John D. Brey
Well-Known Member
I don't believe they will consider he existed prior to being born in flesh & came down from his glory in heaven as was Jesus's claim. . . They will consider him to be fully human who will grow old and one day die of some sickness just as any other person does.
That's the current state of Judaism proper. Yes. But my personal engagement with the New Testament suggest that the current state of Judaism's understanding of Messiah is going to undergo a drastic change before they anoint the anti-Christ as the the Christ.
I really don't believe any of their considerations about anti Christ will be made in comparison to Jesus at all
I personally know at least a couple of Jews in this country who have told me they have never read a word of the New Testament, never will, and they know only the most basic information about Jesus and don't care to hear anything more about Him.
Early in my Christian experience, I practiced the same stance toward philosophy and Judaism. It was a healthy practice at the time since my understanding of the Bible, and Christianity, could have been threatened, or worse, by a premature encounter with philosophy and Judaism.
I've spent the last few decades fully engaged in philosophy and Judaism under the lived experience that my Christian beliefs, far from being endangered by those streams of thought, are instead enlivened and strengthened by them as I attempt to bring every thought, every ideology, into the service of Christ.
One day the same thing will happen with Judaism and Jews. They will encounter the true Christ, and will come to realize that far from him being a threat to Judaism, or Jews, he's their Lord and Savior.
I believe that many devout Jews know nothing of Christ, especially the type individuals who are members of Jerusalem's Temple Institute.
They seem to be in completely different building in their image of what their Messiah will consist of .
There are many qualifications that seemed to exist 2000 years ago that it seems to me will just have to be just shrugged off in this day.
How would they know he was of the line of David for instance ?
With those statements and questions you segue into a discussion of the anti-Christ I wasn't prepared to engage in this thread.
. . . I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides . . . The beast which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.
Revelation 17:6-8.
The astonishment noted above is great since it's mentioned twice; as is the cause of the astonishment that's also mentioned twice. In constructs like this, the scripture is telling the reader something really important is taking place beneath the text.
John the Revelator says he was utterly astonished by what he's seeing, and ironically the angel says that those who are not saved will join John in being astonished. There's a whole lot of astonishment going on and for good reason when we look at what the angel claims is the cause of the great astonishment: the beast-anti-Christ once was, now is not, and yet will come. This final statement is the key to the mystery. And it's not explained in context. We have to remember what's written in John 1:4 to have the mystery revealed to us:
John, to the churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come . . ..
John