Response to Line of Fire 11

Posted on February 13, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Response to Line of Fire 11

In his February 7 2013 radio show Dr. Brown takes issue with a presentation by Julius Ciss; Director of the Canadian branch of Jews for Judaism.

Julius’s presentation is simple and straightforward. He explains that the reason that Jews cannot accept Jesus as the Messiah is because he did not fulfill the requirements of the Messiah as described by the prophets. The prophets spoke of the ingathering of the Jewish exile back to the land of Israel where the Messiah will reign over a united Israel in their ancient homeland. The prophets spoke of a rebuilt Temple during the reign of the Messiah. The prophets spoke of an era of universal peace in the times of the Messiah. The prophets speak of Israel observing the Law of Moses in the Messianic era. The prophets described the Messianic era as a time when all the nations will have faith in the One God of Israel. And the prophets taught us that the Messiah will be a member of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David. In the Bible we find that tribal affiliation and royal inheritance only passes through the father.

The exiles are yet to be gathered. The Temple is not rebuilt. We don’t have universal peace. Much of Israel is not observing the Law of Moses and the nations of the world have not yet unanimously put their faith in the One Creator of heaven and earth. No one ever claimed that Jesus was a descendant of David from his father’s side. Each of these factors standing alone is enough to disqualify Jesus from claiming the title of Jewish Messiah. How much more so is this true when all of these factors combine. After everything is said and done Jesus did nothing that should make us think that he is the Messiah.

Dr. Brown makes some general statements in response to the totality of these arguments and he responds to each of the Messianic criteria individually.

None of his arguments are new and I have already responded to most of them in my critique of his writings. However; for the sake of clarity, I will briefly present some of Dr. Brown’s responses and my answers to those response in this article.

Before we get to the arguments themselves I will address a comment that Dr. Brown keeps coming back to throughout his show. He keeps on telling his listeners that he invites any rabbi to call in to his show and that he will treat him fairly. He bemoans the fact that the counter-missionaries refuse to respond to his challenge.

The fact of the matter is that every one of his arguments has systematically been refuted in writing. Dr. Brown has consistently backed out of his assurances to respond – in writing – to these challenges to his position. Most recently; on the comment section of his November 3 2011 radio show he entered into a give and take with me over the very subject that he discusses on this show. He assured me that he will get back to me but he never did.

Perhaps Dr. Brown has his legitimate reasons for not being able to answer in writing, but the fact of the matter is that he has consistently avoided this venue despite his assurances to the contrary. When he tells his listeners how the counter-missionaries refuse to debate him in a live forum it would only be fair if he also explains to his audience that he consistently refuses to debate in writing.

Early on in his show Dr. Brown takes issue with Julius’s assertion that Judaism believes that the Messiah must fulfill specific prophecies before being considered the Messiah. Dr. Brown argues that there was no one version of Judaism in the days of Jesus and that Judaism did not present a codified definitive concept of the Messiah’s role until the 12th century.

This argument is fallacious. Despite the diversity that existed within Judaism in the Second Temple era still there were certain basic concepts that all Jews agreed upon. There is no record of any Jewish group subscribing to the Messiah coming twice. All of the prophecies that Julius quoted in reference to the Messiah were understood as Messianic by every Jewish group. So Dr. Brown’s argument concerning the diversity of Judaism; which he greatly exaggerates, actually works against him. If the Jews were arguing about so many other details of their faith why did they all agree with each other that these prophecies of Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah were Messianic? It is clear that the plain straightforward reading of Scripture didn’t allow even the craziest deviant to deny these truths. Even the disciples of Jesus who were with him throughout his entire public career did not deny these truths. It is only after Jesus failed in his mission as they originally understood it that they were forced to come up with a new definition of the mission so as to fit the person to whom they had already pledged all of their devotion.

As part of his overall response Dr. Brown downplays the significance of the Messianic prophecies that Julius mentioned. Dr. Brown takes particular issue with the prophecies related to the ingathering of Israel’s exile and the restored Temple. Dr. Brown goes so far as to say that the concept of the Temple in relation to Messiah is “fringe at best”.

I actually interacted with Dr. Brown concerning this very issue. How do we know if a prophecy is “significant” or “fringe”? How many times does a concept need to be stated before we can say that this is a “significant” prophecy? With what level of clarity and unambiguousness will the concept need to be stated by the prophets before we decide that a given concept is not “fringe”?

Fortunately; Dr. Brown’s was kind enough to supply with a yardstick that we can use to discover which prophecies are “fringe” and which prophecies are “significant”.

In Volume 3 of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus (page 178) Dr. Brown passes judgment on Maimonides. I quote: “There is NO DOUBT that he missed the mark, PAINTING A PICTURE of the Messiah that would be in agreement with Rabbinic Judaism and would rule out Yeshua as a candidate.”

What was Maimonides “sin” that incurred this scathing review from Dr. Brown? Well; you see, Maimonides states that the Messiah does not necessarily need to perform miracles. For Dr. Brown this is unforgivable because – and again I quote: “the prophets explicitly associated miraculous acts with the Messianic age (see, e.g. Isa. 35:5-7).”

