Many Christian beliefs about Jesus aren't Jewishly heretical

Yisrael Eliashiv (@shevereshtus), an excellent Orthodox Jewish follow on X/Twitter and author at MagenYehudi, on Jewish beliefs about the Messiah.

"Are any of these positions, that Mashiach will descend from the clouds, be an entirely new created being instead of a human being, an angelic creature, predates the creation of the world, any less “controversial” than stating that Mashiach can possibly come from the dead? Yet they are all sourced in our Torah, presented as possibilities, and obviously not all of them will come to fruition. Still, no one who believes in them can be considered a heretic, G-d forbid."

He gives lengthy evidence that seemingly heretical views about Messiah, such as:

• The Messiah will descend from the clouds
• The Messiah will be an entirely new creation, not merely a human being
• The Messiah will be angelic
• The Messiah predates the creation of the world
• The Messiah will die, be resurrected, and then be crowned king over the Jews
• The Messiah will come from the dead (e.g. a resurrected King David or other prophet)
• The Messiah will come with a retinue of angels

...are not Jewishly heretical. They may be wrong, he argues, but they are not heresy. He shows Jewish sages and thinkers throughout history who have held these beliefs because they are rooted in Torah and Talmud.

His goal with these claims is to show that Chabad Meshichists (that is, Orthodox Jews who believe the 20th century Rabbi Schneerson to be the Messiah) are not heretics for accepting some of these high views about Messiah.

But his statements are important to me because followers of Yeshua have often been accused of believing non-Jewish things about Messiah. 

When we say Yeshua will come on the clouds of heaven, it is often seen as idolatry. "The Messiah is just a man, not some demigod from heaven!" When we say Messiah existed before the world was created, it is seen as heresy and we are accused of being idolaters of the highest order. But as Shevereshtus shows, these views about Messiah are sourced from the Tenakh itself.

And we shouldn't be surprised by the similarity between these Jewish views of Messiah and Christianity. Christianity was at its foundation a Jewish faith.

That's not to say Christians are A-OK by Jewish standards. We're not. Despite surprisingly high views of Messiah in Jewish history, the Christian understanding is higher still: We believe Messiah to be the divine son of God, not a created being, a person and appearance of God himself. That's heresy according to modern Judaism! But it's worth understanding where the line between Judaism and Christianity is really drawn.

Shevereshtus also notes differing views on whether Messiah will live forever.

The Rambam records that some people expect Mashiach to live forever, and other traditions emphasize this, but he himself holds that this will not be the case. He believes that the Messianic Era might last thousands of years, though we’ve seen considerable disagreement regarding how long it will last before the World to Come comes to fruition. He believes the resurrected will die again, while others like the Ramban and others maintain that the resurrection will continue in perfected bodies. The Rambam believes the World to Come will be entirely spiritual, while the Ramban and others hold it will be in a perfected physical world. The Rambam claims that Mashiach will clarify tribal ancestry, while the Mishnah in Eduyot says Eliyahu will be in charge of this. The revelation of Mashiach himself, whether it will be a supernatural event or natural, is swept aside by the Rambam, who only mentions a natural revelation without miracles associated with a figure descending from Heaven with a retinue of angels in tow.

It gets a bit dicey when the Rambam states that if the presumed Mashiach is killed, he is excluded as having been Mashiach. He might have been a presumed Mashiach, but was not definitely Mashiach. This seems to contradict both verses in Torah and statements in the Talmud and Midrash, but it can be easily explained by his use of the word killed rather than died. Picking specific opinions from the Talmud and saying this is how things will unfold is one thing. To say that something the Gemara presents in both Bavli and Yerushalmi as a possibility is, in fact, not a possibility at all is something else entirely.

Ultimately, none of those disagreements matter. According to the Rambam’s own 12th Principle and introduction to the 10th chapter of Sanhedrin, details about Mashiach and the Messianic era, as long as they are rooted in the teachings of our Sages, might be wrong but certainly are not heresy.

This reminds me of an interaction recorded in the New Testament. The great Jewish sage R. Gamliel addresses the Sanhedrin,

Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.  

Gamliel is saying, "Look, remember all those men who claimed to be Messiah? They died and came to nothing."

That seems to suggest Gamliel shared the same view Rambam held centuries later: that a Messiah who is killed is disqualified from being Messiah.

