Jews for Judaism’s Claims Regarding Jesus Refuted
Jews for Judaism is an international organization that focuses on preventing Jews from converting to other faiths and reclaiming those who have already converted. They target Christianity heavily and they have an article giving a list of six reasons why Jesus is allegedly not the Jewish Messiah. So, we will analyze these reasons here one by one. Yet even if you profess that Jesus is the Messiah and boldly declare that Jews for Judaism is wrong, don’t be surprised if this rebuke to Jews for Judaism still rebukes you too.
Article intro and first point: “SIX REASONS WHY JEWS DON’T BELIEVE IN JESUS – or Why Jesus is Not the Jewish Messiah –with Julius Ciss.
Christian missionaries… profess that Jesus is the Jewish messiah. Why has Judaism rejected this claim for 2,000 years? The concept of the Messiah has its foundation in our Jewish Bible, the Tanach, which teaches that all of the following criteria must be fulfilled before any person can be acknowledged as the Messiah:
Reason #1 – The Messiah must be from the Tribe of Judah and a Descendant of King David AND King Solomon – Jesus did not qualify. The Messiah must be a member of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) and a direct descendant of King David & King Solomon (2 Samuel 7:12-14; 1 Chronicles 22:9-10). Genealogy in the Bible is only passed down from father to son (Numbers 1:1-18). There is no evidence that Jesus really had this pedigree, and the Christian Bible actually claims that he did not have a “birth-father” from the tribe of Judah descending from King David and King Solomon (Matt. 1:18-20).”
My Response: Whether you call it the Hebrew Bible/Jewish Bible/Tanach (all different ways of stating the same thing) never claim that the Messiah had to be a physical descendant of King Solomon. The Apostles boldly claimed that Jesus is physically descended from King David through Mary. He legally came through Israel’s full kingly lineage by being born to Joseph and being a legal son of Joseph. The reference to Numbers 1:1-18 does not make the writer’s point because Jesus was legally Joseph’s son, and thus of Israel’s kingly line. Numbers 1:1-18 references a census of Israel- and Jesus in the flesh was legally counted as both a son of David, and of Solomon, and therefore a legitimate heir to the throne of David. The Apostles boldly stated this when the Jewish genealogical records were available in the middle of the first century. It was an open fact which could not be refuted. And if these Jewish opponents of Jesus want to play the genealogy card, then let them acknowledge that they have missed their Messiah- because no Jew on earth, today or ever again, will be able to trace their ancestry back to King David since the Jewish genealogical records were destroyed with the Temple in the first century. No one who had not already been known to be a son of David, as Jesus was both legally and genetically through Mary, could ever even be a legitimate candidate to be the Messiah going forward.
Second Point in the Article: “When the Messiah is reigning as King of Israel, the Jews will be ingathered from their exile and will return to Israel, their homeland (Deut. 30:3; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 30:3, 32:37; Ezekiel 11:17, 36:24). This has clearly not yet happened and we still await its fulfillment.”
My Response: This point made me reconsider if I should even bother refuting this article since it is so silly and the author is so obviously grasping for any and every reason possible to justify rejection of Jesus Christ as the rightful Lord. Yet he illustrates well the silly desperation of Jesus Christ’s enemies to deny His rightful claim over them, as well as Jews for Judaism’s quickness to publish anything it can to promote their agenda. The Scriptures mentioned here have been fulfilled in Israel being delivered from its captivity in Babylon and brought back to Israel after the Babylonian captivity (all of these Scriptures were recorded before that point)! The Bible does not say that the Messiah would be reigning on the earth in the flesh when this deliverance happened. The author is only actually explaining in a roundabout way the miseries which have come upon the Jews for their sins since their return from Babylon, especially their mass re-scattering throughout the world in the latter first century and second century (since as a people they refused the Son of David’s reign). The author apparently also does not think much of the return of the Jews in mass to Israel over the past century, and apparently does not consider that to be a great act of God. And if that’s the case, I agree with him on this matter.
Third point in the article: “Reason #3– Rebuilding of the Holy Temple – Jesus failed to achieve this.
The Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt (Isaiah 2:2-3, 56:6-7, 60:7, 66:20; Ezekiel 37:26–27; Malachi 3:4; Zech. 14:20-21). The Temple was still standing in Jesus’ day. It was destroyed 38 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and it has not yet been rebuilt.”
My response: First of all, I’ll note that it’s very interesting that the Second Temple was destroyed about 40 years after Jesus was crucified and the Temple has never been rebuilt in spite of many plans by the Jews and other enemies of Christianity to rebuilt it (like Julian the Apostate who believed that successfully rebuilding the Temple would invalidate Christianity- yet despite his power and riches, he failed due to the calamities which befell him as he tried to do so- research it). As a result of the Temple being destroyed in AD 70 and not yet rebuilt, Judaism cannot be faithfully practiced at all now while Christianity can be practiced anywhere on earth now (since Christianity is not dependent upon the Temple rituals- which are a shadow of Jesus Christ and He is thus the substance of these).
