality out of the hearts of your followers and have them focus on more spiritual matters.
Find ways to empower your congregants so that they see their own spiritual strengths. Your goal should be that as time moves on they should be less dependant on you, and certainly not more dependant on you.
2 – Your Mission is the Wellbeing of the Men and Women Sitting in Front of You
Your mission doesn’t have to be cosmic in order to be important in God’s eyes. The heart of every individual human being is precious to God and bringing light to one human being is a glorious enough mission for any of God’s creations.
And by the way, not everyone who thinks differently than you is an agent of Satan. God created us to think differently from one another because His truth is never in the hands of one person alone. God’s truth is like a symphony that shines forth from the hearts of many.
This does not mean that you need to tolerate error and falsehood. It is your duty to call them out when you see them, but do so with humility, with the recognition that you are not fully in line with the truth yourself. Because truth, like justice, is never a final destination for man, it is always only a journey.
3 – The Path to the God of Truth Leads Through the Road of Honest Questions
The God of Truth encourages questions and if you see yourself as a representative of that God, you should find yourself doing the same. Why should someone trust you on blind faith? Why should someone see you as beyond reproach?
If you want your followers to grow in a spiritual sense, set an example for them in the realm of growing from criticism. Validate honest questions because the God who loves truth validates them as well.
This does not mean that you have to give free reign for disrespect, contentiousness, and open rebellion. But it does mean that you should generate an atmosphere that encourages and validates respectful questions even if they are uncomfortable to you.
4 – The Hardships of Your Own Life Are Not Part of Your Follower’s Spiritual Journey
As a general rule, your followers will not benefit from hearing about your victimhood. If you need to hold up an example of self-sacrifice and perseverance through hardships, find someone else’s life to point to.
Furthermore, the more space your victimhood occupies in your own heart, the less room there is for the pain of those under your care. And you should be doing everything in your power to maximize your sensitivity to the burden borne by your followers because that sensitivity is the very essence of a true shepherd.
5 – Share the Success and Carry the Blame
If God blesses you with success find ways of sharing the credit. And if things don’t work out, use the opportunity to set an example. Show your followers how to utilize such an opportunity for introspection, correction and growth.
6 – We are all Hypocrites
If you find the need to call out evil in someone else, and sometimes that is the spiritual calling of the moment, please do it in a spirit of humility. It should never be something that you or your followers enjoy and it should not be the top item on your agenda. One of the wise Jewish teachers (Ba’al Shem Tov) taught that every failing that we see in someone else is a mirror of our own fault at least to some minimal degree. The following two verses from Scripture should never be far from your heart: “My sin is before me constantly” (Psalm 51:5); and “Who can say that I have purified my heart, I am cleansed from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9).
7 – Keep Your Word
Your followers look up to you. They expect your word to carry more weight than the word of the average man. And if they joined your congregation, they have certain expectations from you.
It is your responsibility to try your fighting best to meet those expectations. You are human and you will never do a perfect job (- it is always a journey…). But never lose sight of the fact that it is your responsibility to try to meet those expectations. Your followers put power in your hands, and it will always belong to them, not to you.
8 – Justice and Charity
It is not easy to find the balance between justice and charity. But as a general rule, when you are adversely affected, the theme should be charity. Justice should be reserved for those situations where your personal benefit is not a part of the picture.
9 – The Outsider
Never lose sight of the fact that the outsider often has a better perspective of reality than the insider. If you block out the voices of those who don’t see things as you do, you will crash and fall. No human being sees everything. God put those other people in your world to help you see what you would otherwise be blind to.
10 – Ease the Burden
No one’s pain should be small in your eyes. If you ever cause pain, try to fix it. The Biblical apology consists of two lines; you were right and I was wrong (Genesis 38:26). No ifs ands or buts. And if you caused pain, ask yourself what you can do so as not to make the same mistake again.
You should put the physical and emotional wellbeing of those around you as the goal of your mission. You are here to lift them up and empower them. Your word should make their hearts lighter and your message should build and validate.
What Can I Do?
In conclusion I will just repeat what I wrote in the beginning. I am not putting forth my words as authoritative teaching (although that may be the tone). Please read my words as suggestions. I do pray that this article will facilitate the discussion surrounding this important topic and help clarify and concretize some of the concepts that are central to the dynamic of Spiritual abuse.
There are so many variants to each situation that I cannot imagine that there is a “one size fits all” solution to the problem, or that there is even a generic way of identifying and calling out the problem.
