Many Jews, on the basis of the following, five major objections, have rejected the legitimacy of Yeshua’s claim. These objections have, since the time of the Pharisees, been promoted among the Chosen People of God, keeping them from investigating their own prophets in this matter. I will list these objections first and then endeavor to answer them one by one.

1. The first of these objections is a clever twist of the truth, which, at first glance, to any rational person, seems reasonable and right. I am speaking of the truthful charge that no man could ever become God. As a matter of fact the very first sin of man, when Satan in the Garden of Eden tempted him, was precisely engineered by the Serpent to undermine the most important element of God’s revealed truth in this matter. Satan lied to Adam and Eve, when he told them that, with the eating of the forbidden fruit, they could be as God. There is but One God and no man could ever become God, of this one thing you can be eternally sure! Yeshua would be the first, to not only agree with this statement, but also to emphasize it, with more resolve, intensity and authority than any human would or could. The fact is simply that no human could ever become God, but God, on the other hand, is not bound by anything except His righteousness. Is it therefore, illogical to believe that the Omnipotent God of this Universe could, if He chose to, become man? Is it contrary to the central and primordial theological premise of the Holy Scriptures that there is but One God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to concede that He could choose to take on human form in order to accomplish His will? Is this task too great for Him?

The obvious answer is clear to any Jew that understands the omnipotence of God and the only matter that remains to be determined is whether or not God has declared in His Scriptures that it was His will to do just that. Therefore, the responsibility that is an intrinsic duty to all Jews, and for that matter any Gentile also, is to look into the Hebrew prophets in order to understand what God has said about the coming of the Hebrew Messiah. It is incumbent upon all the descendents of Abraham to know the mind of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and to explore the life and death of the One who claims to be the Jewish Messiah, in order to ascertain the truth of it all.

2. The second point of contention is similar to the first and is centered on the argument voiced by some modern Jews, which cannot accept the claim of Yeshua and His followers that He is the Son of God. They accuse the Christians of fabricating this doctrine and suggest that it smacks of the pagan doctrines of polytheistic religions, in which their gods have sexual intercourse with humans. The claim of the New Testament that Yeshua was immaculately conceived is therefore ridiculed as incredulous and relegated to the realm of popular mythology. This undeniably miraculous claim is of course even less palatable to “modern-modern man” that refuses to acknowledge the supernatural, and therefore rejects the possibility of miracles, as nothing less than superstition.

3. The third objection, to the claims of Yeshua, is based on their denial of the credibility of His physical resurrection. Many of the more liberal, modern Jews do not believe in the afterlife, and like their ancestral Sadducees, deny the existence of the supernatural. These are Jews, who may have a strong sense of belonging due to their ethnic origin and therefore, pay lip service to the Temple observances, but in reality they reject the traditional precepts of the Jewish prophets. This type of Jewish religion serves as nothing more than a social club, which provides them some shelter in a world, which persecutes them for their Jewish roots. They therefore, have developed a sense of community based in their common sorrows and persecutions, but they have rejected the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as described in their Hebrew scriptures, inventing for themselves a more comfortable religion that allows them to live outside the dictates of God.

Sadly, many are motivated to belong to a particular congregation not on the basis of their faith, since they are pragmatic atheists, but instead their decision is predicated upon the availability of economic contacts afforded by that congregation. Please, do not misread read this statement, for I am not anti-Semitic, on the contrary, I speak these words of truth, with a broken heart for the Chosen People of God. It is also a fact that many Christians attend church for these very same reasons and so this is without exception part of the universal nature of all mankind. It is a sad fact that most people that attend religious services do so for social reasons and not because they have a strong faith in God. Even more importantly, many of those who do have faith do not base their faith on the revealed doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, but rather on their own humanly contrived opinions.

The modern Orthodox Jew is not in this bracket, and although they reject Yeshua as the Messiah, they accept the infallibility and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures and therefore they believe in the existence of the angelic beings, the Coming Messiah and the afterlife. These are for the most part very sincere about their faith and it is my belief that when the Messiah returns, they will be the ones that Zechariah prophesied would en mass accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

4. The fourth objection is the accusation that Christians are worshipping three different gods. The concept of the Triune Godhead is in their minds counter to monotheism and therefore they reject it. I cannot do justice to this question in a sentence and therefore opt to more fully answer it later, as I answer more fully the five objections.

5. The fifth and final reason that Jews reject Yeshua is not intellectual but rather emotional and may be perhaps the most powerful and persuasive from a pragmatic standpoint. Most Jews understand full well the enormous cost of receiving Yeshua as their Messiah. This choice would undoubtedly alienate them from their family and the community that they have grown up with. Many Jews, after accepting Yeshua, have been cast out of their families and even some have had mock burials held in their names, signifying that to their family they were dead. The consensus taught to them is that if they accept Yeshua as their Savior, then they no longer will be Jewish. Nothing can be further from the truth. On the contrary, it is then that they are completed as a Jew, because they have believed their prophets and accepted their Messiah.

The question that a Jew must ask if he is to be right with His God and in alignment with the teachings of Abraham, Moses and the Hebrew prophets is whether or not Yeshua’s claim is substantiated by the Holy Scriptures.

To remain in a religion, unquestioningly accepting its authenticity, simply because you were born in that particular family, is intellectually unjustifiable and God will hold us accountable to search and know the truth no matter who our parents are and in what part of the world we are born. The honest seeker needs to probe all possibilities in order to become intellectually honest. If you have the truth, then there is nothing to worry about, for the truth is more than able to compete in the free market of ideas. Therefore, you have nothing to lose and can remain intellectually honest by researching all potential claims to the truth, for truth shall bear itself out.

What do the Hebrew Scriptures say about these 5 objections?

Objection 1: No Human Could Be God

In response to the first objection let us examine the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel’s comments in this regard.

In the thirteenth year of the Babylonian exile, Ezekiel was by the river Chabar, when a storm wind suddenly came from the north. As he looked up, a storm cloud approached him with “fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in the midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire” (Ezekiel 1:4)

The description of the angels seen in this fantastic and surrealistic experience is for modern man difficult to visualize or conceptualize, since we have been pre-conditioned to consider things of this nature as superstitious; this is the unfortunate byproduct of the rationalistic society we live in. But, it should not surprise us to find out that the appearance of angels is not homogenous in nature. God has shown His ample latitude in the creative process by the immense variety we observe in nature. The unique features of animals displaying such unique diversities as the giant anteaters or the huge elephants or the long necked giraffes or mammals that live in the ocean, like the whales and dolphins, or the strange duck billed platypus that is a mammal that lays eggs or the strange and huge dinosaurs; all of these and many more would be more than strange to us, if seen for the first time. It is therefore consistent with the variety displayed by the rest of His creation that God would have created a multifaceted array of appearances in angels; these seem strange to us only because we are not used to seeing angels in our spacetime visible dimensions.

But, the most important aspect of this revelation to the Prophet Ezekiel is the appearance of God sitting upon His throne. Ezekiel describes the scene, as four angelic creatures, working in conjunction, with one another, are carrying the throne of God.

