Response to Why Yeshua Cannot Be The Messiah

I normally write to Christians, trying to advance the understanding of the Hebraic roots of our faith, but I recently watched an anti-missionary video clip that listed six reasons why Yeshua could not be the Messiah. It was very eye opening for me and I wanted to address those six reasons today, specifically answering those objections that our Jewish family and friends have.

The six points are:

When Messiah comes there will be:

1. An ingathering of the Jewish people to their land.
2. The Temple will be rebuilt.
3. There will be worldwide peace.
4. All the Jews will embrace Torah observance.
5. There will be universal knowledge of God.

The sixth point reveals a characteristic of Messiah which is:

6. He will come from the tribe of Judah and will be a descendant of Kings David and Solomon.

First of all, Christianity and Judaism are in total agreement about the first five of these points. We all believe that these are requirements of the Messiah. The only difference is that in Christianity we understand that there are two appearances of Messiah. During His first coming he came as a suffering servant.

Isaiah 53:2-9 (KJV)
² For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
⁴ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
⁹ And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

By Yeshua's death and resurrection God and man are reconciled. We now have the ability to accept His gift of grace by trusting in Him as our Messiah and we receive eternal life.

This is not the end of the story, though, because Messiah will come a second time, this time as a conquering King. It is at this time that the first five points will be completed.

1. There will be an ingathering of the Jewish people to their land. We began to see this happen when Israel became a state in 1948 (Isaiah 11:11-12).

2. The Temple will be rebuilt (Ezekiel 40).

3. There will be worldwide peace (Isaiah 2:4)

4. All the Jews will embrace Torah observance (Isaiah 4:2-4)

5. There will be universal knowledge of God (Isaiah 11:9).

The sixth point is addressed in the New Testament, in the genealogies of Yeshua in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3. These genealogies differ in that Matthew's account follows Solomon down to Yosef, Yeshua's legally recognized father, while Luke follows David's son Nathan down to Heli, also listed as Yosef's father. Many scholars believe that this is actually Miriam's ancestry.

These two genealogies give Yeshua a legal descent from David and Solomon, yet because Christians believe that Yeshua was the son of God and not Yosef, He is still a descendant by way of His mother. Plus, Miriam's line avoids the curse listed in Jeremiah 22:30 where the descendants of Jeconiah were not allowed to reign as kings any more. In any case Yeshua will restore the line when he returns again according to Amos 9:11.

Jeremiah 22:30 (KJV)
³⁰ Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Amos 9:11 (KJV)
¹¹ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

It is time that Christians and Jews recognize that we are related to each other and that we can learn from each other. The six reasons why Yeshua cannot be Messiah should serve as a start for discussion and a means by which we find agreement.