 Christian missionaries like Jews for Jesus claim that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Why has Judaism rejected this assertion for 2,000 years? The concept of the Messiah has its foundation in our Jewish Bible, the Tnach, which clearly teaches that all of the following criteria must be fulfilled before any person can be acknowledged as the Messiah. Number one, when the Messiah is reigning as king of Israel, the Jewish people will be ingathered from their 2,000-year exile and will return to Israel their homeland. However, Jesus never reigned as king, and the Jewish people have not yet all returned to live in their promised homeland of Israel. Number two, the holy temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt. Actually, the temple was still standing in Jesus' day. It was destroyed 38 years after Jesus' crucifixion, and it has not yet been rebuilt. Number three, there will be worldwide peace, universal disarmament, and a complete end to war. Yet, since the advent of Christianity, wars have increased dramatically in the world. Some of them were actually fought in the name of Jesus. Number four, the Messiah will reign as king at a time when all the Jewish people will embrace the Torah and observe God's commandments. Sadly, today all Jews are not yet following all the commandments of the Torah. Number five, the Messiah will rule at a time when all the people of the world will come to acknowledge and serve the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This as well has not yet taken place, and we await its fulfillment. And number six, the Messiah must be a member of the tribe of Judah and a direct descendant of King David and King Solomon. Genealogy in the Bible is only passed down from father to son. There is no evidence that Jesus really had this pedigree, and the Christian Bible actually claims that he did not have a birth father from the tribe of Judah descending from David and Solomon. All of these criteria for the Messiah are found in numerous places in the Jewish Bible. One foundational example is in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 24 through 28. And my servant David will be king over them and they will all have one shepherd and they will walk in my ordinances and keep my statutes and observe them and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob my servant in which your fathers have lived and they shall live there, they and their children and their children's children forever. And my servant David will be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant which I will give them and I will multiply them and set my sanctuary in their midst forever and my tabernacle shall be with them and I will be their God and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever. Anyone can claim to be the Messiah or a group of people can claim that someone is the Messiah. However, if that person fails to fulfill all the criteria found in the Jewish Bible, he cannot be the Messiah. According to the Christian scriptures, Jesus seems to have understood this. As he was being crucified by the Romans, he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In order to deal with Jesus' failure to fulfill the biblical messianic prophecies, missionaries argue that he will accomplish them when he returns in the future. It is important to understand that this doctrine of a second coming is an admission that Jesus did not fulfill the messianic criteria. This rationalization for his failure certainly provides no reason for accepting him as the Messiah today. Furthermore, the Jewish Bible does not have a messianic installment plan where the Messiah comes, fails in his mission, and then returns thousands of years later to finally succeed. Missionaries will claim that because Jesus performed miracles, he must be the Messiah. However, we have no real evidence that Jesus actually performed any miracles. More significantly, even if Jesus did perform miracles, they would not prove he was the Messiah. Our Bible never says that we will be able to recognize the Messiah through the miracles that he will do. The Torah actually teaches that even false prophets can have the ability to perform supernatural miracles. As Jews, we prefer to wait for the real thing according to God's promises and guidelines. The Jewish Bible provides a clear and consistent description of what the world would look like when the Messiah comes. And this clearly has not yet transpired. So, we still await the coming of the real Messiah. May he and a true utopian world come soon. To learn more about the Jewish Messiah, visit our website at www.Jews4Judaism.ca or our YouTube channel, Jews4Judaism Canada. Thank you very much. Shalom and God bless.