1000 Verses – a project of Judaism Resources

Jeremiah 31 Teaches that Christianity is NOT the New Covenant

Christians point to the passage in Jeremiah as the foundation for their faith. Jeremiah speaks of a New Covenant, and Christianity insists that it is a fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.

A thoughtful reading of the relevant passage in Jeremiah will reveal that Christianity is the very antithesis of the New Covenant predicted by Jeremiah.
The prophet describes the New Covenant as something that is unique to the Jewish people. It will set them apart from other nations (Jeremiah 31:32, 35, Ezekiel 37:28). In sharp contra-distinction, Christianity claims to have broken down the barrier of separation between Jew and gentile (Ephesians 2:14).
The prophet describes the New Covenant as a positive development in the history of Israel (Jeremiah 31:25, 27). The advent of Christianity ushered in a period of darkness for Israel.
The prophet describes the New Covenant as something that is impossible to disobey (Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 36:27). The Church’s version of the new covenant is easily disobeyed.
Finally, the prophet describes the New Covenant as a time when it will no longer be necessary to teach the knowledge of God amongst the people of Israel (Jeremiah 31:33). The advent of Christianity launched the most intense missionary campaign that the world has ever seen.
Moses (Deuteronomy 30:1-10), Ezekiel (11:17-20, 34:20-31, 36:22-38, 37:15-28) and Jeremiah (31:26-39, 32:36-44, 33:4-26) clearly described the New Covenant. It is not Christianity.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Is the Door Closed?
“For which is a great nation that has a God who is close to it, as the Lord our God whenever we call to Him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7). “The Lord is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely” (Psalm 145:18). “O Hearer of prayer, unto you does all flesh come” (Psalm 65:3). “Trust in Him at every moment, O People! Pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us, Selah” (Psalm 62:9).

All these words were spoken centuries before the advent of Christianity. The prophets assured us that our Father in heaven hears our prayers and answers them – if we but turn to Him with sincerity.

How then can we accept the claim of a man who says “… no one cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6)? This dark teaching is openly refuted by the words of God’s prophets.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Why Jews don’t believe in Jesus.

As a Jew living in a Christian environment I am often faced with the question: “Why don’t Jews believe in Jesus?”, or “Why don’t you accept Jesus as your personal savior?”

In a certain sense this question runs much deeper than it would seem at the surface. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets. He did not claim to be a fulfillment of a prediction uttered by the Greek Oracles, he did not claim to be the Messiah that the Gauls, or the Saxons were waiting for. Jesus did not claim to be the culmination and the apex of Roman or Spanish history. Jesus claimed to be the final fulfillment and the long awaited climax of Jewish history. Now, the Gauls, the Saxon, the Romans, the Greeks and the Spaniards are the ones who accepted Jesus as their Messiah. It is precisely the Jews who did not. The Jews who are supposed to be waiting for this Messiah are the very people who until today disregard the Messianic claims of Jesus from Nazareth.

The question actually runs even deeper. Jews didn’t simply ignore Jesus and disregard his claims. Perhaps that is what they would have done if the Church would have let them be, but the Church did no such thing. Throughout history, on many occasions, the Church thrust upon the Jew the grim choice; accept Jesus or die. While many Jews as individuals have accepted Jesus over the centuries, but the Jewish people as a national entity have invariably chosen death over Jesus. The Jewish resistance to the message of Christianity is not a peripheral aspect of Judaism. The struggle between Judaism and Christianity cuts to the heart of what it means to be a Jew.

Why indeed don’t we believe in Jesus? Why don’t we accept him as our savior?

What do Christians mean when they say “believe in Jesus”? What are they asking for when they encourage us to “accept Jesus as our savior”?

Missionaries often answer these questions by pointing to the Jewish prophets. The Jewish prophets predicted the future coming of a glorious king. This leader, who will reign over all men in a utopian world, is known as the Messiah. Christianity claims that Jesus is this future leader predicted by the Jewish prophets. On a superficial level, when Christians ask us why we don’t believe in Jesus, they are asking us why we do not accept the claim that he is the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets.

We can respond to this question by examining the various Scriptural texts that foretell the coming of the Messiah. We can analyze the various translations and interpretations of Scripture and try to determine if the Christian belief is truly loyal to the text and to the spirit of Scripture. In this brief article we will not take that route. Instead we will take the discussion above and beyond the pages of Scripture.

