Leviticus 19:17 - Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Ezekiel 3:18 - When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
No we can't avoid it. I am compelled by love to point out to Jews what they have missed. I cannot be silent and let them die in disobedience. If I tick them off, they are no worse off. If they take a moment and examine what the prophets said, then they may obtain eternal life. Love demands I speak and God demands that I love.
Now that said, Jews certainly have a right, even a God given right to make their own choices. I'm not here to force as the Muslims do. I won't hate the Jew if he chooses poorly. I don't won't to irritate them anymore than I have to, but I cannot remain silent.
"As for my view, the Bible that G-d gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai in front of the whole Hebrew people mentions nothing about "Jesus""
Here a descendant of Eve is to crush the head of the Serpent Genesis 3:15 - And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Here God promised the world would be blessed through Abraham. How has that happened if not through Jesus? (I acknowledge up front that there are other plausible answers. But Jesus is the most obvious one. 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed
Jesus is foreshadowed by Melchizedek in Gen. 14 by being a high priest to God, King of Salem, and by bringing bread and wine to Abraham.
Genesis 49:10 - The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 17:21 - But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Jesus is foreshadowed by Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac. God would provide the substitute.
Jesus is foreshadowed by the serpent put on the tree by Moses, that Israel had to look to to be healed when bitten by the serpents. The serpent is the symbol of sin. If Israel is to be healed from having been bitten by sin, they must look to the symbol of sin (Jesus) put on the tree (cross) to be healed. Numbers 21
Jesus is foreshadowed by the Passover, Exodus 12. It was the blood of the lamb that spared Israel from the Angel of Death. Not their lineage, not their belief that God is, not their faith in God (except to the extent that faith caused them to be obedient and put the blood there.)
Further, G-d isn't a liar or an Indian-giver, and if the Covenant that He made with the Jewish people were to somehow or other be broken or superceded (a highly doubtful prospect), it could only be done in front of the whole of the people, in the same manner that it was given.
The covenant with Israel is not broken. The covenant with the Jews is what it always was. Obedience results in peace and prosperity. Disobedience results in terror and exile. What have you had for the last 2000 years? And does Israel have peace as promised in Leviticus 26? If not, why not?
Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like Him and that would give Israel further instructions. Therefore to say, that there is no mention of Jesus in the books of Moses, is not only wrong as indicated by the verses above, but it excludes the words of the prophets in direct contradiction to what Moses told you to do. To ignore the prophets is to disobey Moses and break the covenant.
Deuteronomy 18:18 - I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
God said in the following verse that the covenant would be superceded.
Jeremiah 31:31 - Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Me: "Can we please avoid the "my religion/g-d is better than yours" pi$$ing match on Free Republic?"
You: "No we can't avoid it. I am compelled by love to point out to Jews what they have missed. I cannot be silent and let them die in disobedience. …I don't won't to irritate them anymore than I have to, but I cannot remain silent."
OK, fine, you’ve pointed out to me that you think I’m wrong. I, however, still disagree, and any further attempts to show me that “yours is bigger than mine” will only cause more annoyance. You won’t convince me, just as I’m sure that I won’t convince you. Drop it, go on with your life and I'll do the same.
Me: "As for my view, the Bible that G-d gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai in front of the whole Hebrew people mentions nothing about "Jesus"
You: "Here a descendant of Eve is to crush the head of the Serpent Genesis 3:15 - And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Here God promised the world would be blessed through Abraham. How has that happened if not through Jesus? (I acknowledge up front that there are other plausible answers. But Jesus is the most obvious one. 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed
Jesus is foreshadowed by Melchizedek in Gen. 14 by being a high priest to God, King of Salem, and by bringing bread and wine to Abraham."
I haven’t the faintest idea what the 1st 2 paragraphs mean in the context of what we are discussing; as to the 3rd, any prophet or good person could be foreshadowed in the same way. Just because you think Jesus (in your scriptures) meets this qualification doesn’t make it so or mean that he’s the Messiah described in the Jewish scriptures.
You: "Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like Him and that would give Israel further instructions. Therefore to say, that there is no mention of Jesus in the books of Moses, is not only wrong as indicated by the verses above, but it excludes the words of the prophets in direct contradiction to what Moses told you to do. To ignore the prophets is to disobey Moses and break the covenant."
Just because YOU say that Jesus is foreshadowed in particular events in the Jewish scriptures does not make it a fact. “Moses said that G-d would raise up a prophet like him….” - this proves NOTHING about Jesus, since this prophet could be anyone. According to Jewish theology, the Moshiach/Messiah has not yet appeared; moreover, anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a candidate for Messiah has to meet certain criteria - ALL of them - and Jesus didn't; further, there is absolutely NO scriptural basis in Jewish theology for the assertion that the Messiah (whoever He will be) would come any more than once (at the end of history as we know it). Finally, even IF (for the sake of argument) one were to pick someone from history who was going to be the Messiah (according to Jewish theology), I wouldn't pick Jesus - because he fails to meet the most basic requirement of being a descendent of both David and Solomon on his father's side. Heck, your scriptures say that he had no human biological father, so Jesus therefore is automatically excluded from being the Messiah foretold in Jewish scripture. Even IF you used Joseph's genealogy (which would fly in the face of your scriptures), he isn't descended from David's son Solomon, but David's son Nathan - no good according to Jewish theology. The simple fact is that you and I are talking about 2 different people. For you and other believing Christians, Jesus was/is the Messiah; for me and other believing Jews, the Messiah hasn't come - and it will be so incredibly self-evident to everyone on Earth who He is when He comes that all debate on the subject will cease.
If you are truly interested in learning something, take a look at the following websites to gain some insight into Jewish theology on this issue:
The Messiah according to Judaism: http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/handbook/s_messiah.html
Jewish belief in Messiah: http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/general-messiah-belief.html
You: “God said in the following verse that the covenant would be superceded.
Jeremiah 31:31 - Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:”
Take a look at this: “Jeremiah's "new covenant" is not a replacement of the existing covenant, but merely a figure of speech expressing the reinvigoration and revitalization of the existing covenant. The people of Israel possess an old covenant yet a new covenant, truly an everlasting covenant.” http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/faq/faq099.html
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I cannot stress enough that it is insulting to tell Jews, who have as a people studied Torah and Talmud in great depth for over 3,000 years, that we are wrong about our own scriptures – that someone who plainly doesn’t meet the criteria to be the Messiah as laid out in our scriptures IS, in fact, just such a person…and to claim that your religion supercedes ours because your interpretation of MY religion is better than that of dozens of generations of true Torah scholars – that is sheer arrogance. You have your Messiah, Jews have theirs - and these people simply do not share an identity. If your belief requires that your Messiah be the one described in the Jewish scriptures, then maybe you have some hard thinking to do; at the very least, you should study the Jewish scriptures AND the Talmud AND the interpretations of both (most notably those of Maimonides, one of the greatest, if not THE greatest commentator in all of Jewish history on this subject). Once you've studied those, you'll understand that Jesus isn't the Jewish Messiah.
Like I said, we aren't likely to agree. Instead, let’s just agree to disagree, and remain civil about it.