Jesus is the Messiah. Sorry your rabbi lost. What exactly is the Rabbi offering anyone anyway? He’s destroying week one’s faith, but offering them what in return? There can be no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. None. All the good works in the world are raggs. Sin cannot be undone, only paid for. The Temple has been gone for 2000 years and there’s been no sacrifice. Or perhaps God Himself sent His Son to be the final and perfect sacrifice? The entire Bible speaks about Jesus, even the geneologies.
Could I stand toe to toe against this guy? No. He’s very brilliant. I am not and don’t know the Bible like I should and shame on me for that. But unlike the rabbi, I have been before the Throne of God, have been washed of my sins by the Blood of The Lamb, and have been filled with The Holy Spirit.
One day I hope I can call the Rabbi “my brother”, but so long as he remains blinded by God from seeing and understanding what he has clearly memorized, I cannot.
Wait,was Jesus a Pascal offering or a sin offering?
One day I hope I can call the Rabbi “my brother”, but so long as he remains blinded by God from seeing and understanding what he has clearly memorized, I cannot.
The irony is that the Christian is as “blinded” as the Jew who is his brother...cousin actually. Here are some Red Letter words, straight from Jesus...go figure.
John 5:24 King James Version (KJV)
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of NO ONE else but the Messiah. By HIS stripes we are healed. Our iniquity has been placed on Him and he bears our sin for us. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
I think you stand toe to toe by simply stating that we need to agree to disagree. You remind him of Gamaliel’s(who really existed) admonition for the Jews to leave the Christians alone for if the thing they preached was of God, it would continue and if not, it would fall apart.
Also remind him that an atheistic logistician would scoff at both him and you who would remind you both that in terms of logical tautology, both of you are arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. A Christian is made so by the work of the Spirit and ours is a new covenant not based at Mt Sinai but Mount Zion. Malachi 4 even prophesied this and Hebrews 6-12 enlightens further. The Rabbi can only argue from the priest hood traditions of Aaron and Hur. We are of Melchizidek, of which Christ is the chief priest!
Hence there is no meeting place where arguments can be reconciled or either side convinced. The Rabbi is schooled into the language of the texts but only understands them in the contexts of the traditions of the Jews. However...even not knowing all the Bible, you know the truth...like the blind man you can say with confidence...”All I know is once I was blind but now I see, I once was dead in my sins and now I have hope in everlasting life!” You see even the Rabbi can not give a ready answer to your own personal experience with Christ.
Even the devil knows scripture.... better than the rabbi!