 She spent a few moments talking about whether Jesus was a prophet. Now the big question is, is Jesus the Messiah? Before I begin, let me read just one classical Messianic prophecy. And there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow from his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 through 2. Let me digress for a moment with this story of the case of the mysterious bank robber. Is he the one? One night, a bank robber broke into a bank's vault and escaped with the money. As he was leaving, several eyewitnesses clearly saw him. The police artists arrived, and from their testimonies, he developed a good sketch of the robber's face. Though all the eyewitnesses eventually died, the police arrested a suspect based on the sketch. The suspect's defense lawyer insisted, however, that his client was innocent for two reasons. Firstly, his DNA did not match a sample of blood that was left at the scene of the crime. And secondly, he was tested and shown to lack the skills needed to crack a safe. Based on this evidence, would you convict the suspect? Is he the one? This simple story illustrates a major difference between the Jewish and Christian approaches to determining whether Jesus qualifies as the Jewish Messiah. The Christian approach emphasizes that Jesus matches a picture of the Messiah that they have drawn from a misinterpretation of Jewish scriptures. However, Judaism insists that, firstly, the Messiah must have the correct lineage, or DNA, namely being a patrilineal descent of King David through his son Solomon, and secondly, through his influence and his skills that he must bring about a utopian age signified by the following seven major changes in the world. Number one, the ingathering of all the exiled Jewish people back to the land of Israel. Two, the Jews will be unified, purified from sin, and with no more idolatry. Number three, a descent of King David will rule the Jews as their king and Messiah. Number four, the Jews will keep all the God-given Torah laws. Number five, God will establish an eternal covenant of peace with the Jews, and there will be no more war on earth. Number six, the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. Number seven, all the nations of the world will come to recognize the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has chosen and sacrificed the Jewish people. The Jews are the only people who can claim that their ancestors actually knew Jesus. 2,000 years ago, we were brutally occupied and oppressed by the Roman Empire, and desperately hoped for the coming of the Messiah. Yet, we overwhelmingly rejected Jesus because he did not meet the criteria outlined in our Bible. Let us now examine these criteria. Was Jesus a legitimate heir to the royal line of David? According to the Jewish Bible, the primary qualification for a Messianic candidate is that he must be a father-son descendant of King David. The writers of the New Testament considered it essential to certify Jesus as David's descendant. In fact, the New Testament opens with the words, quote, the Book of the Generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, from Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. To determine whether or not Jesus was a legitimate heir to David's lineage, we now examine the New Testament's genealogies. Here we discover several problems that help to explain why we cannot accept Jesus as our Messiah. Who was Jesus' father? Most Christians consider Jesus to be both the Messiah and the Son of God, and this poses a serious contradiction. Who was his father? If it is God, then Jesus is not someone of David's lineage. If it is David, then he cannot be the Son of God. The fact that he can have only one father makes being the Son of God and the Messiah mutually exclusive. Christians contend that God is the Father of Jesus and that Jesus descended from David through two lineages shown in the New Testament. One in the Book of Matthew and the other in the Book of Luke. Our discussion now deals with these two lineages, along with one from the Book of First Chronicles and the Tanakh for comparison. By examining these lineages, we see that they present quite a problem for the Christian position. For a few moments, I will use this chart, which is available on page 31 of our transcript that you can download by clicking on the link below this video. Point number one. Both genealogies end with Joseph, Jesus' stepfather, yet they have almost no other names in common. How could Joseph have two different lineages? It certainly challenges the credibility of one, if not both of them. One Christian response is that Matthew's lineage is that of Joseph, whereas the one in Luke traces Mary's lineage. We will now deal with each one and examine the problems they present. Concerning Joseph's lineage in Matthew, a stepfather is not a person's birthfather. We are interested in determining the path through which King David's Y chromosomes passed father to son and reached Jesus. Certainly, it could not come through Jesus' stepfather. Christians will argue that Joseph adopted Jesus and by doing so transmitted the royal line. Yet, just as with the Coenim, or the priests, an adopted son cannot become a Coen, so too a son adopted by a member of the royal line cannot become an heir to the throne. The Messiah must be an actual biological member of the royal line. With these two lineages, there is an important issue of missing names and generations. When comparing the Davidic line as shown in Matthew, with the way it is shown in 1 Chronicles, we see that four names are eliminated as indicated on the chart. For example, Matthew's genealogy states that Uzziah, the same as Azaria, was the son of Jerohan, instead of the son of Amaziah. Christian apologists try to explain this by stating that when it says this one begat that one, it implies his ancestor and not necessarily his father. The problem they create for themselves is intensified when Matthew states, quote, So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. This is from Matthew chapter 1 verse 17. Because the Gamatria, or the numerical value, of David's name in Hebrew is 14, the authors of the New Testament were anxious to show how Jesus' genealogy was tied to that number 