“And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still they dropped their wings.

Now, above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapiz lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up was a figure with the appearance of a man.

Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw something like fire and there was radiance all around Him.

As the appearance of the rainbow is in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. SUCH WAS THE APPEARANCE OF THE LIKENESS OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD.” (Ezekiel 2:25-28) (Emphasis mine)

The book of Ezekiel clearly declares this human form to be the appearance of the “likeness of the Glory of the Lord God” and further declares that He is the author of the message entrusted to him, for the people of , which is then recorded in the book of Ezekiel.

The fact that God chose to appear in human form in no way limits His omnipotence. On the contrary, it is because He is omnipotent that He can appear in such a form and yet not be limited in power.

It is one thing to claim as a man that you are God and quite another for God to communicate to man in human form; the latter, having been foretold by the prophets and evidenced by the numerous miracles attested to by even secular historians.

Yeshua did not come into existence the year He was born as a human; He existed before the worlds were made. He merely stepped into space and time in human form at the appointed time to accomplish His good will.

Now it may be said that the human body He took form in does not display the entirety of God any more than the Holy of Holies in the Temple could contain the entirety of God. But it was for this very purpose that He gave us the example of the Temple of God for us to understand that He could dwell with us on earth while still being omnipresent throughout the entire universe. God dwelt in the body of Yeshua in the same way that He dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of God .

The Shekinah Glory that dwelt in the Holy of Holies was no less God than Jehovah sitting on His throne in the Temple of heaven and in this same fashion the fullness of God dwelt in the bodily form of Yeshua. The very word Shekinah means “which dwells” and so we see that the Glory of God did limit itself in a form that could be approached by us on earth; that same Glory shall in the future, once again dwell on earth, when He returns as the Lion of Judah and it will be said that God will dwell with man in Jerusalem. This the Hebrew prophets have proclaimed clearly:

“I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem . Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord, of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain…

And it will come about that just as you were a curse among the nations, Oh house of and house of , so I will save you that you may become a blessing. Do not fear; let your hand be strong…

Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities.

And the inhabitants of one will go to another saying, “let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I will go also”.

So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.’

Thus says the Lord of hosts, “In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’. ” (Zechariah 8:3b, 13, 20-23)

“From the ends of the earth we hear songs, ‘Glory to the Righteous One,’ But I say, ‘Woe unto me! Woe unto me! Alas for me!

The treacherous deal treacherously, and the treacherous deal very treacherously.’

Terror and pit and snare confront you, O inhabitant of the earth. Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; for the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall never to rise again.

So it will happen in that day that the Lord will punish the host of heaven, on high, and the kings of the earth, on earth. And they will be gathered together like prisoners in a dungeon, and will be confined in prison; and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mt. Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.” (Isaiah 24:16-23) (Emphasis mine)

It is sad that many of the Jews rejected Him; it is also sad that the majority of Gentiles have rejected Him, but it should not surprise us, for it has been foretold from long ago by the prophets that it would be so. Such is the love of God toward humanity that He was willing to bear the reproach of His people and suffer unjustly, that through His suffering He might redeem them. And it was foretold that it would be so!

“Because for thy sake I have born reproach; Dishonor has covered My face. I have become estranged from My brothers, and an alien to my mothers sons.

For zeal for Thy house has consumed Me. And the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me.” (Psalms 69:7-9)

Even His brothers, born of His mother Mary, initially rejected Him…until the resurrection, after which some died as martyrs having fully been convinced that Yeshua was truly the Anointed One. But, the sting of rejection by His fellow Jews was deep, as He bled and suffered unjustly as a ransom for sin. Yet, the very ones He was dying for in order to redeem them from sin, despised Him and esteemed Him not. This too, was prophesied and clearly foretold from long ago!

“He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3)

But, it is not just the Jews that rejected Him; the Gentile nations of the world have also rejected and hated Him. It is the majority of humanity that always rejects the Truth and so it is a sad fact that narrow is the path to life and few there be that find it and broad is the path to destruction:

“Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One.

To the despised One, to the One abhorred by the nations, to the servant of rulers, ‘Kings shall see and arise, Princes shall also bow down, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.” (Isaiah 49:7) (Emphasis mine)

This passage in Isaiah clearly points out that the Messiah’s First Coming was to be as a servant and that He would be despised and abhorred. Yet, the story does not end there for in the end He shall be exalted and Kings and Princes shall bow down before Him, ‘the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel’. And so shall it be, when He returns for the second time to reclaim His Israel and establishes His Millennial Kingdom from Jerusalem. will be astonished, for the beating He received enduring the cross and the preceding torture, has disfigured His face and marred His appearance. They will look upon Him and then finally understand that His First Coming was not as the political liberator, but as the suffering servant and because of His faithfulness to accomplish this, He will prosper.

“Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more then the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him. For what has not been told them they will see. And what they had not heard they will understand.” (Isaiah 52:13-15) (Emphasis mine)

I ask you my Jewish brother, which of you has not felt the painful sting of disdain and prejudice? Has there ever been a time in human history that the Jew was not hated and rejected by the surrounding Gentile nations? The Lord points out to Israel that His Servant will be looked upon with the same disdain that the Jews have received from the surrounding nations, yet because of His faithfulness He will be exalted and the Kings of the world will bow down under His Millennial Reign. Then, when they see Him descending from heaven and witness with their own eyes, as Thomas; the nail scars, the spear wound in His side, the numerous punctures in His head by the crown of thorns that was beat unto His head. When they gaze upon His countenance filled with love and forgiveness and see the disfigurement of His face caused by the brutal beating He received, while the guards covered it with His robe and taunted Him to guess who hit Him. Then, then, they will understand that this marred face is the face of Yeshua, who bled and died upon the cross for them. He was the Lamb of God that was sacrificed, literally, on the Passover to redeem them from their sins.

Hear then, house of , what the Lord God has said to you and hide not your face from the words of your prophet Isaiah for his message will liberate you from darkness and bring you into the light of your forefathers faith.

“Hear this O house of Jacob, who are named Israel and who came forth from the loins of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness. For they call themselves after the Holy City and lean on the God of Israel; The Lord of Hosts is His name. I declare the former things long ago and they went forth from my mouth and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze, Therefore I declared them to you long ago, before they took place I proclaimed them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image has commanded them.’…

Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; and you have been called a rebel from birth. For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, and for My praise I retrain it for you, in order not to cut you off. Behold I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.

Listen O Jacob, even whom I called; I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last… Come near to Me and listen to this:

From the first I have not spoken in secret, from the time it took place I was there. And now the Lord God has sent Me and His Spirit.

Thus, says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel…” (Isaiah 48: 1-5,8-12,16-17a) (Emphasis mine)

The context of this passage clearly establishes that it is the Lord of Hosts, who is speaking. He declares Himself to be the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, then He says, listen to Me Israel, ‘the Lord God has sent Me and His Spirit’. The next verse (vs.17) declares the identity of the person speaking as ‘The Lord your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel’. Therefore, it is The Lord God who sent The Lord your Redeemer, who is the same as the Holy One of Israel (The Holy One of Israel is the same as the Messiah, therefore the Messiah is also Lord). There are not two Gods, there are not three Gods, there is but One God revealed in three forms: the Holy Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I ASK OF YOU ONLY ONE THING, THAT WITH ALL SINCERETY, YOU WOULD SIMPLY ASK GOD TO REVEAL TO YOU, IF THERE IS ANY TRUTH IN THIS MESSAGE.

