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April 15, 2005/Nisan 6 5765, Volume 57, No. 33
Rabbi, evangelist debate Jewish view of Messiah
BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN
Special to Jewish News
Two religious authorities argued hot-button spiritual issues during a fiery debate titled "Can Jews accept Jesus as the Messiah?" on April 7 at the Chaparral High School auditorium in Scottsdale.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, prominent Jewish author, squared off against Dr. Michael L. Brown, a Messianic Jewish theologian in a series of contentious exchanges that also touched upon such issues as anti-Semitism, salvation and repentance.
Witnessing the debate was a largely pro-Christian crowd of approximately 1,200 people, who often voiced their support for Brown's argument that Christ is "the messiah of the Jewish people." Brown is the founder and president of ICN Ministries, which according to its Web site "is devoted to taking the message of repentance and revival to Israel, the Church, and the Nations."
"The authors of the New Testament were firmly and fully convinced that this Jesus, this Yeshua, came in fulfillment of what the prophets had spoken," said Brown. "If he did not fulfill the scriptures, if he is not the messiah of Israel, he is the messiah of no one."
Boteach, who alternated between humor and thunderous pontificating during his oration, provided a contrast to Brown.
"Jesus was a patriotic Jew, who loved his people, rebelled against the cruelty of the Romans, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, and brought spiritual knowledge to billions," he said. "But the Jews already had God, were already close to God, and needed no intermediary, and that remains the case."
Both Brown and Boteach provided myriad biblical scriptures to back their respective cases, quoting from such books as John, Luke, Leviticus, and Isaiah. The latter was cited by Brown, who said Jesus fulfilled such Messianic prophecies as in Isaiah 42:6, which declared he would be a light to the gentiles; and Isaiah 52:15, which stated his blood would be spilled for the atonement of all.
Brown also mentioned the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, stating it fulfilled Daniel's prophecy that the Messiah would appear before the sanctuary was destroyed.
"I'm simply reading passages that many Jewish interpreters understand to refer to the messiah," Brown said. "There's only one candidate, he came, he fulfilled (the prophecies), he died for our sins, he rose from the dead."
Boteach called Brown "a bigoted man," labeling his conclusions as "sloppy scholarship," offering his own interpretations of biblical passages, such as Isaiah 53:10, which states the Messiah would see his seed or offspring and prolong his days.
"We know that Jesus had no children, case closed," said Boteach, author of such books as "Kosher Sex" and "An Intelligent Person's Guide to Judaism."
Brown later responded that "seed" could be a metaphorical and spiritual reference to the followers of Christ.
Boteach also outlined reasons why Jews cannot accept Jesus as the messiah, including the notion of God taking human form as "the ultimate heresy," and cited passages from Leviticus proving Christ's sacrifice cannot wash away "intentional" sins.
"The blood of Jesus does not atone for your mistakes, you must repent on them; no one can cleanse your sin except you," said Boteach. "If you hurt someone, don't go to Jesus, go to that other person. If you hurt God, go to him and repent, but to believe or to think you're going to be cleansed, that excuses evil."
Boteach also loudly repudiated portions of Brown's "Answering Jewish Objection To Jesus" books, which states, "no Jew has ever been killed for rejecting the message of the New Testament," and that Nazis could receive salvation if they "truly repent" and recognize Christ, while Holocaust victims would suffer damnation if they were ignorant of the Christian messiah.
"If you kill one million children and you gas them and you cremate them and you turn them into ashes, there is no way back," said Boteach.
In defense, Brown said only "corrupt" Christians would kill Jews for rejecting Jesus, while "true followers" of Christ would respect another's beliefs. In regards to the redemption of Nazis, he stated "if a Jew died in the Holocaust in the right relationship with God, then he's accepted by God."
The debate was presented by Chosen People Ministries, a New York-based Messianic Jewish organization, which the Canadian Jewish Congress stated aims "specifically to convert Jews to Christianity." The group also organized a 2004 event where Brown and Boteach argued whether the Jews killed Jesus.
Response to the debate was split along theological lines, with a majority of Jews in attendance siding with Boteach.
Kevin Greathouse, a 50-year-old member of Scottsdale Sepharadic Synagogue, felt Brown relied on circular reasoning and "began with the answer and then seeks to find support" with selective quotations from such sources as the Bible and the Tanach.
"In other words, there wasn't sufficiency in building or developing the argument in context," said Greathouse.
Other members of the audience said they wished the participants had focused more on the messianic debate rather than assaulting each other's credibility.
Kane Adkins, a 27-year-old Mesa resident and self-described "practitioner of Torah who believes Yeshua is the messiah," said although Boteach and Brown embraced at the end of the debate, their attack tactics were symbolic of the issue's discordant nature.
"There seemed to be a real rift and a disrespect among the believers on both sides," he said.
Carl Hammerschlag, a 66-year-old Paradise Valley psychiatrist, said Brown's "messiah of no one" argument was too divisive.
"The difficulty in this kind of debate is that it doesn't bring anyone closer together," Hammerschlag said. "If you hold somebody else responsible for somehow having to accept Christ as the messiah and they do not do it, it is not the predicate upon which good neighborliness is based."
Boteach, however, said he respects Christians and urges them to reach out to those of other faiths.
"You ask what would Jesus do?" the rabbi asked. "He would have treated his Jewish brethren as spiritually authentic, he would treat them as his brothers and sisters, which they are."
Benjamin Leatherman is a freelance writer based in Tempe.
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