An Open Response Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Dear Mr. Blumenthal, 

Thank you for your gracious response. Allow me to frame mine with a passage from Acts chapter 7. It puts the contemporary debate into a proper historical context.

“. . . You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution.” (Acts 7:51-8:1 ESV)

With that as a backdrop, I have three thoughts for you.

First, you are a poor poker player. I agree with your assertion that the purpose of public debate is persuasion. It was never my intention to deny this. Where I disagree is the idea that this forum is somehow anti-educational. While it can be (the 2008 Presidential debates come to mind), it isn’t simply by default. The integrity of the men at each pulpit determines the educational quality of the apologetic being propagated. The problem is not with the forum but with the men.

The reason you so called “anti-missionaries” want to avoid the forum of public debate is not because you have the monopoly on educational material (of which, according to you, the ignorant masses are uninterested in) and we have the monopoly on superior skills in the realm of rhetoric and persuasion (that according to you is hollow and deceptive), but because it’s not enjoyable to you or beneficial to your cause when you lack a superior MESSAGE and the more persuasive METHOD with which to declare it. You feel like Jamie Oliver bringing a butter-knife to a sword fight with the Count of Monte Cristo. You may be the cream of the crop in your field of expertise (Incomplete-Judaism), but your weapon (the message) is inadequate and the skill (the method) is not up to scratch.

I read every word of “Contra Brown.” And I came away from it with the impression that the author was more committed to his bias than faithful exegesis. Brother, you managed to reject blood atonement by expositing Leviticus! And you butchered Isaiah 53. I know, I know, I need to exposit your expositions of Brown’s expositions before you take me seriously. Fair enough. But that’s rather dizzying. Especially when you’re putting forth the same tired arguments against a wealth of sound exegesis offered by those who have long beheld the beauty of Yeshua in the Song of the Suffering Servant and seen the foreshadowing of His death in the blood-shedding of Passover and the Levitical sacrifices.

The reason the Jewish anti-missionaries have lost the PR campaign to win the hearts and minds of the nations (and a large contingent of your own people) is because you haven’t presented a superior alternative to the message that the first century apostles, the David Barons, and the Michael Browns have offered.

By hiding behind the façade that you are the noble educators and the Christians are the charlatan orators hoodwinking the dumb masses, you’re showing your cards too soon by bluffing poorly.

Second, your resistance to the message of Jesus as the Christ and King of Israel is part of the long historical continuum of hard-hearted Jews who were also poor poker players. This is where Acts chapter 7 comes in. The passage above comes on the tail end of a 50-verse sermon about the historic continuum of Jewish rebellion and unbelief in context to transitional generations. This sermon that Stephen preached was an prophetic and apostolic interpretation of what had happened in Jerusalem during the previous few years. He was a Jewish man standing on Jewish soil speaking about a murdered Jewish GodMan to a Jewish community led by Jewish authorities. A Gentile like me would have stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a Jewish setting through and through. It was a Jew preaching to mad Jews who didn’t believe it was Jewish to worship Jewish Jesus as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah and Savior of the world.

The guts of the message was that Jesus was in fact the promised Davidic GodMan “from everlasting” (Mic. 5:1-4; Is. 9:6-7), and that the nation of Israel was guilty of rejecting yet another prophet (the most important One, al la Hebrews 1:1-3). The Jewish leaders present that day felt that Stephen was deceiving the masses by trying to persuade them (sound familiar). But they wanted the masses to be educated (sound familiar?)! The problem though, was that Stephen had just done the educating. He didn’t twist or distort anything, and never tried to manipulate anyone. He simply stated the obvious in the public square: “Men of Israel, you’ve attempted to discredit and kill every prophet God every sent you! And you’ve done it again!”

So the Jewish leadership did what any self-respecting, self-proclaimed “educator” and “guardian of truth” would do—they hurled rocks at his body until he gave up his spirit. He was then received into Paradise by another Jewish Prophet who had received similar treatment from the same educated men before ascending to the right hand of the Father. Who could blame them for their outburst of rage? They were in the same position as you guys are today—they had a weak apologetic and were being schooled in the public forum by Jewish brothers who had managed by grace and through faith to escape the historical continuum of Jewish rebellion and unbelief. Like you, they had bad poker faces. And in their insecurity they lashed out and stained the holy soil of Israel with the holy blood of their Jewish opponent. Years later, the man who oversaw Stephen’s execution repented and spent the rest of his life bearing witness to the Gospel that he once despised. The ongoing debate about Yeshua is largely the fruit of his obedience. 

As crowds of Jews looked on at Stephen’s lifeless body crumpled in the dirt, bloodied and bruised by his murderers, it was clear that the historical legacy of Jewish unbelief and rebellion had not yet come to it’s long awaited consummation. For that, we await the Day of the Lord when Jesus will return to Jerusalem and open a fountain of grace for cleansing (Zech. 12:10-13:2).  

My point in all this? The leaders in Stephen’s day tried to counter the apostolic witness in Jerusalem. They couldn’t. Their polemic was anemic. So they did some “educating.” They killed their Jewish brother for worshiping the Jewish Savior. Thankfully, the debate has progressed a bit. Back then, those guys threw rocks. Nowadays, you guys write position papers. Both only reinforce the suspicion of Jew and Gentile alike that you care more about your Jewishness than you do about truth. This is why the Gospel is advancing in the nations and you guys are having a hard time advancing Judaism even among Jews.

Third, we dumb Gentiles know that you smart Jews are endowed with natural faculties that we lack. But poker skills are not among them. We know that when it comes to Jesus, you’re bluffing. You’re gambling away your inheritance with a pair of two’s! This is not wisdom.   