So here we have our yardstick. According to Dr. Brown the miracles of the Messiah are a significant prophecy that one dare not downplay. We will then use this as our measuring stick. How many times are the miracles of the Messiah mentioned in Scripture? In how many books of Scripture are these miracles mentioned? How clear and unambiguous are these prophecies? Is there perhaps another more obvious interpretation of these prophecies? Did the prophet tie down these miracles to a specific timeline?

There are three passages in the book of Isaiah which can be misconstrued to read as if the Messiah must perform miracles (35:5,6; 42:7; 61:1). They are only found in this one book of the Bible. One of these prophecies (35:5,6) does not mention a Messianic figure at all while the other two speak of an individual who many see as the prophet himself. There is ample contextual evidence to indicate that when Isaiah spoke of “opening the eyes of the blind” – he was not referring to a literal healing of a few blind people, but rather to Israel’s release from the bondage of exile (Isaiah 33:23, 41:17, 42:16, 43:8,20; 49:9-13, 52:11-12, Jeremiah 31:7). And the prophet explicitly ties each of these passages in with God’s revenge against Israel’s enemies.

Yet for Dr. Brown; the “miracles of the Messiah” are so clear and unambiguous that if someone downplays their significance it is an unpardonable sin.

Every last one of the requirements of the Messiah that Julius so clearly laid out towers over the concept of miracles in every way that they can be measured. In terms of number of Scriptural references, in terms of the amount of books of Scripture these concepts are described and in terms of clarity.  The ingathering of the Jewish exile – Deuteronomy 30:3, Isaiah 11:12, 40:11, 43:5,6, 49:12,18,22, 60:4, 66:20, Jeremiah 3:18, 30:3, 31:7, 32:37, Ezekiel 11:17, 20:41, 34:13, 36:24, 37:21; the rebuilding of the Temple – Isaiah 2:2, 60:7, Jeremiah 33:18, Ezekiel 37:26, 43:7, 44:15, Micah 4:1; national resurgence of Torah observance – Deuteronomy 30:10, Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 11:20, 36:27, 37:24, 44:23,24; universal peace – Isaiah 2:4, 65:25, Jeremiah 33:9,16, Ezekiel 34:25,28, 37:26, Hosea 2:20, Psalm 72:3; and universal knowledge of God – Isaiah 11:9, 45:23, 54:13, 66:18,19,23, Jeremiah 3:17, 31:33, Ezekiel 38:23, Zephaniah 3:9, Zechariah 8:20-23, 14:16.

It is clear that according to Dr. Brown’s own yardstick – Julius’s presentation is right on the mark – and if you want a scathing review of anyone who attempts to minimize these prophecies – just read Dr. Brown’s own rebuke of Maimonides quoted above.

At one point in his presentation Dr. Brown makes the preposterous assertion that the Messiah is FIRST to be a light to the Gentiles and only AFTERWARD is he going to be recognized by the Jewish people. This statement is patently false and is roundly contradicted by the prophets of Scripture

The scriptures clearly tell us exactly how the light will come to the Gentile nations. The message is repeated quite a number of times in an open and unambiguous manner. Isaiah compares the error of the nations to a veil that covers their faces (25:7), and to a thick cloud of darkness (60:2). The prophets teach that God will use the physical salvation of the Jewish people to dispel this dark error. When the downtrodden and persecuted nation is exalted, and their enemies are destroyed, the nations will see the light and be converted to the service of God. Israel’s deliverance is the catalyst for the conversion of the nations. This lesson is repeated by the prophets again and 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 ). Any faith that the nations are coming to before the light of God is openly revealed upon Israel, can only be a part of the darkness that the prophets yearned to see dispelled (Isaiah 60:1 – 3).

http://jewsforjudaism.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=354

http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/The-Elephant-and-the-suit.pdf

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/first-major-thread-from-l-o-f-nov-3/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/isaiah-53-micah-7-and-isaiah-62/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/a-light-to-the-nations/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/supplement-to-hope-faithfulness-and-joy/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/jeremiah-31-teaches-that-christianity-is-not-the-new-covenant/

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/dr-brown-volume-3/

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Messiah, Response to Dr. Brown Line of Fire | 16 Comments

Annelise on Amazing Grace

Posted on February 12, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Annelise on Amazing Grace

Annelise is a former Christian who now worships the God of Israel alone

My family grew up singing songs of thankfulness and surrender to God for saving us from guilt and allowing us to live in His kindness. Many of these were based on verses or imagery from the Hebrew scriptures. We were also taught that instead of punishing us as our rebellion deserves, God humbly chose to be born like us and experience the consequences of sin for us. One song I remember describes God as a ‘servant King’, who generously veiled His glory and came not to be served but to serve. The helplessness of a baby and the heavy sorrow of bearing sin for all humans are described as an undeserved gift to us from God.

This image becomes stronger in the lives of Christians when experiencing guilt and forgiveness. As humans we bring disobedience and weakness before God in His perfect holiness. So there is thankfulness for grace and the beauty of learning to live in His righteousness, which Christians believe comes actually through faith in Jesus.