Besides this, several of the references which the author of the article gives are either referring to the First Temple which was standing at the moment that the particular Scripture was written or to the second Temple which was yet to be rebuilt at the time the particular Scripture was written. The references to the Temple in Isaiah chapter 2, and Zechariah chapter 14, I do believe are referring to a time when there will be another rebuilt during the Millennium. But to say that Jesus could not be the Messiah because He did not build the Temple at His first coming is not only unsubstantiated, but also does not consider key prophecies about the Messiah from the Jewish Scriptures which actually whittle the Jewish Messiah down to a male from the smally city of Bethlehem who would be born while the Second Temple stood (which turned out to be a span of less than 600 years). And it is sadly ironic that the author would quote Malachi 3:4 to say that the Messiah would have to rebuild the Temple when the Messiah in truth came to the then rebuilt Temple, the Second Temple- the very Temple which the Jewish Bible says He would come to- and it says He would come to it suddenly (meaning it would already be rebuilt when He came on the scene).
Malachi 3:-1-3 (when the Second Temple was standing) says: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he (this is referring to John the Baptist) shall prepare the way before me (proving from the Jewish Scriptures also that the Messiah would be God incarnate): and the Lord, whom ye seek (and Israel then, like many today, sought God in a vain, superficial way- mainly for their own prosperity), shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
Look at what God had also said about the Second Temple in Haggai 2:6-9 (and this was actually written while the Second Temple was being built): “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Yet that Temple was destroyed despite God saying He would give peace there. And that is because Israel rejected the desire of all nations (whom this Scripture says would come there)- and so forfeited peace.
The author in citing Malachi 3:4 to try to say that Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah does not consider that the earliest Christians were Jews who for a span of about 40 years could faithfully practice Judaism and Christianity simultaneously (since the Temple still stood and God took the Christian church through a release from Judaism which was not sudden, but the release happened with gentile Christians through the Acts 15 council and with Jewish Christians through the destruction of the Jewish Temple in AD 70- and these are facts which most Christian preachers and teachers are ignorant of, some willfully ignorant). The things said then in Malachi 3:4-5 happened literally in the first century.
Malachi 3:4-5: “Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.”
The Jewish people thus continue in traditions not derived from the inspired writers of Scripture and continue in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) allowances for sin which their corrupt leaders (and the corrupt Talmudic writings) have taught them (the blind leading the blind).
We see how here it is even claimed among them that the Messiah would have to build the Temple when He appeared, and they claim that one who came when the Temple was standing could not be the Messiah, but their own Scriptures testify that the Messiah would suddenly come to the Temple, implying it would indeed be standing already at the Messiah’s coming.
Fourth point in the article: “Reason #4– Worldwide Reign of Peace – Jesus did not accomplish this. There will be universal disarmament and worldwide peace with a complete end to war (Micah 4:1-4; Hoseah 2:20; Isaiah 2:1-4, 60:18). Wars have increased dramatically in the world since the start of Christianity.”
My response: I love how the author pinpoints the dramatic increase of wars in the world to the start of Christianity. I’d like to ask him if the Jewish invasion of Palestine should be blamed on Christianity. It’s interesting though that Jesus Himself said that wars and rumors of wars would abound before His second coming in His discourse on the mount of Olives. He sure knew the Scriptures which the author cites here; and the Apostles recorded these words without fearing that they’d be exposed as inconsistent in their claims about Jesus rising again and proving Himself thereby to be the Jewish Messiah. Do the Jewish people want the righteousness which the Messiah will execute when He comes back to reign? Those who want peace without (Biblical, impartial, authentically of God’s Law) righteousness are fit subjects for the antichrist. Jesus Christ was a flesh and blood demonstration of the righteous ways of God’s Law and the Jews as a people rejected Him. Why will they complain then that He hasn’t yet commenced a worldwide reign of peace, as if they would be fit to have a part in that and not rather enemies of His righteous ways who must be subdued before peace prevails?
Luke 19:41-46: “And when he (Jesus) was come near, he beheld the city (Jerusalem), and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
Fifth point in the article: “Reason #5 – Observance of the Torah Embraced by All Jews – Jesus didn’t bring this about. The Messiah will reign as King at a time when all the Jewish people will observe G-d’s commandments (Ezekiel 37:24; Deut. 30:8,10; Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-27). Jesus never ruled as King, nor have all Jews embraced the commandments of G-d’s Torah.”
My response: This would be golden entertainment if we were here for entertainment purposes.
This point is like a dope addict and dealer complaining that we ought to have a President who puts all dope dealers and addicts to death, and lamenting that there are plenty of dope dealers and dope addicts still around.
