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HOUSMAIL HM107 18
July 2003 WHO ARE THE JEWISH
“ANTI-MISSIONARIES”? This
article was sparked when a friend pointed me to the Web Site of a determined group
of Jewish "Anti-Missionaries". Taken on face value it offered some VERY
persuasive "evidence" aimed at refuting Christian claims that Jesus
is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. He was concerned about the potential
of its subtle arguments to destroy the faith of "baby Christians". This
paper represents an initial response. God willing, I plan to cover other aspects
of this subject in other HOUSMAILS in the near future. Right
up front I confess to being BIASED! Jesus said, "If any man's
will is to do his (God's) will, he shall know whether the teaching is from
God or whether I (Jesus) am speaking on my own authority." (John 7:17) Jesus said it, and I KNOW it! The Anti-Missionaries have got it
wrong! A lifetime
spent in following Jesus has convinced me beyond question, that the New Testament
is a reliable record -- that Jesus is indeed the human Son of God -- that he is
the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament -- that he did rise from the dead
and is alive in Heaven today -- that Jesus alone can save us from the penalty
and habit of sin -- and that believing his teaching, and learning to LOVE him
and obey his commandments, is the NARROW WAY he calls us to walk, to prepare ourselves
for immortality, and a future inheritance in the coming kingdom of God on Earth.
All of that is incorporated in what the New Testament calls FAITH and GRACE. DEFINITION This
is not a new thing! In every generation since the first century, Jewish Rabbis
have vigorously repeated for themselves, the tradition of rejection of Jesus,
established by their 1st century ancestors. In this
current generation we call them "ANTI-MISSIONARIES". They are the "spiritual
descendants" of the first century Jewish Leaders, who refused to recognise
Jesus as their MESSIAH, rejected him, accused him of blasphemy, and delivered
him to the Romans to be crucified. They
are called "anti-missionary" because of their objections to the attempts
of "Christian Missionaries" who try to convert Jews from Judaism to
Christianity. THE
"TARGET" OF THEIR ATTACK It should
be noted that the main target of attack by the anti-missionaries, is the "Constantinian"
Trinitarian mainstream Church, founded on the Nicaean and Athanasian Creeds! REAL
disciples of the REAL MESSIAH will find themselves in sympathetic agreement with
MUCH of what they say about that Church!! It is the Church system (both mother
and daughters) about which Jesus says, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take
part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues." (Revelation 18:4) Over
the centuries, their "christ" has borne little
resemblance to the one described in the Gospels. They say many different things,
which are often the direct opposite of what is taught by the REAL Christ. We should
NOT confuse "false christs" with the REAL THING! This
paper is NOT a defence of THAT Church! Nor is it an encouragement to join with
it in any way which conceals or denies Old Testament truth about God or assists
it to proclaim its "other gods", (Deuteronomy
13:1-5) "false christ",
and "false gospel". (2 John 7-11) This
short paper cannot take either the time or the writing space which would be required
to address EVERYTHING they have said in the many thousands of pages written since
the 1st century. Some of the answers have already been covered in back issues
of BIBLE DIGEST and HOUSMAIL. God willing, some of my future papers will concentrate
specifically on some other aspects of these Jewish objections to Christianity.
So for practical purposes here, it will highlight and briefly address the FOUR
main issues on which they usually concentrate. 1.