However, we can all benefit from raising awareness about the existence of the problem. Let us develop language and words that can help us wrap our minds around the issue. And let the conversation move forward. The amount and the weight of the scandals that have recently come to light have generated much conversation about the topic of abusive leadership.
Let the conversation continue. Because as we learn to separate justice from injustice and the shepherds from the wolves we move closer to the God who dwells with the downtrodden and the lowly of spirit (Isaiah 57:15).
In The Image of Man Genesis 9:6 gives us one of the foundational teachings of the Bible. It tells us that man was created in the image of God. The teachers of Judaism encourage us to place this concept as one of the hubs of our world-view.
By telling us that man is created in the image of God, the Bible is teaching us the inherent value of every human being. Each and every man and woman is capable of Godliness. The desire for kindness truth, justice and morality is embedded in the soul of every human being, no matter how deep we have to dig in order to find that spark of good. When a human being lives a righteous life, he or she is living up to their true selves. And every act of evil is not only a sin against God, it is a sin against the human being who committed that act.
That the Church pushes back against this Biblical teaching is well known. The Church places the inherent sinfulness of man at the center of their world-view. This is obvious and clear. What is not as obvious but is just as clear is that the Church has actually inverted this Biblical teaching. Not only does the Church discourage us from seeing every person as created in the image of God, the Church teachers encourage us to see God as created in the image of man.
By pushing the narrative that somehow all of God’s infinite righteousness was contained in the personality of a finite human being, the Church has diminished our understanding of God. But perhaps even more insidious is the effect that this Church teaching has on our perspective of ourselves. By trying to create God in the image of man the Church has diminished our understanding of man.
If being a very righteous person makes you divine, then being less than righteous is the maximum limit of man.
This is not the teaching of the Jewish Bible. According to the Good Book, as righteous as you can imagine a man to be, he will still remain man. And as righteous as you can imagine a man to be, he could still attain more human righteousness and he will never approach the righteousness of God. The calling of every man and woman that walk this earth is to live up to their true selves and keep on striving for more righteousness. We are all created in the image of God, that is who we are and that is what we are meant to be.
Yes, we all make mistakes. But mistakes do not take away from the central teaching of the Bible. God knows about your mistakes and your faults. Yet He still sees you as someone created in His image.
Put that truth at the center of your world-view and you will have allowed God to bring you closer to Him with the power of His word.
The following presentation is a continuation of the discussion that I had with Dr. Brown on August 20th 2024. On that occasion, Dr. Brown responded to 8 questions that I had asked him and I took note of his responses. At this point I aim to present my rebuttal to those responses, but before I begin I will describe the larger context of our conversation.
Dr. Brown has authored a 5 volume series of books entitled “Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus.” I have written several critiques of his work in which I challenged many of the arguments that he presents in favor of Christianity. More importantly, I argued that Dr. Brown’s work fails to address the issue from the standpoint of a Jew who lives Judaism. His work is more of a response to the Jewish defense against the Christian critique of Judaism than it is a response to the Jewish objections to Christianity.
When I publicized the first two booklets of my critique (Contra Brown, 2007; The Elephant and the Suit, 2011) Dr. Brown declared that he would present a written response to these arguments. Dr. Brown’s intense schedule and many writing deadlines haven’t allowed this to materialize.
I sincerely believe that if Dr. Brown were to articulate the reasons he does not accept my arguments then that would force me to clarify and refine those arguments and bring us all closer to the truth. It is for this reason that I took the time to travel to Charlotte North Carolina to hear and record Dr. Brown’s responses in person.
A few weeks before our meeting I sent Dr. Brown a list of questions that I wanted to focus on in our discussion. These were a selection of questions from 3 of my written critiques (Contra Brown, The Elephant and the Suit and Supplement to Contra Brown). In our discussion we managed to get to 8 of those questions (several others were addressed as well in the context of the discussion around these 8 questions).
Since our discussion, I have thought about Dr. Brown’s responses and I have formulated my own rebuttal to those responses and it is this rebuttal that I am presenting here. I truly believe that as this conversation moves forward, greater clarity is being achieved and I hope that my words play a role in contributing to that clarity.
Question # 1 – The Totality of Scripture
Judaism and Christianity are each complete world-views. The adherents of each of these opposing philosophies point to the same Jewish Bible (known by Christians as the “Old Testament”) as supportive to their respective set of beliefs. It is obvious that at least one of these groups must be misusing the text.
