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Rabbi vs Chaplain
The New York Rabbi Tovia Singer is one of the leading Jewish counter-missionaries in the world. He travels all over the United States and the world to teach Jews how to refute Christian doctrines. Rabbi Singer presents the standard argument of Judaic orthodoxy that the prophecies in the Old Testament, even including Isaiah 53, could not possibly refer to Jesus Christ becasue Jesus did not fulfill the messianic promises concerning Israel. The John McTernan has spent thousands of hours with Judaism's counter- missionaries in defending the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result, McTernan is uniquely knowlegeable in how to defend the proclaim the gospel from the Old Testament scriptures. Chaplain McTernan uses this fine-honed knowlege during debate with Jews. Rabbi vs Chaplain is a two- session debate that took place consecutively, plus a Q& A period, before and entirely Jewish audience. Christians reading the book will have a better understanding of why Jews today still reject Jesus Christ as thie Messiah; Jews will better understanding of why Christians the world over believe that He is Lord of Lords, King of Kings, the Blessed Savior forever of all who place their faith in Him.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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September 24, 2024
A FASCINATING DEBATE BETWEEN TWO FERVENT BELIEVERS IN THE BIBLE
Rabbi Tovia Singer is the founder and director of Outreach Judaism, a Jewish counter-missionary organization, and hosts hosted The Tovia Singer Show on Arutz Sheva's Israel National Radio. He has also written the book, 'Let's Get Biblical! Why Doesn't Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah?' John McTernan is chaplain of "International Cops for Christ," and has written books such as 'Only Jesus of Nazareth Can Sit on the Throne of David,' 'Only Jesus of Nazareth Can Be The God of Israel's Righteous Servant,' 'As America Has Done To Israel...'
This book is a transcript of the 2006 debate before an all-Jewish audience; except that it does not translate Singer's occasional lapses into Hebrew (it was a Jewish audience, after all), and sometimes calls Singer's comments "inaudible." (Singer held the microphone farther away from his mouth than McTernan did.) But McTernan also publishes his own "post-debate responses" to what Singer said during the debate (without providing Singer the courtesy of including his OWN comments on McTernan).
At any rate, it was a fascinating debate. The two topics debated were "Is Jesus the Promised Jewish Messiah?" and "Without the Shedding of Blood There Is No Atonement."
Singer observes, "The temple would be built, the Scripture says... Scripture tells that when Messiah comes, there will be peace that will reign throughout the world... The Bible says that the messianic age will be an ingathering of the exiles... in the messianic age... the knowledge of God will cover the world... In those days the whole world will know about the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the dead will arise... Now we have to ask ourselves this question, the advent of Jesus brought about safety in Judah that you speak of? Did the advent of Christianity ... bring about building the temple in Jerusalem?... Oh no, in the year A.D. 70, that horrible time, the temple was destroyed. Is that your idea of a Messiah?" (Pg. 22-23) He admits, "Now I concede this point... although a second coming does conveniently explain away any false messiah, the idea is not articulated clearly in a single scripture in the Jewish scriptures." (Pg. 25)
Later, Singer argues, "First the genealogy of the Messiah Himself: He has to come from Jesse. I say Jesus because who you claim was born from a virgin, didn't even have a human Jewish father with which to trace His genealogy back to King David. According to you, He only had a human mother, no human father. He is therefore by the virgin birth ineligible to be the Messiah." (Pg. 33) Later, he asks, "So why give the genealogy altogether? See, if you're saying... It had to come from a virgin, why give us the genealogy, a cursed genealogy, which if you are from ... you can't even be the Messiah. Why does Matthew ever offer that's absolutely meaningless?" and McTernan replies, "Well, I don't know. I'll have to think about that." (Pg. 76)
