Where Most Anti-Missionaries Go Wrong 1

I have a little bit of an edge over some anti-missionaries, at least in one way, since I know the inside mindset of Christians and Messianics. As I've stated before on this blog, many anti-missionaries focus on 'Jews for Jesus' and other normative Christian groups. What they don't realize is that many former Protestants, who you could easily argue are still Protestants, but call themselves Messianics or Hebrew Roots Christians, are not really mainly focused on converting Jews. They're mainly focused on discovering the supposed Jewishness of the most popular mamzer perhaps in all of history: Yeshu.

Isaiah 7 & 8 - The `Alma

I have had multiple conversations with Christians/Messianics about Isaiah 7 recently.

Many quote a single verse from Isaiah 7 which is mistranslated, supposedly saying a 'virgin' will give birth to a child and his name will be `Immanu'el

Toldot Yeshu?

There is a very interesting book titled Toldot Yeshu which explains the life of Yeshu HaNotzri. It is based in part upon the account of one of the multiple 'Yeshu's mentioned in the Talmud. This specific Yeshu is the one that the self-conflicting 'gospels' draw from the most.

"Toldot Yeshu - The real history of Jesus of Nazareth" (In Spanish)

The Goal Of Many Messianics Is Not To Missionize

This title may come as a shock to you! I didn't even realize until recently that many Jews think that the entire Messianic 'thing' is mainly about missionizing Jews in attempt to get them to believe in their god and messiah. If I am telling you otherwise - then why is my blog self proclaimed as an anti-missionary one? Surely, there are many other questions that would arise from this. It will all be very clear to you shortly, and not just that. You will understand more about the minds of Messianics that will undoubtedly give you a psychological advantage in addressing their claims against the Jewish people.

Jews for Jesus, as I have mentioned before, is not really a Messianic organization. It is mainstream Christian in theology and countless Messianics would not consider them having the same purpose as they themselves do. The confusion that comes from Jews for Jesus being labelled Messianic is that they target Jews for conversion to Christianity, and therefore they want to show the targeted Jew a Jewish depiction of Jesus.

Both might use copious amounts of Jewish imagery in an attempt to feel really, really Jewish - while in reality being very ignorant and looking pretty hilarious. Take this picture, for example:

That's right, seven branched menorot, a shofar which I'm sure they use on Shabbat. Shabbat candles they probably light on Shabbat day... phew - good thing most of them aren't actually Jewish!

However, as I have also explained in previous posts, the majority of those who title themselves Messianic are not heretical Jews, but are former mainstream Christians seeking a deeper understanding of their god and messiah, which has led them, via a handful of quotes from the New Testament, to a Karaite-like view of Torah (reminiscent of the sola scriptura doctrine of Protestantism), and a kind of craving for the supposed Jewish aspect of their messiah.

"We're Torah observant!"

The difference between these former mainstream Christians who now embrace a new sect of Christianity called "Messianic" and the missionaries at Jews for Jesus is that the former are concerned more with getting other Christians to a supposedly more authentic form of Christianity, while the latter are not focused on that but instead seek to convert Jews to Christianity.

Now, there certainly are Messianic organizations that are concerned with converting Jews, but when it comes to the individual Messianic, they are more often than not, not focused on trying to change Jews' beliefs. A few even believe that you shouldn't change Jews' beliefs, but that they are fine as they are and even "saved" by observance of Torah. Others consider them heretical for that, since Paul clearly told them no one is saved by works, while at the same time occasionally stressing the importance of the "law" in his epistles.

Are things clearer, now?

Really, though, is it important to know the intentions and mindsets of all kinds of different Messianics that there are? The answer is yes and no. Yes, because it can give you a better idea of what you might encounter and why. Knowing why, as in where this person comes from and what their motivation in their beliefs are, will give you a big advantage. Also, anti-missionaries can have much better precision in combating this brand of Christianity as opposed to another brand. You cannot always use the same weapon against them all, because among themselves they often do not agree, and they usually are often shooting from totally different positions.
The answer is also no, in that there are universal Christian arguments that cover the Messianic sect as well, which you can combat regardless of whether the opponent is a more mainstream Christian, or a Hebrew-Roots Messianic, or a FFOZ kind of Messianic, or a Nazarene Jewish or Nazarene Israel kind of Messianic, or this other kind, or this kind, or that kind - given the complexity and sometimes minutia of difference between one group to the next.

