Why Jews Reject Jesus

By Elmer A Josephson (RIP)

(From chapter 18 of Israel, God’s Key to World Redemption)

Some professing Christians take a critical attitude toward Jewish people because they reject Christ as Messiah. However, Jews reject Him on scriptural grounds. The Bible is not enough to prove Christ’s Messiahship. Why?  First, because Christ did not fulfill all Bible Messianic passages in His first coming.  Twelve reasons why Biblically knowledgeable Jews reject Jesus are given below.

The Bible Predicted

1) The Messiah would set up the Kingdom of God on earth with Israel as the guiding light of the nations.  Isaiah 2:1-5; chapters 60 through 62; Daniel 2:44-45; Joel 3; Micah 4:1-7; 5:2; Zephaniah 3:14-20; Zechariah 12 through 14. Jesus did not do this at His first coming. The early Jewish disciples asked, after His resurrection, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus intimated it was not the time, but that He would turn first to the pagan Gentile nations.

2) The Messiah would reign on the Throne of David, as predicted in Isaiah 9:6-7; Jesus did not.

3) The Messiah would put down every evil, ruthless oppressive power (Isaiah 11:4). He would “Smite the earth and wicked with the rod of His mouth and consume with the breath of His lips.” Christ did not destroy cruel and corrupt Rome – nor succeeding godless powers.

4) The Messiah would usher in a reign of everlasting peace (Isaiah 9:7; Micah 4:3); “Of the increase of His government and peace there would be no end.” Jesus did not. He predicted, “Wars and rumors of wars; nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom... till the end of the times of the Gentiles” (Matt. 24:6-7,14).

5) The Messiah would eliminate injustices to the poor, defenseless and needy. “...to order and establish it with judgment and with justice henceforth forever” (Isaiah 9:7; 11:4). The poor and meek continue to be exploited.

6) The Messiah’s coming (Isaiah 11:1-2) would affect the nature of beasts – “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the lion shall eat straw as the ox, children shall be unafraid of being bitten of snakes” (Isaiah 11:6-8). This did not happen at Christ’s first coming.

7) There would be no killings or destruction of all God’s kingdom (His holy mountain – Isaiah 11:9; 65:25). Man and beast still slay and are slain.

8) The Messiah would cause that “The earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9; Hab. 2:14). The earth is full of unbelief, lawlessness and violence. Jesus did not fulfill this passage.

9) Nations, at Messiah’s coming, were to “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:3).  We still have war colleges and millionaires are made from munitions plants.

10) The Messiah would eliminate all fear as “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid” (Micah 4:4). Jesus did not fulfill this promise. He predicted “men’s heart would fail them for fear,” many literally scared to death, and afraid to walk outside in our cities at night.  [According to the 2006 American Heart Association Heart Diseases and Stroke statistics approximately 500,000 new cases of heart failure (from various causes) are diagnosed each year.]

11) The World Capital and true theocratic United Nations will be set up in Jerusalem (Zech. 14:16-19). All nations will send representatives or be penalized.  Isaiah 66:10-14; 20-24; Zech. 14:16-21; Psalm 102:16,21. (This is not yet fulfilled.]

12) The Messiah as King of Kings shall come to the Mount of Olives, enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate, and rule with a strong hand over all the earth forever (Zech. 14:3-9; Ezk. 44:1-3; Isaiah 40:10; Micah 4:7).  This did not take place at Christ’s first coming.

The above-unfulfilled prophecies are within the framework of Israel and world redemption. There are others that relate primarily to the people and land of Israel, and fulfillment has begun, such as:

(1) There will be an end to their 3500 years of persecution. Read Isaiah 51:17-23; 52:1-10; 60:1-2; 14-22.  All the blessings of Deut. 28:3 to 13 shall be fulfilled to them, concluding with (Vs. 13); “And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath...” They shall be called, “The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

(2) Israel’s deserts “shall blossom as the rose”– Isaiah 35.

(3) A time of joy and celebration for Israel. Isaiah 61:3-7; 62:1-7, 10-12; Zeph. 3:14-20 – verse 14 begins, “Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.”  The Lord in verses 15-20 tells why.

Therefore, to decide on the basis of the Scripture alone, it was mandatory for the Jews to reject Jesus as the Messiah.  Until He comes the second time to fill all Messianic prophecies, the Spirit of God must reveal His Messiahship. After Jesus questioned the disciples about His Messiahship, Peter declared, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which is in heaven.”

2,000 Year’s Greatest Tragedy

How could the Jews believe when Jesus left so many Messianic passages unfulfilled?  Then add the abuses, the persecutions, the tortures that have been perpetrated against the Jews in the Name of Christ the past 2,000 years – especially since the horrible massacres of the eight Crusades from the 11th through the 13^th centuries (Pope Urban II, Roman, German, French and English – 1095 to 1270), the Spanish Inquisition too barbaric to mention, the anti-Semitism of the Russian Orthodox Church, the “Christian” Nazis – down to the hate groups of our day.  But such so-called followers of Christ are devils that know nothing of the true Christ of God, either through His Word or by His Spirit. 

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Jesus revealed the acid-test way of identifying His disciples, “By this shall all men know that ye are MY disciples [not by beautiful cathedrals, stained glass windows, robed choirs or magnificent music, but] if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).  Not only for those who love you but the all-inclusive love of God in the whole world, as John relates, He died “not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world” (I John 2:2). And if we have His love, it will be as wide.

The Hidden Mystery

When the Hebrew prophets looked down the ages through their “prophetic telescopes”, they saw the mighty towering mountain peak of Messiah’s coming and the following Messianic Age as one magnificent fulfillment of all Messianic predictions.  However, God had a merciful plan of turning to the pagan nations which the New Testament declares was “the mystery hid in ages past,” where a period of 2,000 years was concealed in a comma or a semi-colon (in our English versions) such as in Isaiah 9:6&7.  What the prophets did not see was this 2,000-year Gentile valley that extended from the Messiah’s first advent unto His second coming.  It was this mystery that baffled even Christ’s disciples when thy asked after His resurrection, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).  After living and ministering with Jesus 3½ years, they still had not grasped this mystery.  Can we then blame modern Jews for not understanding it?

We must be aware that, in His sovereignty, it has not been God’s plan to “Christianize” the world in this age, but rather to “gather out a people from among the nations for His Name,” (Acts 15:14). -

Ed.: The Kingdom cannot be established until the lost sheep (10 “lost tribes”) are found among the nations and united with Judah. Since Elmer Josephson deceased from this life, we are seeing more and more of this fulfillment. This is the “WHY?” of the project at Biblical Tamar Park. It is not an entertainment park, but a place of learning and understanding between the two factions of Israel that split into two “houses”. Please read Ephraim Express.