Objection: 2.1. “If Jesus is really the Messiah, why isn’t there peace on earth?”

Answer: “According to the biblical timetable, things are right on schedule, and Jesus is doing everything the Messiah was to expected to do up until this point. The problem is that you have an incomplete understanding of the biblical picture of the Messiah. According to the prophet Malachi, the Messiah would bring purification and purging before he brought peace. He would execute judgment before he established justice. Many would not be able to endure the consequences of his coming. This is written in our Hebrew Bible! For many of our people, his coming would be bad news, not good news. Our Scriptures also teach that the Messiah was to be a priestly King, like David. As a royal Priest, he came to make atonement for sins and offer forgiveness and reconciliation to Israel and the nations. As King, his dominion expands every day, as he rules over those who embrace him as Messiah. Soon he will return and establish his kingdom on the earth, destroying the wicked and bringing world wide peace. So, what you expected to be the first act of the play will be actually be the final act!” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 69-88.)

Objection: 2.2. “Why have wars, famines, and human suffering only increased since Jesus came?”

Answer: “As we explained in the previous answer, this is the transition age, the age when God’s kingdom is being established throughout the earth, one life at a time. During this era, because the population of the world has increased and technology has advanced, there are now more evil people capable of doing more evil things, causing an increase in human suffering. Also, Jesus told his disciples that before the end of this age, there would be great turmoil and upheaval, the final birth pangs before God’s kingdom was fully established on the earth. But this is only part of the picture. Throughout the world, the knowledge of the one true God has also increased dramatically since Jesus came. This was one of the key roles of the Messiah -- to spread the knowledge of God to the nations of the world, and it is certainly no small matter that hundreds of millions of people who once lived and died in spiritual darkness have now come into the light of the Messiah.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 88-98.)

Objection: 2.3. “There was no Jewish expectation in the first century that the Messiah would be some great miracle worker, so all of Jesus’ alleged miracles were of no interest to the first century Jewish leaders and they are no interest to me.”

Answer: “I think you are misinformed, and I don’t even believe you are being honest with yourself. First, there most definitely was first-century Jewish expectation concerning a miracle working Messiah, in keeping with the predictions of the biblical prophets. Second, if you understood that Jesus the Messiah really did heal the sick, open blind eyes, and raise the dead, and that he is still performing miracles, I think this would be of considerable interest to you.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 98-101.)

Objection: 2.4. “Jesus cannot be the Messiah, because more Jewish blood has been shed in his name than in any other name or for any other cause.”

Answer: “Certainly, much Jewish blood has been shed in Jesus’ name by violent and ungodly men who have been a total disgrace to Christianity. This is reprehensible and completely inexcusable. Still, your statement is quite exaggerated and also misses a crucial point. First, more Jews have been killed by people who professed no faith at all in Jesus than by those so-called ‘Christians’ who persecuted our people in Jesus’ name. For example, the atheistic Stalinists who slaughtered our people did not do so in Jesus’ name, nor have the militant Islamic terrorists. Second, there is something important that we must recognize, even though it is terribly painful even to consider. From a biblical perspective, the most common reason that Jewish blood has been shed is that we Jews have strayed from God, violated His covenant, broken His laws, and failed to heed His prophets. Just look at the curses for disobedience promised in the Torah of Moses. We could not have suffered so much if we were guiltless as a people. As for hypocritical goyyim (Gentiles) shedding Jewish blood in Jesus’ name -- no true follower of Jesus could ever murder in his name -- this terribly sinful act is also alluded to in the Torah.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 101-108.)

Objection: 2.5. “Christianity is actually a religion of hate, not love. Its bad fruit proves that it is a bad tree, even according to Jesus’ own criteria (see Matt 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-45).”

Answer: “Years ago, some Orthodox rabbis told me that I didn’t know what real Judaism was. Could it be that you don’t know what real Christianity is? The fruit that has been produced through the coming of Jesus into the world -- in the lives of his true followers -- has been wonderful and extraordinary. Anyway, your reasoning about Christianity being a bad tree is faulty. Let me explain.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 109-116.)

Objection: 2.6. “Jesus himself taught that he did not come to bring peace but a sword. We Jews have felt the edge of this sword for more than 1500 years now!”

Answer: “Jesus was actually referring to the Hebrew Scriptures when he said that he did not come to bring peace but a sword (see Micah 7:5-6 and Matthew 10:34). And that same passage is quoted in the Mishnah with reference to family conflicts that will come with the advent of the Messianic age. In any case, what Jesus and Micah were talking about was bringing division into families over the issue of loyalty to God and his Messiah. As for literally taking up swords for the faith, Jesus utterly renounced this.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 116-124.)

