Messianic Living - Answering Jewish Objections

Answering Jewish Objections

1) What about the Holocaust? – This is the number one objection Jews raise and being able to answer it biblically with sensitivity will have you well prepared for discussing Yeshua with Jewish people

Although truly one of the most mystifying events in history, The Shoah is certainly not the only instance of tragedy has happened to the Jewish people. From Babylon, Assyria, Rome, etc., God has throughout Israel’s history used other nations to chastise and purge them of sin and idolotry. The liquidation of 5 million people because of who they were from a human perspective is incomprehensible but as the Scriptures say, God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

Besides, out of the Holocaust came the nation of Israel, fulfilling a 2600 year old prophecy from Ezekiel 36. Had any less Jews died, there wouldn’t have been the temporary world sympathy to pass the U.N. resolution for its creation. Had any more died, not enough people would have been left for the state to be established.

2) What about Christian anti-Semitism? – 2000 years of persecution by Christians is a huge stumbling block to Jews coming to faith.

We should never judge a religion by its adherants, only by its holy texts. Did all of those anti-Jewish acts and writings match up with what the Bible said? Obviously not so Christian anti-Semitism is a result of human sin and not what God’s intentions were for how the Church was supposed to treat the Jewish people.

3) If Yeshua is the Messiah, why isn’t there peace in the world?

The evidence within Scripture for 2 comings is so overwhelming, the rabbis had to come up with the 2-Messiah theory to get around it. In Yeshua’s first coming, He had to make peace between man and God. Without that, there can be no peace between man and man. In His second coming, when He sets up His millennial kingdom, then there will be peace on earth, such as is written about in Isa 11.

4) Prov 21:3 and 1 Sam 15:22 says God prefers obedience to sacrifice. Obeying the commandments of Torah (and Talmud) are more important to God then the shedding of blood.

Those verses speak of sacrifice without a repentant heart. Saul offered up sacrifices in direct disobedience to God’s commands as he wasn’t a priest. When Mal 1 says that God despises their sacrifices, is it because He doesn’t want sacrifice or because they’re going through rote tradition without a proper attitude? Lev 17:11 is still the only means for us to obtain forgiveness and without blood, there’s no remission (Heb 9:22)

5) God didn’t require blood for atonement – look at Jonah and Ninevah. The repented without a sacrifice. Also, Daniel prayed while in Babylon and there was no Temple and God forgave his sins.

In Num 29, we see Israel offering 70 bulls at Sukkot. In Genesis, there are 70 nations listed. Israel was a priestly nation that interceded on behalf of the nations of the world. Even the Talmud says that if the Romans knew what the purpose of the Temple was, they wouldn’t have destroyed it.

Psalm 40:6-8 tells us that sacrfice and offering God did not desire but a body was prepared instead. Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats was never sufficient to take away sin. It only provided a temporary covering until the Messiah came in bodily form to deal with sin once and for. Daniel simply trusted in God’s forgiveness and he had a very clear vision of the Messiah dying in 9:26 of his book.

6) Lev 5:11 says if you couldn’t afford an animal, God would accept flour as your sacrifice. There was no blood required there.

When the flour was added to the alter, it got mixed in with the rest of the blood sacrifices. God provided a back door way of obtaining atonement for those who were too poor to bring their own animal. There was plenty of blood to go around but each person, if he could afford it, was responsible to bring their own sacrifice.

7) Yeshua didn’t believe he was God. He never came out and said so.

The things Yeshua said about Himself, especially in the Gospel of John made it quite clear He knew who He was. Nobody unless they are God says they are the bread of life, the door, the good shepherd, the way the truth and the life, etc. He also said that He and the Father were one and several times He said I AM and in the Greek, Ego Emi is the same expression that God used to reveal Himself to Moses in Ex 3 in the LXX. Furthermore, when Yeshua said He was Lord of the Sabbath in Mat 12, He was obviously claiming to be the creator.

8) Psalm 16 is not about the resurrection. It is about David’s deliverance.

If so then how can it say "You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption?" David is still dead and in his tomb. Furthermore, in reference to Psalm 110 Yeshua asks the Jewish leaders if the Messiah was David’s son, how can he then say "The Lord said to my Lord?" There is no way this can only be about David’s deliverance.

9) The geneaologies in Mat and Luke are contradictory. They both can’t be about Yeshua

Although there is no explanation readily given in the Scriptures themselves we can deduce that one is Joseph’s lineage and the other about Mary. They must be talking about 2 different people because even though Zurabbabel and Shealtiel are both mentioned, those who precede and follow them in the Matthew and Luke versions are different. Therefore, these were obviously common names but different people. The are also a different number of names listed in each one and based on where they are listed, they both couldn’t be at the same time in history. Joseph is from Solomon’s line which is the kingly one which Yeshua obtains through rights of adoption but Mary is from Nathan, another of David’s sons so that Messiah’s physical lineage also meets the Scriptural criteria

10) The New Testament is anti-Semitic and portrays Jews in a bad light. How can it be for us?

This would be a complete misunderstanding of the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant). Yeshua’s arguments are with the reiligious leaders. It was a family feud that was going on. All kinds of nasty things are said amongst family but that doesn’t mean the writers of the New Covenant, who were all Jewish except for Luke hated their own people.

11) Heb 10:5 says "A body you have prepared for me" but the psalm the author was quoting (40:6-8) says "my ears you have opened." This is twisting of Scripture to make it say what we want.

The meaning of the words in Hebrew are unclear as nobody has been able to determine exactly what they mean. Ears being dug out is from the Hebrew but the Hebrews quote is from the Septuagint so even the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible must have seen this as a Messianic prophecy.

Anyone is welcome to post to this and add information. The more people we have contributing, the better. Blessings and looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Rabbi Darryl

Submitted by: dweinberg, January 27th, 2009 Topic: Forums
Tags: answering, anti-mssionary, Jewish community, objections

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