I spoke sometimes with Muslim friends, who felt it was degrading to describe God as a man. The smallness of a human amidst creation, our humble state before God, and the disgusting or mundane nature of some aspects of everyday life seemed to them inappropriate to attribute to the One, Majestic God. But I felt that the depth of a costly gift like the one in the Christian view of Him in fact showed the majesty of His love.

I won’t describe here why I believe Jews can’t accept Christianity, or try to show that it isn’t true. What I want to bring across though is that nothing is lacking if it isn’t.

One of the biggest questions to grapple with, for someone who has known God’s love and grace and doesn’t hold any longer that they came through Jesus, is this: So what does His love for us actually look like?

There are many songs and prayers in the Jewish Scriptures, and in the worship offered by traditional Jews today, which thank God for this love and salvation. We can’t understand how or why He would love us, but through the prophets God spoke of His compassion for Israel and humanity in very deep language. His people thank Him for saving their nation in the past, and for how He will restore them in future. With awe we hear His promise to wipe away sins, because His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. The grace of that gift draws us to repentance, to thankfulness and love, and to new ways of life. The gifts of His love for us are countless. The choices in each day and moment to be led only by what He wants us to do, nothing different, are a deep and secure experience of nearness to Him. And even though it is yet to flower in fulfillment, the beginnings of the redemption are real in the forgiveness, righteousness, and knowledge of His ways that God has put already in our reach.

As to the idea about a man who was ‘one with our Creator and suffered for us’, a story like that cannot be beautiful if it is not true. The merciful salvation promised through the prophets will be breathtaking whenever and however it is ultimately revealed.

But if God did not command Israel to see a particular suffering human as Himself, then the love we owe Him alone is being accidentally offered by Christians to a man who was just like us and experienced what it is to owe thankfulness and worship to God as well. Our God will be glorified in the earth when distractions like that fade away and the realities of His actual gifts are seen openly throughout nature, history, and our lives. But the truth that Christians (and others) have already acknowledged about how much He has loved us, how near He is to us, and how much we owe Him as servants and children, will never fade away. They will not be out of reach for anyone who turns to Him on the paths He has given and commanded us to come by.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Annelise, The Righteous Gentile | 16 Comments

Without Preconceived Notions

Posted on February 10, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Without Preconceived Notions

In one of my articles (entitled Messianic Expectation https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/the-messianic-expectation/  ) I wrote: “When we read the scripture without any preconceived notions about the Messiah, when we read God’s promises for Israel’s glorious future age, we can readily see why the Jewish people cannot accept the claims of Christianity.”

Gil Torres commented by saying that the missionary could respond with the exact same argument: “When we read the scripture without any preconceived notions about the Messiah, when we read God’s promises for Israel’s glorious future age, we can readily see why the Christian people accept the claims of Christianity.”

So it seems that Gil Torres is under the impression that reading the Jewish Scriptures “WITHOUT ANY PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS” will lead us to the Christian description of the Messiah.

In this humble article I set out to demonstrate how it is that I know that Gil’s assertion is false.

The first question I need to address is how can I approach this matter with any level of evenhandedness? After all I come to this debate with a whole package of preconceived notions. Who am I to say what things look like from the standpoint of someone without preconceived notions if I never stood there?

The fact is that it is quite easy for me to do this. You see; the missionaries have helped me arrive at this conclusion in more ways than one. For starters I call Dr. Brown and Lee Strobel to the witness stand. No one would accuse these two men of reading Scripture with a predisposition against Jesus yet they both admit that their understanding of the Messiah is not easily found in the Jewish Scriptures. Dr. Brown writes: “Messianic prophecies are not clearly identified as such” (Answering Jewish Objections Vol. 3 Page 189). Lee Strobel complains of the difficulties inherent in the task of “finding” Jesus in the Jewish Bible: “scholars must pore over the context of various passages to determine which ones deal with the coming of the Messiah” (The Case for the Real Jesus page 190).

If the Christian concept of Messiah can be readily found in the Jewish Scriptures as Gil claims then why would these dedicated missionaries warn us that this is not so easily done?

The second way that the Church has made it clear that the Christian version of the role of the Messiah is not readily found in the Jewish Scriptures is with their admission that the disciples of Jesus were shocked when he died. If an unbiased reading of the Scriptures should lead to the Christian understanding of the role of Messiah the disciples should have been terribly disappointed if he would not have died. How would he “fulfill” Isaiah 53? Psalm 22? Genesis 3:15? It is clear that people who are not predisposed towards Christian theology can read the Jewish Scriptures without seeing these passages as necessary prerequisites for the Messiah to fulfill

(Dr. Brown’s response to this argument is especially enlightening – https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/response-to-th-line-of-fire-9/ )

Finally; Christians have made it clear to me that it is not my bias that prevents me from seeing Jesus in the pages of Jewish Scripture is by avoiding the most basic challenge. I have presented the following challenge again and again to different Christian teachers: “The myth of the “blindness of the Jew” is an ugly stain in the history of mankind. Dr. Brown, instead of working to perpetuate this myth, I appeal to you to educate Christians of the fallacies of this myth. Explain to your audience that as long as the Jew sees the teachings of Christianity as a contradiction to the Scriptures with which we were entrusted by God – it is the moral duty of the Jew to REJECT those teachings. Encourage your audience to try to read the Jewish Scriptures as a Jew would have read them before the advent of Jesus. Encourage your listeners to attempt to acquire a complete world-view on the basis of the Jewish Scriptures alone – and ask them – how would they view the doctrines of Christianity in the light of the Jewish Scriptures.“ (This was an appeal to Dr. Brown posted in “Response to the Line of Fire 9”).