The question I posed to Dr. Brown was that when we step back and look at the general pattern of Christian quotations from the Jewish Bible and contrast them with the Jewish quotations it becomes obvious that it is the Christian that is not submitting to the authority of the text but rather is imposing his own world-view onto the text.
You see, both Christians and Jews present a selection of verses from the Jewish Bible to substantiate their respective views. The Jew points to Deuteronomy 4 as the guide on the question of to whom we are to direct our worship. Dr. Brown highlights Genesis 18 and places this particular text at the center of the same discussion.
The Author of Scripture introduces Deuteronomy 4 as the definitive teaching on who we are to worship while Genesis 18 is not introduced by the Author of Scripture as a teaching on worship altogether. The Jew is following the lead of the Author of Scripture while the Christian is ignoring that lead.
Deuteronomy 4 gives us the complete Jewish doctrine on the subject in question. For the Jew, there are no blanks. The Author of Scripture spelled it all out. In sharp contrast, even the most radical Christian interpretation of Genesis 18 does not present the full Christian doctrine on the question of whom to worship. This holds true even when we combine all of the Christian quotations from the Jewish Scripture. The Christian still needs his theologians to fill in the blanks.
And no student of Scripture ever questioned that Deuteronomy 4 is a teaching on whom we are to worship, while even Christian scholars question the missionary argument that is built on Genesis 18. The Jew looks to the Author of Scripture to clarify the matter, while the Christian needs to trust Dr. Brown.
In short, the Jew looks to the Author of Scripture to tell him where to look in Scripture, to fill in the blanks and to provide clarity. But the Christian ignores the Author Scripture and looks to the Christian theologians to tell him which verse is a teaching on which subject, to fill in the blanks and to create clarity. It is beyond clear that the Jew is building his world-view on the basis of Scripture while the Christian is imposing his world-view onto the pages of the same Scripture.
What was Dr. Brown’s response to this question?
He acknowledged that the Jewish selection of verses meet this set of criteria (direct, comprehensive and clear) while the Christian selection of verses do not. Dr. Brown argued that what he understands as the character of God, specifically as it relates to the blessing that God intends for the gentiles, directs him to favor the Christian world-view over the Jewish one.
Dr. Brown’s response illuminates Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s pithy analysis of the difference between Judaism and Christianity. Christianity, says Rabbi Hirsch, is man’s opinion about God, while Judaism is God’s opinion about man. Here we have Dr. Brown building his world-view and building his read on the Bible on the basis of what he believes God ought to be doing and how He should go about doing it.
Where in the Bible are we taught that man is capable of understanding God’s character, much less build a world-view on the basis of that understanding? According to the Jewish Bible, God has the authority to tell us what to do, what to feel and what to think and it is our duty to follow. By presenting this response, Dr. Brown has unwittingly confirmed the very point he was trying to respond to.
The original question stands. When we look to the Author of the Bible for guidance we will find Him pointing to the passages that confirm the Jewish world-view, we will find Him filling in all the blanks and we will find that He gives us clarity. We will certainly not find Him encouraging us to ignore His clear guidance on the basis of our own opinion of what He should or should not be doing.
Question # 2 – Faith Structure
The Author of Scripture did not present His book to His people in a vacuum. There is a context to Scripture. The context of Scripture is the covenant that God shares with His people. God first planted certain truths into the heart of the nation and only afterwards did He present them with His book. When the intended audience reads that first verse; “In the beginning God….,” they should not only be familiar with that God. They should see themselves as standing in a deep and intimate relationship with that God. The reader should have learned about the covenant through the testimonial observances and through the testimony of God’s witnesses. It is into this context that God placed Scripture and this is the only true context for reading and understanding Scripture.
The message of the Church is not only at odds with the word of the Bible. The message of Christianity is the deepest violation of the covenant which is the only true context for the Bible.
In our conversation Dr. Brown did not accept the premise of my question. He dismissed the idea of Israel bearing a unique testimony until I pointed out to him that the Bible points us to that testimony (Deuteronomy 4). When I quoted this passage in Deuteronomy, Dr. Brown responded with the claim that the first Jewish disciples of Jesus believed that the message of Christianity is in harmony with the covenantal testimony of Israel. His argument then is that we have an internal dispute within the witness community (the general Jewish community vs. the Jewish Disciples of Jesus) and he favors the version of the testimony presented by the original followers of Jesus.