HEAR THIS O HOUSE OF JACOB, WHO IS NAMED BEFORE IT TOOK PLACE, THE LORD REVEALED IT TO YOU THROUGH YOUR PROPHETS. THE HEBREW PROPHETS VERIFY HIS AUTHENTICITY. WILL YOU LISTEN TO THEIR MESSAGE? THE LORD GOD HAS SENT THE LORD YOUR REDEEMER, THE HOLY ONE OF AND HIS SPIRIT TO YOU. DO NOT DESPISE HIM, DO NOT ABHOR HIM, DO NOT REJECT HIM, HE IS YOUR REDEEMER, THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.

OPEN YOUR EARS, FOR HIS HEART IS BROKEN FOR YOU. HE LONGS TO GATHER YOU UNDER HIS WING. HIS ANGER AT YOUR REBELLION HAS ABATED AND HE AWAITS, WITH OPEN ARMS FOR HIS WAYWARD CHILD TO RETURN TO HIS BOSOM. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES AND TEST THE SPIRIT, TRUTH IS KNOCKING ON THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART. OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE WORDS OF YOUR HEBREW PROPHETS AND LET HIS SPIRIT GUIDE YOU INTO TRUTH.

So we see that the Hebrew Scripture supports both the fact that God has revealed Himself as a man and that He has also revealed Himself as a Spirit.

To deny God the ability of housing a human body, for a pre-determined purpose, chosen by Him, is to deny Him two of God’s most important attributes; His Omnipotence and His Sovereignty.

Simply because we may not be able to exhaustively comprehend the possible emotive reasons for His actions, does not by itself, negate His existence or authority to act as He wishes, nor disprove the appropriateness of His actions. He declares Himself in the Divine Scriptures as a Triune Godhead not a triad of Gods as perceived by the Muslims and the pagans. The New Testament also teaches that God is one. There is only one God with unity of essence in a trinity of personalities as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Admittedly all illustrations that depict a Triune God in some way fall short of grasping the totality of the concept. Yet, within their finite limitations, they still serve to accentuate certain aspects of the triune concept. For example, it is possible for me to observe water, as vapor, liquid or ice. All three are, in their basic essence, still water, yet all three are manifested in varying forms. The water molecule itself can be numerically one, yet composed of three separate atoms (H20). The essence of each of the atoms remains unchanged in the singular water molecule, yet when joined together they exhibit different properties. Thus, the fact that the three atoms are different yet the same as one molecule of water is a chemical fact that we all observe in the most rudimentary building blocks of reality. There can be no water without all three atoms, yet within that water molecule, there are three separate atoms that could be chemically separated into independent atoms.

A prism may divide a single ray of light, into the rainbow spectrum of colors all of them light but yet all differ in color. The interaction of the spectrum of colors in one unifying beam is what we perceive as light. Again in the most rudimentary elements of reality God has left His fingerprint, for us to understand Him. As a matter of fact, the spectrum of these energy waves go far beyond what is visible, to include other energy waves, such as radio and Gamma rays. Thus, our very essence of this universe, both in matter and in energy, displays this marvelous unity in diversity that is the fingerprint of our Creator. As a matter of fact, humanity is itself evidence of this triune paradigm of nature; we are body soul and spirit, but we are not three people in one.

All things considered, we must admit that the human finite mind is powerless to completely know every aspect or innuendo of the comprehensive concept of the triune Godhead exhaustively. Yet, this is not any different than our inability to comprehend fully, how God transcends time and for that matter, even the very existence we call our infinite universe, which we inhabit. The truth is that if we could comprehend the limits of the boundaries of God, then as stated previously, we would either have become the infinite or God would have become finite.

Non-comprehension is not equivalent to non-existence. The mere fact that we cannot grasp the totality of God is evidence that He is not a creation of man’s mind.

To recapitulate, the triune Godhead is not composed of three Gods, but One God revealed in three persons, which brings us to the next objection.

Objection 2: The Concept of the Son of God is Pagan in Origin

As to the second objection, it does not necessarily follow that this concept was taken from the Gentile nations any more than the Law of Moses was taken from the code of Hammurabi, which preceded it. It can be plainly said that the former were just imperfect renderings of what was common knowledge to all of mankind. Noah taught the truth of God to his children and as the developing cultures were formed the truth was found in each of them only to be later corrupted in time. The very fact that the polytheistic religions of the world all vaguely resemble the same story of the Son of God being the hero that saves mankind is evidence of its genuineness. Although, obviously corrupted and slanted by Satan, its commonality is evidence that the original uncorrupted story existed from the very beginning within the ancient cultures developing after the Great Flood. It should not come to us as a great surprise to see that Satan has corrupted these stories. But, the universal nature of the story verifies that it was once held among the survivors of the Great Flood and passed down to all the developing civilizations as they spread across the planet.

But what do the Hebrew prophets say about an Immaculate Conception?

“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7: 14)

The Hebrew word translated as virgin (Almah) could also be translated as a young maiden, and on this, possible alternative translation, the Jews that reject Yeshua hang their faith. But, they miss the point completely that Isaiah is trying to make, namely that this birth will be a sign. How then, is the birth of a child by a young maiden the sign of anything, when it happens every second of every minute of every day of every week of every month of every year since that point? There is no way to go around it, for the sign is the very fact that the virgin shall be with child.

Of course, this is impossible in human terms and would seem to be a miracle if it occurred, but that is precisely the reason why it is a sign! And if God is omnipotent, is this too hard for Him? The question at hand then is, whether or not God is really God and able to create events that to us seem like miracles.

We have witnessed in our generation the birth of sheep through the technological wonder we call cloning, totally aside from sexual intercourse. The attempt at the cloning of human beings has already become a reality in our world and there are scientists today that are actively working to bring the first human being cloned to full term. Scientists in are now attempting to clone human beings for infertile couples and in the not too distant future, no doubt this will be a reality. Dr. Severino Antinori in collaboration with Dr. Panos Zavos are, at this very moment, attempting to clone a human being in . I downloaded from the Discovery Channel Website the following article dated August 8, 2001. —

“Scientists determined to create the world’s first cloned babies have defended their plans against charges from animal cloning experts that the technology was too dangerous to apply to humans. Vowing to take steps to avoid babies being born with severe abnormalities, Italian doctor Severino Antinori told a contentious meeting of a National Academy of Sciences panel Tuesday that he would proceed with plans to provide cloned children for infertile couples… Antinori and Panos Zavos, a Kentucky fertility specialist working with him, faced tough questioning from scientists who have cloned animals and found extremely high rates of defects and failures.

genetically Zavos said he and Antinori planned to begin the process of creating cloned babies for infertile couples by November. Antinori gained worldwide notice by helping a 62-year-old woman have a child in 1994.