It seems Yeshua's disciples, too, held this view. When Yeshua is put to death by the Romans, do the disciples celebrate and go around spreading Christianity? No! They go into hiding assuming they too will be killed for supporting a false messiah. His chief disciple famously denies even having known him. 

Perhaps fresh in the minds of the disciples was R. Gamliel's words: if Yeshua isn't Messiah, then he'll be killed and his movement come to nothing, just like all the other failed messiahs.

Shevereshtus notes that Rambam's view that dying disqualifies a Messianic candidate seems to be contrary to Torah, Talmud, and Midrash. He resolves it by distinguishing between a Messiah who is killed and a Messiah who died.

We Christians too use such a distinction but in a different way. 

A Messiah who is dead is no Messiah at all. The disciples thought this too. Christianity would not exist today if Yeshua died and stayed dead. The disciples and the early Christians genuinely believed they saw, experienced, walked with Messiah who had been killed. He was the risen Messiah: God raised Yeshua from the dead, vindicating his Messianic claims.

Some Thoughts on America's Mid-Term Elections by Aaron Hecht

 

I am writing this blog in my living room a few hours after waking up to see the results of the mid-term elections in the United States.

I have many thoughts and feelings running through my heart and mind as I scroll through the headlines, most of which are deeply personal and wouldn't be of much interest to my readers.

But here's a few thoughts that are not so personal to me and which you might find interesting and or helpful.

To start off, I am not any more worried about the future of Israel, or my own personal future, after this election then I was before it. Israel is a project of the Kingdom of the Lord God Jesus Christ, and it's not going to fail because of anything happening in this physical world.

Many people believe that America is indispensable to Israel's existence, and that without American support, Israel will not survive.

This is not the case, and I could write an entire book explaining why.

But for now, it's enough to say that if America stops supporting Israel, or even if it turns decisively against Israel, as many European countries already have, that will not be catastrophic. In fact, an unpopular opinion I hold to is that this is something that NEEDS to happen for Israel to stop looking for help from earthly kingdoms like the United States and the European Union and instead seek assistance from the God of their Fathers.

Not the RELIGION of their Fathers, but the GOD of their Fathers.

You'll be happy to know, gentle reader, that this is already beginning to happen, and I think recent electoral events both here in Israel and in the US will serve to push that along even more.

Regarding America's future, I am also not overly concerned with this one election, because many of the people who voted for Democrats in this election voted for Republicans in the last one, and if they changed their minds once they can change their minds again. If any Republicans reading this blog need to be cheered up, I will say that in my humble opinion, you've got a VERY good chance of keeping the White House in 2028 and maybe even gaining back control of one or both houses of Congress.

Once again, I could write a whole book telling you my reasons why, but for now, I'll just say that politics is a game where winning can create all kinds of new problems and losing sometimes helps you solve some of your old problems.

So, those are the things I'm NOT worried about, for either Israel's sake or America's.

Here's what I AM worried about, for America's sake.

The Bible was on the ballot in this election, and it was RESOUNDINGLY rejected.

I'm not talking about "Christian Nationalism" which SHOULD be rejected because it's a form of idoloatry (more on that in a bit) I'm talking about the Bible.

It is incorrect to say that "America is a Christian nation" but it used to be correct to say that America is a country where the Bible was the most important foundational pillar of cultural influence.

America's traditional support for Israel was a manifestation of this Biblical foundation in American culture, starting with President Harry Truman's extension of diplomatic recognition of the newly born Jewish State just a few minutes after David Ben Gurion Declared Independence on May 14th, 1948, up to this present moment.

But in this most recent election, many fiercely anti-Israel candidates were elected in races around the United States, with the most high-profile being the new Senator from Michigan, Dr. Abu El-Sayed. 

But this "blue wave" also included some self-described "Christians" like Texas Senator-elect James Talarico, whose selective and conditional support for Israel should surprise no one given his selective and conditional relationship with the Bible and the God it describes. I would take that a step further and describe the kind of Christianity Talarico practices as nothing but agnostic secular humanism overlayed with a thin veneer of traditional Christian nomenclature and vocabulary.

That did not prevent him from being elected as the new Senator from Texas, and there were other examples of this same phenomenon in many other traditionally "red" States and districts.

To be fair and comprehensive on this point, some of the most popular influencers on the political Right in America, such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, have also gone off the deep end regarding their obsessive expressions of contempt and vitriol for Israel, and this is actually a key element in their own expressions of "Christian Nationalism." 