In your words:

“If the entire disagreement between Judaism and Christianity could be resolved in the superficial arena of “public opinion” – then there is no point in a debate. Christianity has won a long time ago. In the arena of public opinion – the score stands at about 2 billion Christians versus about 15 million Jews.

For 2000 years Jews have insisted that the only way to resolve this issue is through a serious study of the truth – and NOT through a superficial appeal to public opinion. It is not for nothing that for 2000 years, the people that were most qualified to pass judgment on the claims of Christianity; namely the Jewish people, have categorically rejected the claims of Christianity. After all, Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah predicted by the prophets of Gaul, Rome or Greece. He claimed to be the Messiah foretold by the prophets of the Jews as well as an incarnation of their God. The Gauls, the Romans and the Greeks, who did not have the necessary tools to evaluate the truth of these claims in their original Jewish context, were the ones who accepted these claims, while the Jews, who were in possession of the relevant information, have by and large rejected them.”

I wish you could step back and read this through Gentile eyes. In an audacious display of elitism and arrogance you attribute the advance of the apostolic Gospel among the nations to the stupidity of the Gentile world that lacks “the necessary tools to evaluate truth” (which has apparently not changed since the days of Rome?). And then you contrast Gentile gullibility with Jewish superiority. Have you actually thought about what you’re saying and how this sounds to anyone who is listening to you? It sounds incredibly elite. And while you may feel elite, by trying to be Jewish without Jesus, this position actually constitutes the lowest rung on the intellectual, moral, spiritual, and religious ladder (Rom. 10:1-4). Christ is the end of the Law. And He is the fullness of God bodily.

The reason that the Gospel has advanced among the Gentiles while being largely rejected by Jews is not because Jews love truth and Gentiles don’t, but because this was God’s intended purpose from the beginning.

Moses, David, and the prophets all prophesied of the partial hardening of national Israel and the grafting in of the nations so as to galvanize their unbelief and provoke a remnant to jealousy. 

            They have made me jealous with what is no god;

                        they have provoked me to anger with their idols.

            So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;

                        I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

(Deuteronomy 32:21 ESV)

            I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;

                        I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.

            I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

                        to a nation that was not called by my name.

            I spread out my hands all the day

                        to a rebellious people,

            who walk in a way that is not good,

                        following their own devices… (Isaiah 65:1-2 ESV)

They also spoke of a day when the name of God would be great from the rising of the sun to its going down.

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 1:11 ESV)

Let me point out the obvious by saying that Judaism has failed miserably in bringing the latter of these two prophecies to pass. Not only have you not brought the nations into the knowledge of God (according to your own Old Testament, you’ve done a better job at profaning God’s name), you are losing your own people to the faith of Stephen and Paul! In other words, you’re not expanding your tent pegs. You’re giving away the farm and trading your inheritance for a bowl of soup (i.e. Christ-less Judaism). All because of your failure to be truly Jewish by faith in Christ, al la Romans 10:1-4.

The reason that you have failed in your national mandate to be a light unto the world is because God’s purposes have not. Your own prophets foretold of this great anomaly.

            And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

            “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

            keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

            Make the heart of this people dull,

                        and their ears heavy,

                        and blind their eyes;

            lest they see with their eyes,

                        and hear with their ears,

            and understand with their hearts,

                        and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10 ESV)

Isaiah’s prophecy has come to pass. And it is still coming to pass. Not only the prophecy of the partial hardening of Israel, but of the ingathering of the Gentiles through love for Jesus, the great suffering servant of whom “the nation abhors.” Read the prophecy below and give me one good reason why I shouldn’t read this as coming from the holy lips of Jesus Himself. 

            Listen to me, O coastlands,

                        and give attention, you peoples from afar.

            The LORD called me from the womb,

                        from the body of my mother he named my name.

            He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

                        in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

            he made me a polished arrow;

                        in his quiver he hid me away.

            And he said to me, “You are my servant,

                        Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

            But I said, “I have labored in vain;

                        I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

            yet surely my right is with the LORD,

                        and my recompense with my God.”

            And now the LORD says,

                        he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

            to bring Jacob back to him;

                        and that Israel might be gathered to him—

            for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,

                        and my God has become my strength—

            he says:

            “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

                        to raise up the tribes of Jacob

                        and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

            I will make you as a light for the nations,

                        that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

            Thus says the LORD,

                        the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

            to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,

                        the servant of rulers:

            “Kings shall see and arise;

                        princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

            because of the LORD, who is faithful,

                        the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” (Isaiah 49:1-7 ESV)

As long as you treat the phenomenal advance of the Gospel among the nations as nothing more than the fruit of Gentile gullibility, and the rejection of the Gospel among Jews as the fruit of your superior intellect, you’re living in delusion. And you may find that you were a puppet of providence in the theatre of Yahweh as He hardens whom He hardens and has mercy on whom He has mercy unto His glory alone. 

As Stephen, Peter, and Paul knew well, a Jew mustn’t choose between his Jewish-ness and Jesus. To love Jesus is to be a true Jew by the circumcision of the heart through faith in Yeshua (Rom. 2:28-29). So as one who is committing the rest of my life to declare war on Replacement Theology in the Church and anti-semitism in the nations, here and now I vow to never ask you to surrender your Jewish-ness. But I will pray fervently that you grow up into the fullness of it. 

I leave you with the words of the apostle Paul and a video that I trust will help you in your practice of apologetics.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV)

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