14. We can't accept that names could be skipped when showing an ancestral line. However, it is not legitimate to take a lineage that stretched from David to the Babylonian exile, which included 18 generations, and claim that it only contained 14 in order to show the significance of the number of generations. Another important point, according to Christianity, Joseph himself was not a legitimate heir to the throne. Even if lineage could be passed on through adoption, Jesus could not be a Messianic candidate if he was a descendant of Joseph. Why? Joseph himself was a descendant of a family that was disqualified from being the Messiah. In Matthew chapter 1, verse 11, it shows that Joseph was descended from Jackaniah, Orconia for short, a former king who was very wicked and was cursed by God. In Jeremiah 22, we see that Jackaniah's descendants are absolutely disqualified as heirs to the throne. Therefore, anyone descended from Joseph was also disqualified as a candidate to the throne of David. Quote, Is this Manconia a despised broken vessel, an object that no one cares for? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and banished to a land which they know not? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days. For no man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah. This is from Jeremiah chapter 22, verses 28 through 30. Some Christians answer that a rabbinic midrash or tradition tells us that Jackaniah repented and the curse was later rescinded. However, this idea is not found in the Bible. It is only taught by our Jewish sages. Missionaries only accept the authority of the Bible and not the traditions of our rabbis. Therefore, according to Christian beliefs, Joseph's lineage was not valid. Now let's look at Mary's lineage in Luke. Mary's name is not mentioned in Luke's lineage. Christians explain the discrepancies between the two New Testament genealogies by inventively proposing that Matthew is tracing Joseph's genealogy and Luke is tracing Mary's lineage. How can we know that this is Mary's lineage? Some contend that Heli is really Mary's father and when it says that Heli is the father of Joseph, it really means father-in-law. Yet nowhere does the New Testament say anything about Heli. And furthermore, he is only mentioned here. Others contend that Joseph was also the name of Mary's father and that the Joseph mentioned here was really Mary's father, not her husband. The bottom line is that we cannot substantiate this is Mary's lineage by anything written in the New Testament. Our conclusion is especially ironic. Firstly, because Christians are so adamant in rejecting the legitimacy of Jewish traditions that do not appear explicitly in the Bible and secondly because they insist upon strict reliance on Scripture. Another very important point is that the royal line is only passed through the father, never the mother. Even if the lineage mentioned in Luke is Mary's lineage, this presents a problem in and of itself. True, one's Jewishness is passed through the mother, yet one's tribal inheritance passes through the father. Christians argue that the book of Numbers shows a case where a father had no sons and his estate of land was inherited by his daughters upon his death. However, this story teaches that inheritance applies only to property, not to lineage. This is why his daughters were required to marry within their tribe. Otherwise, the estates they inherited would be lost to another tribe. Yet even if we assume that lineage could pass through the mother and we also assume that Luke's lineage did in fact belong to Mary, was Mary's lineage a legitimate one, which brings us to the next very important point. That is that genealogy can only be passed down David to Solomon. According to the Bible, the Davidic line had to pass only through King David's son Solomon and no other son. Quote, As I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel, saying assurately, Solomon, your son shall reign after me, referring to David, and he shall sit upon my throne in my place. This is from 1 Kings 1 verse 30. Another quote. Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies around, for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. 1 Chronicles chapter 22 verses 9 through 10. Luke's lineage shows that Mary is not from Solomon. But from Nathan, another of David's sons. We see this in Luke chapter 3 verse 31. Nathan was not a royal heir. Since Mary is not from Solomon's line, she and her descendants do not have a legitimate connection to the royal line of David. Now that we see that neither Matthew's lineage of Joseph, nor Luke's supposed lineage of Mary is legitimate, we cannot consider Jesus as a legitimate descendant of King David. Therefore, Jesus cannot be the Messiah. So what is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? According to Scripture, the Messiah is supposed to come once, exalted as the revered king of the Jewish people, and accomplish several things towards establishing God's kingdom on earth, including world peace, and he, God, shall judge among the nations, and shall decide for many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore. This is from Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4. Since the time of Jesus, there have been unending horrific wars. In fact, there has been more bloodshed in the name of Jesus than anyone else on earth. Another sign is that the nations will turn to the God of Israel, as we can see in the following verses. Quote, To you, God, nations shall come from the ends of the earth and say, Our fathers inherited utter delusions, things that are futile and worthless. Can man make gods for himself? They are not gods. Assuredly, I will teach them once and for all. I will teach them my power and my might, and they shall learn that my name is God. This is from Jeremiah chapter 16 verses 19 through 21. Another quote, Thus says the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men from the nations of every language shall take hold of the robe of the Jew, saying, We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you. This is from Zachariah chapter 8 verse 23. And also quote, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people and they shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders and kings shall be your nursing fathers and their queens your nursing mothers and they shall bow down to you with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of your feet and you shall know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Isaiah chapter 49 verses 22 and 23. An important sign of the messianic age will be universal knowledge of God. Quote, After those days says the Lord, I will put my Torah in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will no longer remember their sin. This is from Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 32 and 33. And another quote, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the sea and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand for a banner of the people to it shall the nations seek and his resting place shall be glorious. Isaiah chapter 11 verses 9 and 10. The most comprehensive list of what is to occur in the Messiah's time is found in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37 quote and say to them thus says the Lord God behold I will take the people of Israel from among the nations where they have gone and I will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel and one king shall be to them all and they shall be no more two nations nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore at all nor shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will save them in all their dwelling places where they have sinned and I will cleanse them so shall they be my people and I will be their God and David my servant shall be king over them and they all shall have one shepherd they shall also follow my judgments and observe my statutes and do them and they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant where your fathers have dwelt and they shall dwell in it they and their children and their grandchildren forever and my servant David shall be their prince forever and I will make a covenant of peace with them it shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them and multiply them and set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever my tabernacle also shall be with them and I will be their God and they shall be my people and the nations shall know that I the Lord sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever more Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 21 through 27 in summary the following seven criteria will happen in the Messianic era 1. the engathering of all the exiled Jewish people back to the land of Israel 2. the Jews will be unified purified from sin and will no longer be committing idolatry 3. a descent that King David will rule the Jews as their king and Messiah 4. the Jews will keep all the God-given Torah laws 5. God will establish an eternal covenant of peace with the Jews and there will be no more war on earth 6. the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem 7. all the nations of the world will come to recognize the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who has chosen and sanctifies the Jewish people Based on the evidence that we have just now examined it is clear that the Messiah has not yet come Does today's world appear as if the Messiah had already arrived? Over the past 2,000 years the one point that Jews have unanimously agreed upon is that Jesus is not the Messiah as described and promised in our Bible So what is the Christian view on why Jesus came? Most Christians recognize the issues we just mentioned but they have a different point of view Though Jesus was killed and failed to establish God's kingdom here on earth in his lifetime Christians claim that his life and death are all part of God's plan for the Messiah His followers came to believe that Jesus will return a second time and then succeed in bringing about world peace and rebuilding the temple Why then did he come the first time? They proposed that he came to deal with sin Through his suffering and death all mankind was given atonement for their sins if only they would believe in him Which brings us to a very important passage in the Tanach Isaiah 53 referred to as the suffering servant There is no passage in the entire Tanach that Christians cite with more conviction as proof of Jesus as the Messiah than Isaiah 53 They claim that the trials, tribulations and suffering that Jesus allegedly underwent are a fulfillment of those experienced by the person spoken of in Isaiah 53 the suffering servant However, here as with all of the Tanach it is necessary to deal with this passage in its original Hebrew and original context The subject of Isaiah 53 is described as God's servant not as the Messiah Who is Isaiah referring to when he speaks about God's servant? Missionaries emphatically claim that it is Jesus The Jewish position emerges from a careful contextual reading of this chapter in light of everything that Isaiah has written Quote But you Israel are my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham my friend You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth I have called you from the chief man thereof and said unto you You are my servant I have chosen you and not cast you away Isaiah chapter 41 verse 8 Another quote from Isaiah Remember these things O Jacob and Israel for you are my servant I have formed you You are my servant O Israel You will not be forgotten by me Isaiah chapter 44 verse 21 Another verse from Isaiah And said unto me You are my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified Isaiah 49 verse 3 Isaiah explicitly makes this identification of Israel as God's servant at least 10 times The chapters in Isaiah immediately before and after the passage under consideration also add clarification Chapters 52 and 54 of Isaiah both speak about the historical suffering and persecution of the Jewish people and their ultimate redemption by God This is also the theme of Isaiah chapter 53 Isaiah chapter 52 verses 13 to 15 introduces chapter 53 by telling us that when God's servant will ultimately be exalted the nations and the kings of the world will be totally shocked This statement makes sense if we understand the servant to be the Jewish people However the ultimate elevation of Jesus would not at all surprise the world because this