 A few weeks ago, I made a presentation entitled, Unanswered Questions that Dr. Brown has Failed to Address. Dr. Brown responded with a presentation of his own, entitled, Dr. Brown Answers Rabbi Blumenthal's Questions. As disappointed as I am with Dr. Brown's video, I must still thank him. I must thank him for engaging, for joining the conversation. This way, the conversation which has stalled for almost 10 years can proceed. As I mentioned in my previous video, if you read the entirety of Dr. Brown's five volumes and you read the entirety of my critique of his five volumes, you don't need to be watching these videos. You have more than enough information to make an educated and informed decision. The purpose of these videos, the reason I made that first video was to bring, in case you have a reluctance to read so much material, 1,500 pages, hundreds of pages of critique. So you might have a reluctance to read all that. So I wanted to bring the issues, put them on the table, and you can know what it is that we're talking about, what it is that we're discussing, and you can evaluate at least some of the questions, at least some of the questions that I present against Dr. Brown's five volumes and ask yourself if these are serious questions, if they deserve an answer or if they don't. So in my previous video, I just took three questions out of my critique, out of many, many questions I chose. There's just a fraction of the questions that I ask and that I challenge Dr. Brown's argumentation. I just took those three questions, three basic questions, and I presented them. Now, Dr. Brown took 28 minutes of your time. Did he answer those questions? What I'm going to be doing over here is I'm going to spell out those three questions all over again. Perhaps it's my fault. Perhaps I wasn't clear. So I'm going to try to clarify. I'm going to try to articulate. And this is not about me. This is not about Dr. Brown. It's about you. It's about education. Listen to the questions. Ask yourself, are these serious questions? Are these real questions? Do they deserve answers? Then go back to Dr. Brown's 28 minute video presentation and ask yourself if after you watched his video, were you educated, did you get the answers to those questions? Dr. Brown filled his 28 minute video with divergence and distractions. I responded to those divergent and distractions in the very format that Dr. Brown and I agreed upon 15 years ago. 15 years ago we met and we agreed that we'll be presenting challenges to each other and we'll respond to them in writing. For 15 years, I have kept my commitment to him. If he presented any challenge to me, whether it was directly to me or was to my belief system, I responded in writing. And I hope to God that I should be able to continue this. So I responded to those diversions and distractions in an article entitled, Responding to Dr. Brown's Distractions. As I said, what I'm going to be doing over here is spell out those same three questions. Those three questions had to do with Reader's Guide to the Bible, the Jewish devotion to God, and messianic prophecies. Let's start with Reader's Guide to the Bible. So the question is, how could the church expect us to ignore God's Reader's Guide to the Bible? What do I mean? Both Jews and Christians looked at the same Bible, the same book. And when I say the Bible, I mean the Jewish Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. They look to that same book and each one of them comes out with a completely different theology, theologies that are worlds apart, polar opposites from each other. How do they do this? Now you see, both Christians and Jews look at the Bible, something like a building which has structure to it. It has certain concepts, certain passages are like pillars that support the building. And others are like the bricks and the windows which are peripheral to the narrative of Scripture. And both Jews and Christians point to various passages and they say, this is a critical, this is a foundational passage. And this is peripheral, this is backdrop to the other passage. Obviously, Jews and Christians are looking to two different sets of passages and calling this one critical or that one critical. Now only one of us can be reading the book correctly. One of us is misusing the text. One of us is not looking to the text to draw, to learn from the text. Rather, one of us is approaching the text with a preconceived theology and trying to impose that theology on the text. So which one of us who is doing this? Is it Judaism that's imposing its theology on the text or is it Christianity? Well, Dr. Brown makes this real easy for us. He basically lets the cat out of the bag, you see? Let's read Dr. Brown's own words on page 199 in the book, The Case for Jesus. Dr. Brown wants to highlight what he believes is the priestly function of the Messiah. So he turns to Zachariah 6 and he excitedly declares, and I'm going to be reading his words and he tells us that this passage in Zachariah 6 is the most overt passage in the Bible where a human being is explicitly identified with a