Objection: 2.7. “Christians have always hated and persecuted the Jewish people.”

Answer: “It is true that many false followers of Jesus have hated and persecuted the Jewish people and that many true followers of Jesus have been stained with an ugly anti-Semitic spirit, thereby making a mockery of the very faith that they profess. This is tragic and reprehensible. But there is far more to the story than you know! Multitudes of true followers of Jesus – in our day and throughout history – have loved, helped, and defended the Jewish people, thereby demonstrating the reality of the faith that they profess. Also, there is a history of Jewish hatred of Jesus and his followers, including some violent persecution too. Many of the problems that arose were political more than religious. Consequently, things are not as simple as you might imagine.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 124-145.)

Objection: 2.8. “The origins of anti-Semitism can be traced to the pages of the New Testament. From the negative depiction of the Pharisees to the charge of deicide, anti-Semitism is a Christian plague.”

Answer: “It is commonly recognized among scholars today that anti-Semitism existed in various forms in the ancient world long before a single page of the New Testament was written. Further, the New Testament documents primarily reflect friction between Jewish groups – differences between Messianic Jews and non-Messianic Jews (including Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) – just like the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect legal and religious arguments between different Jewish groups. It is a mistake to read the later history of ‘Christian’ anti-Semitism back into the New Testament. As for passages in the New Testament that have helped fuel anti-Semitism in the Church, you need to remember that passages from our own Hebrew Bible have often been used against us Jews by anti-Semites, while alleged anti-Semitic texts in the New Testament, when properly translated and understood, are really not anti-Semitic at all. In fact, Israel’s greatest support today comes from those who read the New Testament as the literal Word of God. For them, it is the source of philo-Semitism, not anti-Semitism.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 145-175.)

Objection: 2.9. “Without the long, ugly history of Christian anti-Semitism the Holocaust would never have occurred.”

Answer: “Maybe so. Many so-called ‘Christians’ and ‘Christian’ leaders helped pave the way for the demonic and destructive atmosphere of the Holocaust, although it is important to remember that no Church leader in history ever advocated exterminating Jews, that no Church leader in history ever attempted to wipe out the Jewish people, that the Church’s historic anti-Judaism bore no resemblance to Hitler’s racial anti-Semitism, and that the Holocaust itself was anti-Christian in every sense of the word. Still, there is blood on the hands of all anti-Semitic leaders who claimed to be Christians, and to this day, sincere Christians around the world agonize over all the things that were done to the Jewish people by Nazis, Communists, and other Jew-haters. As Jews, however, we have a different kind of soul-searching to do, since we must ask ourselves why such calamities overtook us if we were in good standing with God as a people. Why, in fact, was there a Holocaust? This is the real question that needs to be answered.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 176-177.)

Objection: 2.10. “Why did God allow six million Jews to die in the Holocaust?”

Answer: “This is an agonizing question that has been asked millions of times by both Jews and Christians, but in many ways, it is more a question about man’s sin against man than about God’s silence during that sin. In other words, the Holocaust is something that people did to other people. But why didn’t God intervene? Some Orthodox rabbis would say that it was because we, the Jewish people, had sinned against the Almighty and were therefore under His disfavor. The Holocaust, then, would have been a massive, overwhelming example of divine discipline, devastating for the moment but leading to health and healing in the end. To the extent that there is truth to this view, we must then ask what sins we had committed to merit such a fate (or to rob us of divine protection). Other Jewish leaders strongly disagree with this view, claiming that even godless Jews who died in the Holocaust were martyrs in some sense of the word, innocent victims of murderous injustice solely because they were Jews. Which view is right from a biblical perspective? That is something we will consider. But let me suggest something you may never have entertained: The ultimate image of an innocent Jew suffering atrocities at the hands of godless murderers is not so much the image of a Jew dying in the Holocaust as it is the image of our Messiah, the best-known Jew of all time, yet beaten, flogged, humiliated, and nailed to a cross. He is a Messiah with whom we can identify – and who can identify with us.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 178-196.)

Objection: 2.11. “The main reason Christians are so zealous to convert Jews to their beliefs is to legitimize their faith. The fact that Jesus’ own people rejected him is a real problem to Christianity.”