So, now you know the answer to the question in my beginning paragraph: this blog is not just an anti-missionary blog, it is even more than that. It is an overall Messianic combating blog, as the name clearly implies, because it will argue against Messianic ideas whether or not they are used to try to convert Jews to Christianity.

Every Jew reading this who knows a little bit about his faith, I can tell you - the ideas that abound in Messianic theology are severely limited and can often be shot down with even just a basic knowledge of Hebrew. For example, at a Friday night Messianic "Shabbat gathering", "bible study" on the weekly parasha, I heard someone quote a Messianic commentator correlating the name Levi to the Hebrew word "lev" (meaning heart for those not aware). This is severely comical, since, as you might know, Levi/לוי is spelled with a ו and lev/לב is spelled with a ב - not the same letter thus the words do not originate from the same root word which indicates they would have a similar meaning. Also, ו is truly pronounced w, not v. The confusion is based on the fact that this guy didn't was reading the words Levi and lev in transliterated Hebrew (Hebrew in English letters), and he could not read Hebrew. This oh-so great and insightful Messianic commentator didn't know anything about Hebrew, yet he thought he sure did.

This is why dealing with Messianics and Christian missionaries can be so difficult sometimes - not because they know what they're talking about, but because they know so little about Hebrew, the Torah, Jewish tradition, and they are so stubborn in their ignorance that even when you prove them wrong, to them it is not proving anything. Albeit, of course there are Messianics who do know Hebrew; especially the more scholar-tastic folks at FFOZ and some other organizations.

However, that's not the point. The point is, Jesus was a far cry from being the Jewish Messiah, and that is clear to anyone with even just a basic, unadulterated understanding of Tanakh. Without going into the Oral Torah, which is denied as being authentic by many Messianics, their claims surely can be refuted by merely a surface reading of the Tanakh. The best answer is understanding who the Messiah is supposed to be as pretty clearly laid out in Tanakh and of course with sources in Oral Torah.

Reading the sequence of Tanakh from Samuel through Isaiah is particularly eye-opening. It shows clearly that the yearning for the Messiah to restore Israel to its former glory, and greater, means another David. After Kings David and Solomon, who had finally begun to achieve what the exodus of Egypt and all the generations of Shoftim had been leading up to, the people of Israel began the fall via mainly idolatry and other sins. Therefore, the process of ultimate redemption was unfulfilled and was put off for a later time. Jesus, lehavdil, was nothing like David whatsoever, in fact, polar opposites. What happened as a result of his existence, or supposed existence, has been absolutely the opposite of what the result of the coming of the real Messiah will accomplish. This, perhaps, will be the topic of a future post of mine.

Rome's Jesus

Many Messianics Admit: Rome Invented Catholicism... But...

There are a large amount of Messianics, who after defection from the mostly Protestant churches, have researched the origins of the things they rejected from mainstream Christianity. Like Christmas, Easter, Sunday sabbath - things they could not find in the Bible. So when they figure out where these things came from, they realize that they were supposedly created during or around the time of Constantine, a Roman Emperor who further organized Christianity from its founding.

In other words, Constantine added certain pagan elements to Christian belief, contrary to what original Christians believed.

What they do not realize is that before Constantine, Christianity was founded by a Roman emperor, Titus, destroyer of the second Temple, and who suffered a horrible death as a result of his sins. According to the Talmud (Gittin 56b), a mosquito or insect flew in his nose and into his brain where it slowly ate away at it for seven years. When he died, his head was opened and the insect had grown to the size of a bird. He did not just get this for destroying the second Temple, but I believe also for the creation of the Jesus fable. You'll find out soon what I am talking about, if you don't already. This stuff gets really interesting...