In my Eighth Response to Gil Torres (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/eighth-response-to-gil-torres/ ) I wrote: “According to your own standard (that a claim for prophecy be measured in light of previous revelation) what you should have done is that you should have studied the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish Scriptures alone, absorbed its spirit and allowed yourself to become saturated with its teachings – you should have developed a complete world-view on that basis and then and only then evaluate the claims of Christianity in that light. Do you not agree that this would be the proper approach?”

Instead of taking me up on the challenge these Christian teachers lecture to me about the “coherence of the dialogue” or by otherwise beating around the bush (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/goldberg-vs-brown/). If; as Gil claims, that the Christian understanding of the Messiah is clearly spelled out in Scripture for the unbiased reader – I think that these Christian teachers would not go to these lengths to avoid the straightforward challenge that I presented to them.

I can say with clarity and with confidence – When we read the scripture without any preconceived notions about the Messiah, when we read God’s promises for Israel’s glorious future age, we can readily see why the Jewish people cannot accept the claims of Christianity.

The Christian teachers have unwittingly confirmed my statement.

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Posted in General | 14 Comments

Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus

Posted on February 7, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus ?

As a Christian you may have wondered: why don’t Jews believe in Jesus ? Perhaps you are a Jew who knows that Jews stood apart from the surrounding populace and refused to join the European people in their devotion to Jesus and you want to understand: why don’t Jews believe in Jesus ?

Before I can answer this question we need to determine what it is that the Church wants the Jew to believe about Jesus. The fact of the matter is that Church would want Jews to believe many different things about Jesus. The Church would have us believe that Jesus is the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets, that he is divine, that the devotion of mankind ought to be directed to him, that faith in him atones for sin and that he was the sinless lamb. Each one of these beliefs deserves its own answer.

Jews cannot believe that Jesus was the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets for the simple reason that he fulfilled none of the Messianic prophecies (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/the-messianic-expectation/ ). Furthermore; the character of Jesus as described by the writers of the Christian Scriptures stands as a direct opposite of the character of the Messiah that the Jewish people have been taught by the prophets to wait for (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/the-polar-opposite/ ).

Jews cannot believe that Jesus was divine because we were taught by God that all of the inhabitants of heaven and earth are but creations of the One Divine Creator (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/foundation-of-worship/ )

Jews cannot direct their devotion towards Jesus because their devotion is already pledged to the Creator of heaven and earth. Jews stand in a covenant relation with God and directing devotion to anyone aside from the One to whom their heart is already pledged is the deepest violation of this covenantal relationship.

Jews cannot believe that faith in Jesus atones for sin for the simple reason that there is not one verse in all of the writings of the prophets that would teach that faith in anyone atones for sin. The consistent teaching of Moses and all the prophets is that sincere repentance atones for sin.

Jews cannot believe that Jesus was sinless because the prophets testify that no human being is perfect (http://proverbs1817.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/the-sinless-man/ ).

Even Jews who have strayed from their roots and do not follow the Law of Moses cannot believe in Jesus. These Jews recognize that attributing divinity to a human being and directing worship towards a person is simply wrong. By elevating one man to the status of divine the Church has negated the intrinsic equality of all men – the foundation of civilization.

Another reason why Jews don’t believe in Jesus is because of the atrocities committed in his name. During the past several decades the Church has engaged in an intense whitewashing campaign to disassociate Jesus from the horrors of the holocaust and the inquisition. But the fact remains that the Christian Church was the vehicle through which the mind of Western civilization was poisoned against the Jew. Whether this was their intention or not; the writers of the Christian Scriptures laid the mental and cultural groundwork for the cruel persecution of the Jewish people for almost 2000 years. You can’t really expect Jews to believe in the man idolized by these same writers.

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Posted in General | 36 Comments

Focused Decision – Responsible Devotion

Posted on February 6, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Focused Decision – Responsible Devotion

When you need to make a decision you don’t want to be distracted. You certainly don’t want to be intimidated by ridicule or by fear. You also don’t want to be confused by complicated argumentation. You want to be able to cut through the confusion and focus on the question at hand clearly and calmly so that you can arrive at your decision on the basis of the relevant factors.

From the standpoint of religion the most important decision that you could possibly make is the decision to whom to direct your worship. If you direct your worship correctly then you are developing a relationship with the one true God. If you misdirect your devotion then you are engaged in idolatry. If you have a question about directing your devotion you want to remain focused on the one relevant issue – does this entity that demands my devotion deserve it or not.