What Dr. Brown has failed to realize is that from the Bible’s perspective, the greatest judgment for a Jew is being cut off from the Jewish people. God tells us through Ezekiel (13:9) how God deals with those who mislead His people. He assures us that these deceivers will be removed from the midst of His holy nation. And this is precisely what happened to the Jewish disciples of Jesus.
Even if we were to allow for the irrational assumption that the Jewish disciples of Jesus accepted all of the tenets of Protestant Christian theology, God’s judgment against them tells us not to follow their lead.
Question # 3 – Who Replaced the Sacrifices?
In his 5 Volume work, Dr. Brown follows the lead of secular historians and accepts the theory that while the Temple stood, all Jews believed that there can be no atonement for sin without a blood sacrifice. It was only with the loss of the Temple, claims Dr. Brown, that the Rabbis came up with various replacements for the sacrifices.
My challenge to him was that this depiction is simply false. The Rabbis recognized that the foundation of atonement is and was always repentance.
Dr. Brown responded by pointing to the Torah’s (Five Books of Moses) repetition of the blood offerings in the Temple. This emphasis on the blood offerings brings Dr. Brown to the conclusion that there can be no atonement without blood. If Jews today believe that there is atonement without the blood offerings of the Temple, then they have moved away from the teaching of the Bible whether the Rabbinic writings acknowledge this change or not.
In response I would ask the reader to step back for a moment.
Neither the Jew nor the Christian is actually offering the sacrifices described in the Five Books of Moses. The argument between the Jew and the Christian is about the guidance that the Bible provides in the absence of the Temple. The Christian believes that Jesus somehow fulfills the Biblical concept of the Temple sacrifices while the Jew argues that the Bible points in a different direction altogether.
For the Jew, every commandment of God, including the Temple sacrifices, is eternal and irreplaceable. We see the Bible clearly pointing to certain activities that are available to us in exile as parallels to the sacrifices (a broken heart, Psalm 51:19; kindness and knowledge of God, Hosea 6:7; and prayer, Psalm 141:2). But we never believed that the sacrifices were somehow replaced.
The Jew believes that the sacrifices will return in the Messianic era as the prophets predicted they would (Isaiah 56:7). We accept that every detail of God’s instructions concerning the Temple service is a gift from God to illuminate our lives and fill it with His truth. If we cannot practically fulfill the commandment today, we can yearn for the opportunity to fulfill God’s will and study God’s directives so that we keep the truth of His word alive in our minds and in our hearts.
So how can we know which path is true? How does God guide us in dealing with the absence of His Temple? Does He point to the path proposed by the Church or is He telling us to follow the path that the Jewish community is following?
Dr. Brown himself has unintentionally answered this question clearly and unequivocally.
The prophets spoke of a future Temple in the Messianic age (Ezekiel 37:28). What will the Temple accomplish according to the Christian theologian? If Jesus replaced the Temple sacrifices for once and for all, wouldn’t a Temple be superfluous and unnecessary?
One of the answers that Dr. Brown presents in response to this question (Objection 3.17, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus) is the argument that the sacrifices of the future Temple will not accomplish atonement. In Dr. Brown’s world-view, there is a possibility of Jesus accomplishing atonement at the same time that God’s Temple is up and running.
In other words, Dr. Brown can envision a Biblical Temple that functions side by side with Jesus. Dr. Brown is telling us that the Temple serves God’s purpose outside of whatever he believes that Jesus accomplishes.
So let us consider this aspect of the Temple’s purpose, the aspect that Jesus does not accomplish even according to Dr. Brown. How does the Christian world-view guide us in the absence of this part of the Temple service? What does the Church teach us about the expression of the Temple that does not find fulfillment in Jesus?
It is clear that the Jewish path of dealing with the absence of the Temple is the one that is loyal to the complete word of God, while the path advocated by Dr. Brown does not in fact tell us what to do in the absence of God’s Temple.
Question # 4 – Deuteronomy 30
Deuteronomy 30 (verses 1 thru 10) describes the Messianic age. This Biblical text makes it clear that the path to the Messianic age leads through observance of the Law of Moses. My question to Dr. Brown was how can he reconcile this text with his world-view? In his world-view the Messianic age is ushered in with the Jewish acceptance of Jesus and not with obedience to the Law of Moses.
Dr. Brown responded to this challenge with the claim that true obedience to the Law of Moses should lead to acceptance of Jesus.
