Jews
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8. Why do the Jews refuse to accept Jesus of |
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The reasons are various, however the most important reason, which can
always be read in the writings of the Jewish rabbis or scholars who seek to
refute the messiahship of Jesus, is the following one. Jesus - according to
the Jews - cannot be the Messiah because He did not come to redeem Israel
politically and because with His coming He did not initiate the universal messianic
age, that is, the age of universal peace and justice predicted by the
prophets; from His coming onwards things have been the same, or rather things
have gone from bad to worse. To support this position they always quote the
following words of Isaiah, which certainly refer to the Messiah of God: “And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of 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 of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick
understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight
of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek
of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall
be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little
child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones
shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all
my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:1-9). However, the fact is that the
Jews, having been blinded and hardened by God, don’t realize first of all
that these words have been already fulfilled in part because a rod has
already come forth from the stem of Jesse and a Branch has already grown out
of his roots; and secondly that the period of peace and justice about which
the prophet Isaiah spoke will begin when Jesus, the Messiah who died and rose
from the dead and was taken up into heaven, comes back from heaven with glory
and power. Then, and only then, will the age of universal peace and justice
begin, because the devil will be bound (he will be bound for a thousand
years, and after that period he will be released for a little while, and eventually
he will be thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone). |
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We cannot but acknowledge the truthfulness of these words of Peter
concerning the Jews: “They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which
they also were appointed” (1 Peter 2:8 – NKJV). And who appointed them to
stumble? God, for it is written in the prophets: “And he shall be for a
sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the
houses of |