Update on Jewish Apologetics

Earlier we talked about the Muslim Apologetic Scene. INTERESTINGLY enough, what kind of Jewish Apologetics do we have out there? This is quite interesting. When we look at Jewish Apologetics, we find Jews who are basically GENERALLY SPEAKING, not opposed to Jesus Christ (now, I know this is interesting..but this is not to say that Jewish arguments on the web do not all appeal to pro Jesus arguments). Interestingly, when I googled this search item, I did not find anything opposed to Christianity. I found 10 pages, or basically about 100 sources of Messianic Jews, the Jews who have accepted Christ as their personal Savior. One of these was from Dr. Michael Brown:

If Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, why don't more Jews believe in Him?

Judaism today is divided into various groups: Reformed, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox, and Hasidic. Each group accepts certain truths from the Talmud and certain truths from the Bible. The distinctive quality of Messianic Judaism is that it is biblically Jewish, i.e., it holds to the absolute authority of the Scriptures. This is important because to all other Jewish groups, the Bible is not the final authority. Therefore, the Messiahship of Jesus is not an issue that is approached with an open mind, since the interpretations of today's rabbis depend totally on the opinions and traditions of their forefathers who rejected Jesus.

Those Jews who have studied the question of the Messianic claims of Jesus with a truly open mind have come to surprising conclusions, and many rabbis and Jewish leaders have indeed accepted Jesus as their Messiah. Some Jewish people have rejected Jesus because they fail to understand His dual role. They have looked for a king, a political leader who would free them from their oppressors and provide peace and prosperity. Jesus will accomplish this in the future, when He returns to re-establish the throne of David.

The Hebrew Scriptures indicate that the Jewish people would not recognize their Messiah when He first appeared (Isaiah 53:1-3) to die as an atonement for sin.


Dr. Michael L. Brown is founder and president of ICN Ministries, devoted to taking the message of repentance and revival to Israel, the Church, and the Nations. He has preached throughout the United States and in numerous foreign countries, emphasizing radical discipleship, holy living, and the visitation of the Spirit. His books, articles, and messages have been translated into more than a dozen languages. In 1996, he became part of the ministry of the Brownsville Revival, holding weekly sessions for leaders and heading up the revival's intensive two-year School of Ministry. Dr. Brown is now President of the FIRE School of Ministry located in Charlotte, NC.

As a Jewish believer in Jesus, Dr. Brown is active in Jewish evangelism and has debated rabbis on radio, TV, and college campuses. He is also a published Old Testament and Semitic scholar, holding a Ph.D in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. In 1997, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Jewish Apologetics at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission and has been affiliated with Regent University Divinity School as an Adjunct Professor of Old Testament and Jewish Studies.


Zev Isaacs, the son of a Holocaust survivor, raised in Montreal's Jewish community, began his search for God while completing his degree in International Relations at York University in 1987. During his search, he was challenged by his mother's new faith in Jesus (Yeshua), and by his Jewish friend's conversion to Orthodox Judaism.

Confused, Isaacs began to meet and discuss the objections to the Messianic prophecies with Jews for Judaism and Aish HaTorah on Friday evenings. On Saturday mornings he would meet with a Messianic Rabbi to learn about Yeshua and the validity of the Messianic interpretation. After more than one year of studying the Messianic prophecies and struggling through the objections, he finally realized that Yeshua was the promised Jewish Messiah. Isaacs was determined to one day publish a Bible that would expose the truth of the Messianic prophecies.

Isaacs founded The Messianic Times newspaper in 1989 and resigned in 2002 to devote himself fully to the work of the Bible Project and the Messianic Evangelistic Association.




Dr. Michael L. Brown
General Editor Dr. Michael L. Brown is a well-known scholar and author who holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. He has served as a Visiting Professor of Jewish Apologetics at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission and as a Visiting Professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
He is founder and president of FIRE School of Ministry and has written more than a dozen books, including the recently published Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series by Baker Book House. He is also a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion. As a Messianic Jew, Dr. Brown is active in Jewish evangelism and has debated rabbis on radio, TV, and college campuses.

According to Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, "Brown is the new expert in Jewish Apologetics. Dr. Brown has enabled Messianic Jews to answer those anti-missionaries who are perpetually posing as authorities in the Hebrew Language and try to show that belief in Yeshua is a gentile pagan belief."