messianic figure. Okay, so what Dr. Brown is doing is he's telling us is we have a cue. The author gave us a piece of guidance as if there's an arrow pointing down from heaven and saying, here, this passage, important message about the Messiah. And Dr. Brown understands that by identifying a human being with a messianic figure and by tying those two together, the author is drawing our attention to this verse. Of course, I disagree with Dr. Brown's entire interpretation of that passage, but that's beside the point. That's not the point I want to bring out over here. What I want to bring out over here is that Dr. Brown is using this textual cue to draw attention to this passage. But volume three of answering Jewish objections on page 172, Dr. Brown notices that the text says explicitly that this messianic figure is going to build a temple. And according to Dr. Brown, the concept of Messiah building the temple and again to use Dr. Brown's own words is fringe at best. So what does Dr. Brown do? Dr. Brown tells us that this passage appears in only one, an emphasis in the original. Only one book in the Hebrew Bible. So one second, what happened to that arrow that was pointing down from heaven that said important message about the Messiah? Well, if you're looking to the author to tell you which text is important and which text is not important, the author is not going to contradict himself. But if you're looking to your theology to tell you which text is important and which text is not, well, if the text says two different things, one fits your theology and one doesn't, so the text will be the most important text and will be the least important text at the same time. But Dr. Brown's hypocrisy is only symptomatic of the church's 2,000 year effort to shoehorn Jesus into the Jewish scriptures. You see, let's take the subject of directing our devotion. So for the church passages like Genesis 18, Exodus 24, 10, Numbers 12, 8 are foundational and important and critical. These are the pillars. For the Jew, it's Deuteronomy 4, Exodus 20, Isaiah 44. Now, I'm not going to do your thinking for you. I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles. Look at Deuteronomy 4, look at Isaiah 44, look at Exodus 20 and ask yourself, what did the author do to tell us that this is a teaching on the subject of directing our worship? Ask yourself, what did he do? And you will see, he did plenty. The author knows how to tell you this is a teaching on the subject of directing your worship. Now, I want you to turn to Genesis 18, Exodus 24, 10, Numbers 12, 8. And ask yourself, what did the author do to tell you that this is a teaching on the subject of directing your worship? And the answer is zero. But you can look it up yourself. Don't trust me, don't take me on my word. Do your homework, check it out. Let's move on to the subject of repairing your relationship with God. Deuteronomy 30 opens with the situation of the Jewish people having experienced the curse, the curse comes after we don't obey God. Our relationship with God is not doing well. And God tells us what we're supposed to do to repair that relationship. That's Deuteronomy 30. Exodus, Ezekiel 33 starts out with people speaking in despair and saying our sins, our transgressions are upon us. How then can we live? And God gives his answer. God introduces these passages as teachings, how to deal with the problem of repairing your relationship with God. These passages are peripheral at best in the Christian theology. Now here is the one place in Dr. Brown's 28 minute video where he gives us a little bit of an answer to the question. Dr. Brown points to the sacrifices that are mentioned in the book of Leviticus. And he says, look how many times the word atonement appears in conjunction with the blood offerings described in the book of Leviticus. And this tells us how central and important our foundational these blood offerings are. And I would tell Dr. Brown, very good. You actually presented a biblical argument. You actually pointed to something which the Bible points to, yes. That is one of the ways that the author tells us that something is important. By repeating a word again and again, by repeating the concept again and again, yes, that tells us that the concept is important. But does Dr. Brown hear what he is saying? Does he really believe that the sacrifices described in Leviticus are central, important, and foundational? When was the last time that Dr. Brown brought a goat to the temple to atone for one of his sins? He doesn't believe that the sacrifices are important or foundational. He believes they were discarded and done away with. As soon as Jesus came onto the scene, out they go. Not only that, but Dr. Brown accepts the word of the book of Hebrews from the Greek Testament, which says that those sacrifices never really atone for sin to begin with. The Jewish people believe that those sacrifices are important, foundational, and critical. And that is why we believe that they are going to become back. That is why we pray for their return. And our vision of the messianic age tells us