In particular, Carlson has chosen to regard Christian supporters of Israel his most bitter ideological enemies. He also makes no secret of his belief that the Book of Esther has no business being in the Bible and he has contemptuously dismissed efforts to call his attention to other passages in both the Old and New Testament which contradict his positions.

What Tucker Carlson and James Talarico have in common is that they both treat the Bible like a salad bar, taking the parts they like and ignoring the parts they don't like while pointing to a non-Biblical "jesus" as their Lord.

In both cases, the "jesus" they're both worshiping is not the "Jesus" described in the Bible but rather he's a composite made up of a collection of ideological beliefs and positions and ideas that they themselves hold to. In other words, the "jesus" they worship is a figment of their own imaginations and thus, an idol.

In case no one ever explained it to you, an "idol" and it can also be literally ANYTHING a person looks to for their identity, their hope, or their security.

That is as true for a modern American Democrat worshipping "woke jesus" or a modern American Republican worshipping "MAGA jesus" as it was for an ancient Philistine worshipping "Dagon" or an ancient Greek worshipping "Zeus."

It is also true, just by the way, for a modern Israeli or Christian Zionist who is worshipping "King Bibi" and/or the Golden Calf of Modern Orthodoxy.

Brothers and sisters, please hear me.

The ONLY hope for America, or Israel, or Europe, or anywhere else, is the big-G "God" described in the Bible, and that means ALL of the Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. All of it.

As Psalm 33:12 says "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

To our modern ears this sounds redundant, but the meaning is clear that the nation who worships the TRUE God that the Bible describes instead of one of the many other small-g "gods" that so many people have been worshipping all through history, will be blessed. I believe the opposite is also true, that any nation whose object of worship is NOT the TRUE God described in the Bible will NOT be blessed, but cursed, or just left to its own devices, which is essentially the same thing.

So, if you're reading this as you're in shock and mourning over the results of the mid-term elections in the United States, or the recent Knesset elections in Israel, or the elections they had last month in Brazil, or any other election anywhere else, what I can tell you is that the way to get to a better place is to open up the Bible and read it. Pray EARNESTLY into what you're reading in that Book and then get into regular fellowship with others who read the Bible and pray.

Repent individually and corporately, of the errors you've made, the idols you've put your faith, hope and trust in, the false doctrines you've held to which contradict the Bible (remembering that the Holy Spirit will never "reveal" anything that contradicts the written Scriptures) and any other sinful behavior you've slipped into, even unintentionally.

Stop chasing "prosperity" and earthly possessions, political power, book and merch sales, prestige and all that other nonsense and instead pursue righteousness.

That's the winning strategy you're looking for.

That's the way you can become a force for good that no earthly force can withstand, even a blue wave, or a red wave, both of which can be here today and gone tomorrow.

That's what I've got for you this week brothers and sisters. I hope it blesses someone.

Some Thoughts After Israel's Latest Election by Aaron Hecht

On Tuesday morning, which was election day here in Israel, I had a special problem. It was the first election I'd be voting in where it wouldn't be possible to take a cute picture of my children helping me vote, because they've "been there and done that" and it's not exciting for them anymore and they didn't want to. Happily, my furry little four legged daughter (or as some might say, my "dog") is still eager to go with me wherever I go and do whatever I have planned for us to do together. But when there's long lines of people waiting to vote, everyone is impatient and no one has time to let a guy take a picture, so if one wants to take such a picture, one must try to go vote at a time when there won't be a lot of people there impatiently waiting in line.

In order to ensure the success of my mission, I thought it best to go vote as early as possible, and the polls opened at 7AM, so I was dressed and out the door by 7:12 AM and I got to the polls (which are at the school where my sons attend, just a short walk from our apartment) at 7:19AM.

But here's where my plans began to fall apart.

Y'see, although it was the crack of dawn, and people had all day to vote, and the traditional thing is to sleep in on election day and take one's time getting to the polls since they're open until 10PM and there's no rush, on Tuesday morning, at 7:19AM, the halls of the school where I'd be casting my ballot were already filled with people. It wasn't a "large crowd" but it was way more than I'd ever seen before at the polls so early in the morning. Right then, at that moment, I knew this election would be different from all other elections, and there would be lots of surprises when it came time to start counting the ballots.