is exactly what both Christianity and Islam are expecting Furthermore a proper translation of Isaiah 53 verse 8 states quote from the sins of my people they were stricken implying that a people not a single man will suffer The kings of the world are going to acknowledge that their people have sinned by afflicting God's servant Israel Christian translators render this verse as for the sins of my people he is stricken as they try to suggest that one man Jesus suffered for our sins The original Hebrew of Isaiah does not support this contention In addition verse 10 tells us that the servant will have both actual children and have a long life These obviously do not apply to Jesus We do not believe that the Messiah is to suffer for our sins He will be a righteous king who will reign in Israel Upon his coming the Jews who have experienced great suffering throughout history will suffer no more Jesus crucifixion caused his followers to scram before a way to justify that his death was not a tragedy Instead they tell us it was intentional on the part of God's plan If this was the case and Jesus was in fact God that why were his last words on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me on the book of Matthew chapter 27 verse 46 Christians contend that Jesus died as a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins and he will return to establish God's kingdom on earth But was Jesus a perfect sacrifice? Let's examine what is needed for a kosher sacrifice a kosher animal without blemish slaughtered according to Jewish law offered and burnt on the altar in the temple and offered by a coin or a priest But what happened to Jesus? Jesus was a human sacrifice which is totally forbidden in the Torah Nevertheless he had blemishes which included a torn back from whipping a bleeding head from a crown of thorns He was pierced by nails in his hands and his feet and a spear in his side He was nailed to a cross, not an altar He was crucified outside the temple and by Roman soldiers Clearly if God intended that he should be a sacrifice this was not a kosher sacrifice Let's pause for a moment and take a look at the story of the resurrection There is no belief that Christians hang on to more tightly than their belief in Jesus' resurrection from the dead In fact, some claim that because of their unquestionable belief in the resurrection they have no concerns about any scriptural problems Judaism obviously approaches Scripture very differently Once again, Careful Study also reveals several problems with the resurrection story Even if someone is resurrected this does not necessarily qualify him as being the Messiah The prophet Elisha resurrected a child and Jesus allegedly resurrected Lazarus Does this qualify Lazarus as the Messiah? We must remember that none of the biblical passages about the Messiah mentions that he will be resurrected from the dead The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present distinct accounts of the resurrection with major discrepancies Christians try to use these discrepancies to bolster their case and claim that totally consistent stories would suggest collusion By making this claim they assert that the Gospel stories were true eyewitness accounts However, none of the Gospel writers was an eyewitness If instead they relied on the Holy Spirit for their information why would the Holy Spirit provide four different accounts? Let's compare just a few of the many contradictory items from the four New Testament accounts of Jesus' alleged resurrection that Christians claim are the inerrant Word of God Who first approached the empty tomb? In the book of Matthew, it's Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus In the book of Mark, it's Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of Jesus and Salome In the book of Luke, it's Mary Magdalene the mother of Jesus and Joanna And lastly in the book of John, it's Mary Magdalene alone Which is it? Who did they first see when they came to the tomb? In the book of Matthew, they see an angel sitting outside the tomb In the book of Mark, it's one man sitting inside the tomb In the book of Luke, it's two men sitting inside the tomb And in the book of John, at first there was no one and later there was two angels Who first told Mary Magdalene about the resurrection of Jesus? In Matthew, it's an angel In Mark, it's a man In Luke, it's two men In the book of John, it's Jesus himself Who did Jesus first appear to? In the book of Matthew, he appears to a joyful Mary Magdalene on the road In the book of Mark, he appears to Mary Magdalene on the road In the book of Luke, he appears to Cleopas and Simon on the road In the book of John, he appears to a grief-stricken Mary Magdalene in the tomb What did the women do when they were informed that Jesus had risen? In the book of Matthew, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus rushed to inform the disciples In the book of Mark, they fearfully kept the news to themselves Mary Magdalene alone later went to inform the disciples In the book of Luke, they went to inform the disciples In the book of John, Mary Magdalene went to inform the eleven disciples Where did Jesus first reveal himself to his disciples and how many of them? In Matthew, it's eleven disciples in the Galilee In Mark, also eleven disciples in the Galilee But in Luke, it's two of his eleven disciples in Jerusalem And in John, it's ten disciples in Jerusalem Again, one must ask if the New Testament accounts of Jesus' resurrection are the inspired word of God Then why all these blatant contradictions and discrepancies? Lastly, the fact that Jesus has inspired many to become better people is wonderful Yet every religion can make this claim That he atoned for our sins, that he is the only path to a relationship with God And that he is the key to eternal life cannot be objectively validated These claims are based purely on faith In addition to never describing the Messiah as a human sacrifice who dies and is resurrected Jewish scriptures never speak about a second coming The global utopian changes that will occur when the Messiah arrives Are all tangible and verifiable Because Jesus fulfilled nothing that was required of the Messiah The Jewish people cannot accept Him as such