Recently several Jews told me they have had their religion challenged by Jesus' followers.
Neither the challenged Jews nor I are sufficiently knowledgeable about Judaism's responses to the "Jesus story."
But, the World Wide Web (WWW) to the rescue.
There is a wealth of Jewish experts who have written pamphlets and books, both brief and lengthy. There are, likewise, a plethora of videos.
None of the ones I would recommend attack Jesus' followers' religion. Rather they take what the missionaries - be they actual proselytizera or simply friends and acquaintenances - typically say as proofs and they debunk the proofs using the same document, the Tanak, that the proselytizers carelessly cite.
Note that I carefully do NOT suggest that Jesus started a religion for himself.
Not even his apostles seem to have made that claim in any of their gospels - all of which were scribed well after Jesus' demise.
The Jesus-is-god comes from a fellow formerly known as Saul, later renamed as Paul.
No matter what you think of Jesus, you have to give Paul credit as the world's greatest PR man; he single-handedly created, and spread, the Jesus-as-god belief across the Mediterranean; his greatest successes were with the pagans of southern Europe; less so in the Arab - but not yet Muslim - lands, and least of all Judah and Israel.
When I was much younger I used to ride the bus. There were a couple of drivers with whom I was friendly. Neither were Jewish and our conversations on occasion would turn to "being saved" and - to them, that meant first, last, and always acceptance that Jesus is god.
I usually terminated these chats with "Well, you're waiting for the second coming (of your messiah); I'm waiting for his first coming."
These two gentlemen were certainly not anti-Semites or anti-Israel or anti-anything else; they were simply pro-Jesus and could not understand how anyone could reject their Jesus-as-god belief. They are entitled, and I never tried to disabuse them of their convictions.
The bottom line: In looking for "How to answer missionaries," I came across a number of what I think are valuable resources, including
Video resources
- How to Answer a Christian Missionary
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EvpD3FFa_0Y
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chb8g3S3g38
The Jews for Judaism ( http://www.jewsforjudaism.ca) site has a great many audio, video, and paper/PDF documents that may be freely downloaded. A visit to Jews for Judaism should be on the "Things to do, Places to go" list of all readers of this blog.
- A Six-Minute Counter-Missionary Course http://www.youtube.com./watch?v=49l-g_TtGhI
Books and pamphlets
- Far and away the best starting point is Jews for Judaism (ibid). Some worthwhile titles for the subject at hand include:
The Jewish Response To Missionaries: Counter-Missionary Handbook
Missionary Impossible: Counter-Missionary Survival Guide
Choose Life: A Counter-Missionary Study Guide and
The Real Messiah? A Jewish Response to Missionaries. - Their Hollowed Inheritance, by R. M. Drazin at http://www.drazin.com/
On the WWW
Some Web sites to visit re "What Jews Believe" include:
- What Jews Believe, http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org/
- Ask the Rabbi, http://ohr.edu/ask/ask00j.htm
In order to refute missionary misinformation, and perhaps to enlighten a few as well, it behooves us to know why Jesus is not the messiah, at least not for us.
And how is it that a religion of love threatens everyone who believes differently with an afterlife of eternal damnation? Is that really the way to "win friends and influence people?"