In the meantime, my daughter was a big hit with my fellow citizens, especially the people who had brought their children, who are all probably now bugging their parents to let them have a dog (dogs are VERY good for the emotional development of a child, in case no one ever told you that). In the end, a lady who lives in my building who was there to vote took the picture for us and no one expressed any impatience. But the lines were already getting long as I left the school at 7:32 AM, and I went home to tell my wife that this election would NOT be going the way all the pollsters had said it would.

She replied by saying "okay" and then putting her head back down on the pillow and going back to sleep.

She's very calm and not easily alarmed, which is one of the reasons I married her, so she could balance me out.

Later in the morning, she took our youngest son to go with her to vote, and a good time was had by all.

As the day progressed, I got several assignments to write things for different clients (a freelancer NEVER gets paid time off) and even if I didn't need to for work, I would have checked in on the news sites regularly to see the results as they came in. As I had thought would be the case after seeing the early morning crowds at my own polling place, the turnout was much higher than anyone had been expecting. I knew that this would throw off the math and that some of the parties which had been hovering just over the electoral threshold of 3.25% wouldn't be making it into the Knesset.

Now, a few days have passed, most of the dust has cleared and t looks like we've got some final results.

The bloc of parties led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has 53 seats, the bloc led by former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot which was hoping to depose Netanyahu and usher in a new era in Israeli politics has 48 seats and the two Arab parties have 19 seats, more than they've ever had before.

Regular readers of this blog have almost certainly seen or heard a fair amount of commentary about all this, but in case you haven't, here's a video from my friend Barry Segal in which he tells us how it is. Don't worry about the grim look on his face in the video thumbnail, he was just trying to be serious and that's how it turned out.

My own thoughts as I prepare for the first Shabbat after the Israeli elections and the last Shabbat before America's mid-term elections next week is that these results are definitely not what I was predicting and they're VERY sub-optimal. I mean, literally NO ONE got what they wanted out of this election, and we'll probably have to have another election in a few weeks which may or may not produce a result which will lead to the formation of a stable governing coalition.

Now is a REALLY bad time for Israel to not have a stable governing coalition, because we're probably going back to war with Iran before the end of the year.

Another thought I have it that is WAS, (sadly) predictable that there would be accusations of foul play when the Arab parties got the largest number of seats they ever got in an Israeli election because the Arab public (which is 20% of Israel's population, in case no one ever told you that) voted in numbers they'd never voted in before.

The narrative I'm seeing being pushed by Netanyahu-friendly influencers (what we used to call "talking heads") is that Qatar sent a bunch of money to Israeli Arab community leaders so they could use it to bribe Arab citizens to vote.

There are just two things I'll say about that.

First, there is ZERO evidence at this point to indicate that there's any truth whatsoever to this narrative, and the people making these accusations know it, but they're talking about it as if it's self-evidently true.

Second, even if it IS true, Israeli political parties, especially Likud, have been taking enormous amounts of money from Jewish and more recently Christian donors in America and Europe for decades and making no secret of it. If you ever read Ariel Sharon's memoirs, he tells the story about how he spent months in America raising money to help set up the Likud Party back in the mid-1970s. That pattern of fund-raising continues to this day.

So, for Likud and their friends to now start bemoaning "foreign influence" in Israel's elections is deeply dishonest and almost comically absurd.

As a bonus, one of Netanyahu's top aides is currently under investigation for taking money from Qatar in order to try and improve that country's image in Israel. It's difficult to believe Netanyahu himself was unaware of this, so again, for him to now be accusing Qatar and the Arab parties of trying to "steal the election" is pretty rich.

I know there are some Christian Zionist supporters of Israel who are joining in this deeply dishonest effort on the part of Likud and its allies to peddle the narrative that the Arab parties "stole the election" by having the audacity to mobilize large numbers of their voters to come to the polls. If you're reading this and you're one of those people saying this, you need to repent and you need to stop doing that.

In a more general sense, I believe it is LONG past time for Christian Zionists to stop blindly and unconditionally supporting Benjamin Netanyahu. He is NOT always right, and he is DEFINITELY not always righteous. He is also not immortal, and he just turned 77 years old earlier this month. He's had at least three surgeries that we know of in the past two years and he's also undergone treatments for cancer. Even if he keeps winning elections, he is NOT going to live forever, and we have GOT to start making plans for the day after.

Speaking of plans, it'll be weeks before we know for sure who will be the next Prime Minister of Israel but it'll be just a few more days before we know who will control the US Congress for the next two years, so buckle up brothers and sisters, we've got plenty of turbulence ahead.