He also contends, "You say [man] is hopeless. Scriptures say otherwise... If you look at the Bible there is not a single word about sin in Genesis 8:20-21. In fact, animal sacrifices have nothing to do about sin at all... Leviticus 16 we find these sacrifices, the blood that is sprinkles. And then we find the fact that you have to... pain your heart, in the sense of fasting and so on and repentance. Interesting---in Leviticus 16 when it speaks about the sacrifice, it doesn't say it is forever. Only when it says you must oppress your soul, that is forever... King Solomon prophetically described [1 Ki 8:46-50] what's going to happen when the Jews went into exile... That's where we are right now... we are in exile... Isn't it odd there's not a word about, you'll need blood---no, not a world at all. Why is this? Because in our exile there is no blood sacrifices at all." (Pg. 43-44) He adds, "King David made a devastating mistake in his life... he calls it in Psalm 51, a blood transgression... [King David said] 'I have sinned before the Lord.' Nathan saw it was true repentance, and he said, 'The LORD has already forgiven you.' No blood, no cross, no Calvary." (Pg. 45)
But McTernan counters by noting that Psalm 51:19 continues with, 'Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.' He says, "Of course David said you need blood sacrifices. Tanakh, the Torah is all through it... But the problem is, the rabbi doesn't have the sacrifices today. And he is trying to dance around it." (Pg. 46) He adds, "The requirement for blood for sin on Yom Kippur was an everlasting statute." (Pg. 47)
But then Singer says, "What do we do through these years. We don't have a sacrificial system? Do we convert to Christianity and live a life without Sabbath, without God, without [inaudible] those precious commandments? No, this is what Hosea [14:2] says... 'and let us render for bulls, the offering of your lips.' that means instead of sacrifices, we are to pray." (Pg. 49) He says about the "suffering servant" in Isaiah: "Isaiah 41:8-9; 43:10-11; 44:4, 24; 45:20-21; 48:20; 49:3 all say explicitly that Israel is My servant. Not as you say the Messiah is God's Servant. In fact the same Isaiah 42 you quote from... says, 'Who is blind but My servant.' Is your Messiah blind?' (Pg. 53) Later, he adds, "They... have to go through a theological somersault in order to believe that Messiah is God and believe that Isaian 53 is speaking of Messiah, because in Isaiah 53, God speaks about giving the Servant things, a promise of long life and a seed. How could God promise long life to God?" (Pg. 65)
He also concludes, "Scripture says that the Torah is forever. That means every commandment is forever, yet... your religion says that ... you don't have to keep Sabbath, you don't eat kosher, you don't have to keep the law of Moses. So again we... have God on one side that says the commandments are forever... And yet we have Christianity on the other hand that opposes the will of God, and frankly, if I have to choose between God and the Church, I choose the Almighty." (Pg. 63-64)
This is an absolutely fascinating debate, that will be "must reading" for persons on ALL "sides" of this issue. The debate is all the more valuable because (unlike numerous debates of Michael Brown with persons like Shmuley Boteach and Barry Silver) BOTH parties consider the Bible/Tanach to be the word of God.
Rabbi Tovia Singer is the founder and director of Outreach Judaism, a Jewish counter-missionary organization, and hosts hosted The Tovia Singer Show on Arutz Sheva's Israel National Radio. He has also written the book, 'Let's Get Biblical! Why Doesn't Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah?' John McTernan is chaplain of "International Cops for Christ," and has written books such as 'Only Jesus of Nazareth Can Sit on the Throne of David,' 'Only Jesus of Nazareth Can Be The God of Israel's Righteous Servant,' 'As America Has Done To Israel...'
This book is a transcript of the 2006 debate before an all-Jewish audience; except that it does not translate Singer's occasional lapses into Hebrew (it was a Jewish audience, after all), and sometimes calls Singer's comments "inaudible." (Singer held the microphone farther away from his mouth than McTernan did.) But McTernan also publishes his own "post-debate responses" to what Singer said during the debate (without providing Singer the courtesy of including his OWN comments on McTernan).
At any rate, it was a fascinating debate. The two topics debated were "Is Jesus the Promised Jewish Messiah?" and "Without the Shedding of Blood There Is No Atonement."
