Thank you for entering my page! Right now, you are probably searching to find out more about Jewish beliefs in Jesus. Perhaps, Messianic Jewish organizations seem attractive to you. According to Hope of David Messianic Fellowship "Who Are We?" page, they are a "Hope of David Messianic Fellowship is a Messianic Jewish congregation. That means we believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. We believe that the highest expression of Judaism is faith in Messiah--and Yeshua is that Messiah. Membership is open for Jewish and Gentile followers of Yeshua who desire to live a Jewish life in Messiah."
Sounds great, right! There is only one catch-House of David is not a Jewish group at all, but completely Christian in every way! It was specifically founded by the Southern Baptist Convention! I will demonstrate this using information from their site and other Christian sites. That way, no one can say that a "Jew is making up" information about them. Southern Baptist Roots
Hope of David is a full member of the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, here is the link to their listing on the Southern Baptist Convention web-site; a real Jewish group would never be listed there: Click Here It is quickly obvious that they are not a Jewish group, even from their own web-page. Here is another quote from the "Who We Are?" page. They state: "We are affiliated with the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations and we fellowship with local Southern Baptist churches. Our tradition is Jewish and we believe we are a form of Judaism. At the same time, we relate to non-Jewish churches who share our faith in Yeshua. "
For those that may have missed it, the Southern Baptist Convention in 1996 passed a resolution to evangelize all of the Jews to convert them to Christianity. Not a group that a Jewish organization will "fellowship" with. This is a link to the well-known Jewish group, the Anti-Defamation League. It is pretty representative of what real Jewish groups think about the Southern Baptist Convention. Click Here Here is a link to the "Who We Are?" page for the quotes from Hope of David. The quotes are from the 1st and 4th paragraph: Click Here
The Leader Derek Leman is the leader of Hope of David. So, who is Derek Leman? Well, first of all, Leman did not grow up in a Jewish home. Derek Leman is a minister from the Southern Baptist Convention and he created Hope of David Messianic Fellowship as a ministry of the Atlanta Association of Southern Baptists. He is a graduate of a Christian evangelical school, Moody Bible Institute and has studied at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Leman also is part of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, a group designed to convert Jews to Christianity. How do we know this? Well, Reverend Leman said this on his own, personal website. From Leman's website: "
Derek Leman is not your average Southern Baptist! Though not raised in a Jewish home...He holds a B.A. from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and a Masters of Theological Studies from Emory University and has studied at the North Georgia Center of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
In 2001, he planted the Hope of David Messianic Fellowship as a part of the Atlanta Association of Southern Baptists. Derek is on the International Board of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism."
Obviously, he is not a real Jewish leader, but a Christian leader. Clearly, there is nothing Jewish about this man's involvement in "Jewish" activities. He is simply a missionary. Here is the link to the proof, the quotes come from the first and second paragraph: Click Here
Not surprisingly, Reverend Leman is also listed on the Southern Baptist Convention's website as a SBC minister. Here is the link to the Southern Baptist Directory: Click Here Further, Derek Leman is listed as the Messianic Consultant for the Language Missions Ministries of the Georgia Baptist Conference. A real Jewish leader would never hold that position! Here is the link to the proof:
Click Here In fact, he is listed as a "Church Planter" by the Georgia Baptist Conference! In the Church Plant Progress section, they are clear that he has completed activities such as "Attending Basic Training", "Created Church Design (Master Plan)" and "Developed Evangelistic Strategy". This is a description of Baptist leader trying to target Jews for conversion! Here is the link to the proof: Click Here All of the above facts are consistent with his educational background. In the quote from Leman's web-site, he stated that he is a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute. This is the Moody Bible Institute's Vision statement: "Our Vision
To encourage and equip believers to:
Think Biblically
Live Christianly
Serve Effectively
Evangelize Consistently
Sounds like Leman is working very hard on the living Christianly and evangelizing consistently. Here is the link to the Moody Vision statement: Click Here
Their Beliefs Hope of David has purely Christian beliefs. Here is the link to their "Who Are We" section (their beliefs are at the bottom of the page) and the Denver Seminary's Doctrinal statement, a Christian training institute. If you read their beliefs closely, you will notice that they are virtually identical! Hope of David's Beliefs Denver Seminary's Beliefs Major Errors Hope of David makes numerous major errors on its web-page in its presentation of Judaism and general practices. I will highlight just a few of the obvious errors. 1. Jesus and the Davidic Line Hope of David have a web-page where they attempt to answer three questions: Why are the genealogies in Matthew and Luke different?