Roman Catholicism Was Not Original Christianity?

A big claim by many Messianics is that Christianity was not originally the Roman Catholic brand that was put together by Constantine. I can prove that wrong, and I want to make this blog short and sweet, so I will.

Why Rome's Christianity Was First

Aside from Christmas, Easter, Sunday sabbath, etc, which Messianics are well to know isn't "in the Bible", there are other things done and believed throughout the whole Christian spectrum, Catholic, Protestant, and Messianic, which also clearly have nothing to do with a real Jewish messiah.

And these things were present at the very beginning of the Christian religion, along with Christmas and Easter which were already Roman holidays. Messianics say the "New Testament" is free of these things, and while there is no mention of Christmas, there is of a virgin birth and a multitude of other things you will see shorlty which parallel the life of Mithras, the Roman's sun god.

The Christian Bible's narrative of the Jesus story corresponds to several main life events of the pagan sun god of the collective pagan religion of the various ancient world powers, like Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Rome.

The details are vivid and undeniable!

Is there anything else I can say? Throw in some Jewish concepts, names, a couple ideas, mix it with the sun god's life and story and - wallah! you've got Jesus!

But who put it together in the first place, since it already existed in Constantine's time?

Author of Christianity

The evil slime I mentioned above, Titus Flavius. In very, very short words, when Titus came to attack Israel, a Jewish scholar named Yosef, or Josephus in Latin, defected and endeared himself to the Roman general Titus. Josephus changed his name to Flavius Josephus in honor of his new master. As the Roman Empire deified their emperors to the status of gods (like the Pharaohs of Egypt), Titus, who had succeeded his dead father as emperor became the "son of god". With the help of Flavius Josephus and others to throw in some Jewish ideas and concepts, in order to put an end to the Jewish uprising against Rome that were fueled by their strong belief in a Davidic Messiah who would restore Israel to Jewish hands, the Jesus narrative was formed.

Titus did something extraordinary for evil by mixing himself (a Roman "god") and the Mithras sun god myth of Roman paganism with the concept of a Jewish Messiah, only changing the warrior Messiah concept, which had cost a lot of Roman soldiers their lives in a Jewish revolt shortly before Titus' destruction of the Temple, to a pacifistic man.

By doing this, he sought to end the idea of a Jewish warrior Messiah like David, so the Jewish people would be docile and accepting of Roman rule in the future. He fused the Roman religion with some Jewish concepts, and created a monster that is one of the biggest religions today, and has been for the past near two thousand years.

For this summary in its full detail, watch this very interesting documentary:

What Titus Didn't Expect

Is that, after 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people have survived anything and everything that Rome's successor, Christian Europe, could throw at them. It was a low time, a down point, a real dark age. But now, Jews have not only survived, but we are now in our land and the redemption of everything is about to happen.

Christian Europe is dying, being raped by Islam. Christianity is dying altogether in Europe, only maintaining to exist strong in America. The whole world's societies are experiencing religious decline as secularism and religious-in-name-only reign supreme. The Jewish people are still waiting for a warrior Messiah who will shake off all foreign rule, and that is what we are going to get - someone completely different than Jesus. Someone who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, return the exiles of Israel, and lead Israel back to a Kingdom, the Kingdom of HaShem on this earth; something Jesus never did and never did anything remotely alike. In the end, there will be only one truth and all will admit the truth of Torah and King David's throne will rule once again.

Dwindling Messianic Numbers? Family Matters 2

My Jesus-Loving Brother

It has been almost a year before my last post, but I want to get back into blogging regularly here, so stay tuned.

My Messianic blogger brother, Judah Himango, whose blog site is called Kineti L'Tzion (if only!) recently blogged about "apostates", Messianics leaving Yeshu. I am glad to announce, former Messianic blogger Gene Shlomovitch has rejected the Christian messiah. This is especially good for me to hear, being that Gene is a Jew. I have been trying to find Gene's email address, but I haven't been successful. Gene, if you're reading this, contact me, I want to congratulate you.