Singer observes, "The temple would be built, the Scripture says... Scripture tells that when Messiah comes, there will be peace that will reign throughout the world... The Bible says that the messianic age will be an ingathering of the exiles... in the messianic age... the knowledge of God will cover the world... In those days the whole world will know about the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And the dead will arise... Now we have to ask ourselves this question, the advent of Jesus brought about safety in Judah that you speak of? Did the advent of Christianity ... bring about building the temple in Jerusalem?... Oh no, in the year A.D. 70, that horrible time, the temple was destroyed. Is that your idea of a Messiah?" (Pg. 22-23) He admits, "Now I concede this point... although a second coming does conveniently explain away any false messiah, the idea is not articulated clearly in a single scripture in the Jewish scriptures." (Pg. 25)
Later, Singer argues, "First the genealogy of the Messiah Himself: He has to come from Jesse. I say Jesus because who you claim was born from a virgin, didn't even have a human Jewish father with which to trace His genealogy back to King David. According to you, He only had a human mother, no human father. He is therefore by the virgin birth ineligible to be the Messiah." (Pg. 33) Later, he asks, "So why give the genealogy altogether? See, if you're saying... It had to come from a virgin, why give us the genealogy, a cursed genealogy, which if you are from ... you can't even be the Messiah. Why does Matthew ever offer that's absolutely meaningless?" and McTernan replies, "Well, I don't know. I'll have to think about that." (Pg. 76)
He also contends, "You say [man] is hopeless. Scriptures say otherwise... If you look at the Bible there is not a single word about sin in Genesis 8:20-21. In fact, animal sacrifices have nothing to do about sin at all... Leviticus 16 we find these sacrifices, the blood that is sprinkles. And then we find the fact that you have to... pain your heart, in the sense of fasting and so on and repentance. Interesting---in Leviticus 16 when it speaks about the sacrifice, it doesn't say it is forever. Only when it says you must oppress your soul, that is forever... King Solomon prophetically described [1 Ki 8:46-50] what's going to happen when the Jews went into exile... That's where we are right now... we are in exile... Isn't it odd there's not a word about, you'll need blood---no, not a world at all. Why is this? Because in our exile there is no blood sacrifices at all." (Pg. 43-44) He adds, "King David made a devastating mistake in his life... he calls it in Psalm 51, a blood transgression... [King David said] 'I have sinned before the Lord.' Nathan saw it was true repentance, and he said, 'The LORD has already forgiven you.' No blood, no cross, no Calvary." (Pg. 45)
But McTernan counters by noting that Psalm 51:19 continues with, 'Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.' He says, "Of course David said you need blood sacrifices. Tanakh, the Torah is all through it... But the problem is, the rabbi doesn't have the sacrifices today. And he is trying to dance around it." (Pg. 46) He adds, "The requirement for blood for sin on Yom Kippur was an everlasting statute." (Pg. 47)
But then Singer says, "What do we do through these years. We don't have a sacrificial system? Do we convert to Christianity and live a life without Sabbath, without God, without [inaudible] those precious commandments? No, this is what Hosea [14:2] says... 'and let us render for bulls, the offering of your lips.' that means instead of sacrifices, we are to pray." (Pg. 49) He says about the "suffering servant" in Isaiah: "Isaiah 41:8-9; 43:10-11; 44:4, 24; 45:20-21; 48:20; 49:3 all say explicitly that Israel is My servant. Not as you say the Messiah is God's Servant. In fact the same Isaiah 42 you quote from... says, 'Who is blind but My servant.' Is your Messiah blind?' (Pg. 53) Later, he adds, "They... have to go through a theological somersault in order to believe that Messiah is God and believe that Isaian 53 is speaking of Messiah, because in Isaiah 53, God speaks about giving the Servant things, a promise of long life and a seed. How could God promise long life to God?" (Pg. 65)
He also concludes, "Scripture says that the Torah is forever. That means every commandment is forever, yet... your religion says that ... you don't have to keep Sabbath, you don't eat kosher, you don't have to keep the law of Moses. So again we... have God on one side that says the commandments are forever... And yet we have Christianity on the other hand that opposes the will of God, and frankly, if I have to choose between God and the Church, I choose the Almighty." (Pg. 63-64)
This is an absolutely fascinating debate, that will be "must reading" for persons on ALL "sides" of this issue. The debate is all the more valuable because (unlike numerous debates of Michael Brown with persons like Shmuley Boteach and Barry Silver) BOTH parties consider the Bible/Tanach to be the word of God.
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