Zavos said he could screen embryos for genetic abnormalities before implanting them, although he acknowledged problems could develop later. His team would inform couples of potential risks and make them sign consent forms, he said.

“We’re not perfect but we’re trying to get there,” he insisted. “This technique can be made safe for people.”

Cloning involves taking a living organism and making a virtually identical duplicate. To clone a human, scientists would insert DNA from a person into an egg with its genetic material removed. The egg would be stimulated to divide into an embryo for research or implanting in a woman’s uterus.

Other scientists at the meeting, heavily attended by and international media, said it was impossible to detect the types of problems seen in animal clones by examining embryos.

“This is not good science,” said Rudolf Jaenisch, a biologist and animal cloning pioneer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Whitehead Institute.

Jaenisch noted that only 1 percent to 5 percent of cloned animals survive to birth and some of those later die prematurely due to various birth defects. Others are abnormally overweight.

Problems occurred at similar rates among cloned sheep, cows, mice, pigs and goats, Jaenisch said.

Other researchers said many animal clones were healthy and predicted that cloning would become more efficient. They said it would still be unethical to try experiments on humans.

Brigitte Boisselier, a biochemist and member of a group known as the Raelians, who also has announced plans to create cloned babies, said people had the right to use their genes the way they wanted. She said that included the right to reproduce one’s self by cloning.

The Raelians, who believe in extraterrestrials, promote cloning as a chance for “eternal life.”

Some panel members asked whether there was anything that could stop the groups from going ahead with human cloning. The teams have not disclosed where they will do their experiments other than to say it will be somewhere the practice is legal.

“Is there any risk too great or any reason too trivial for you not to attempt human cloning?” asked Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin bioethicist.

The National Academy panel is examining the science behind current cloning research as well as the ethics. Some critics say it is wrong to produce a person that is not genetically unique, even though the clone would be younger and would grow up in a different time period.

The House-passed ban on human cloning would set punishment of $1 million or more in fines and up to 10 years in prison. It now goes before the Senate.” (Discovery Channel Web Site on August 8, 2001) (Emphasis mine)

Although our country is rapidly moving away from its Judeo-Christian foundation, I am very grateful that, at least, the morality resulting from the memory of this foundation has, thus far, kept America from legalizing completely this abominable endeavor. But, our memory of our foundational beliefs is fading and every day that passes brings us ever closer to the Brave New World of Huxley. And the empirical evidence of this fact is that there are numerous agencies that are cloning human beings in today, only without the intent of bringing them to full term; these are now performed, simply for the purpose of harvesting stem cells for medical research. Although these human clones were not created for the purpose of developing them into an adult human being, since they were engineered only to be used for the purpose of harvesting stem cells from them for medical purposes; nevertheless, they were fully human from the moment of conception, until destroyed. It is sad that we have come to this. But, morality set aside, nevertheless the science of genetics has brought us closer to understanding the very possibility of the miracle of the Immaculate Conception. If man can through technology achieve the conception of a human being without sexual intercourse, why is it so hard to believe that the omnipotent Creator could also achieve this to authenticate this specific event in His prophetic scheme for humanity?

Is it so hard to believe that the God Creator of the universe could so manipulate the genetic components of the ovum in a virgin’s uterus, without sex, as to create a perfect genetic structure and then indwell that body with the Holy Spirit? Did He not accomplish an even more stupendous and incredible miracle, when from the dust of the earth, He fashioned Adam and then breathed life into him? Or is this any more stupendous than taking the rib of Adam and fashioning Eve out of it? It seems that God took the genetic composition of Adam and created a woman out of it, way before we even knew what DNA meant!

The supernatural nature of this immaculate birth is precisely the reason that it is a sign and it presupposes that God is omnipotent and therefore able to accomplish it. To believe in an emasculated God that is incapable of performing supernatural events is to disbelieve the God of the Hebrew Scriptures. Now, I must interject here that God uses the laws of nature to create these miracles, which seem supernatural to us only because we do not yet understand the principles that He uses. He created these laws of nature and it seems that He does not contradict these laws in the performance of these miracles. They seem to be a miracle to us only because He taps into laws, which we have yet to fully understand and or discover.

But, the most important evidence of the truth of this event comes from the very origin of the Hebrew people. God saw fit to close the womb of Sarah so that she could not bear a child for Abraham in her natural state in order to prepare us for the miracle He would do in the future with the Messiah. It was not until twenty-five years after He had made His promise to Abraham that through his seed a nation would be gendered that Sarah actually bore Isaac. She had already gone through menopause and was for all practical purposes barren. She could no longer conceive because she had reached the age when her ovaries ceased to work. To add more emphasis on the miraculous nature of this event, even when her ovaries were functional Sarah had been barren. But God did a miracle in the conception of Isaac, and no less a miracle than what He did with Mary, for no doubt, He miraculously created an egg in her womb, where nature had failed to do so. With Mary He miraculously fertilized her ovum, where no sperm existed, in order to don our human form. Both were equally miraculous, but with the only exception that in the first case, man (Abraham) was the father and in the second, God (Yahweh) was the Father. It can therefore be said that the Messiah was born from God both through His mother Sarah, as her ovum was a God given gift and through His Father in Mary, as her fertilization was also God’s gift through His Spirit. Of all the people in the world, Jews should therefore understand this as God’s sign, for it completes what He began with Isaac. It is for this reason that Isaac was taken by Abraham to the altar to be sacrificed to God, but the angel of the Lord stopped the hand of Abraham for he was but a precursor, a type, a symbol, of the One that would come after him in order to be the Lamb that would be slain for our sins. The words of the angel to Abraham clearly foretold, for all humanity to wonder at; “the Lord would provide himself the sacrifice,” This brings us to the third objection.

Objection 3: The Denial of the Resurrection of the Messiah

Miracles, such as the resurrection from the dead, the healing of the diseased and invalids and the casting out of devils have been ridiculed throughout the ages, but especially so, in our post-modern culture. The popularization of the theory of evolution has generated a false confidence in the naturalistic presupposition, as a suitable explanation for the reason for existence. The obvious side effect is that our culture has been inculcated, from early years through the popular media and the public schools, to disregard the supernatural as mere anachronistic superstition. But, this materialistic and mechanistic concept of reality has an underlying atheistic presupposition, and the basic question at hand is, whether or not, God really exists.

If there is no God and we are truly in a naturalistic system, then of course miracles are impossible. If on the other hand, God really does exist, then miracles are possible and the resurrection from the dead is no more impossible, than any other miracle that God can perform. Naturally, we are skeptical at any supernatural claims. After all, can a man come back from the dead under his own power? Not even the great Houdini was able to loose himself from the shackles of death. That is precisely the reason that God uses these events to show mankind that He, and only He, can authorize such power!

Certainly, the Hebrew scripture supports the premise that God can and has used the resurrection of the dead as proof of His existence and unfathomable mercy. So, to the modern Jew the question at hand is, whether or not there exists an omnipotent God, which has created the universe and inspired the writing of the Hebrew prophets, which narrate the truth of God’s Way?

My first book deals with this matter more extensively, and if there is any doubt in this area I suggest referring to “Machine or Man?” first. Once this question has been answered, the second question that should be asked then should be, “what do the Hebrew prophets say in this regard?” Let us explore this question from the narrative of one the greatest Hebrew prophets, Elijah recorded in the Scriptures:

“Now it came about after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him.

So she said to Elijah, ‘What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!’

And he said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.

And he called to the Lord and said, ‘O lord my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?’

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord, and said, ‘O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child’s life return to him.’

And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and HE REVIVED.

And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, ‘ See your son is alive.’

Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.’” (III Kings 17:17-24) (I Kings in Christian Bible) (Emphasis mine)

The miracle of the resurrection of this child was proof that the source of Elijah’s power was indeed divine, for no mere mortal could bring this to pass. This is precisely the reason that God, on special occasions, uses these supernatural events, so that the public may know, “that the word of the Lord…is truth”. In IV Kings 4: 18 –37, (II Kings in Christian Bible) there is yet another account of a resurrection, this time the successor to Elijah, his servant Elisha, brought the son of a Shunammite woman back to life. There is therefore in the narrative of the Hebrew prophets ample evidence in the belief of the resurrection of the dead.

There is also ample evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures that the Messiah was expected to resurrect from the dead. Speaking of His First Coming, when He would come as the Lamb to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world, the prophet Isaiah wrote:

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities…and by His scourging we are healed…that He was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death. Because He had done no violence nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” Isaiah 53:5,8b,9,10a) (Emphasis mine)

Isaiah plainly states, in the first part of this prophecy that He will be cut off; this is a Hebrew term commonly used in that era, meaning that He would be killed before His time. Yet afterwards, in the latter part of the same prophecy, Isaiah says that He will see His offspring, meaning that He will be alive to see His offspring. How could He see his offspring if He was killed before His time as a guilt offering? Unless the Messiah resurrects and reigns living in an already glorified body, and how could His Kingdom be an everlasting kingdom if He is dead?

Now, there are those, who claim to be Jews that do not believe the Hebrew prophets. To these I say, that they may be Jews in their physical aspect, but they are not Jews in the spiritual or religious sense, if they do not hold to the same premise that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David held. Namely, that God has spoken to us through the prophets, and that these inspired authors are to be held, as the litmus test for any tradition or man made rule in order to discover, whether or not, they are in line with God or against His teaching.

The problem invariably comes, when man begins to raise the level of authority of his manmade rules to the same level as God’s immutable and everlasting Word. This is the problem that the Pharisees had, and it is also the same problem that exists in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church holds that their tradition is of equal status to the Word of God. They have carried over the same fallacy of the Pharisees into the Christian Church. Sadly, the result has been the same; an overburdened set of meaningless rituals that turn the simple liberating truth into an oppressive set of manmade legalistic rules, which swallows up the original intent and purpose of God’s Word.

It is rather simple, either one believes in the Hebrew prophets and the Torah, which confirm that God is more than able to bring one back from the dead, or one accepts his own precepts as superior to the prophets. Of course, to do so, then one forfeits the right to call himself a Jew, spiritually.

The Hebrew prophets clearly teach in the reality of the resurrection. The prophet Isaiah speaking of the day that the Messiah will deliver the Jews, who will be in hiding during the persecution of the time of indignation or Jacob’s Trouble, clearly states that the dead will resurrect in that day. The Messiah will come to punish the nations of the world and deliver these Jews in hiding, accompanied with the throngs of the resurrected believers that had previously died.

“Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Come my people enter into your rooms, and close your doors behind you; hide for a little while, until indignation runs it course.

For behold the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed, and will no longer cover her slain.

In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing Serpent, with his fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea…” (Isaiah 26:19-21, Isaiah 27:1)

Clearly, this is the day that Satan is defeated by Michael the Archangel and cast into Sheol. It is the day that the dead will resurrect and awake and shout for joy. The earth will give birth to the departed spirits and will no longer cover her slain. The Messiah will bring with Him to that great Battle in the Valley of Megiddo, the valley of Jehoshaphat, all the resurrected saints from Adam through Noah and Abraham, clear past Moses and David until that very day. Then, He will slay the armies of Leviathan and with that blood sacrifice, the Lion of Judah will atone for the people of and for the Temple that has been defiled and for the many inequities perpetrated on the stained soil of our earth. But, God shall cleanse the earth in order to establish His Righteous Kingdom upon our soil. The prophet continues in verse 8 and 9:

“Thou didst contend with them, by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven; and this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin.” (Isaiah 27:8-9) (Emphasis mine)

This is the Day of the East Wind. This is the day of Yom Kippur, when the pardoning of the sins of , as a nation will be completed; the Day of Atonement. The pardoning of sin for individuals was fulfilled in the Passover, when Yeshua was offered as the sacrifice for sins, as the unblemished lamb slain in our stead. But the atonement for the Temple and for as a nation and for the planet earth will be the blood sacrifice of the armies of the rebellious nations of the earth on Armageddon. Those who have shed the blood of and of the innocents shall then shed their blood in the Great Sacrifice of God to come. Those who believe shall be rescued from the Dragon’s jaw and shall be gathered in Jerusalem. Those who had believed and had died previously and are found written in the Book of Life; these shall resurrect and awake unto everlasting life. Both shall be gathered in Jerusalem to await the grandest spectacle in human history; the day the Lion of Judah roars.

The great prophet Daniel also spoke of this time:

“Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (Daniel 12:1-3) (Emphasis mine)

I urge you my brothers to seek this insight from above for your eternities are at stake! The resurrection of these believers can take place because the Messiah first resurrected after the Passover, when after the third day He conquered death, having cleansed us of our sin debt through the shedding of His blood. The Passover is a time associated with gifts; some Hebrew scholars associate the gift with the time that God gave Moses the gift of the Law upon Mt. Sinai . But, the Law was not given during this specific time of the year; it was chronologically given after the Passover Festival was finished. It was not until fifty days later during the Festival of Shavout, or the Firstfruits that God gave Moses the Law. The gift referred to by the Passover is not the Law, but the gift of life. When the angel of death passed over the firstborn of those who believed and had marked their doorpost with the blood of the sacrificed lamb, he in essence gave them the gift of life through redemption. This gift redeemed them from slavery to the Pharaoh and freed them to go to the Promised Land (a symbol of Heaven). The association then, is not with the Law, but with our redemption from sin. The Passover Festival is celebrated in memory of God’s mercy to , in that He redeemed her from slavery in in order to grant her entrance into the Promised Land.

The Passover is the beginning of the Feast of Weeks or the Firstfruits of Harvest (Shavout) and so one must first have life before enjoying the firstfruits of life. The Messiah’s resurrection then was the firstfruits of the first resurrection that will take place before the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom of the Messiah. Thus, the resurrection of the believers, at that time, will in fact be the firstfruits of the Kingdom. And in the same way the Messiah was God’s gift toward man for without Him we would have no sacrifice to redeem us from our sin and eternal salvation could not be obtained.