What Went Right With Me

The blog also mentions me, and the descriptions of my exit out of that world are not accurate. Twisting the facts to present things well is okay for Messianics and Christians, I guess, since Paul said its okay. I will tell you all how it really happened:

It started by studying Judaism. Judah got that much right. When you study Torah and are really interested in it, it can have life changing effects. It can make an idolater into a worshiper of the One True God. After all, isn't the whole point of Torah serving HaShem and Him only? Shema`, anyone?
And as I began learning Torah, I began to realize how little Messianics know about it. How little I knew about it. Today, after studying for a couple years, clearly I do not know much. That is the scope of how huge Torah is. By it's nature, being divine, it is actually infinite. In the end, it just doesn't take long to figure out, Jesus and Torah don't go together; and that was ultimately the sole changing factor in my ascent from the pit.

There were other factors which helped, but were not the main cause. Such as Messianics are as fractured as a community as Protestants, in fact perhaps worse. Every person believes something different that puts them at odds, at conflict, and even sometimes considering others heretics. That's what I saw among the many Messianics I knew and knew of, all different kinds ranging from those who are almost just like regular Christians to those who lived as Orthodox Jews. And that lack of unity is what I am about to talk about...

No True Messianic Unity

While the lack of unity in the Messianic community may be a strong point of it's impending downfall, it is only an outside view of the deeper issue. The deeper issue is that either you will find it to be a nice little denomination of Christianity that makes you feel important and righteous for leaving certain elements of Christianity (that, by the way, which is not true for the J4J crowd who promote standard Christianity and disagree with most of who call themselves Messianic), or you do like I did and learn so much Torah that Jesus is just going to have to go for good. Because, once you learn so much about HaShem and His will, you cannot serve another.

As someone who had never been Messianic pointed out to me, it seemed to him that the whole Messianic thing is just a dying cause, because there is no stable framework to maintain it. Either people will just end up being Christian, or their own thing altogether, or they will end up in Judaism or being Bnei Noah.

You know what? That guy was right. And I think the second option, their own thing altogether is what the reality already is in the Messianic world. So many Messianics are fragmented into little groups or even individual people, that it is just like a fantasy club where people make up their own religion - and that brings me to my next point.

Feeling Like God?

For the majority of Messianics it is this: you get out of the Christian church. You realized Christmas isn't in the Bible. Easter isn't, either. Heck, neither is the Sunday sabbath. Oh, and eating pork is bad, the Bible says. Yeshu said he didn't come to abolish the Torah, so I must have to keep it now. Paul says we aren't saved by works, but we are under grace, but that works are still necessary for salvation - wait, doesn't that contradict?

So some reject Paul, but most don't. But they get to the Torah part, so what do they do? Learn Hebrew? Listen to the people who have been living it through thick and thin for the last couple thousand years? Usually not. Usually, they end up making their own brand of "observance" of Torah. They have no Oral Torah, they reject it, therefore the Written leaves them confused and incomplete, especially since they don't even understand Hebrew to really read it for themselves. And no Oral Torah means no Torah at all and no stability. Anyone who really knows Torah knows what I am talking about. Halakha is the how-to guide and yes, it is of divine origin. Moshe learned the background info for the mitzvot of Torah that we term "Oral Torah". Of course he knew the background information! Of course he knew how to answer someone about all the details, how-tos, all the intricate depth of the Torah! Of course that was passed on! Anyone with a clear head, not brainwashed to think otherwise, will say: yeah, you have to listen to the Jews and their ancient traditions to know about the written law given to them.

Do you know how many times I have been left with no response by Messianics about what happened to the Mosaic Court of Devarim (Deuteronomy) 17? Or how they carry out that clear command from HaShem given in the verses of that chapter? Regardless that it is a rhetorical question, the answer is that no Messianic has ever told me how they carry out the command to not veer to the right or left of what the Hakhamim of Israel say. Not even one.