The debate between Judaism and Christianity is not a debate over the translation or interpretation about a few passages from the Bible. As serious as such a debate would be it would still not do justice to the divide that separates Judaism from Christianity.

When the Christian refers to “believing in Jesus”, it is not merely a matter of identifying  one of the characters spoken of by the Jewish prophets. “Accepting Jesus” means accepting all that Christianity stands for. Judaism and Christianity are two different belief systems. The theological differences between Judaism and Christianity are not limited to the question: “Who is the Messiah”. These two world religions disagree over many foundational issues that precede a debate over the identity of the Messiah.

Judaism and Christianity clash over issues such as the focus of worship, the essential character of man, the correct process for validating the books of Scripture, the role of the Law of Moses in our relationship with God, atonement, and the underlying concept of Messiah and the Messianic age. It would be premature to discuss the identity of the Messiah before gaining an understanding of these elemental matters.

It is beyond the scope of this brief article to examine each of these concepts in depth. We will concentrate our attention on the first issue; the focus of worship. This issue stands at the heart of Judaism. But before we turn to this one issue, I will make a general statement about all of the issues that stand between Judaism and Christianity.

Christians encourage people to put their faith in Jesus on the basis of the predictions of the Jewish prophets. Missionaries point to various passages in the Jewish Bible and contend that these prophecies foretell the advent of Jesus. In essence, the missionary is advocating that we make a life-changing decision on the basis of words in a book.

If one is going to make an important decision on the basis of a book, there are some logical steps that he or she must take. First, one must acquire a familiarity with the doctrinal differences that stand between Judaism and Christianity. Then, the book must be studied seriously and intensely from cover to cover. Only after one has thoroughly mastered the book can they claim to base a decision on the book.

Furthermore, in order to base a decision on the Jewish Bible one must first accept the principles that were used to authenticate the Bible. Who were the people that wrote the books of the Bible? What process was applied in order to determine if these men and women were truly sent by God? Which people implemented the procedure that served to validate the books of Scripture, and under what authority did they operate?

If this book was given to you in order that you turn your life around on the basis of its content, then we can be sure that whoever gave it to you expected you to be confident with the validation process that authenticates the book. He certainly expected you to know this information and take it seriously.

What indeed is the validation process that was used to authenticate the prophets of Scripture?

In order to determine the authenticity of the prophets of Scripture, the Jewish people had to apply the axioms that were presented to them when Judaism was established. It was necessary to determine if the prophet and his or her message conformed to the foundational truths of Judaism. We can only be confident that this process was applied accurately and efficiently if we accept that the religious leadership of the Jewish people was indeed commissioned by God to implement this process.

We will not analyze every link in the chain of this process, although that would be a worthwhile undertaking. Just the last step of the process, standing alone, does not leave room for the Christian application of the Jewish Scriptures. The religious leadership of the Jewish people did not recognize Jesus’ claims to prophecy. Christendom rejects the authority of this body of religious leadership in determining the authenticity of a prophetic claim. If that is the case, then they cannot expect people to take the Jewish Scriptures seriously, much less base life-changing decisions on the basis of the Bible. If the religious leadership of the Jewish people cannot be trusted to sort out the true prophets from the frauds then the canon of their Scripture ought to be rejected outright. If the Church insists on rejecting the process through which God validated the Scriptures, the Church must realize that their quotations from the same Scriptures will not be taken seriously.

Let us now turn to the primary distinction between Judaism and Christianity; the focus of worship.

The central message of the Jewish Bible is that God is the One Master of all. Everything came into being at His command, and the continued existence of all that we can comprehend is but an expression of His love. All religious devotion belongs to Him and to Him alone. Devotion and worship belong to Him to whom all belongs. Directing worship to one of His creations is a denial of His absolute sovereignty.

The calling of the Jewish people as a nation before God is to give testimony to this ultimate truth. God chose the Jewish people to testify to the world that there is but One Creator of all.

When the Churchmen gave the Jew the choice; accept Jesus or die, the Jew had no choice. Acceptance of Jesus meant directing worship, the type of worship that is appropriate to Creator alone, towards an inhabitant of God’s earth. The devotion demanded by the Church would constitute the deepest violation of the relationship that the Jew shared with his or her God. This was not an option for the Jew.