Is Jesus descended from David?
What about the curse of Jeconiah?
There are errors in multiple parts of the page, but I will focus on the errors regarding whether Jesus decended from King David. This is important as the Messiah must be a decendant from the lineage of David. If a person is not a decendant of King David, by definition they cannot be the Messiah. With that in mind, here are the relevant paragraphs by Hope of David on the issue: "....And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Yeshua (Jesus) who is called Messiah" says Matthew. "Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli," says Luke. The "as was supposed" means he was the legal son but not the physical son of Joseph.... To summarize, Yeshua was descended from David through his legal father, Joseph. We have no certain information that Mary was of the line of David, though she may have been. Presumably, Yeshua was of the eldest line through Joseph's legal father (if our guess is right). Otherwise, since kingly succession did not always follow the eldest, we can assume that God could choose any descendant of David to be the Messiah.
Some object, "If he wasn't physically the son of Joseph, how could he inherit the throne?" If, as we believe, Yeshua had no human father, how could he be the heir? Two points are helpful here: (a) Joseph's legal fatherhood over Yeshua would certainly be enough, (b) having God as your father would certainly not disqualify you as the Messiah!
Sounds good? Well, not really. There are a few major errors made here that demonstrate that conclusions (a) and (b) are incorrect. First, we need to be clear on how a family lineage is traced. Family lineage is traced through the father. As such, they need to prove that Jesus' father decended from King David to support their claim that he is the Messiah. As you may already know, Messianic Jews believe that G-d was the physical father of Jesus, as indicated at the end of the paragraph in point (b). At best, Joseph is the adopted or step-father. Hope of David presents Joseph as the "legal father" of Jesus, but that is not the case. In Judaism, the legal father (the name that you would use in any legal documents or in synagogue honors) is the birth father. In Judaism, the adopted or step-father is never the legal father. If the law is confusing, keep the following in mind. The Bible places great importance on ensuring that a man's lineage does not die off, and gives many examples of this concern. By changing the legal father from the birth father to the adopted father, the birth father's lineage has been eliminated. In summary,at no point in the 4000 year history of the Jewish people has an adoptive father or step-father been used for family lineage. Hence, their conclusion marked (a) is incorrect. As for point (b), there is another huge error in reasoning. Hope of David claims that having G-d as your father would not preclude you from being the Messiah. Well, actually, it would. The Messiah is a son from the line of David. G-d is not from the line of David. Hence, there are only two conclusions that can be reached if we are using their reasoning. Either G-d lied about the Messiah's lineage through David or Jesus cannot be the Messiah. Since G-d does not lie, only the second case can be true. Here is the link to the quotes I used, the quotes are in the 1st, 8th and 9th paragraphs: Click Here 2. Understanding The Two Messiah Concept Hope of David attempts to challenge the Rabbis in an essay titled "Did the Jewish Translations Distort Zechariah 12:10?" Again, there are many errors on this page, and I will refer all readers to the following essay on the translational issues that Hope of Messiah attempts to bring up: Essay on Translation Issues of Zechariah 12:10 I would like to bring up a more obvious issue than debates about how to translate the verse, namely, the idea of the "Messiah son of Joseph" in Judaism. In the first paragraph of their essay, Hope of David states: " The rabbis used to believe in a Messiah who would suffer and die, according to the prophets of Israel. The Talmud, for example, refers to a Messiah, Son of Joseph, who will be slain (Sukkah 52a). In presenting this concept of a Messiah who will be slain, the Talmudic rabbis refer to Zechariah 12:10. How different things are in the modern Rabbinic Jewish community! Zechariah 12:10 is no longer regarded as a passage referring to the Messiah at all. In fact, two prominent translations of the Hebrew Bible by Jewish publishers, this ancient Messianic prophecy is translated in such a way as to remove all Messianic implications. Should the text of the Bible be changed to accommodate modern Jewish theology?" In the second to last paragraph, Hope of David also states: "The Jewish people will look to him, realizing that they (along with all the rest of