But, this is not a Christian doctrine; the Hebrew patriarchs and prophets have spoken of this:

King David prophesied that the Messiah would not undergo decay after His death. In other words, He would resurrect.

“Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For Thou wilt not abandon My soul to Sheol; Neither wilt Thy allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.” (Psalms 16:9-10) (Emphasis mine)

Sheol is sometimes translated as the grave, but what is inferred, is what we call the underworld. In the Greek, it is termed Hades and is also sometimes referred to as the Bottomless Pit. Every nation in the world contains the knowledge of this, albeit imperfectly, within their individual mythologies. The Celts called it Utgard, the Egyptians called it the Duat, the Greeks, Babylonians, Mayan, Inca, Chinese, Hindu all had an underworld in their religious beliefs, as an imperfect memory of the One True Religion taught by Noah to his descendents, after the Great Flood. Whether one translates it as grave or underworld, the only time that a soul goes down to Sheol, is when one dies. David, then clearly states that The Holy One of Israel will die, yet He will not stay dead, He will not stay in Sheol. He will come back from Sheol and He will come back in a short enough time that His body will not decay. My friend, this is called resurrection!

Why did David simply not say, ‘the Holy One would never die’? Instead he said, “Thou wilt not abandon MY soul to Sheol”, but he did not say that it would be his flesh that would not undergo decay. David was obviously not speaking of his own flesh, for David did die, and his flesh did decay. The last part of that verse said, “Thy Holy One” would not decay. The Holy One is the Messiah. Therefore, David could trust in the fact that like the Messiah his soul would not remain in Sheol. But, he could not claim, like the Messiah, that his flesh would not decay. David knew that the Messiah would be killed and would shortly after resurrect. Why did David say that His soul would not remain in Sheol? Because, God used his prophetic message to warn us that the Holy One of Israel would actually die and be in Sheol, but only for a brief moment in time. God would not abandon His soul there, but would resurrect Him before the body of the Holy One of Israel would begin to decay.

And this He did, for on the third day He resurrected, and though Roman soldiers were ordered to stand guard to prevent the disciples from stealing the body, the grave was found empty, except for His shroud and grave clothes, which remained undisturbed. The ground shook, the stone that sealed the cave where the body was laid rolled away and the grave was found empty. The guards, realizing that in truth He was no ordinary man, ran away in fear.

Many, still insist in disbelief that the disciples stole His body in order to pass upon the people of this abominable hoax. This assertion at first hand would seem plausible to the materialistic naturalists that absolutely refuse to believe in the existence of any miraculous events, but in closer inspection one realizes that the impact created on these disciples was such that they each gave their lives as martyrs for the faith. Hence, I ask you to consider if in fact this were a fabricated hoax, would they die a martyr’s death for what they knew was a hoax? What possible gain would they have from this, other than setting themselves up for more persecution and torture? And for that young Rabbi of the Pharisees that in his zeal sought Christians to kill and to remove from the face of the Earth, I am speaking of Saul, what possible motive would he have to claim that over 500 people saw the Messiah during the 40 days that He walked on earth after His resurrection? And if he knew this to be a hoax, why would he be willing to be beheaded in Rome for a dead man that never offered him material gain or political power? And why would Roman guards abandon a post at the penalty of death in an issue of such import to their rulers, knowing full well the explosive nature of this controversy, which was sure to be a tinderbox, politically. Can we be so naïve, as to accept that a group of eleven disciples, who cowered and ran on that fateful night, when they took Yeshua prisoner, would have in three days time become so bold as to steal the body, which was sealed in a tomb with a large stone covering the mouth of the cave and under armed Roman guard?

And if in fact, the Roman guards had allowed the disciples to steal the body, then they would have been executed according to Roman law. And if they had been executed, there would have been a record of such an event and more importantly those who wished to quell such a claim, so injurious to their religio-political system, would have used the news of such a thing to discredit the claims of the early Apostles. Even 200 years after the fact, while Tertullian was writing, he witnessed the Roman records and wrote about the exact opposite of this spurious claim. Namely, that it was in fact written in the Roman record 200 years later that Yeshua did resurrect and that it was at that time available for anyone who wished to inspect. This then is the choice that one must make; either after looking at the facts one believes that Yeshua was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity, or one acknowledges the miraculous transformation in the cowardly disciples that upon His resurrection became lions of courage and faith and concede therefore, that they must have been telling the truth. Which road will you take my friend? It has been my experience that though it is the one less trodden, it is God’s Way! Seek the path of David, the path of the son of David, the path that leads through the Valley of Death , but ends in the house of the Lord forever.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23)

David’s beautiful Psalm, here plainly states that though we walk through that shadowy valley of death on the other side we will dwell in the House of the Lord forever, because it is God who restores, or resurrects our soul. Amen.

This brings us to the fourth objection.

Objection 4: We Believe in One God, Not Three. The denial of the Triune Godhead.

Some Hebrew scholars have accused Christians of worshipping three different Gods. In truth there were those in times past who have erroneously promoted the ‘Tritheists’ doctrine, but it must be duly noted that this doctrine is indeed a heresy of the first order. There is but One God in the entire universe and there is no other God beside Him. His name might have varied in different nations as a result of the confounding of languages at the Tower of Babel , but His attributes and character are immutable and in each case without exception the original deity worshipped in the fledgling nations after the Great Flood described the singular omnipotent Creator, which is described within the Hebrew Scriptures. He is the God creator of the universe and Savior of mankind. He is the All Knowing, All Powerful, Lord of Righteousness who has told us the end at the beginning that we might know who He is.

“Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I the Lord? And there is no other God beside Me, a righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved all the ends of the earth; For I am God and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:21-22) (Emphasis mine)

Let us now compare this statement to another passage from the Hebrew scripture. When God was in the process of creating the universe, He did so by His spoken word. He did not need the help of angels or anyone else and He jealously guards the very act of creation as His and only His.

“Thus, says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, ‘I, the Lord, Am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone. Causing the omens of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners, causing wise men to draw back, and turning their knowledge into foolishness. Confirming the word of His servant, and performing the purpose of His messengers.” (Isaiah 44:24-26a) (Emphasis mine)

There is here in this verse a clear example of what the Lord repeats numerous times, for He alone created mankind. Keeping this in mind, let us now compare this to another Hebrew Scripture, in the Book of Genesis when God was creating man.

“Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)

Now the scripture tells us that we are made in the image of God, not angels. As a matter of fact the images of angels, more often then not, reflect varied forms of animals and not man. Who then is ‘us’ and ‘our’?

In Genesis 1:1 the Hebrew scripture records the initial creation:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) (Emphasis mine)

The Hebrew word for God in the singular tense is El. However in this specific verse in Genesis the Hebrew word translated as God is Elohim, which is the plural form of El. But curiously the Hebrew plural used here is not signifying two but a cluster, such as one would speak of a singular cluster of grapes. The individual that is being referred to here by Moses is the Godhead, which is of course Jehovah. But, how could, Jehovah be plural and specifically a singular cluster in His identity?