that they will come back. And these are important to us. We study the laws of the sacrifices. The sacrifices are, God doesn't make any jokes when he was talking about the sacrifices. So again, God is telling us that the sacrifices are important, and Dr. Brown is telling us that the sacrifices are not important. Let's wrap this up. Let's look at this from a Christian perspective. If you're a Christian, you're watching me now. I will ask you a question. How important, how critical is the observance of the Sabbath? On a scale of 1 to 10. Okay. How critical is the principle, the belief, the theory that there is no remission for sin without the shedding of blood? How are these two principles compared to each other? Observance of the Sabbath, and there is no remission for sin without the shedding of blood? On a scale of 1 to 10, which one marks higher? Do you know how many times the Bible speaks about observance of the Sabbath? In what central settings the author of the Bible puts that commandment in, in a commanding tone, warning punishment if we don't, speaking about the covenant in relation to Sabbath, dozens and dozens of times. How many times in the Jewish Bible does it say there is no remission for sin without the shedding of blood? Zero, not once. So again, I go back to my original question. My original question was, God gave us a reader's guide to the Bible. How does the church expect us to ignore God's reader's guide to the Bible and accept their reader's guide to the Bible, which is not even consistent? So again, how can we ignore God's reader's guide to the Bible? That was my first question. Let me move on to my second question. My second question is about devotion. When the missionary comes knocking on your door, he is not just trying to get you to believe something in your head. He wants you to do something with your heart. He wants you to look to life and death of Jesus and get excited, get passionate, get overwhelmed and open your heart in complete submission in a type of devotion which is only appropriate towards a divine over what you see and what you find in the life and death of Jesus. That is what the missionary wants from you. It's not just about something to believe with your head. It's about something to do with your heart. Judaism is also not just about something to believe in your head. It's about something that we do with our heart. We look to God, the creator of heaven and earth, the source of all goodness, all kindness, all righteousness, all forgiveness, and we get excited and passionate about that. We get excited and passionate about God and we open our hearts in complete and total devotion to God, the creator of heaven and earth. These are two different excitements. These are two different passions. These are two different devotions. You can have one without the other. You can be devoted to Jesus and not be devoted to God. You can be devoted to the creator of heaven and earth and not be devoted to Jesus. The Jewish people have a heart. They have a devotion towards God and the church sees that devotion and is not satisfied. The church would introduce to the Jewish heart a devotion and excitement, a passion that the Jewish heart never knew. So my question is, what are we missing with God? What is God not giving us in our relationship with him? What are we missing when we feel God's embrace in every iota of existence? Now, Dr. Brown tells us that he answered this question in Objection 6-8 in his five volumes. Now, I don't understand how someone could answer an objection when he doesn't acknowledge the existence of the objection. Nowhere in all of his five volumes does Dr. Brown acknowledge that it's the Jewish love for God that doesn't allow them to bend their hearts to Jesus. But let us see what he says in Objection 6-8. Well, in Objection 6-8, he tells us what benefits, what spiritual benefits we stand to gain if we follow Jesus. But my question has nothing to do with benefits. Love doesn't calculate. Love doesn't ask for perks or kickbacks or benefits, not even spiritual benefits. Love follows. Love finds excitement, joy, light, passion. And that's what love is all about. I'm not asking about what kickback we're missing with God. I'm asking what are we missing in the very essence of the relationship that we had with God? What joy are we missing? What love are we missing? What excitement are we missing? What passion are we missing? What are we missing if we follow God as creator of heaven and earth, if we love God as creator of heaven and earth? In what way is God an inadequate partner in a relationship when we see him as creator of heaven and earth and we know nothing about Jesus? So my question put simply is, what are we missing with God when we see God as creator of heaven and earth? Not in the sense of benefits or kickbacks, rather in the sense of the joy in the relationship. Now let me move on to my third question. My third question is about messianic prophecies. And my question was simply, if Jesus is the Messiah of the Jewish scripture, then why does Dr. Brown have to toy his presentation of the