1: Introduction
Questions:
- Are those who believe in Jesus ‘not easily susceptible to rational argument,’ ‘emotionally charged’ and ‘fear-based’?
- Questions and issues for discussion.
Article:
Asher Norman has written a book called ‘26 Reasons why Jews don’t believe in Jesus’. Here are some responses to what he has said in this book. He claims that those who believe in Jesus are ‘not easily susceptible to rational argument,’ ‘emotionally charged’ and ‘fear-based’ (Introduction p xxx / 30). There are a number of issues I would love to have a rational discussion about with Asher or anyone else who reads these pages.
Asher has written that he bears ‘no animosity towards American Christianity’, but if everything he says about Jesus in this book is true, there is not much reason for anyone, Jewish or Gentile, to believe in Jesus, so Christianity should cease to exist.
However there are answers to the accusations he makes against Jesus, Paul, the New Testament, Messianic prophecy which I have written about (or am in the process of writing about) on this website. Some of the issues raised are these:
- Did Jesus fulfil Messianic prophecies?
- What about prophecies still unfulfilled (like creating world peace)?
- Does the New Testament contradict itself?
- Was Christianity really invented by Paul?
There are also some questions we would like to ask Asher Norman and those who believe he is right in his understanding of the Bible:
- Who keeps the commands of the Torah today?
- Was there an Oral Torah given to Moses and passed down by word of mouth through succeeding generations?
- Is the concept of Messiah ben David man who brings world peace and restores Israel the whole picture of the Messiah given in the Hebrew prophets?
- How possible is it for Messiah as a great mortal leader to bring in eternal peace?
I have bought the book and read it. I bear him no animosity for writing it, but I believe the conclusions he comes to are wrong and that there are good reasons for Jewish people to believe that Jesus is the Messiah who has come once to fulfil the prophecies of the Suffering Servant and who is coming again to fulfil the prophecies of the Reigning King.
Today we see events in Israel and the world moving towards the events of this second coming of Messiah as the Reigning King the Hebrew Prophets looked forward to. On this website we will look at some of the reasons why many people around the world believe this. We welcome your comments and questions in response.