The key difference between Judaism and Christianity revolves around this question. Judaism insists that all worship and devotion ought to be directed to the One Creator of heaven and earth while Christianity insists that our devotion should be directed towards one Jesus of Nazareth.

In order to arrive at a decision on the basis of the facts it is important that we clearly see both sides of the question in their stark reality. The 2000 year old missionary campaign of the Church has exerted itself so that people cannot examine this question with clarity and serenity. The purpose of this humble article is to help you cut through the confusion and see this question as it is.

The Church is using many tactics that serve to confuse the person faced with this question and we aim to expose some of them. By gaining an awareness of the tactics and strategies of the masters of persuasion it is easier to see through the mist of confusion and evaluate the question for what it is.

One strategy employed by the missionaries is that they attempt to obfuscate the question itself. The Churchmen would rather that you do not see two clear opposing positions. Yes; the Church acknowledges that there is opposition to their belief system but the opposition is painted in a way that the core issue is obfuscated. Instead of presenting a question about idolatry and directing worship the Churchmen would rather that you ask yourself the question; “is this man the Messiah?” or: “how do you achieve forgiveness for your sins?”.

In order to see this question in the terms of reality all you need to do is ask yourself: “if a man approaches me and claims that he is the incarnation of the Divine and as such is deserving of my worship – what would it take for me to be convinced if this is at all possible?” To put this question in a Christian format we could ask: “if a man were to approach me and claim that he is an incarnation of the Christian Jesus and as such is deserving of worship – what would it take for me to be convinced if this is at all possible?”

In order to approach this question clearly you need to see on the one side the possibility of worshiping God without directing an iota of devotion to Jesus and on the other side you need to see a man demanding your devotion.

The questions about Messiah and about forgiveness of sin are completely irrelevant in light of the real question; namely: is this worship that is being demanded of me idolatrous or not?

In order to further obfuscate the question the missionaries employ language that serves to confuse and obfuscate the issue at hand. The arguments of the trinity and the incarnation are complicated and intricate and the more complicated they are the further they serve their purpose – to confuse. People get lost in the reasoning of the Christian theologians and they are discouraged from searching out the root of the question.

In order to cut through the smokescreen of these arguments I encourage you to go back to the original question. If a man approaches you and claims that he is an incarnation of whoever it is that you already worship would it make a difference to you if he pulls out several thick volumes filled with complicated arguments and tells you to read them?

The wording that Christianity uses, fusing Jesus together with God, is also confusing. People that are brought up in a Christian setting often have these two separate entities: Jesus and God; fused together in their minds. This makes it difficult for them to see the question as it is. Again; to help you see through the confusion I encourage you to imagine a man (not Jesus) attempting to convince you that he is one and the same as the Creator of heaven and earth – just see the two sides of the question. Is it appropriate for me to direct my devotion towards this fellow who looks, walks and talks like a man, or is it wrong for me to direct my devotion towards this man?

Another strategy employed by the Church in preventing people from arriving at a balanced and focused decision is intimidation. This is accomplished several ways. One method that is used is that those who reject Jesus are demonized by the masters of persuasion. The position of those who do not accept Jesus’ claims is painted in the terms of spiritual blindness, inherent wickedness and association with the devil.

Ridicule and derision is also used by the Church to throw the person faced with the question of Jesus off balance. Those who doubt Jesus’ claims are called hypocrites, legalists, are accused of being motivated by pride and are described as people with a shallow understanding of spirituality.

The Church also employs the fear of eternal hell-fire to further confuse the person faced with this question.

All of these tactics of persuasion were elevated to the level of religious virtue by means of infusing the Christian Scriptures with the same authority and reverence that the books of the Jewish Bible enjoy. By placing the Christian Scriptures side by side with the Jewish Bible the Churchmen hoped to hide the fact that the Christian Scriptures is a work of propaganda directly and consciously aimed at influencing people’s opinion about Jesus.

The Jewish Scriptures were not written to convince anyone of anything. They were written to encourage the nation that already believes in the God of Israel and in the agency of His prophet Moses to be loyal to God and to obey His law as set down through Moses. The Christian Scriptures on the other hand were written in an atmosphere where the opposition to belief in Jesus was very strong and the authors all exerted themselves to counter that opposition. Even Paul, who is addressing the internal community of Christians, is writing to counter and to dispute other versions of Christianity that were popular in his time.

A book that is written with the express purpose of persuading people cannot be granted the same level of credibility as a book that is not trying to convince anyone. Anyone reading the Christian Scriptures must realize that this book was written with the conscious desire to persuade people to believe a certain way.

So let’s recap. A man approaches you and demands your devotion – will you give it to him? Will you be convinced by a series of book written by people who are already devoted followers of this man? Will you allow your decision to be influenced by the followers of this man when they invalidate anyone who opposes the devotion they are demanding with ridicule and contempt? Will you allow yourself to be distracted by issues other than the question of idolatry?

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Posted in General | 14 Comments

Excerpt from Critique of Vol. 4

Posted on February 3, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

3. Objection 5.11

Brown discusses the Jewish objection that argues that if Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, then Jesus was not a descendant of David on his father’s side. This tells us that Jesus could not be the Jewish Messiah. According to the Jewish Scriptures, the Messiah must be a descendant of David from his father’s side.

