Judaism - stuff you may or may not know

It is often said in Pentecostal Churches that Jesus was the Messiah, and that somehow this is proof that the Bible is infallible - because He fulfilled all these prophecies in the Old Testament that the writers could not possibly have known about. If the Trinity and the Divinity of Jesus can be proven based on the Old Testament, then one would have to accept Him as their Lord and have a relationship with Him in order to be saved. So basically, the fact that Adolf Eichmann (the 'architect of the Holocaust') had accepted Jesus into his heart right before his execution meant that he would have been admitted straight into the Kingdom of God (Jesus having paid the full price), and the 6 million 'Heathen' Jews he killed, who did not have a 'relationship with Jesus' and who did not accept Him as their 'Lord and Saviour' (and in fact, being of the Judaic faith, would have flat out rejected this notion of Him being the Messiah) would be 'separated from God for all eternity' (Luke 11:25 - "Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things; but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us").

Jewish theology argues that Jesus was not the Messiah that was foretold by Isaiah and others because He failed to fulfil even the basic requirements of a Messiah. Take for example the following prophecies:

* The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26)
* Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4)
* The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:17)
* He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:8-10, 2 Chronicles 7:18)
* The Messiah will be a man of this world, an observant Jew with "fear of God" (Isaiah 11:2)
* Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)
* Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11)
* He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)
* All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)
* Death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)
* There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)
* All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)
* The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)
* He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)
* Nations will end up recognizing the wrongs they did to Israel (Isaiah 52:13-53:5)
* The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)
* The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)
* Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39)
* The Temple will be rebuilt resuming many of the suspended mitzvot (Ezekiel 40)
* He will then perfect the entire world to serve God together (Zephaniah 3)
* Jews will know the Torah without study (Jeremiah 31:33)
* He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful (Isaiah 51:3, Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 36:29-30, Isaiah 11:6-9)

All of this is supposed to happen during the lifetime of Israel's Messiah. There is no concept of second return (a la Revelation) mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament. Peter expected Jesus to become King when He appeared before them, which is why he refused to believe that Jesus had to be crucified. Yet Jesus says to Peter: "get behind me Satan". So the way modern Churches view Jesus today as the Messiah who fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy is not the way the 5000 who followed Him during His lifetime viewed Him (because they did not believe that He was going to die and say: "I'll come back another time, in the meantime, here's the Holy Spirit"). They had expected Him to establish His Kingdom there and then. And the way that modern Churches view Jesus today is not the way Judaism views Him, as Jews believe that, given a literal interpretation of the Old Testament, Jesus was not the foretold Messiah, failing to fulfil the prophecies above (which are yet to come).

So let's move on to why the Jews of that time killed Jesus. Was it because they were just plainly cold hearted and jealous so did not want to believe that that He could die for our sins, as an atonement for their sins?

Deuteronomy 13 states: Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it. If there will arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of a dream, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder of which he spoke to you happens, and he says, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us worship them," you shall not heed the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream; for the Lord, your God, is testing you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord, your God, fear Him, keep His commandments, heed His voice, worship Him, and cleave to Him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death; because he spoke falsehood about the Lord, your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and Who redeemed you from the house of bondage, to lead you astray from the way in which the Lord, your God, commanded you to go; so shall you clear away the evil from your midst. If your brother, the son of your mother, tempts you in secret or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your embrace, or your friend, who is as your own soul saying, "Let us go and worship other gods, which neither you, nor your forefathers have known." Of the gods of the peoples around you, near to you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; You shall not desire him, and you shall not hearken to him; neither shall you pity him, have mercy upon him, nor shield him. But you shall surely kill him, your hand shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

Let's not forget to mention the fact that God commanded in the Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 4:40 - So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

Deuteronomy 11:1 - You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

Deuteronomy 12:28 - Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, in order that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Why exactly would these commandments not be binding forever and it be OK for all the Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles to suddenly worship Jesus when the Israelites didn't know Him? Because God clearly commanded His people to only worship Himself only, who saved them from slavery in Egypt.

Why would God say that those commandments are forever if He was going to come back under human form and say: "nevermind all that guys, changed my mind, just believe in Me as your Lord and Saviour and all will be fine (by the way here's a list of very drastic changes to your basic theology that will be further explained to you by non-Jews and now you're all going to go to Hell instead of Heaven if you listen to what I told you before in the Old Testament - get on with the program)". And please note that the place of Hell is a theological concept that came with Jesus - back in Old Testament times, people were simply destroyed.

God spent 1400+ years pounding the idea that He was One, perfect unity (indivisible and incapable of being diluted) into the mind of the Jews, and then the Christians expect them to believe that God said: "Oops, just kidding, I became a man even though that's what I always said I wouldn't or couldn't do! It is now OK to worship a human because it's really Me"!

Then Christians expect the Jews to believe that Jesus was the Messiah God sent to be accepted as an innocent human sacrifice for His people - please note that this is not the Jesus of Revelation riding on a white horse to defeat Satan - He was meant to come as is in the way He is described by... Guess who... John, the Holy Spirit 'Jesus is the only way' disciple, the 'one whom He loved', in Revelation (refer to the verses quoted above). Would God truly be so incapable of forgiving those who had followed Him all through the Old Testament, those whose relationship with Him was in complete contradiction to Jesus, without creating a stumbling block - telling them to suddenly forget everything Moses said, and instead adopt the ideas of the pagans, who had many demigods dying and being reborn and to worship Jesus?

The NT is in Greek, despite the fact that Jesus spoke Aramaic (see Mark, it quotes him speaking Aramaic during his teachings). Jesus probably couldn't even speak Greek. So the only surviving record we have of him left is in Greek, written for a Greek audience (Aramaic phrases translated for their convenience, Jesus is called "the Logos" which is a 100% Greek philosophical idea found only in Greek texts) and calls him the "Son of God", which was likewise a Greek concept (Emperors were called 'sons of God' as well). Couple this with the fact that all quotations of the Old Testament in the NT are from the Greek translation.

The teachings of Christ was somewhat coherent among the three synoptic gospels, but they do not agree at all on the virgin birth, or on the resurrection or ascension. Mark (the earliest gospel) has no virgin birth account, and Luke and Matthew have conflicting accounts and genealogies. All four gospels have different people going to the empty tomb (and Mark just ends at the empty tomb), and had differing accounts of what Christ did after he rose. Even Paul in all his letters does not mention an empty tomb, even when it would have helped his views.

So let's focus on something that is obviously of important significance: What did Jesus say about all of this?

Jesus said to him: "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord, and serve Him only'".

And Jesus said to him: "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone".

But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

Despite the writings of those wishing to paganise Old Testament Judaism and make Christ an idol, bits and pieces of the truth seep through. Christ was a mortal, just like all other humans, and he urged his followers to worship God only, saying: "Jesus answered: "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and strength'". He emphasised to the blind man he healed or the lepers not to go and tell the Pharisees of His deeds, because He did not want to be known as the Son of God.

Let's return to the list of prophecies one more time, now that we have a background understanding:

* The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26)

The Sanhedrin (Pharisaic Courthouse) still existed during the lifetime of Jesus, and was dissolved long after His death, and hasn't been reinstated after His death. He is supposed to be crowned King and the leaders of the world would go to him in Jerusalem to ask for guidance. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4) The whole world will worship the One God of Israel. (Isaiah 2:17)

The whole world is supposed to worship the God of Israel. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)

Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then. Note that this comes in Revelation.

* Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11)

Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)

He is supposed to include and attract people from all nations during his lifetime. He wasn't even able to attract anyone except a handful of ignorant Jews who knew nothing about Judaism or Mosaic law (this is not me being an asshole, that's from the New Testament itself. All of a sudden everyone who was rescued from Egypt and formed Israel was suddenly wrong about God and Moses' teachings became irrelevant).

* All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)

Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* Death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)

Death will be swallowed up forever? People are still dying. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)

No more hunger, illness or death? Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)

All the dead will rise again? Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)

The Jews will experience eternal joy and gladness? Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)

No religion has shed more blood in History than Christianity, not even Islam gets that title. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* Nations will end up recognizing the wrongs they did to Israel (Isaiah 52:13-53:5)

* The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)

Nations will recognise the wrongs they did to the Jews and turn to them for spiritual guidance? Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then. Please note that if you are discarding these prophecies you are discarding the Old Testament.

* The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)
* Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39)
* The Temple will be rebuilt resuming many of the suspended mitzvot (Ezekiel 40)
* He will then perfect the entire world to serve God together (Zephaniah 3)

What about the ruined cities of Israel being restored or the fact that swords will be turned into ploughshares and there won't be war anymore? Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then. The Temple still stood when he died, has been destroyed and hasn't be rebuilt. The Messiah is supposed to rebuild the third Temple. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then. Sacrifices are supposed to be reinstated in that Temple. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then. The world is supposed to be perfected and the whole world is supposed to serve God. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

* He will give you all the worthy desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4)
* He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful (Isaiah 51:3, Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 36:29-30, Isaiah 11:6-9)

He will take barren lands and make them fruitful, give all the worthy desires of your heart. The Negev is still a desert and I don't see people receiving their worthy desires. Didn't happen. Hasn't happened since then.

Most Christians get their beliefs probably from listening to a pastor at a Church, who in turn probably did the same. They believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that He's alive in Heaven now. So He is still alive, in the Christian understanding. Completely ignoring the fact that the OT does not explicitly say that the prophecies didn't have to be fulfilled in the Messiah's Earthly lifetime. Christians assert that the prophecies have been fulfilled, ignoring the majority of them which say He's going to rule over the Earth, and just pass them off by saying: "He's going to come back when the rapture comes" - despite the fact that nowhere in Old Testament prophecy of this concept.

Where does it say in the Old Testament that there is such a thing as the second return. Old Testament prophecies describe what is going to happen once the Messiah is revealed and what will happen to the people who live in his generation. None of the above things happened during the lifetime of Jesus. Christians say: "Well He's just going to come back"! Where does it say that he's going to die and come back in the Old Testament? Nowhere. Please remember that the Gospels were a historical record of Jesus' life, not prophetic books. And please note that a lot of the theology today which dominates mainstream Churches (which, I am reluctant to call theology given that a lot of it is just simply feel good romanticism) all stem from Paul's letters. Now why would Paul teach all these things about Christ and the meaning of His dying as an atonement for our sins, when Jesus Himself never emphasised these things? Pentecostal faith is heavily dependent on the Book of Romans - the whole 'relationship with God' ideology, whereas everything Jesus ever talked about represented good works. So when I hear in Church: "being a Christian is about having a relationship with God, not good works" - this is in fact following Paul's teachings, whereas Jesus often accepted those who knew nothing about God, such as little children, saying the Kingdom of God is theirs, not saying: "without a relationship with Me, you will not get to Heaven".

So, if Jesus is indeed the Messiah and He is going to come back and do what He's supposed to do sometime in the future (Revelation), why are Jews doomed to Hell for rejecting Him when He clearly did nothing He was supposed to do in terms of Old Testament prophecy?