THE TRINITY. This
is the major point of attack by the "anti-missionaries". In the
fourth century, the Church formalised the doctrine of the Trinity, thereby creating
yet another major "stumbling block" for Jewish acceptance of Jesus as
the prophesied Messiah of the Old Testament. The
heart of Judaism is the SHEMA of Moses -- "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;
and you shall worship the LORD your God with all your heart, and all your soul,
and with all your might". (Deuteronomy 6:4) From
the cradle, Jews are taught to recite these words, as an act of worship. Many
religious Jews wear them inscribed on tiny pieces of vellum, in little leather
boxes (phylacteries) attached to heads and wrists. When persecuted, they die with
these words on their lips. There is simply NO WAY possible to reconcile Jewish
belief in the ONE GOD of the Shema, with the Trinitarian God of the Mainstream
Church, described in the Nicaean and Athanasian Creeds. Nor for careful logical
readers, is this Trinitarian God found anywhere in either the Old or New Testaments! True
Christianity is based on the worship of this same God. This is the God that Jesus
addressed as His Father, and the ONLY TRUE God -- thereby declaring that he, himself,
is NOT that God! And when asked, he reinforced the SHEMA as the most important
of all the commandments in His Gospel of the Kingdom! (Mark 12:28-30) There
is of course, a quite numerically strong group of Messianic Jews around the world,
who worship the Trinitarian God. What is less well known is that there is also
a significant growing number of Messianic Jewish believers, who reject the Trinity,
and remain faithful to the ONE God of their forefathers. They often come under
the same fierce attack from Trinitarian Messianics,
as has always been the lot of other Christians who reject the Trinity! I have
already written extensively on this subject, and don't propose to duplicate it
here. God willing I will summarise some available resources in a separate HOUSMAIL,
which should issue along with this one. It is entitled: HM108 - "JEWISH ANTI-MISSIONARIES AND THE TRINITY". 2.
OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES The
claim of Jesus to be the Messiah, stands or falls on whether he is the one the
Old Testament prophecies refer to. In Luke 24:44-46, he pointed two of his disciples back to these to show the amazing
detail in which the Old Testament predicted his identity and work. Like the Bereans
in Acts 17:11, our own acceptance of
Jesus as the Messiah MUST begin there, in order to lay a solid foundation for
our FAITH in all the rest of his teaching. The
Jews have long recognised this and have spent considerable effort to devise ingenious
alternative "Interpretations", all aimed at disproving Christian claims
that they refer to Jesus! Let
us be blunt about this! The Apostle Peter writes that it requires the same Holy
Spirit to understand a prophecy, as it did to receive and write it! The starting
point is to engage in a totally honest search for God -- with ALL OUR HEARTS. (Jeremiah 29:13-14) I can't
of course, enter into judgement about what is in YOUR heart -- but I can give
here, my personal testimony that whilst searching for God with as much of my heart
as I know how to give, I have prayerfully examined those Old Testament Prophecies,
and the New Testament evidence which points to Jesus as the one who fulfills them.
There I became convinced beyond all doubt that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Human
Son of the Living God. (but NOT, I hasten to add, "god-the-son"!) That
means that from my perspective, these "anti-missionary" Jewish alternatives
are "delusions" (Ezekiel 13:9) which come, NOT from the Holy Spirit, but from their own rebellious
minds! (Ezekiel 13:2, 2 Peter 2:20-21) I won't
attempt to list all the Old Testament messianic prophecies here. Nor will I attempt
to expound on them all from a Christian perspective. It is your own responsibility
to search them out, and become familiar with them, to reach your own prayerfully
acquired faith that they refer to Jesus. But if any of you do have any difficulty
with the "anti-missionary" versions of particular prophecies, I will
be happy to address your individual questions, at some later time. 3.
NEW TESTAMENT "DISCREPANCIES" The
anti-missionaries are quick to seize on alleged discrepancies, and inaccuracies,
and differences, found in our English New Testament Translations. At first
glance this might appear to be daunting to those who are not well versed in the
history of the origin of the manuscripts from which the various translations are
made. We simply don't have access to the original manuscripts. Both the Hebrew
and Greek texts, commonly used for modern translations are COMPOSITES made by
comparing large numbers of earlier manuscripts. Not the least of the difficulties
encountered is the problem of "scribal errors" which have crept into
individual manuscripts, copied by hand over the centuries. Another problem is
the Old Testament version from which the New Testament writers have quoted. They
haven't always used a Hebrew text. Many times they have used instead, the Septuagint
version (LXX) which was in common circulation amongst Greek speaking Jews and
Christians when the New Testament was written. In very much the same category,
are the frequent differences between modern English translations. I have nearly
20 different translations in my possession. I refer to them all when I need clarification
of the meaning of a particular verse, about which translators sometimes differ! Again,
I don't propose to list any of them here, or attempt
to explain all the alleged discrepancies listed by the anti-missionaries. Suffice
to say that experience says that most of them will disappear in a puff of smoke
when looked at by serious Bible students. Careful study by sympathetic Bible students
will ALWAYS reveal a logical reason for apparent discrepancies. They are NOT a
reason for rejecting the New Testament! And
just in passing, it is worthy of note that this method of attack BACKFIRES on
the Anti-missionaries! The same things can be said about the Hebrew texts of the
JEWISH OLD TESTAMENT! 4.