Moses then further elaborates on the creation process as he describes the Spirit of God hovering over the waters:

“And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.” (Genesis 1:2) (Emphasis mine)

‘But’, you might say, ‘The Spirit of God is the same as God’. Exactly!

And so is Yeshua! God chose to manifest Himself in human form to redeem us from our sins. The form of the Person of God He chooses to manifest Himself does not change in any way His substance. The mystery of the incarnation is deeper than the floor of Sheol, and higher than heaven’s ceiling, and though we cannot understand all things, He has made it evident that this was His will to bring us back unto Himself. This He has engraved upon the heavens in the story of the Zodiac before the first man was made and this He has foretold through the prophets before it came to pass, that we might not say, ‘we did not know’. This one thing I know, 2000 years ago eternity stepped into space and time and on the cross, He gave His life that I might live eternally with Him.

He is at once the Son of Man and the Son of God, fully human and fully God. Tertullian two centuries after His incarnation, in his Apology, probably describes the Triune Godhead more accurately than any other example given before:

“He is generated so that He is the Son of God. For God, too is a Spirit. Even when the ray is shot forth from the sun, it is still part of the parent image, the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun- there is no division in substance, but merely an extension. Thus, Christ is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, as light of light is kindled. The material matrix remains entire and unimpaired, though you derive from it any number of shoots possessed by it’s qualities: so too that which has come forth out of God and the two are One.” (The Apology by Tertullian)

In His Omnipotence He was able to manifest Himself as the Holy One of Israel that was prophesied from of old. He it is, which will rule the nations with an iron scepter, and all nations and all people will bow the knee to worship Him. God does not condone the worship of anyone else but Him. We are not to worship angels or humans, or other invented gods. And if the prophesied Messiah were not God then God would duly instruct us not to worship this Messiah for then he would be only a servant and not His Son. But, what do the Hebrew prophets say?

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over His Kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6) (Emphasis mine)

Quite clearly and dramatically, the child that will be born is ‘Mighty God, Eternal Father.’ The fact that these titles are not just grandiose embellishments is proven by the text, when God states unconditionally that He will rule on the throne of David forevermore. If He were not immortal, then how could this one born as a child live forevermore? Obviously, the child is literally the Mighty God and the Eternal Father to whom, every knee shall bow and every nation shall pay honor and tribute in the coming Kingdom.

The second point I want to bring to your attention is that the power to accomplish this, which is to bring this child into the world and place the government on His shoulder, is from the zeal of the Lord of Hosts!

You might say, ‘I cannot conceive that the eternal, omnipotent God could actually exist in a human body.’ Well I ask you, can you conceive how God will make our bodies last for all eternity? Then let’s allow God the latitude to do as He pleases, and let us not try to “pigeon hole” Him in the minute cubicles that our puny, finite minds can conceive, for He is not bound by our limited abilities to perceive or understand Him.

Some Hebrew theologians discredit the concept of God becoming man as if it were, somehow the expression of an inferior psychological need of man; they adopt the position that their God is above this and arrogantly proclaim that their God does not have to stoop down to that level and become a man to accomplish His will. What they fail to see is that in order to do this they place themselves in a position of judging what is proper for God to do, as if they were superior to the God of the Scriptures.

While we quite agree that God is not bound by anything except His will, we also do not bind Him to fit into our concept of what His will is. We simply accept the writing of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, as His will, and do not try to interject our notions of what God ought to be. To begin with, it is not our position to tell God what should be proper for Him; this is the epitome of arrogance, for what can a puny, finite mind know of the unsearchable wisdom of the infinite Almighty God.

Secondly, we must first see what God says about this matter in the inspired Word of God and then accept this as His will, instead of glossing over it to fit our concept of what it ought to be!

Thirdly, I would simply like to know what is so illogical or inferior about God choosing to humble Himself as an example to us of the epitome of love. Isn’t sacrifice the mark of true spirituality and the evidence of love? It is love and sacrifice that marks the truly spiritual man and not arrogance and pride. If God wanted to communicate this true meaning of spirituality to man it would seem to me logical that becoming man and sacrificing Himself as an example to us would be quite consistent with this goal and not in any way contradictory to the Person of God. This would provide for all of humanity a tangible example that could not be easily ignored, so that we are without excuse.

The verse I quoted earlier from Isaiah 45, which was stipulating an unconditional monotheism, that is, stating that there is no other God beside Him, continues to further state:

“And there is no other God beside Me, a righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.

Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God and there is none other. I have sworn by Myself The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back. That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.

They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’

Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame. In the Lord all the offspring of will be justified, and will glory.” (Isaiah 45:21-25) (Emphasis mine)

He says ‘Turn to Me, and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.’ Now, there is an intolerant statement. I suppose that God has not been schooled in the finer arts of ecumenism and “political correctness”. He seems to be rather orthodox and intolerant by modern standards, you might say He is “old school”. Maybe, our ecumenical, Unitarians, and One World Religion proponents should send a delegation to Him in order to teach Him a more politically correct nomenclature… All kidding aside, one day they will face Him and then there will be Hell to pay! Literally!

Returning to our text, He then says that, ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue will swear allegiance.’ This ‘swearing of allegiance’ He is speaking of is not in heaven, for then allegiance will not be questioned, it will at that point be natural. This is speaking of the government that will have no end, the Kingdom of the Messiah. The child that will be born and that will be Mighty God and that will reign from Jerusalem over the entire world, the Prince of Peace. Thus, every nation and every tongue shall swear allegiance to the Prince of Peace. Clearly here, the same God that says there is none other is the One receiving allegiance from the nations of the world. Yeshua is not a second God; He is a “light ray from the Sun, of the same substance and nature as the Father.” Neither is the Shekinah Glory another God from the One that sits upon the throne of heaven surrounded by the Seraphim.

The Jewish Rabbi Saul wrote of Him in the letter to the Colossian Church:

“And He is the image of the invisible God, the pre-eminent of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17) (Emphasis mine)

There is no way to soften the New Testament stand on the deity of Christ, either He is whom He claims, or He is evil to the core. He cannot be patronized as some good Rabbi with idealistic dreams, for if He is not God then He will have caused thousands to die for Him unnecessarily. He claimed to be the One that the Hebrew prophets foretold, and you must analyze the Hebrew Scriptures to see for yourself. As for me, there is not a shred of doubt that My Redeemer liveth and I shall see Him with mine own eyes, when in the last days He stands again upon this earth. The time is drawing nigh, the sun is setting, and it is almost night; the long and dreaded night of the ascension of darkness upon the earth. We live in the twilight of our era, for the time of the Second Earth is almost up. Surely the Antichrist is alive somewhere in the world today, biding his time, until the predetermined moment, when Satan will once again gain control of the world. But, when night is darkest the dawn arises, and My Redeemer will stand upon Mt. Zion with 144,000 Jews that have served Him faithfully, that have not bowed a knee to the Evil One, during the darkest of the night. To these Jews He will grant the privilege of singing with Him the New Song. No one else can sing that song, only the 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each tribe. The celestial music of the heavenly harps from the angels on high will fill the entire universe, all the inhabitants of the universe. Men of God and men of Satan, the angels of the Lord as well as the demons of Satan, all will hear the sweet music of the New Song to us the song of deliverance to them the song of doom. This is the song of the new beginning, which was symbolized by the Song of Moses after the redemption of Israel from the slavery in Egypt; it is the signal of the beginning of the Kingdom of Peace, ruled by the Lion of Judah; the Third Earth. Some will hear it in horror and others in bliss. Which side will you be in?