Over the course of history, many Jews have strayed far from the theological roots of Judaism. Sadly, many Jews don’t see their relationship with the One Creator of all as a cause for which it worth sacrificing everything. It would be an understatement to say that a large number of Jews do not identify a positive relationship with the God of Israel as an important feature of their lives. Yet there is one aspect of this relationship that is still recognizable even in Jews that have wandered far from the paths of their fathers.

The aspect of the relationship with God that is still maintained by most Jews is the refusal to submit themselves in religious devotion to any other entity. Israel’s core mission to bear witness to the absolute sovereignty of God has two practical ramifications. The first ramification of this truth is that devotion and worship ought to be directed to God, and it is this aspect of the relationship that many Jews no longer identify with. The second ramification of God’s sovereignty is that devotion and worship should not be directed towards any creation of God. This part of the relationship is still alive and strong in the heart of people who identify themselves as Jews.

When the surrounding populations were steeped in the belief that some people are intrinsically higher than others, or that man should consider himself lower than one power or another, the Jew stood apart. When the Romans were deifying their Emperors, when the pagans were surrendering themselves in worship to various supernatural entities, and when most nations believed that the nobility was intrinsically superior to the serfs – the Jew stood apart. The Jew stood for, and still stands for the knowledge that no created being is intrinsically higher than any other creation of God. This truth is the foundation of a just society. The world was blessed through the loyalty that the Jew maintained towards this belief. When a Jew accepts a theology that attributes divinity to a human being, he or she has betrayed the very core of the calling of the Jewish people before God. “Believing in Jesus” means giving up on what it means to be a Jew.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

What does the Bible Really say about Christianity

Most counter-missionary articles will tell you what the Bible does NOT say about Christianity. The typical counter-missionary essay will study a passage from the Bible that missionaries quote as if it were a prophecy about Jesus, and demonstrate why in fact the passage has nothing to do with Jesus.

But does the Bible say nothing about Christianity? The Jewish prophets gave the Jewish people an understanding of the future that will befall them. The fact is that Christianity and the Church played a large role in the history of Israel. We would expect that this world religion would deserve some mention in the writings of the prophets.

Before we begin our search let us clarify to ourselves what it is that we are searching for. The audience of the Jewish prophets is obviously the Jewish people (Psalm 147:19). We must look at Christianity through the eyes of the Jewish people if we want to find what the prophets of Judaism said about it. From the historical standpoint of the Jew, what would be the prominent features of Christianity and the Church? It will be these aspects of Christianity that we could expect the prophets of Israel to talk about.

From the Jewish perspective, the most prominent aspect of Christianity would be the doctrine of the trinity. Israel’s calling in this world is to proclaim the absolute sovereignty of God, and the Church philosophy that attributes divinity to a human while at the same time paying lip-service to the monotheistic ideal constitutes the greatest opposition to Israel’s core calling.

Another marked facet of Christianity from the standpoint of the Jew would be the teaching of replacement theology. The covenant that the Jewish people share with God assures them that God’s purpose in the world will be achieved through Israel. All of mankind will enjoy God’s favor when Israel merits the blessings that were promised to their fathers, and only when Israel enters into the blessed promises that gave them hope through this long exile.

The Church teaching, that asserts that those who put their faith in the savior of Christianity become inheritors of Israel’s promise, represents the antithesis of Israel’s hope and vision. The fact that some Christian denominations have belatedly acknowledged that the natural Israel is “also” an inheritor of God’s promise, does little to mitigate the error of replacement theology. The fact remains that all Christians believe that the promises of God are NOT reserved for the children of Jacob who hoped for the God that is known to Israel, but rather they are reserved for those who put their trust in a man that Israel never knew as a deity.

Finally, we would expect the prophets to speak about the terrible persecutions that the Church perpetrated against the Jewish people.

To summarize; we expect the prophets to speak of a false teaching about the nature of God, we expect the prophets to speak of a national entity that claims the promises of Israel for herself, and we expect the prophets to speak of the same national entity persecuting the Jewish people.