My question to Dr. Brown can be encapsulated in one word: really? Does observance of the Law of Moses really lead to belief in Jesus?
In the 30 years that I have been active in counter-missionary work I have met a handful (less than 10) of Orthodox Jewish people who accepted Jesus (about half of them have since recognized their mistake and returned to Judaism). Some of these people were sincere people who made a tragic mistake. But none of them were motivated to make this mistake because they decided to take the teachings of Moses more seriously. Some of these people actually left observance of the Law before they accepted Jesus.
On the other hand, of the scores of people that I have met who have left Christianity in favor of Judaism, the vast majority of them have taken this step because they decided to take the teachings of Moses more seriously. They have realized that Christianity’s denigration of the Law (see below, Questions 7 and 8) is not in line with God’s word as recorded by Moses.
Devotion to the Law of Moses will not lead you towards Jesus, it leads you away from him.
Question # 5 – Deuteronomy 4:35
When God created the nation of Israel He planted a critical truth into the core of their beings. The Jewish people recognize that their responsibility towards God demands that they carry this truth though the corridors of history. Indeed, the dedication of the Jewish people to God’s truth brought them into conflict with every force of evil, but the spiritual core of the nation remained loyal to this truth. Ultimately, Israel’s steadfast commitment to God’s truth will be rewarded, and all the ends of the earth will acknowledge God’s truth and Israel’s mission as God’s witness will be vindicated to the eyes of all nations.
What is this truth? And how was it implanted into the heart of Israel? I will allow the Bible to explain.
“When you are in distress and all these things have befallen you in the end of days, you will return unto the Lord your God and hearken to His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God, He will not abandon you nor will He destroy you nor will He forget the covenant of your forefathers that He swore to them. For inquire now regarding the early days that preceded you, from the day when God created man on earth, and from one end of the heaven to the other end of the heaven; Has there ever been anything like this great thing or has anything like it been heard? Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard, and survived? Or has any god ever miraculously come to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, with challenges, with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with greatly awesome deeds, such as everything that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You have been shown in order that you know that the Lord, He is the God there is none beside Him.” (Deuteronomy 4:30-35)
The miracles of the exodus and the Sinai revelation served as a unique educational experience designed by God. This experience taught the Jewish people that there is but One Master of all existence. This was not a mere recital of words, or the handing over of a written text. This was an intense experience that brought the truth of God’s absolute reality to Israel’s heart in a way that words alone could never accomplish. This was not simply a matter of acquiring information. Many national entities are aware of the truth of God’s reality as a fact of knowledge. What was accomplished through Israel’s unique educational experience was that the truth of God’s reality was seared into the hearts of Israel with the deepest intensity. The intense appreciation for the truth of God’s reality is Israel’s exclusive possession.
God points to the awareness that Israel acquired through these unparalleled events as a gift that He granted to Israel, to the exclusion of every other national entity. The last generation of Jews is encouraged to look at the fact that this knowledge was granted to them, and to them alone, as the sign that God’s promises to them still stand.
Throughout history the Jew drew strength, courage and conviction from the fact that of all the nations of the earth, Israel alone was chosen by God to be the bearer of the ultimate truth. When the Churchmen would encourage the Jew to direct his or her devotion to Jesus, the Jew would say “no” on the basis of the knowledge that God had planted in the heart of Israel. When the Christian theologians would employ the paradoxical teachings of the trinity and the incarnation to encourage devotion to Jesus, the Jewish response was clear and unequivocal. The Jew would tell the Christian: “God Himself taught us everything we need to know about devotion. The teaching He granted us was comprehensive and complete. He alone is the Creator of all, and everything else are but His creations. Our hearts belong to the One who we encountered at Sinai and to no one else”.
This Biblical passage stands at the heart of Israel’s 2000 year conflict with the Church. But Dr. Brown could not find the space for it in his work. Why not?
Dr. Brown responded to this question by saying that he was not made aware of this argument when he wrote his book.
My response to this is that this does not answer the question. It may well be that Dr. Brown did not maliciously omit this argument from his work, but the fact that this argument is not addressed in his work renders his series deficient. The fact that his 1500 pages do not address this argument (neither do they address questions 1, 2, and 4) tells us that his 5 volume series does not in fact address some of the major Jewish objections to Jesus.
Question # 5b – Two Loves
In the course of our discussion about Deuteronomy 4:35 we spoke about the Jewish contention that devotion to Jesus is idolatry. I pointed out that all of the Christian talk that Jesus is somehow “one and the same” with the God of Israel breaks down when we look at idolatry from the perspective of the Bible.