messianic prophecies in the not of self-contradiction? Let me go straight to Dr. Brown. On page 182 of volume two in a series of answering Jewish objections, Dr. Brown speaks about the prophecies that tell us, that predict the restoration of the sacrificial system. And Dr. Brown is not happy because the prophets are telling us that the sacrifices are coming back, but Jesus is supposed to be the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. So Dr. Brown tells us as follows. Out of all the prophets, and these are his words, out of all the prophets whose words were recorded in scripture, four others aside from Ezekiel make mention of future sacrifices. He's trying to tell us they don't appear too many times in the books of scripture. And then he goes on to say that the references to future sacrifices in the books of Isaiah, Zechariah, and Malachi take up a total of three verses. And these are his words. He concludes with these words. These are hardly major subjects in these prophetic books. And therefore Dr. Brown goes on, he used some other arguments as well, but he proposes a non-literal interpretation of these future sacrifices. Again, by the way, this is coming from someone who tells us that the sacrifices of Leviticus are of paramount importance. Let's put that aside for now. In volume three, Dr. Brown realizes that Maimonides tells us that the Messiah does not necessarily have to perform miracles. And Dr. Brown is not pleased with that. According to Dr. Brown, the Messiah must perform miracles. So Dr. Brown tells us that Maimonides' interpretation of Scripture was motivated by a bias to discredit Jesus. Now Dr. Brown really needs to do this. These miracles are very critical for Dr. Brown. Do you know why? Because you have to realize, when Jesus was alive before the crucifixion, before the alleged resurrection, even before he wrote that donkey, Jesus was telling the people that if they believed the prophets, they would believe him. But what did Jesus do? It wasn't Isaiah 53, it wasn't Daniel 9, it wasn't Psalm 22, so what was it? The only argument that you could have is if someone believes that the prophets said that the Messiah must perform miracles, and you believe that Jesus did perform those miracles, then perhaps you can have some sort of argument. But if you take away the miracles, then those words of Jesus make no sense whatsoever. So Dr. Brown really needs Maimonides to be wrong. So he tells us that when Maimonides downplaying the miracles of the Messiah, he's only, there's no doubt, Dr. Brown actually used the word no doubt that he's motivated by a desire to discredit Jesus. Do you know how many times the miracles of the Messiah allegedly appear in the Jewish scriptures? Three verses in one book. Three verses in one book. So by Dr. Brown's own standard, by Dr. Brown's own method of counting, by his own yardstick, we could easily say, these are hardly a major subject, and they could be interpreted in a non-literal fashion. And in fact, if you read those three passages in Isaiah, you will see that the context tells you that the prophet is not talking about the opening of the eyes of one individual blind person. He's talking about the nation coming out of the darkness of exile. So the non-literal interpretation is inherent in the verse itself. But still we have Dr. Brown, when it comes to the restoration of sacrifices, he downplays them. And when it comes to the miracles of the Messiah, he plays them up. But the number of verses over here, the miracles of the Messiah are actually less, even according to Dr. Brown's own count. And did I tell you that Dr. Brown, when he was counting the prophecies of the future sacrifices, he forgot four prophecies. He forgot Isaiah 56-7, Isaiah 67, Ezekiel chapter 20 verses 40 and 41, Malachi chapter three verses three and four. Dr. Brown forgot more verses about the restoration of sacrifices than there are verses that speak about the miracles of the Messiah. So here's my question. If Jesus is truly the Messiah predicted by the prophets of the Jewish scripture, so why does Dr. Brown have to tie his presentation in the knot of self-contradiction? I just ask you three questions. I ask you, if you're a Christian, perhaps this way of thinking is foreign to you, think about these questions, ask yourself, are these questions important questions? Are they significant questions? Make your own decision. If you believe that they are significant questions, then I encourage you to go back to Dr. Brown's video presentation. Dr. Brown answers Rabbi Bloom with those questions and see if you can find the answers. See if you can, if you're educated, when you watch that video, did you find the answers to these questions? To Dr. Brown, if you have answers, share them with us. Answers that you are carrying around in your head or answers that are found on papers that you don't want anybody to see, don't benefit anybody. If you have answers, if you have any insight, if you have any clarity to add to the discussion, share it with us. We'll take it from there and I believe that we would all benefit.