The book of Daniel provides us with an all-encompassing understanding of world history. In the 7^th chapter of the book, Daniel tells us of a vision acompanied by the explanation of this vision supplied by an angel. Daniel saw four beasts rising out of the sea. Each of these beasts is representative of a world empire. The first beast is understood to represent Babylon, the second, Persia, and the third beast symbolizes Greece.

When it comes to the fourth beast, Daniel’s vision becomes more detailed. Daniel describes the beast as possessing ten horns. But an eleventh horn rises from the head of the beast and three of the former horns are uprooted before it. Daniel describes the eleventh horn as possessing eyes like that of a man and a mouth that speaks haughty words (7:8). Ultimately, the fourth beast is destroyed because of the haughty words spoken by the eleventh horn (7:11).

The angel who explains the vision provided further illumination about this eleventh horn. The angel tells us that this horn will do battle against the nation of holy exalted ones, and will be successful up until a certain point in time (7:21,25). We are also given further insight into the “haughty words” of this eleventh horn. The angel tells us that this eleventh horn will direct its words against the “Uppermost” – a reference to God (7:25). In that same verse we learn that the eleventh horn will plan to bring about a change concerning the appointed times and the law (- see Hebrews 7:12).

In the 11^th chapter of the book of Daniel we find more information about a national entity that speaks against God. We are told that “the king” will exalt himself above every god,  he will utter fantastic words against the God of gods and he will succeed until a certain time (11:36).

It is clear from these two prophecies in Daniel that this national entity who speaks haughtily against God, will flourish until the Messianic age is about to begin. The destruction of this national entity is intimately tied in with the ushering in of the Messianic age (7:11,26, 11:45).

In the books of the other prophets we find that the destruction of one particular nation, namely; “Edom” (otherwise known as “Se’ir” or “Esau”), is an essential part of ushering in the age of the kingdom of God (Isaiah 34:5-8, 63:1-4, Obadiah 1:21). It is understood that “Edom” is not simply a reference to the small province that existed to the south of Israel in ancient times. It is obvious from these prophecies that “Edom” is a nation that plays a major role in world history and will prosper right up until the Messianic age. Furthermore, the destruction of Edom described by these prophets parallels the destruction of the fourth beast described by Daniel, and that fourth beast is a world empire.

We turn now to Ezekiel to help us tie up the loose ends. In the 35^th chapter of Ezekiel we learn how “Edom” will be destroyed before the kingdom comes to Israel. Ezekiel goes a bit further than the other prophets. Ezekiel tells us WHY Edom must be destroyed. Ezekiel mentions the haughty words against God that were prominent in Daniel’s vision (35:13), but Ezekiel also speaks of another sin of Edom. Ezekiel tells that God incriminates Edom with the words: “Because you have said: the two nations and the two lands shall belong to me and we shall inherit it…” (35:10). The sin of Edom is that they attempted to usurp the nationhood and the land of Israel. Edom wanted to swallow Israel and Judah and still be Edom (the “two nations” mentioned by the prophet refer to Israel and Judah, alternately they could be a reference to Israel and Edom).

This concept is alluded to in the book of Daniel as well. Daniel described the eleventh horn as “possessing eyes like that of a man”. In that same chapter in the book of Daniel, the kingdom of Israel is referred to by the term “as a man” (7:13) in contrast to the Gentile empires which are represented by beasts. But this eleventh horn, despite being part of a beast (a Gentile empire) attempts to imitate man; a Gentile national entity attempting to usurp Israel’s position.

Indeed, the prophets of Israel foresaw the advent of Christianity. “Edom” and the fourth beast’s eleventh horn correspond to Christendom and the Church. The prophets warned us about the false teaching concerning the nature of God (Daniel 7:8,11,25, 11:36, Ezekiel 35:13). The prophets predicted the Church persecution of Israel (Daniel 7:21,25, Ezekiel 35:5, Amos 1:11, Obadiah 1:10). And the Bible anticipates the doctrine of replacement theology propounded by the Church (Ezekiel 35:10, Daniel 7:8).

The prophets promised that the mask of confusion will ultimately be removed from upon the face of the nations (Isaiah 25:7). On that day the kingdom will belong to God alone (Obadiah 1:21) and all of mankind will together serve God as one (Zephaniah 3:9). May it happen speedily in our days.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal