ARE YOU A LIAR?
The evangelist John asks a very challenging question in his first epistle (1 John 2:22). He asks, 'Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He goes on to say, 'He is an anti-christ, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:'
Strong words from a man who preached a God of love!
But, how does one arrive at the position that a man is a liar if he denies that Jesus is Christ? I guess the opening premise is that God is Truth [Deut. 32:4 etc]. From here one can reasonably deduce that God's Word is true, and that Christ, coming from God, is the Word of God [Rev. 19:13]. If this be the case, then a denial of Christ is a denial of truth [John 14:6]. To deny truth is to make truth a lie. Is this, therefore, the unforgivable sin?
Christ deniers really have no rock to stand on when 'truth' becomes a victim, as happens in war. Where is the hope of justice if there is no God to hear your cry? If your daughter is raped and murdered by soldiers, or your son tortured, tied and shot in the back of the head, how do you respond? Hate and seek revenge? Add your vitriol to the great hell of war? Seek justice from courts that may never provide justice? Give up on life itself, with no hope of glory?
I'm with Paul, who said, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' [Phil.1:21]
Clara Tea's opinion:
Your question provokes Jews to fight (or at least defend themselves). That is hardly the role of a peaceful religion. Your post pits Christians against Jews....very hostile.
If what you say is true (that anyone who denies that Jesus was the Messiah is a liar)
then all Jews would be liars. Otherwise, they would have converted to Christianity long ago.
God pretenders are a dime a dozen (as they were in the days of Jesus).
Jews heard of the miracles of Jesus, and assumed that he dabbled in the occult and was an evil sorcerer.
The whole
idea of a Messiah came from Jewish prophets, and it was written in ancient Hebrew. Because Jews were not allowed to speak their native language or have bibles (old testament), their language (old Hebrew) died out, and only recently did they speak a new form of Hebrew that is approximately the same.
Jews have a better chance to interpret old Hebrew prophecies that Christians, because most Christians don't speak Hebrew at all (not old Hebrew which is now extinct, and not new Hebrew).
So, Jews should know whether or not a God pretender is really the Messiah or
just another fraud (and there have been so many of them).
Of course the New Testament would say that Jesus was the Messiah (that is what the entire religion is about). But does that necessarily mean that it is true?
When Mary (mother of Jesus) had Jesus, fooling around with another man was a stoning offense (stoned to death). Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, and while she was she had Jesus. What choice did she have but to come up with a story that she was a virgin and that God was the father of the baby. Is it really like God to have a baby with a betrothed woman? I thought that God told us not to covet our neighbor's wives? If so, it seems as though God, Himself, committed a cardinal sin by having Jesus.
Maybe it is all a story designed to cover up a sex scandal (fooling around with another man while betrothed to Joseph?)?
Even in our day there are frauds who pretend to be of God.
For example, God said "thou shalt not kill" and President George W. Bush, elected by the Religious Right, made two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) against peaceful people not linked to terrorism, also tried to lie us into war with Niger, falsely claiming that Niger sold Iraq Uranium yellow cake (but Wilson refused to lie so they outed his CIA wife, Valery Plame), and also W. Bush fought in Somalia (doesn't it seem odd to fight against such powerless people?).
Another example of a fraud who pretends to be of God: Jeb Bush said that hurricanes would not hit Florida while he was governor, and when one did, he said that it destroyed the trailer trash people (not the rich who could afford solid homes that don't blow away).
With so many people defying God and pretending to be prophets of God, it gets very confusing. So, how do you tell the difference between a real prophet of God and a phony? Simple....follow the money trail (greed.....lower taxes for the rich, and use the proceeds to move factories abroad to take advantage of cheap foreign labor and cheap foreign materials (which break). You can follow the blood trail (wars, torture camps). You can follow the callousness (ignoring the poor). You can follow the environmental damage (pollution, global warming). All of these trails lead to Satan, and this is why the world is so messed up today.
There is quite a difference between denying the existence of a Messiah, and denying that Jesus was that Messiah. Sure, the Jews believed that there would be a Messiah, and they were not trying to defy God or be disrespectful. However, in order to believe that Jesus was that Messiah, there has to be more proof than just a bible that someone claims is the word of God. Many claimed that they spoke the word of God, yet, there is no proof that they did.
You said that Christ deniers don't have a rock to stand on. Well, they might not deny that someone is Christ, but deny that Jesus was that person.
There is plenty of evidence that Jesus was not the Messiah. If Jesus was the Messiah, the Christian church would be a force for good. Instead, we see that there were Salem witch trials, in which Christians murdered innocent people. We see wars, tortures, denial of science, etc. I can hardly find any evidence that Christianity helped anyone in a big way. There are a few instances of Christian charity (currently an organization of Christians and Jews are helping holocaust survivors of Russia). But the problems that Christians created certainly outweigh the benefits, so far, and that is why the world is in such a mess.