The point of these last three paragraphs is that they make themselves their own halakhic authorities (yet, halakha is a bad word by them). And how do they claim to have that authority? By the authority of Yeshu, who told Peter he now had the ability to "bind and loose", terms of halakhic significance. And that this power is accompanied by their "holy spirit". Yeah... riiiight...

And now we have come to the next point - keep following, I can't imagine any other anti-missionary has gone this deep!!!

Spiritual Authority?

Judah also mentions in my blog that one thing I had been "into" in my Messianic days was personal spiritual revelation. Yes, that's right. And so is he still into, along with my parents and all of my siblings. Is it reliable? No. How do I know? Because I have witnessed literally hundreds and hundreds of "words of the Lord", "words of knowledge" and "prophetic words" come out to either never happen, being false completely, or having some truth mixed with error, or rarely actually coming true.

Their is some reliable knowledge, and some things are not prophecies but rather they are information. This comes from the fact that you can definitely gain knowledge from the other side. You can even gain extra-sensory information from having no spiritual contact, merely being in touch with your soul which sees lots of things all the time.

That isn't the point. The point is, it does not have the reliability to give any psychic a career - much less determining Torah law! Guessing can be more accurate than these "words" people get. Nonetheless, people claim that they have the spiritual knowledge to know if they are sinning or not.

Clearly, with the wide ranging variety of Messianic ideas about the laws of Torah that exist, this claim couldn't possibly be true. Everyone ends up believing they are the ones who have it. Like my parents said in response to me asking them how they believe they can drive on Shabbat, igniting the engine, without transgressing "do not light a fire". I also asked that if they take the written command so literally, how do they even leave their house on Shabbat, since the Torah says no one can leave their place on Shabbat. To these questions, they replied "we feel that the need for fellowship overrules these things". Who actually buys that answer?

What if Mr. McMessianic number two or three thinks he can't drive, on the contrary? And he is spiritual too, listening to the same spirits you do - what then? They don't even think about these things.

It is a whole big disaster (especially since most of them shouldn't be attempting to keep Shabbat, unless they're actually Jewish), and it all comes back to everyone deciding for himself what the right way is. That means no unity, no adhesiveness, no future for any Messianic community which will continually split up into offshoot after offshoot after offshoot...

So, Uh... Messianic Numbers Dwindling?

I don't know statistics, and I don't care. Even if Messianic numbers happen to be on the rise, it doesn't take away from anything I said because it means that the whole Messianic "movement" is just a waypoint. There may be big influxes of former standard-Christians, but in the end, they will either end up leaving or becoming their own Messianic sect, like everyone else. And if they end up going the second route, they may be called Messianic and even meet and "fellowship" (I always loved that goofy term) with other Messianics, but they will ultimately be doing their own thing if they never eventually leave.

Judah said in his blog that Judaism is not the problem for people turning from Yeshu, but as we will see, his Messianic religion was perhaps not made for any other purpose than to introduce some aspects of Judaism to goyim.

Higher Purpose?

Rambam says that Christianity and Islam, two religions that mimic, borrow from, and all claim some succession to the original religion - Judaism, were allowed to thrive in much of the world for the purpose of introducing to the nations the concepts of Divine Law, Messiah, Resurrection of the Dead, etc; all so that when the actual Messiah comes, the world will be prepped. And I guess when formerly dead righteous Jews begin to resurrect from the grave, they won't believe it is a zombie apocalypse...? ;)

So, based on this idea, perhaps the Messianic "movement" is a movement in the right direction for some people, in that some definitely choose unadulterated Torah over the joke that exists in Messianism and their dead messiah who didn't do diddly-squat to bring in no exiles, to build no temple, nuthin'. It could be that this is why people usually eventually leave the Messianic world one way or the other.