Brown responds on behalf of Christianity: “Obviously, you don’t believe in the virgin birth, otherwise you would not be raising this objection.”

Here Brown tries to obfuscate the issue with irrelevant witticism. Of-course we do not believe in the virgin birth, but how does this relate to the objection at hand? Christians acknowledge that Jesus’ mother did not claim that her son’s father was a descendant of David. This simple fact disqualifies him from being the Jewish Messiah. The fact that Mary gave us a fantastic story concerning her son’s conception does nothing to change this basic fact. Unless a woman points to a man who is a descendant of Judah as her son’s father, then by Torah law, this child does not belong to the tribe of Judah. If no man from the House of David steps forth and claims to be the father of a given child, then this child has no claim to the Davidic throne.

https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/dr-brown-volume-4/

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Messiah | 108 Comments

Truth and Repentance – Psalm 51:7

Posted on January 28, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Truth and Repentance – Psalm 51:7

One of the opening statements in the Jewish daily liturgy is more of an admonition than a prayer. It reads as follows: “A person should always be reverential of heaven in private and in public, acknowledging the truth and speaking the truth in his heart.”

The activity of “acknowledging the truth” is foundational to our journey in life. Acknowledging the truth is putting aside falsehood and aligning ourselves with the truth. The falsehood we need to put aside may be an act that we committed or it can be a belief that we have accepted. We may be very attached to that falsehood. Our honor, our money, our stability in life may be bound up with that falsehood. But acknowledging the truth means breaking clean from what is wrong and realigning ourselves with what is true.

Acknowledging truth means being able to apologize and admit wrongdoing. Acknowledging the truth means being able to accept criticism. And acknowledging the truth means being able to realign our lives with the reality of God’s truth.

Acknowledging the truth is intrinsically an act of redefining oneself. We cling to falsehood because we feel that our honor and our sense of self-worth is tied up with the act that we have committed, with the words that we spoke, with beliefs that we maintained or with ideals that we were committed to. When we abandon a falsehood and we acknowledge the truth we are essentially saying: “I am not what I did, I am not what I believed and I am not what I thought. I am a lover of truth. I am a servant of the God of truth and I am one who strives to align my life with His truth. That is me and this is my essence.”

When we acknowledge the truth not only do we enrich our own lives but we enrich the lives of those around us. This is especially true in relation to the people who are still growing in their understanding of life.

A large part of the emotional life of a child is the encounter with criticism. It may not be outright criticism but it is certainly correction. Children are children and they make mistakes. (Adults also make mistakes but children have a more difficult time denying the reality of their mistakes. The adults around them often magnify the mistakes that the children make and the internal defense mechanism that adults activate upon making a mistake is not yet fully developed in the mind of a child.) If our children don’t see an example of acknowledging truth or of accepting criticism then they never learn how to handle correction in a healthy way. If the adults around then are always blaming others for their own mistakes, justifying their errors and turning their wrongdoings into ideals then that is what the child will imitate.

Worse yet is the fact that if we refuse to acknowledge mistakes then the children around us learn that self-worth is measured by our actions and words and is not something intrinsic to our being. By acknowledging truth; not only do we give the children around us the necessary tool to handle criticism, we also teach them a real sense of self-worth.

When a child observes an adult acknowledging the truth the child then learns that the adult does not measure herself by her actions but rather the child senses that the adult has a stronger sense of self-worth that is not measured by the transitory. The child will learn that their own self-worth is something intrinsic to themselves and can never be taken from them. They will come to recognize that our yearning for truth is the breath of God in our nostrils and that this desire is the reality of our being.

Acknowledging truth means being able to say: “I’m sorry”; without “ifs” “ands” or “buts”. Apologizing to a child is perhaps one of the greatest gifts you can share with him or her. First; you are teaching the child the rare art of apologizing.  Second; you will be teaching the child that their feelings that were hurt are valid and valuable to the degree that an adult will put his or her own honor aside to acknowledge the validity of the child’s sense of justice. And finally and perhaps most importantly; you are teaching the child that you don’t define yourself according to your actions, but rather, that you define yourself as a seeker of truth and justice and as one who submits to truth and justice when you discover them – no matter the consequences. The child will then see a sense of self-worth worth emulating.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Atonement, Basic, Judaism | 5 Comments

Annelise on the Messianic Hope

Posted on January 28, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Annelise on the Messianic Hope

Throughout Tanach, David is described as being devoted to God (as a creation, and therefore as a worshipper), and keeping His laws and decrees. A lot of these descriptions come in the context of God comparing David’s royal descendants to David’s own heart. He set the standard for the attitude that Israel’s kings, and the king at the time of Israel’s future restoration, must have before God. God made His promises about the people as a whole in the context of whether these kings would walk before Him according to His Law, as David did, understanding that he was not a god or a replacement of God to the people (like the kings of other nations) but that his glory was a reflection of the glory of the One he worshipped in song and in doing justice. Only a human who is not God, not one to be worshipped, but a worshipper of God, can understand what it means to stand where David stood in the relationship between God and His creation. The ability to worship God as Creator is the defining experience of Israel and humanity. For even a king to understand this is the heart of David, which left a deep mark on the musical worship and communal prayers of Israel as a nation after him, even until today. The simple hope of the prophets is that the line of such a kingdom, in that particular lineage, will begin again in the midst of God’s restoration of humanity.

