Below are some of my thoughts on why Christianity’s claims are to be rejected:
- That G-d has a special unique “divine Son” that He supernaturally begot through a virgin (mirroring many Roman, Greek and Canaanite demigods and heroes).
- That because Israel failed to accept and believe in a particular person as Messiah, even thought only a small percentage of Jews ever come across Jesus in person (and majority lived outside of the Land), G-d set it aside to create a new community called an “Ekklesia”, even though the prophets speak nothing of it. (The same “Ekklesia” would come to claim that it is the “New Israel” and would persecute the Jewish people). There’s a good reason that Paul calls his teachings a “mystery” that was hidden from all generations (Romans 16.25), where as Amos, the prophet of the Tanakh, says “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
- That G-d anywhere even alluded in His Torah and anywhere in the Tanakh that His plan of salvation of sin for all mankind is an unjust murder of his “Only Begotten Son”, performed as a “sacrifice” at the hands of the Romans and a few Rome appointed priests. The Bible knows nothing of such a plan!
- That the most important thing that G-d wants from us today is “faith in His Son, Jesus”, even though faith (much less faith in a dying and resurrecting man, the “son of man”), so emphasized by Paul and by Protestants, is never pointed to us as method of salvation from sin. Repentance, faithfulness and obedience is how a person is made right and lives right before G-d. Faith in a man (Jesus) for salvation or deliverance from sin is a sin before G-d – we are not to trust in either a royalty or a son of man for our deliverance.
- Jesus has proven himself to be a false prophet by his many failed prophecies of his speedy return.
Has G-d not already warned us about it? Yes, He certainly did.
G-d has clearly warned us about placing our trust into the hands of human benefactors (regardless of how exalted they are claimed to be):
“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” (Psalm 146:3)
Christianity and its view of Jews
Christianity has painted the Jewish people as obstinate and blind, going from error to error, “hardhearted to the Gospel”, children of Satan, and much worse. We know full well the consequences of such views. It’s a miracle of G-d that the Jewish people are still vibrant and very much alive, with their faculties undulled and their love of life undiminished, that most of us didn’t internalize the hatred poured out on us but remained proud of our heritage. The Jewish community does not claim to be perfect and indeed, some of us are closed and ghettoized (no doubt a lingering effect of persecution and suffering in the galut/exile). But unlike virtually ALL other religions, debate is a healthy part of Judaism and is encouraged. Talmud is a perfect example of just that. On the other hand, I can’t think of more coercive effect than one that religions such as Christianity (and the Messianic movement, by extension) and Islam had on their adherents and do to this day, threatening them with hellfires for non-belief in a particular set of doctrines and not too long ago (and in some places still), torture and execution. If a Messianic Jew or a Gentile Christian today were to publicly and openly reject the divinity of Jesus, his virgin birth, the doctrine of Trinity, etc, he risks being declared a heretic, unregenerate and unsaved. He risks being shunned, and even if tolerated by some, few if any will allow him to work in their “ministries”. One Messianic Jew I know and still respect called it a “tyranny of doctrine”.
More importantly, Jews refused to bow their knee to another god, a god their forefathers knew not. This refusal to join the nations has always cost my people dearly, and their refusal to join the nations’ embrace of Jesus as “lord and savior” is more of the continuation of the same.
Yes, as I already noted, Jewish people are not perfect and neither are our leaders – you don’t have to look far to find faults, either real or, more likely, greatly exaggerated by our enemies and detractors who fail to look in the mirror. However, the fact remains is that any Jew who has ever placed his trust in that “son of man”, like in any other foreign god his ancestors knew not, and didn’t repent had invariably cut off both himself AND all his progeny from the people of Israel and from the G-d of Israel. Their descendants are all intermarried, assimilated and faded away. Likewise, a Jew who had shown contempt for and has rejected the G-d-given authority of the Jewish leaders (I am not saying that any particular Jewish leader has that authority today, but collectively) suffered the consequences. As it says, “Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the L-RD your G-d is to be put to death. All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.” (Deuteronomy 17:12-13)
Daily Minyan 
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