By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative What is one of the strongst arguments for Jesus being the Jewish Messiah? What is interesting is that over the years the Jewish community has come up with a criterion that supposedly shows that the Jewish Messiah has not come. In Aryeh Kaplan’s The …
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative One of the most challenging objections I receive on a regular basis is that the message Christians present to people is that they need to repent and trust Jesus the Messiah because when they die, they will be in heaven. Thus, the message of...
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative When it comes to the question as to whether Jesus is the Messiah, both Christians and Jewish people agree that the Messiah has to be a descendant of David. The area of disagreement is when Christians make the claim that Jesus is the divine,...
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative Over the years, one of the common complaints by skeptics of the Gospels is that the Gospel writers supposedly took great liberty to make up or embellish certain parts of their work to make their point. In other words, many parts of the...
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative Introduction One of the most prominent themes throughout the Bible is the reign of God. The framework of Israel’s existence and self-understanding was formulated from God’s covenant with Israel and Israel’s servant to God the King. Israel is the people of the king, and...
What does Hanukkah have to with someone who follows Jesus? It is a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Not to mention the Feast of Dedication is the background of John 10. Over the …
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”- John 18:36 One...
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative The statement that “Jesus is the Messiah” presupposes a certain way of reading Israel’s Scriptures and assumes a certain hermeneutical approach that finds in Jesus the unifying thread and the supreme goal of Israel’s sacred literature. A messiah can only be a messiah from...
The skeptical issue in our culture mostly enters into the religious dialogue in the following way: “In the case of God, who isn’t some material object but a divine being, what kind of evidence should we expect to find? There is a tendency to forget that the Bible...
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative In a previous post, I discussed some of the common objections anti-missionaries and groups like Jews for Judaism make to the claims about Jesus being the Jewish Messiah of Israel and the nations. One objection that always comes up is that if Jesus...
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative When it comes to messianic expectations at the time of Jesus, Christians can be unaware that other names were used to describe the messianic person other than the “Messiah.” Two of these names are “Son of God” and “Son of Man.” The “Son of …
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative Apologetics is the branch of theology that helps us to answer the tough questions people have about what we beleive and why we believe in specific issues such as the existence of God, the Messiah's rising from the dead, the relaibility of the Bible,...
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative This is the third post in our series on “How a Christian Should View Israel?” (Part One is Here) (Part Two is Here) As I already mentioned, I will expand on R. Kendall’s Soulen’s The God of Israel and Christian Theology which has shown...
By Eric Chabot, CJF Ministries Midwest Representative This is the second post in our series on “How Should a Christian View Israel? (Part One is here) As I already mentioned, I will expand on R. Kendall’s Soulen’s The God of Israel and Christian Theology which has shown the long history …
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative Obviously, one of the most challenging issues within Christian apologetics is the accusation that in many cases, Christianity has been associated with anti-Semitism. Several years ago, I remember reading Lee Strobel’s book The Case for Faith. In one chapter he interviews John Woodbridge about …
By Eric Chabot, CJF Midwest Representative There is no doubt that the major identity marker for a committed Christian is to say they follow Jesus Christ. But for the average Jewish person, the name “Jesus Christ” has no relationship to Judaism. And for the average Christian, there is little a …
By Eric Chabot, CJFM Midwest Representative The New Testament does not reveal Jesus as any ordinary prophet or religious teacher. Rather, it reveals Him as God incarnate (John 1:1; 8:58-59;10:29-31;14:8-9;20-28; Phil. 2:5-7; Col. 2:9; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:1). Anyone who reads through the Gospels will see...
David Klinghoffer is a observant Jewish man who happens to be a big advocate of the Intelligent Design movement. He also is the author of the book Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History. Just glancing at the title alone may lead a reader to conclude …
Given that historians look to those who are contemporaries of the events, Paul is an important resource for what historians can know about Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, the earliest documents we have for the life of Jesus are Paul’s letters. Paul was a very competent rabbi who was trained at...
Introduction Anyone who has studied evidential apologetics will see that many apologists have laid a great emphasis on messianic prophecy as one of the keys to demonstrating Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. One thing that is left out of these discussions is that when it comes to prophecy, it is...