humanity) had pierced this one. When did they pierce him? When Yeshua (Jesus) was pierced by the Roman soldier, God was pierced, since Yeshua was and is none other than God who took on human form." Now, this is a great example of mixing up Jewish ideas. In Judaism, there is a belief in two separate Messiahs, the Messiah son of Joseph and the Messiah son of David. The Messiah son of David, the Messiah that individuals are most familiar with, will be a descendant from King David. Specifically, his birth father will be descended from King David. As you may recall from the Bible, King David is from the Tribe of Judah. However, the rabbis also saw a second Messiah in the Bible, whose job is to help the Messiah son of David. They named him the "Messiah son of Joseph" because he will be descended from the Tribes that trace back to Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. This means that he will be either from the Tribe of Menashe or Ephraim. Again, this family lineage is traced through the birth father. So, it is impossible to be both the Messiah son of David and Messiah son of Joseph, because you would need to have two separate birth fathers! On this same note, the Messiah son of Joseph is often called the Northern Messiah, because Ephraim and Menashe lived in the north of Israel. Judah, on the other hand, was a Southern Tribe. These are two completely separate individuals, but Hope of David clearly misunderstands the concept of the Messiah son of Joseph and mistakingly attempts to attribute it to Jesus, and that the same time they try to claim that he is the Messiah son of David. If you understand Judaism, it is easy to see that the entire premise of the Hope of David essay is flawed from the start. Here is the link to the essay by Hope of David, the quote comes from the first paragraph and the second to last paragraph: Click Here 3. Violating the Sabbath According to the Announcements page, Hope of David has a "Torah School" and Hebrew Class on Saturdays. Now, you may recognize that Jewish congregations always have Sunday, not Saturday school. Why is that? Because, at school you do work. Doing work is a violation of the Sabbath. As an example, studying a language, even Hebrew, is work. You must learn to write letters, recognize them, pronounce them and oftentimes teachers will give tests to reinforce the learning. This process has always been recognized by Judaism as work, and is forbidden. By having a Saturday school and language program, Hope of David is in clear violation of the Sabbath, something no Jewish group would ever choose to do! Here is the link to the proof that Hope of David has Saturday school: Click Here By the way, you will notice on the Announcements page that they are doing a study of the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation is a Christian, not a Jewish writing. Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus There are many reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus, and the links below are some of the better explanations on this topic. Of course, if you have questions that are not covered on the links, you can always e-mail me with your questions. An Answer from Rabbi Stuart Federow Click Here
An Answer from Rabbi Shraga Simmons Click Here Ask the Rabbi from Ohr Somayach Click Here An Answer from Rabbi Tovia Singer Click Here Countermissionary Counseling
There are a number of groups that provide Countermissionary Counseling. Here are links to a few of them:
Jews for Judaism Alternatively, you can call them at 1-800-4PROOF1 with general questions about missionary claims.
Torah Atlanta
Outreach Judaism
Torah Life and Living Great Sites, Priceless Information
Here are a number of great sites that counter missionaries and explain the differences in belief between Judaism and Christianity, including addressing the Biblical verses that missionaries try to use against the Jews and explaining why the missionaries are incorrect. For the most in-depth analysis of verse by verse questions, go to Messiah Truth (sections on Counter-Missionary: Multi-media training [this can be read without being "multi-media"], Knowing Your Orchard and Judaism's Answer), Jews for Judaism (in their Reference Section (please note that the Isaiah topics tend to be under "Suffering Servant" part of the "Proof Text" section) and the Q & A section of Outreach Judaism. Messiah Page Messiah Truth Jews for Judaism Outreach Judaism Counter Missionary Reference Torah Atlanta Messianic Verses in Tanach Kosher Judaism Escape From Counterfeit Judaism Talking to Kids About Missionaries
Contact Me I am more than happy to answer any questions regarding why Jews do not believe in Jesus or on Jewish beliefs in general. Feel free to e-mail me. There is no such thing as a "stupid question".
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