The Bible considers idolatry to be a sin of the heart. Throughout the Bible, idolatry is compared to adultery. Just as the adulterous partner violates their relationship by giving their heart to someone other than the one to whom their heart is pledged, so it is with the idolater. The idolater gives his or her heart to an entity other than the God of Israel.
In the realm of the heart, love for God and love for Jesus are two different loves. These loves may be joined together in the Christian’s heart and mind, and they may be fused together by the confusing words of Christian theologians, but they remain two different loves and they are rooted in two different attractions. From the perspective of the Jewish Scriptures, devotion to Jesus is idolatry.
In response Dr. Brown argued that love for Jesus inspires love for God and that love for God inspires love for Jesus.
My answer to this contention is that this even if this were to be true (which it is not) but this still does not take away from the fact that these are two separate loves.
This simple mathematical fact should be obvious to everyone. One could worship God and not worship Jesus and one could love Jesus and not love God. The fact that many people choose to do both at the same time does not make these two loves one and the same.
However, I understand that Christians who have always fused their devotion to Jesus together with their devotion to God find it difficult to understand that there are actually two different devotions in their heart.
Allow me to illustrate the concept by using Dr. Brown’s own words. According to Dr. Brown the Jewish disciples of Jesus did not realize that Jesus was “one and the same” with God until after the alleged resurrection. So let us turn the clock back in time. What were the disciples thinking when they first met Jesus and did not “know” that he was God?
I assume that they worshiped God and that they loved and admired Jesus. They did not elevate their love for Jesus to the level of worship of the divine because they did not yet “realize” that he was divine. At that point in time there were two different loves in the hearts of the disciples, one for God and for a man that they believed was a righteous teacher. At that point in time there was no difference between the followers of Jesus and the followers of any other charismatic Jewish rabbi. The followers of Jesus and the disciples of our anonymous rabbi would have two loves in their heart, one for their God and one for their teacher. These loves may serve to inspire each other but they remain two distinct loves.
When the disciples then came to the “realization” that Jesus was “one and the same” as God, they did not lose the love they had for their human teacher. They simply fused the love for their teacher that already existed in their hearts together with the love for God. This artificial fusing together of the loves does not make them one love.
To add one more iota of clarity to this discussion let me illuminate this from yet another angle. Imagine a Trinitarian Christian who believes that Jesus is “one and the same” with the God of Israel. This person loves both God and Jesus and sees these two loves as one and inseparable. Now imagine that this person comes to the realization that Jesus is not in fact divine, but this person still believes that Jesus was a righteous teacher. Will this person need to develop a brand new love for Jesus as a human teacher? Will this person need to find a new attraction to bring him to love the human Jesus? It is obvious that this person will simply take the love that already exists in his heart towards Jesus and bring it down to the level of love for a man. This will not be a different love than the one they had when he believed Jesus was divine. It will be the same love on a different level.
The heart’s attraction to Jesus is not the same as the heart’s attraction to God. One is possible without the other. By the definition of the Bible, elevating one’s love for Jesus to worship of the divine is idolatry.
Question # 6 – Bias
Towards the beginning of Dr. Brown’s 5 volume series he makes the claim that study in a Yeshiva (a school in which Judaism is taught) will prevent a person from making an accurate judgment about the Christian claims for Jesus.
I challenged Dr. Brown by pointing out that the debate between the Christianity and Judaism centers on the covenant that the Jewish people share with God. The Church sees devotion to Jesus as fulfillment of that covenant and the Jewish people see that same devotion as the deepest violation of the covenant.
In order to make a judgment on this question one must first be aware that this is the core of the Jewish rejection of Jesus. After coming to this awareness, the person must understand the covenant that stands between God and His people.
If one is denied a Yeshiva education (i.e. an education in Judaism), then that person will not be aware that the Jewish rejection of the claims of the Church is rooted in Israel’s understanding of her covenant with God. (This is true even if the person in question studied the entirety of Dr. Brown’s 5 volume work.) This person will certainly not have a deep understanding of that covenant.
Furthermore, one who is not intimately familiar with Judaism will not understand the context of Jesus’ message. Jesus operated in the context of Judaism. In the times of Jesus, Jewish society was shaped by the teachings of Judaism. This was a society that took the Law of Moses seriously. If you don’t understand Judaism, you don’t understand the context of Jesus’ message (this obvious truth is acknowledged by secular scholars as well as by many Christian scholars).
