Scriptural reasons for rejection of Jesus?

[RomanCrusader]

That doesn’t sound like an honest question. I should live to see the day when Israel has such a shortage of enemies that I would have to struggle with that question.

Could you please answer? What would some enemies be? I’m truly curious what constitutes an enemy.

Would the Arab world be the enemy?

 

[Valke2]

Could you please answer? What would some enemies be? I’m truly curious what constitutes an enemy.

Would the Arab world be the enemy?

He will win the battles for Israel that need to be won. How am I supposed to know who will be attacking Israel at the time the Moshiach arrives? Smart money today would be on Iran, Syria perhaps.

 

[Kaninchen]

Thank you both of you for answering my questions. When i reflect on what you have both said, i get the idea that it must be sorrowful for both of you.

I expect it’s because you imagine that the focus/dynamic of Judaism is similar to that of Christianity and it really isn’t.

 

[w_stewart]

If Jesus was the Messiah, we believe he would have been a military leader that would have united all the Jews and defeated our enemies (Rome at the time). He didn’t. I’m sure as a Christian you have an interpetation that confirms that he did this. We do not follow that interpetation.

Jesus defeated all of the Roman Empire. The success of Christianity in the Roman world despite all the persecutions is the monumental evidence.

 

[Socrates4Jesus]

I expect it’s because you imagine that the focus/dynamic of Judaism is similar to that of Christianity and it really isn’t.

Kaninchen:

Yes, you might be correct. My goal here is to gain a better understanding of what you believe and (perhaps more importantly) why you believe it.

My statement was not meant to be a criticism but a reaction to the passages of which i was reminded where YHWH says to the Jewish people through Isaiah:

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles…“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

(Isaiah 42:6; 49:6)
To me, being a light to the Gentiles means to evangelize them. If i were Jewish, i imagine i might read these words, consider how my people are not reaching out to a lost and dying world, an possibly even be moved to weep.

Perhaps i misunderstand God’s purpose for his holy nation of Jewish people. What do you think it means to you personally to be a light to the Gentiles?

 

[Kaninchen]

To me, being a light to the Gentiles means to evangelize them.

It seems to me that Christianity works on the general assumption (allowing for various caveats and technical details) that because of ‘original sin’ (which Jews don’t believe in), an individual can only avoid eternal damnation (not a generally held concept in Judaism) through God’s grace enabling them to accept Jesus as their personal savior/redeemer and then believing in him in a prescribed way/behaving in prescribed ways. Given that Christians believe that, they see Christian love as being expressed by getting everybody who doesn’t believe in Jesus/doesn’t believe in Jesus in the correct way to fall into line.

Very, very little of this makes any sense to Jews - we don’t see Christians or Muslims as being disadvantaged in any way by them being Christian or Muslim and us being Jewish.

If i were Jewish, i imagine i might read these words, consider how my people are not reaching out to a lost and dying world, an possibly even be moved to weep.

I’m not sure why one should consider the world as being ‘lost and dying’ or any more ‘lost and dying’ currently than at any other time.

Perhaps i misunderstand God’s purpose for his holy nation of Jewish people. What do you think it means to you personally to be a light to the Gentiles?

I think the following says it all for me:

He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God,
Then will your name achieve wisdom. (Micah 6:8)