God didn’t teach Israel how to tell the difference between a human who owes worship to God and a human who deserves it. The understanding is that everything with breath owes praise to God, and David’s psalms often portray the human identity within that. Instead of forgetting where creation comes from or thinking that we own ourselves, this kind of worship looks to God in surrender and dependence, not only physically for every blessing, but also spiritually. Our existence and our ability to draw intimately close to God through taking part in righteousness are such a gift. God doesn’t worship or thank Himself for these things in the way that we, who are created at the heart of our experience and of our knowledge of Him, do. The hope for a merely human king who will be anointed by God to again represent this role of David is a good hope. A lot of the book of Isaiah takes the imagery of Hezekiah to illustrate that kind of hope, again because of his submission towards God and the way in which God’s power was shown through his reign. May God restore this throne to Israel and His own Throne in our world, soon, and (if He’s willing) in our own days; may He open the eyes of this world to see what He deserves from us.

That is the message held by the generations of the people who are keeping His covenant Law, including its heart of love, repentance, and thankfulness, which He will bring into the sight of everyone for His own glory and because of His kindness to us.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Annelise, Messiah | 1 Comment

Song of Solomon 5:16 vs. Three Masters of Persuasion

Posted on January 25, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Song of Solomon 5:16 vs. Three Masters of Persuasion

The heart of Israel is bound up in a covenant relationship with the One Creator of heaven and earth. Throughout the Scripture this relationship is compared to a marriage. How can I explain love? How can I put Israel’s yearning for God into words? David said: “Whom do I have in heaven? And aside from You I desire none on earth” (Psalm 73:25). Solomon wrote on behalf of Israel: “This is my Beloved and my partner” (Song of Solomon 5:16). There is no room in Israel’s heart for another. And the fire of this love is seared onto every page of Israel’s history with her very life blood.

Israel’s refusal to consider the attempt of the Church to divert their heart towards Jesus is rooted in this love. The story of Israel’s rejection of Jesus is a story of loyalty to the Creator of heaven of earth; it is a story of love and loyalty.

The masters of persuasion could not allow the world to recognize this truth. It would not look good for their missionary campaign.

They simply turned the story on its ear. Instead of a story of loyalty and love they invented a story of treachery and hate. In the very place that Israel’s loyalty to God shines so brightly these propagandists painted a picture of pure evil.

I present here the arguments of three of Jesus’s promoters; John, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum and Dr. Michael Brown.  Each of these provides a “commentary” on the Jewish refusal to direct devotion to Jesus.

John 8:42-47

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

According to John it is simple mathematics. If you reject Jesus; this then “proves” that you are a child of darkness.

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum – The Three Messianic Miracles

“Some time prior to the coming of Yeshua (Jesus) the ancient rabbis separated miracles into two categories. First there were those miracles anyone would be able to perform if they were empowered by the Spirit of God to do so. The second category of miracles were called “messianic miracles,” which were miracles only the Messiah would be able to perform. Yeshua did miracles in both categories: general miracles and also messianic miracles. So because of the rabbinic teaching that certain miracles would be reserved only for the Messiah to do, whenever He performed a Messianic miracle it created a different type of reaction than when he performed other types of miracles.”

Fruchtenbaum goes on to describe an elaborate procedure of “investigation” of these “messianic miracles” and he tells us that although Jesus successfully passed all the “messianic requirements” he was still rejected by the corrupt leadership of Israel.

Needless to say Fruchtenbaum has spun this tale out of thin air. There is not one source in the Bible or in the traditional writings for the concept of “messianic miracles” and the elaborate procedure that he attributes to the Sanhedrin that was activated upon report of these Messianic miracles is a figment of his imagination. This is just another attempt to slander the Jewish People.

Dr. Brown – Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 1, Page xx

 “Sadly enough, the more religious a person is and the more time that person spent learning in a Yeshiva (a school for traditional Jewish studies), the more biased and distorted that person’s views will be concerning who Jesus is, what he taught, and how he and his followers lived.”

Here Dr. Brown is complaining that the study of Judaism in a Jewish context will distort a person’s views towards Jesus.

The fact of the matter is that Jesus is hardly mentioned in the writings of traditional Judaism. In all of the 2700 pages of the Talmud there are three paragraphs which some scholars understand as questionable references to Jesus. In all of my years in Yeshiva I never heard one lecture about Jesus. Jesus is a non-issue for most Jews loyal to God. Contrast this with the inordinate amount of time that the Christian Scriptures spend denigrating Judaism and her leaders to their reading audience.

So these are the tactics of the masters of persuasion. They first announce that anyone who disagrees with them is a child of the devil. They then go on to spin a tale about the corruption of their opponents. And finally; they complain about the negative rumors that their opponents are spreading about them.