This is all compounded with someone who aside from not having a Jewish education, has also been given a Christian education. The Christian teachers, starting from the authors of the gospels until today, provide their audience with a distorted view of Jews and Judaism. Remember, Judaism is the only context from within which to examine the claims of the Church.
So Dr. Brown’s complaint that a Yeshiva education will prevent a person from truly understanding the claims of Christianity rings quite hollow.
Dr. Brown’s response that there are some negative stories about Jesus circulating amongst Jews does little to mitigate the facts. Someone who doesn’t understand Judaism is in no position to make an accurate judgment on the debate between Judaism and Christianity.
With all of this in mind we can appreciate that when Christians abandon Christianity in favor of Judaism, the cards are stacked against them. They have been taught a warped view of Judaism and they generally do not understand the covenant that the Jewish people share with God. Yet the Christian message runs contrary to the Bible on so many different levels, that even with these obstacles in their way, people recognize that Christianity is not in line with God’s word. And many sincere Christians were empowered by the truth of God’s word to take shelter in God, and in God alone.
Question # 7 – Does the Jewish Focus on Obedience Lead to Self-Righteousness?
Towards the end of Dr. Brown’s five volume series, he criticizes Judaism for placing a greater emphasis on Torah obedience than on atonement and forgiveness. This Jewish emphasis on obedience, suggests Dr. Brown, has produced a self-righteous attitude.
I challenge Dr. Brown to present one verse in all of the Jewish Scriptures that discourages placing an emphasis on obedience. Show me one verse in all of the Jewish Bible that tells us to focus on atonement over obedience.
Question # 8 – Does Torah Obedience Have the Power to Transform
In one of the last sections of his series Dr. Brown presents the argument that observance of God’s Law does not have the power to transform lives. According to Dr. Brown, the Torah cannot fundamentally change us on the inside.
When I told him that I had seen many lives transformed through Torah observance, he modified his stance with the claim that the transformation accomplished through Torah observance is not as dramatic as the one achieved through acceptance of Jesus.
I propose that we step back and see what the Bible has to say. The Bible explicitly says that God’s law provides sanctification (Numbers 15:40) as well as wisdom and Godly illumination (Psalm 19:8,9). There is not one verse in the entirety of the Jewish Bible that says that faith in an individual accomplishes anything of the sort. Dr. Brown’s position is in direct conflict with the word of God.
History also testifies against Dr. Brown. Throughout our conversation, Dr. Brown kept referring to the judgment experienced by the Jewish people. The fact that we have been in exile and without a Temple for 2000 years tells Dr. Brown that we are carrying a false message.
But being in exile and without a Temple is far from the judgment that the followers of Jesus experienced in this same time period. That community was judged with the horrible guilt of hatred, persecution and murder. The community that looked to Jesus for salvation was cursed with a hatred of Jews and with the guilt of the murder of millions. If faith in Jesus can transform lives why didn’t it lift the Christian community above this wickedness?
What protected the community of those who followed God through obedience to His Law and kept them from these crimes? Was it perhaps the sanctification provided by the Law as God promised?
To illustrate this concept I will ask you to imagine two Jews living in the time of Jesus. As these two men stand there, 2000 years ago, they are granted a vision of the future. And they see the horrors of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust and all of the Christian persecution of Jews. One of these Jews decides that he does not want his descendants to suffer those horrors while the other decides that it is more important for him that his descendants not participate in the implementation of these horrors.
For the first Jew to achieve his desire, he should join the following of Jesus and for the second Jew to achieve his desire he should remain loyal to God and to His Law.
The choice is clear.
The ability for the Torah to transform lives is not limited to those individuals who observe it. The prophet tells us that our loyalty to God’s word has the ability to transform the world at large. God reassures His people: “And I have set My words in your mouth and sheltered you in the shade of My hand to plant the heavens and establish the earth and to declare to Zion; “you are My nation” (Isaiah 51:16).
The truth that there is but One God has the power to transform the world. God planted that truth in Israel’s heart (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 51:7) and God’s word will certainly accomplish His purpose (Isaiah 55:11). And despite the ridicule of those who cannot accept the Biblical truth that God chose Israel as His witness, His purpose of blessing all of humanity is accomplished by the community that bears witness to His truth (Isaiah 53:10)
Transforming Nations and Men
In the course of the discussion that I had with Dr. Brown on August 20, we touched upon several points that deserve to be elaborated upon and expanded. I hope to address these in the near future, at this point I will comment on two statements that Dr. Brown made about the beliefs of Judaism.