Answer: “ I have never met a single Christian in my entire life – and I have met many – who felt that their own faith would be legitimized if they could convince a Jew to believe as they did. If anything, since the Hebrew Bible indicated to us that most of our Jewish people would reject the Messiah when he first came, it does not surprise us that our people did, by and large, reject him, and that they still reject him today. The main reasons that Christians are often specially zealous to win Jewish people to their faith are: (1) As followers of Jesus the Jewish Messiah, they have a special love for Jewish people. (2) it is especially painful for them to think of the People of the Book missing the Messiah of that Book, of Yeshua’s own flesh and blood not recognizing him. (3) many Christians believe that, at the end of this age, there will be a widespread turning of the hearts of our Jewish people back to God and His Messiah, ushering in the Messiah’s return. Thus they pray for this to take place and make every effort to help speed this process along by telling their Jewish friends and colleagues the good news about Messiah.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 197-199.)

Objection: 2.12. “Although Jews have been forced to hold public debates with Christians in the past, Jews have won every debate. You can even check the Christian records for verification.”

Answer: “To the contrary, the earliest records of debate and dialog between Jews on the subject of the Messiahship of Jesus indicate that it was the followers of Jesus decisively won. Your facts are wrong here. Of course, there is no defense for the forced debates of the Middle Ages, and I would be more than happy if the rabbis won these debates against their theological opponents, since these Christian leaders were hardly faithful representatives of the Messiah. But let’s put history aside for now, since none of us were there to witness any of the debates of the past. For years the Rabbinic community said that Jews who believed in Jesus were deceived and misled because of our ignorance and lack of scholarship. So, we began to challenge rabbinic leaders to discuss the issues in public. Do you know what happened? These debates went so well that we widely distribute audio and video copies of these public forums to interested Jews of every background. The rabbis whom we debated do not.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 199-201.)

Objection: 2.13. “Within two generations, the Jewish followers of Jesus (under the influence of Paul) had largely given up their Jewish practices, setting a precedent that has remained the same right up until today: Jews who become Christians lose all connection to Judaism within two generations.”

Answer: “Your facts are completely wrong. We know that there were Sabbath-keeping, Hebrew-reading, Torah-revering Jewish followers of Jesus for at least the first 400 years of Church history. This was despite the fact that these Messianic Jews were excluded from the synagogue by Rabbinic Jews and misunderstood by Gentile Christians. In our own day, there are fourth and fifth generation Messianic Jews, some of whom have made aliyah and whose children now serve in the Israeli army. Again, this has happened despite pressure from the traditional Jewish community and occasional misunderstanding from Gentile Christians.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 201-205.)

Objection: 2.14. “Just look at the Church! Who’s right? The Protestants, the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, the Mormons, the Messianic Jews? Even so-called Christians can’t agree among themselves.”

Answer: “I’m a little surprised at your objection, since there are several, major variations in Judaism, ranging from Reconstructionist to ultra-Orthodox, and some branches don’t even regard the others as truly Jewish at all. So how can you indict Christianity because of differences? Still, I’m happy to answer your question: First, not everyone who calls himself a Christian really is. Second, there is harmony around the world among true Christians regarding the fundamentals of the faith. Third, major disagreements tend to arise only when the authority of the New Testament is either denied or subjugated to human traditions and interpretations. When you get back to what Jesus and his followers taught, you can see who his real followers are today.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 205-208.)

Objection: 2.15. “Christianity is just another great world religion, like Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. But it is certainly not the true Messianic faith and the only way to find God. In fact, I find it to be the height of arrogance that Jesus claimed to be the only way to the Father. This is small-minded conceit at its worst.”

Answer: “Just as traditional Jews believe that God communicated His will for our people – His one and only will – through Moses, so also followers of Jesus believe that God communicated His way of salvation for all peoples – His one and only way – through the Messiah. While we recognize that there are many beautiful traditions and valuable ethical teachings to be found in all the religions of the world, we believe it is only through the Messiah – who is called the Savior of the world in the New Testament writings – that people can truly be saved from their sins. When you think of it, this is not really that surprising: If there is only one God and we are His creation (as opposed to Him being our creation) it makes sense that He will be the one to dictate to us how we can know Him, serve Him, and receive forgiveness from Him. That’s why Jesus the Messiah told his followers (all of whom were Jews in the beginning!) to go into the whole world and tell everyone the good news that he had come and laid down his life as a payment for our sins.” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 208-211.)

Objection: 2.16. “We dealt with Christianity nineteen hundred years ago. There were great Jewish leaders alive in Jesus’ day and in the decades following. They watched him, they watched his followers, and they rejected the whole thing for good reason. There’s nothing to discuss.”

Answer: “Then why are you reading this book? Why are Jewish scholars reevaluating their views about Jesus? Why have Jewish leaders and even rabbis become believers in Yeshua through the centuries? The fact is, our forefathers who rejected Yeshua made a wrong turn and got off track. Now, there’s only one thing to do: Turn around!” (See Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 1, pp. 211.)

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