Maybe Messianism is a gateway drug for some Christians to get them eventually hooked on the real stuff that gets you the highest. I would like to believe that, and I see that it happens like this sometimes. A large part of the Assyrian-exiled "northern tribes" never returned but were absorbed into various nations. Some of them have come back, like the Bnei Menashe of India for example. For those of you who say "I'm Ephraim", the answer is clear: Torah is the only way. Real Torah, conversion to Judaism by a beit din of kosher Jews. That is how it works, that is what HaShem says in Torah, and that is the only way you'll be an Israelite. Yeshu doesn't have any magical miracle cure for your gentile-ness. Nor do you need a cure for that - you can have a place in the next world without being Jewish! The Master of all the worlds laid out His standard of righteousness for Jews and non-Jews in His Torah.

Getting Through to Messianics Part 1

I recently watched a featured video by Jews for Judaism Canada:

Now, readers, the content is well and good, but it doesn't necessarily get through to Messianics. Of course, Jews for Judaism is primarily countering Jews for Jesus, not necessarily Messianics. And yes, there is a difference. As my brother recently wrote about in his Messianic blog, there is indeed a difference. While some J4Jesus might call themselves Messianic, the difference I am talking about is in the intentions of the missionary organization J4Jesus and the intentions of most groups titling themselves Messianic.

Again, I agree entirely with the content of this video, but let me show you some places that Messianics will try to get a word in to prove otherwise.

1.  Rabbi Skobac's first point is that when the coming Mashiahh is reigning as King, Israel will have been returned from exile. He says the past 2,000+ year exile, but couldn't it have been around the first century CE? It definitely could have been, and that is what any given Messianic might point out regarding this first point.

However, Rabbi Skobac is correct in that - this didn't happen in the time of Yeshu. It could have, but didn't. There were many Jews still in Bavel, and that is actually given in the Gemara, by Resh Lakish, as one of the reasons for this past Roman exile.

I don't believe, however, that all Jews must be in Israel in order for the Mashiahh to return Dawid's Kingdom. I think that will be a result of that Kingdom being re-established, and should it be soon in our days.

2.  Rabbi Skobac's second point is of the Temple and that it was still standing when Yeshu is said to have existed. That doesn't necessarily mean there couldn't have been a return of Dawid's Kingdom via his descendant to be Mashiahh, but it definitely would have needed to be at least somewhat reconstructed to its former glory.

However, that did not happen in the early centuries CE.

3.  The third point raised is that when Mashiahh comes, world peace will come about. This is true, but only after Israel destroys many nations.

But neither destroying Israel's enemies nor the resulting world peace happened via Yeshu. In fact, the opposite. As the Rabbi mentions, wars increased, sometimes in the name of Jesus, and very often against Israel. The Crusades, which resulted in persecution and destruction of Jewish life that had yet remained in the Land of Israel. Christian Europe was constantly involved in the persecution of Jews, a special hatred that is specifically bred by Christianity itself which labels Jews as "primitive" and non-believers in their claimed salvation.

4.  The fourth point is that at the time of the reign of King Mashiahh, Dawid, and his restored Kingdom, Jews will collectively become observant.

This is true, because by both physical and spiritual means, this re-establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven upon this earth, which is the Kingdom of Dawid, the aspect of emuna (faith) in HaShem will be elevated to it's proper place. This will affect the whole world, in fact, and lead to remaining nations in the earth to undoubtedly draw closer to HaShem.

For especially over the last 2,000 years, secularism and philosophy (the attempt to rationalize the Creator) have flourished, causing atheism, and people who follow their family's religion only in name. The Catholic who goes out and parties, does whatever he wants in his college years, indulges in hedonism. The Muslim who does whatever, just prays extra on Friday. And the Jew who minorly observes some religious customs while basically doing whatever he wants, following along in the culture of where he lives.

It would have been better had all of the nations stayed with their native pagan beliefs instead of forming new religions like Christianity and Islam which make mention of the Jewish people and claim to be the correct extension of them, and claim to correct mistakes that the Jewish people supposedly made. That is the largest catalyst of world anti-Semitism.

5.  Point number 5 goes together with the rest and has much to do with point 4.

This blog is getting a bit long, so I'm going to insert "Part 1" into the title and continue with the rest in a second post.