Dr. Brown stated that Judaism believes that God has done nothing active in a redemptive way to benefit the Gentiles for the last 2000 years.
This depiction of Judaism is false, but it is in place to point out that according to Dr. Brown’s world-view, God has done nothing active in a redemptive way for the Gentiles for all those years until Jesus arrived on the scene so what exactly is his point?
The position of Judaism is that God shares His goodness with humanity through His truth. As mankind absorbs God’s truth they move closer to God. The ultimate blessing is described as; “the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). That will be achieved when God redeems Israel as the Bible states clearly over and over again (Isaiah 17:12 – 18:7, 25:1 – 8, 30:26, 34:1 – 35:10, 40:1 – 11, 41:17 – 20, 49:8 – 13, 52:7 – 10, Zephaniah 3:8 – 20, Psalm 9:8 – 13, 40, 66, 69, 98, 102, 117 ).
Until the fullness of that blessing comes to fruition God still shares His kindness with the world. God has planted the truth that there is but One God into the heart of Israel, His witness nation (Deuteronomy 4:35). And God brings this truth to the nations through His people. This truth, that all of creation is equally subject to One God who stands above and beyond all of finite existence, is the foundation of civilization. And this truth is still bringing redemption to the nations.
Consider the following statement by John Adams, the Second President of the United States: “I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations
They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”
In case you are wondering what he is talking about I will ask you to consider the following. Many historians recognize that it was the influence of Jewish Bible commentators upon Catholic thinkers that triggered the Protestant Reformation. If this historical theory is true, (it is certainly very logical), then without the Jews there would have been no Protestant Reformation.
Can you now see why I say that God has been acting through His witness nation to bring blessing to the entire world?
Furthermore, although Christianity served as the vehicle to bring some diluted version of God’s truth to the world (as did Islam and secular philosophy), but it also brought tremendous curse to mankind. If Christianity would not have been invented, the European people would not have had hatred of God’s people poured into their hearts for centuries upon centuries. For most of the 2000 years that Dr. Brown sees Jesus as a blessing to the Gentiles, the dehumanization of the Jew was taught in the name of Jesus. This brought Gentile Europe to the guilt of causing suffering and death to countless millions.
Where is the redemptive action that Dr. Brown is talking about?
Dr. Brown made another statement that I would like to address. Dr. Brown said that Rabbinic Judaism looks at people whose lives were transformed by Jesus as being influenced by demonic forces or by human emotion. Dr. Brown believes that the transformed lives of Christians who come to Jesus testify to something more Godly than that.
Here again, Dr. Brown makes a statement on behalf of Judaism which is less than accurate. It is in place to note that Dr. Brown himself would recognize that many of those whose lives were transformed (by acceptance of Jesus or of any other teaching) were influenced by human emotion. Many of these transformed lives did not lead to authentic Christianity as Dr. Brown defines it. How would Dr. Brown explain those whose lives were transformed by Jesus back in the day when Jesus was synonymous with hatred of Israel?
The Bible teaches that man is created in the image of God and there are deep latent powers within the human psyche that could be triggered to create dramatic changes in the lives of people.
Judaism however believes that there is more to it. As it is with nations, so it is with individuals. The only redemptive force in the human experience is God’s truth. When a person is suddenly exposed to even a diluted version of God’s truth, that diminished truth has the power to transform lives.
But the search for truth should not stop with the dramatic transformation of lives, whether that transformation comes through Judaism, Islam or one of the many forms of Christianity. If one’s life is transformed to be more Godly, then that life should be continuously yearning for more of God’s truth. And no one can say that they possess all of God’s truth.
Keep on searching, keep on separating God’s truth from the lies that the men have tied together with that truth. As you do so, you move ever closer to redemption.
Prior to the meeting I sent Dr. Brown a selection of questions from those 3 works and we agreed that the format of our meeting would primarily consist of me asking him the questions and his responses. We did try to stick to that format but naturally the discussion went beyond the planned format.
We ended up discussing 8 questions and we hope that you find the recording educational.
The following is a basic timeline of the questions as well as links to articles that I had written in the past on the subjects that came up in the discussion.
Question #1 – The Totality of Scripture – 3 minute point
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 