And He will sit upon the throne of David and rule the nations of the world with the iron scepter of . The Lion of Judah will roar from Jerusalem and the mountains will quake as the thunderous roar reverberates around the entire space-time continuum we call our universe, and all creation will know that God is dwelling bodily in Jerusalem.

Then, some of the Jews that have not known Him will recognize the wound upon His side, where the spear of the Roman Centurion Longinus was thrust into His chest. And they will see the nail scars in His hands and like Thomas; they will fall upon their knees and say, ‘My Lord and My God’. Yeshua will then, gently care for His lost sheep that will have, at long last, come home. He will kill the fatted calf and celebrate, for His prodigal son has finally come home. will believe! He will run to him and put His ring around his finger and sling His arms around his neck with tears welling in His eyes and joy and forgiveness in His heart, and He will say, ‘Welcome home My son, for I have missed you.’

Then, , for the very first time, since God promised it to Abraham, will reach the actual boundaries described in that original promise that comprises the Abrahamic Covenant. The Promised Land will stretch forth from the River Nile clear across to the River Euphrates. will dwell in peace, they will no longer be the scourges of the world, for they will be the priests of God, the priests of The Holy One of Israel, who will be literally dwelling on the earth in the image of the Son. He is the child born to us, which Isaiah foretold and “the government will be upon His shoulders”, and “He will be called the Wonderful Counselor”, as we shall have access to Him in this regard. He will be the Prince of Peace, for all the earth shall disarm, and there will be, for the first time, since the Garden, no more armies and men of war. The lion and the wolf will lay down with the lamb and peace will reign supreme. He will be the undisputed and inerrant dispenser of justice and righteousness upon earth.

Never again will the strong prey on the weak and the rich exploit the poor. The real proletariat of the world will finally receive equality and the truth will not be turned into a money making racket. He is the Mighty God who created all things and by whom all things are held together forever and ever. He is the Prince of Peace that will rule in Salem , Jeru-Salem. Amen.

This now brings us to the last and most powerful objection.

Objection 5: The Emotional Barrier of Abandoning Familial Roots

As to the last objection you must make a choice, whom will you serve, man or God? Joshua said, ‘As for me and my family we will serve the Lord.’ This choice is what made him a true Hebrew!

This is the choice that made the nation of into a nation. Abraham was asked specifically to choose between God and his homeland and family:

“Now, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I shall show you.” (Genesis 12:1) (Emphasis mine)

His name, while he lived in Ur of the Chaldees, was Abram, but God changed his name to Abraham, which in the Hebrew language means, “Father of Many Children.” This is quite significant, for Abram was 75 years old when God spoke to him in the city of Ur, and Sarah was 65. Now, how many women do you know that are still able to bear children at 65? It must have been the whisper of all the gossips of the day, as they mocked the “Father of Many Children”, who was barren at 75. But, God asked him to change his name to Abraham, as a sign of faith in the provision of God that would come in the future. This is, as previously stated not coincidentally, quite symbolic of the coming provision of the Messiah that would also come in the future from the very loins of Abraham.

By faith, Abraham then sojourned northward and westward following the Tigris River, until almost reaching the Mediterranean Sea and then headed southward to the land of Israel; The Promised Land. How many 75 year old persons have you met that are willing to move, not only from their home town, where all their relatives reside, but to a land that they have never seen, and that is occupied by another people? But, Abraham believed God and he acted on his faith.

Ten years later, Sarah was still barren and she began to doubt if she would ever have a child, after all her womb had long been physically incapable of bearing a child and even when she was of age her womb had been barren. Most women go through menopause before they are 50, Sara was now, at least, 25 years removed from her last ovulation, and Abraham was now 85 years old. So, in the typical human reaction of wanting to step in and take matters into our hands, instead of waiting on God, Sarah offered her Egyptian handmaid, named Hagar, for Abraham to father a child. In her mind it was now or never, because now Abraham was nearing the time when he too would be infertile. Ishmael was born of this union, and he is the father of the Arab nation. But, God was setting an example in Abraham that would last throughout the ages for all people of God to learn from. It was not until Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old that God miraculously opened Sarah’s womb and she miraculously conceived a baby.

Again, I reiterate; this is not any less miraculous, than the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Abraham and Sara were both well pass their fertile years, enough so that we could not in any way attribute it to some fluke of nature. It was nothing less than a miracle of the first order requiring the direct intervention of God in order to accomplish what was humanly physically impossible. God chose to do it this way in order to teach us that what is impossible with man is quite possible with the omnipotent and Sovereign God of the Universe. Isaac’s conception was not a biological anomaly; it was a plain and obvious miracle no less significant than the return of to the Land in 1948.

Isaac was a symbolic lesson that God gave , preparing her for the coming Deliverer, which should have made her think about the plausibility of the sign given to them from Bethlehem Ephrathah. “A virgin shall conceive,” and the miraculous nature of the virgin birth is precisely the sign, which authenticated the arrival of the Messiah!

We must be very careful to never place our finite intellect in the position of being the determinant of the proper will of God!

Both Abraham and Sarah were reproductively dead, but God is the master of life and specializes in the resurrection of the dead. He literally resurrected the dead organs of Sarah and Isaac was miraculously conceived. This is simply a symbol of the miraculous conception of the future Messiah. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham 25 years after the promise, to teach all of us that He is truly God who specializes in the resurrection of the dead and in the humanly impossible and we have access to this power through faith alone.

His primary command to Abraham and his descendants was to not put any other gods before Him; this includes family, nation, possessions, dreams and aspirations. You name it; anything in front of God is simply idolatry!

When upon Mt. Moriah Abraham extended his hand with knife, he evidenced his complete trust in the provision of God. Can you imagine the joy of Abraham and Sarah to finally have a child? But, God asked Abraham to sacrifice the most precious possession of his life; the thing he had hoped for all his life. Surely, the sacrifice of his only son with Sara is evidence that Abraham placed no one in front of God; this is the legacy that Abraham gave to Israel.

To choose the comfort of familial roots at the expense of abandoning God is tantamount to idolatry; it is putting something else in the place of God. How much better is it to turn to God and ask Him to help you reach your family? Only you can answer that question in your heart; no one can answer it in your place.

Surely, the example of the very patriarch of makes it very clear that not even the closest and dearest thing to the heart of a father, his son of old age, can come between him and God. Are you of Abraham’s seed physically? That is a wonderful privilege! But, are you of Abraham’s seed spiritually? That is your wonderful responsibility, in order that God could once again bless . The physical will merely be an empty shell, without the spiritual. Oh my friend, may God grant us the spirit of wisdom and humility to set our pre-conceived notions of what God ought to be like and to accept Him the way He chooses to reveal Himself through His Holy and inspired Scriptures.