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RECOVERING THE “INSPIRED TEXT”? AN ASSESSMENT OF THE WORK OF THE JERUSALEM SCHOOL IN LIGHT OF UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFICULT WORDS OF JESUS
by Michael L. Brown
for MISHKAN 17
Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus by David Biven and Roy B. Blizzard, Jr. is a unique book. While receiving the approbation of Jewish and Christians scholars, it has enjoyed much popularity among non-scholarly readers and thus has been a most effective tool in disseminating the basic views of the...
THE HOLLOW SOUND OF ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS
January 7, 2009
By Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
Director, The Coalition of Conscience
On Saturday, January 3, a Muslim-led rally for peace in Gaza was held in Charlotte’s Marshall Park. Similar rallies have taken place in recent days in cities across America and around the world with a clear and consistent theme: Stop the massacre of the Palestinians!
To be sure, even Israel’s staunchest allies and friends rue the loss of Arab lives — especially the lives of innocent civilians — and one would be hard-pressed to find...
WHY HAVE JEWISH PEOPLE BEEN SO HATED AND PERSECUTED THROUGH THE CENTURIES?
I devoted much of my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, to the subject of anti-Semitism, and on several occasions I have delivered lectures on the question of why anti-Semitism exists. Out of all the hatreds in the world, anti-Semitism is unique.
At the invitation of Christian campus groups, I spoke on this topic at both Yale and Columbia universities, two of America’s most prestigious centers of learning, each time fielding questions from the listeners for better than an hour. My challenge...
Has God Forsaken His People?*
Some things are non-negotiable. God’s covenant with Israel is one of them. How could He have made Himself more clear?
He gave His oath to Abram, and reiterated it six more times to Abraham, to his son Isaac and to his grandson Jacob. On one occasion, “When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself” (Heb. 6:13).
Why did God speak so decisively? It was because He “wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, [so] He confirmed...
HOW TO PRAY FOR ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST
By Dr. Michael L. Brown
August 15, 2006
As there is a temporary break in the hostilities in the Middle East, now is a good time to stop and ask: How should we pray for crises such as this? Should we pray for God to protect the Jewish people from terrorist attacks and for Israel’s military efforts to succeed, or should we pray that God will have mercy on everyone involved – Muslim and Jew alike – bringing a permanent end to all bloodshed? Should we pray for lasting peace to come to the region, or should we pray for the Lord’s...
THE PLACE OF RABBINIC TRADITION IN MESSIANIC JUDAISM
1988 UMJC CONFERENCE THEOLOGY FORUM
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
Every one of us involved in Messianic ministry has thought long and hard on the question of the place of rabbinic tradition in Messianic Judaism. My own thinking has developed gradually over the last few years, but I would like to share with you why I have come to the conclusion that rabbinic traditions have little or no place in our private lives or public services. Let me say first, however, that even though I have given myself to much prayer, study,...
UNEQUAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
A CRITIQUE OF THE METHODOLOGY OF THE ANTI-MISSIONARIES
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
UMJC THEOLOGY FORUM, 1991
The biblical injunction against false weights and measures is repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, elaborated in the Talmud, treated under three separate headings in the rabbinic literature on the 613 commandments, and codified by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah (taking up two whole chapters), by Yaakov Ben Asher in his Arba‘ah Turim and by Yoseph Karo in his Shulhan Arukh (the entry in Hoshen Mishpat including 28...
JEWISH APOLOGETICS:
CHRISTIANITY'S ONGOING AND UNIQUE CHALLENGE
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
June 9, 2006, International Society of Christian Apologetics
Charlotte, North Carolina
Several months ago, a colleague in Arizona introduced me to a very sharp lawyer and debater who also taught apologetics a local seminary. We began to talk about some of the debates I had had with Orthodox Jewish rabbis, at which point he asked, “But what objections could they possibly raise?” Having written more than 1,500 pages of answers to Jewish objections to Jesus, I must...
FASCINATING BUT FUNDAMENTALLY AND FATALLY FLAWED
A review of David Klinghoffer’s Why the Jews Rejected Jesus:
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
The Turning Point of Western History (New York: Doubleday, 2005), viii, 247 pp.
(This review was published in the Israeli journal Mishkan, September 2005)
In this slender but wide-ranging volume, David Klinghoffer, a highly literate, Orthodox Jewish journalist, puts forth a bold, pioneering thesis: People should be thankful that the Jews rejected Jesus, otherwise, there would have been no Christianity, in which case the...
JESUS-YESHUA: WHO IS HE?
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
Jesus - Yeshua.
Rabbi? Prophet? Healer? Deliverer? Savior? Messiah?
Son of God?
Jesus - Yeshua.
Deceiver? Apostate? Magician? Rebel? Traitor? Liar?
Accursed of God?
Jesus - Yeshua. Who is this man?
Two thousand years have come and gone, but the question remains the same: Is Jesus of Nazareth the Jewish Messiah, the Savior of the world? If he is, then let’s follow him, for we have no other way. If he’s not, let’s expose him, for only the truth will set us free.
* * *...
WHAT THE ANTI-MISSIONARIES DIDN’T TELL YOU Part 1
PART ONE: RABBI MICHAEL SKOBAC AND “THE FIRES OF THE LORD”
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
On the Jews for Judaism website,1 Rabbi Michael Skobac responded to this question that was submitted to him:
“What does Leviticus 5:11-13 actually say in Hebrew, as I had a missionary present to me the following Christian translation of the verse and it appears that the flour offering of atonement was laid on top of the other (animal) sacrificial offerings?”
Leviticus 5:11-12 is then cited in the New Revised Standard...
IS A POST-MISSIONARY, TRULY MESSIANIC JUDAISM POSSIBLE?
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
for LCJE-NA, San Antonio, April 18, 2007
Since the title of this paper comes in the form of a question, I want to remove all suspense and answer the question up front. Is a post-missionary, truly Messianic Judaism possible? The answer is absolutely, categorically, incontrovertibly, without question or equivocation, NO. As stated (in Gentile terms) by Oswald Smith, “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize,” and once we lose the missionary burden and spirit and passion – which,...
“Who Is a Jew?” Questions of Ethnicity, Religion, and Identity
by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
The question of Jewish identity is not one of merely abstract or theoretical interest. To the contrary, at certain periods of Jewish history – such as the Holocaust – the question of “Who is a Jew?” was literally a matter of life and death. Thus, baptized Jews who were church members in good standing were still forced to wear the yellow star, still deported to the concentration camps, still slaughtered systematically – simply because “Jewish blood” flowed in their veins. There were even...