You reject the One who upheld, vindicated, and embodied God’s Law while being the very substance of its types and shadows, and you spend great time and effort calling others to reject Him also, and then you use the fact that not all Jews have embraced God’s Law as a supposed reason why Jesus could not be the Messiah. Is it any wonder that ethnic Jews have grown more and more immoral, politically liberal, atheistic, and overall godless, maybe more than any ethnic group on earth, while their spiritual leaders rail on Jesus and promote empty tradition and superstition under the banner of Judaism?
Proverbs 19:3 says: “The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.”
I encourage those listening to read the Scriptures cited in reason #5 in their context. They make the same basic error that the Calvinists make, assuming that when God says He will do something that man has no real part in that and assuming the promise is invalid if it doesn’t happen because man did not obey and cooperate. The author of the article’s folly in his citation methods is demonstrated by going one verse beyond his citation of Ezekiel 11:19-20.
Ezekiel 11:19-21: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.”
Modern Jewry, even more than how Jewry tended to be in Bible times, is filled with detestable things and abominations, including the twisting of the Jewish Scriptures to justify the Jews’ rejection of Jesus Christ, the rightful King of the Jews and of all mankind. And just because He has not yet returned to reign in glory over the earth does not mean that He does not have faithful subjects who live in with His Word; and it does mean that those who profess to be under His reign that are unfaithful to Him, and those who blatantly refuse His reign, can blame their evil spiritual condition on him or escape damnation when He returns.
I also hope that in reviewing this article, and looking at the Scriptures cited to justify its points in their actual Biblical context, proves to you forever that someone does not know what they are talking about because they are dressed in religious garb and quoting the Bible.
Sixth Point in the Article: “Reason #6 – Universal Knowledge of G-d – Jesus clearly failed here also. The Messiah will rule at a time when all the people of the world will come to acknowledge and serve the one true G-d (Zechariah 3:9, 8:23,14:9,16; Isaiah 45:23, 66:23; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 38:23; Psalm 86:9; Zeph. 3:9). This, as well, has not yet taken place and we await its fulfillment. No matter how many unusual & miraculous things Jesus seems to accomplish in the New Testament, he doesn’t fulfill even one of the 6 criteria by which the Nation of Israel can recognize him as the true Jewish Messiah.” (End quote and end of article)
My response: I’d like to know how the author thinks such a world will come about except through the return of the King whom the world has already rejected and had ample warning to surrender to and bow to in order to enter into His grace.
Psalm 2 says: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed (Christ), saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee (this is the resurrection of Christ right in the Old Testament). Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son (welcome His reign), lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
I would also like to know how the author thinks such a world will come about without the destruction and the damnation of the wicked previously therein, including the Jews who are at enmity with God’s law (whom Jesus Christ is a continual rebuke and stumbling block to). And where does that leave the professing Christians at enmity with God’s law (the professing Christian who lives in sin)? In the same perilous place of course (since they do not learn from the continuous rebuke to Israel and the calamities upon the Jewish nation like the New Testament warns us over and over to take note of and be warned by).
Isaiah 26:20-21: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”
The fact that the Jewish Scriptures clearly speak of the Messiah facing opposition and suffering, and yet ruling over a world where worship of the true God prevails, gives strong evidence that the Scriptures teach that the true Messiah will not fulfill all of the Messianic prophecies at His first coming, and that His glorious reign will not happen until He has suffered and obtained a people who are worthy to reign with Him in identifying with His name and the righteous precepts which He upheld and embodied.
Psalm 110 (the last verse here, verse seven, proves absolutely that the Messiah’s reign over the earth is after His humiliation and suffering): “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.”
The religious Jews want to use their own Scriptures to dismiss Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, yet they do not heed the Scriptures themselves. If they did, they’d receive the overwhelming evidence which the Scriptures give which testifies that He is the Ultimate Captain of the Lord’s host who alone can provide redemption from sin through His death on the cross. This is proven by His resurrection which the Scriptures testify of and which the Jewish authorities of the first century, though financially prosperous and backed by the power of the Roman Empire, could not refute without resorting to doubtful, unsubstantiated, and nonsensical stories about Jesus’ disciples essentially stealing His body and lying to the world in their claims of His resurrection as His Gospel prevailed throughout the Roman Empire- within the very lifespans of many who had seen Jesus in the flesh, witnessed His miracles, and even some who claimed to be eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Yet the evident claim of Jesus’ divinity and ultimate supremacy is denied even by many who claim to analyze such claims through the lens of God’s own law to this very day. They lie about the evidence, and they lie to themselves that they are better than the disobedient Jews throughout the ages who were continually subjects of God’s disapproval, rebuke, and disappointment.
Psalm 95:6-11: “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”
Isaiah 65:2: “I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way not good, after their own thoughts.”
Professing Christian, are you abiding in Jesus Christ and bringing forth righteous fruit which validates the faith which you profess? As for the Jews who reject Jesus Christ, they reject the Gospel testimony which stems from their own Scriptures and began to be testified by faithful ones from among their people. Now, their only hope may be to heed the testimony of certain goys (gentiles).
Isaiah 28:7-22: “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste(or, be confounded). Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.”
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]