PERSECUTION They
point to the inescapable facts of history. There has been centuries long terrible
persecution of Jews, (and other nonconformists) by the MAINSTREAM Churches. In
this of course the anti-missionaries are correct! No TRUE disciple of the
REAL Jesus of the New Testament would ever condone or engage in persecution of
anyone -- especially the Jewish people! The Bible predicts terrible consequences
for any who ignore this warning. (Genesis 12:3, Isaiah 54:17) The
persecuting Church is a counterfeit! It has a "false gospel" from a
"false Christ" who says DIFFERENT THINGS compared to the REAL Christ
of the New Testament. It cannot possibly be the REAL Church of the REAL Jesus. And
the existence of persecutors who falsely call themselves Christian, is NOT a valid reason for rejecting REAL
New Testament Christianity! NO
SURPRISES Mature
Christians will not be surprised by the existence of the anti-missionaries. Their
major goal is to uphold JUDAISM as the true religion, by rejecting belief in Jesus
as the Messiah who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. Anyone familiar with
the four Gospels knows that in this they are no different to their first century
"spiritual ancestors". The same tactics were used then, and I suspect
that some of these 21st century Jewish apologists just might have the same envy
and fear of losing their "power base", (Matthew 27:18, John 11:48, John 11:50, John 18:14) that led their forefathers
to deliver Jesus to the Roman authorities for crucifixion. Jesus
told the Jewish leaders of that generation that they were afflicted with spiritual
BLINDNESS and DEAFNESS from which they could only be healed by a genuine repentance! (Mark 4:10-12) And Jesus also told them
that their rejection of himself, would result in them LOSING their right to inherit
the Kingdom. So it came to pass with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple,
and their centuries long expulsion from the Holy Land. And
the Apostle Paul predicted that this same UNBELIEF would persist amongst Jews, (Romans 11:7-25) leaving the door open for GENTILES to accept the GOOD NEWS of the
Kingdom rejected and LOST by the vast majority of Jews! (Matthew 21:43) Old
Testament and New Testament prophecies combine to tell us that the current revival
of the Jewish nation, heralds other events which will assuredly lead to the restoration
of the Kingdom of God, under Jesus. I can't tell you exactly when (Acts 1:7) -- but I do know that it
is certain. CONCLUSION Of course
it doesn't suit the anti-missionaries at all, to recognise that many Christians
neither believe nor practice the things that they set out to discredit. The
responsibility for those of us who do worship the same Jewish ONE God of the Shema
of Moses, is to ensure that the other major accusations of the Anti-missionaries
are NOT true of us! We need to be able to establish from the Old Testament prophecies,
that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that Jesus is the Son of Man, the Messiah,
and the Son of the Living God. (Matthew 16:13-18) Only so can we ourselves become part of the TRUE Church that is built
on the rock firm foundation of THAT truth. And
only so can we receive the keys of the Kingdom, which will enable us to bear witness
to the life transforming POWER of the Gospel of the Kingdom. The
best evidence of the truth of the Gospels, and the validity of the claims of Jesus
to be the Messiah of the Old Testament, will always be the transformed lives of
his TRUE disciples, lived out in uncompromising radical obedience to his teaching
-- especially the challenging requirements of the Sermon on the Mount. "You are the light of the world. A city set
on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but
on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in
heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16) How are they to hear
and believe without a preacher? (Romans 10:14-15) Allon |