I don't know much about Jewish faith and beliefs, admittedly. But here are the basic impressions I've developed over the years: The Jews are God's chosen people and were waiting for a Messiah. Jesus comes along and performs signs/wonders and miracles, claims to be the Messiah, and develops a huge following. The Jews reject Jesus and end up killing him, and are still waiting for a Messiah to this day.
Do I have that right?! Because it sounds crazy.
Anyways, I've always wondered what Jews think about Jesus. How would they explain his miracles? How would they explain the mountain of evidence for Jesus' death, burial and resurrection? How would they explain the rapid growth of the early church? (and so on)
I recently stumbled across an old clip of Ben Shapiro on Joe Rogan's podcast and my jaw about hit the floor when I heard how DUMB his comments were!
Is that what they believe?! That a man somehow got "a group of followers that gradually grew" and was simply killed for trying to revolt against the Roman government?
I've heard some dumb theories about Jesus, but that is simply the dumbest explanation I've ever heard. And he doesn't even believe miracles happened without natural explanations?! It takes more faith to believe the Red Sea parted by a natural phenomenon than it does to believe God miraculously parted it. How would the strong wind not blow the Israelites all around? How did the wind stop at just the right time to swallow up the trailing army? How was the ground dry?! It's goofy to try and twist yourself into knots trying to come up with natural explanations for the many miracles in the Old Testament.
Let me get back to their thoughts on Jesus. I just finished reading The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel where he systematically goes through the mountain of evidence for Jesus being the Messiah. He addresses many of the common critiques disputing Jesus' deity and does this using methodologies as an investigative journalist. (It's definitely worth a read!)
Lee interviews Louis S. Lapides, who has an amazing testimony. Louis came from a Jewish family and grew up going to synagogue before eventually accepting Christ later in life. Here's an excerpt from the book I'd like to highlight:
Lee asks Louis what his parents taught him about the Messiah.
Louis: "It never came up."
Lee: "You're saying it wasn't even discussed?"
Louis: "Never. I don't even remember it being an issue in Hebrew school."
Lee: "How about Jesus? Was he ever talked about? Was his name used?"
Louis: "Only derogatorily! Basically, he was never discussed. My impressions of Jesus came from seeing Catholic churches: There was a cross, the crown of thorns, the pierced side, the blood coming from his head. It didn't make any sense to me. Why would you worship a man on a cross with nails in his hands and feet? I never once thought Jesus had any connection to the Jewish people. I just thought he was a god of the Gentiles. "
Lee: "Did you believe Christians were at the root of anti-Semitism?"
Louis: "Gentiles were looked upon as synonymous with Christians, and we were taught to be cautious because there could be anti-Semitism among the Gentiles."
Lee: "Would you say you developed some negative attitudes towards Christians?"
Louis: "Yes, actually I did. In fact, later, when the New Testament was first presented to me, I sincerely thought it was going to basically be a handbook on anti-Semitism: how to hate the Jews, how to kill Jews, how to massacre them. I thought the American Nazi Party would have been very comfortable using it as a guidebook."
I realize this is anecdotal - but if this perception of the New Testament, Christians and Jesus are pervasive amongst Jews than it makes a lot of sense as to why Ben Shapiro would give such a dumb answer. He flippantly dismisses Jesus and doesn't even know what to say about him! They don't have a coherent explanation for Jesus, his miracles, why his disciples and apostles would suffer barbaric deaths for their belief, etc.
If that world view is common amongst Jews, then I also understand how darn near everything is seen as "anti-semitic". They're taught that the world is out to get them, and basically anything and everything is an attack on the Jewish people.
If you don't want the U.S. government to give billions of dollars to Israel, that's "anti-semitic".
If you question why a soiled mattress was pulled from a tunnel dug by Jews in NYC, you're "anti-semitic". There's zero curiosity as to what those tunnels were used for. I have no clue if there's a nefarious explanation or not, but I would at least be curious to know!
Heck, I'm probably going to be called anti-semitic for criticizing Ben Shapiro!
I realize Ben's views are his own and he doesn't speak for all Jews. There's got to be a more coherent and convincing rebuttal to the life of Jesus than this simple 60 second clip. But I get the sense that his viewpoint (and Louis' above) are common amongst professing Jews.
The good news is that there's hope for those who currently reject Jesus. Louis' testimony is proof of that. When he began reading the New Testament he was shocked to learn how often the authors quote from the Old Testament. Prophecies in Isaiah about Christ jumped off the page at him and he eventually gave his life to the Lord.
Let's pray for these folks to learn more about the God of the Old Testament by cracking open the New Testament!
I hope you all had a great Christmas & New Years! Again, I apologize for the delay in posting here. I just started a new book and will likely write on that once I'm done. It's called The Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory A. Boyd. I think it's right up the alley for this page and look forward to plowing through it!
Thanks and take care,
-Steve