With time the truth is revealed. The day will yet come when all of the world will see the righteous love of Israel towards her God (Isaiah 62:2) and they will identify her as the nation who remained loyal to her Divine Lover (Isaiah 26:2).

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

  

Posted in General | 245 Comments

The King’s Musician – Tactics of Persuasion

Posted on January 24, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

The King’s Musician – Tactics of Persuasion

The prophets of Israel painted a future of light. They described a world in which war is a forgotten concept (Isaiah 2:4). They talked of a world in which all of mankind enjoys the light of God in brotherhood and love (Isaiah 60:3). The prophets gave us hope for a time in which the knowledge of God covers the world as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9).

The prophets also spoke of God’s musician. They told us about David; the man whose songs draws hearts to God (2Samuel 23:1). And the prophets told us about David’s descendant; the Messiah, the man who will pick up the tune where David left off (Ezekiel 37:25).

Israel’s hope for the future also illuminates the present. Instead of seeing people steeped in selfishness; Israel sees future servants of God. Instead of reading life as a ride towards chaos and darkness; Israel sees life progressing ever forward towards light and tranquility.

Hope is so powerful. It has the attention of so many people in such a deep way. The magnetism of this hope has drawn people into believing that they themselves are somehow an integral part of this future of light. The office of King’s musician attracts the most attention. Many people have deluded themselves and others into thinking that they are or that they will be that singer of the King.

It is obvious to one and all that the King’s music is still not being played. Yes; David’s songs still resonate and even now they melt hearts towards God. But as long as darkness, war, confusion and hate still reign; David’s descendant is not here.

One of the many aspirants to the coveted title of “Messiah” was one Jesus of Nazareth. The delusion of his messianic career was put to rest as quickly as most others who hoped to change the world. Where Jesus stands apart from the rest of the messianic aspirants is in the propaganda team that his followers put together on the occasion of his failure.

The first thing any failure needs to do is to find someone to blame. The refrain of almost every failed campaign is that it was the “villain” who maliciously and unjustly turned the tables on us.

The problem that Jesus’ propagandists faced was that there was no one to blame but Jesus himself. It would have been bad enough if he did nothing that would make anyone think that he was the Messiah. But he didn’t stop there. Instead of playing the role of the King’s musician; who directs everyone’s attention to the king, Jesus dropped some hints of his pretentions to the throne of the King itself.

The wall of indifference that Jesus had crashed into was the loyalty that Israel had towards God and the understanding that Israel had of the Messianic hope. Israel’s loyalty to God would not allow them to submit to another entity and their understanding of the Messianic hope would not allow them to bestow the title “Messiah” on a man who played not a stitch of David’s music.

It wasn’t so much that Jesus was “rejected”. There was simply nothing to consider.

But Jesus’ propagandists were not daunted. The first thing they did was that they changed the target audience. Instead of talking to the people of Israel, who were God’s witnesses and the bearers of the Messianic hope, the Church Fathers turned to the Gentiles who had less of an understanding of these matters.

While the Gentiles had less of an understanding of the concept of a Jewish Messiah than did the Jews but the Gentiles were still going to ask the Churchmen why the Jews, who should be more knowledgeable about the matter, did not buy the story. How were the masters of persuasion going to deal with this challenge that was bound to arise even from the new audience that they were appealing to?

This is what they did.

They redefined the objective. Instead of a Messiah who is obviously and clearly the King’s musician they invented a new concept of “Messiah” as a mystery man who needs to be discovered and accepted. Once we are dealing with this “new reality” of a Messiah who needs to “prove” himself the persuaders can now claim that the “judgment” was unfairly skewed against him.

Who were the ones that committed this “injustice”? The Jews of-course! This tactic gave the propagandists the villain that they needed and it also discredited the only ones who would see through their charade.

The work of propaganda did not stop there. The Churchmen needed to redirect the conversation. Instead of a conversation about loyalty to God the Churchmen turned the conversation to a host of unrelated issues. They presented the argument between Jesus and those who ignored him as if it was an argument about faith, spirit and humility – all represented by Jesus; versus works, pride, legalism and hypocrisy all represented by his opponents; the Jews.

To recap; the followers of Jesus lied to the Gentile world by telling them that the office of Messiah is a position that is acquired by passing a series of tests. They then claimed that although Jesus had successfully passed these tests, the Jews still misjudged his case and rejected him. In order to direct attention away from the Jewish loyalty to God and to the crown of David the Churchmen spoke on behalf of the Jews and told the world that they rejected Jesus because he didn’t fit in with their legalistic, haughty, and hypocritical belief system.

These propaganda tactics succeeded not only to build Jesus’ following amongst the people of Europe but they also precipitated the persecution of the Jewish people by the believers of these myths.

To set the record straight I will say that the position of “Messiah” is not attained by winning a contest. The real Messiah will not need a team of propagandists to explain away his failure and to demonize the nation that God appointed as His witnesses.

The real Messiah will simply pick up the song where his ancestor David left off.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

 

Posted in Messiah | 21 Comments