In Answer to Rabbi Skobac

Rabbi Skobac* tries to show Christianity wrong about OT:

Matthew then claims that this took place to fulfill a Messianic prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures:

And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My son. Matthew 2:15

However, if we examine the source of Matthew's quote, we see that he seriously distorted its meaning:

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. Hosea 11:1

The 11th chapter of Hosea describes the early history of the Jewish people after God redeemed them from the Egyptian exile. In scripture, the people of Israel are indeed spoken of as God’s son (Exodus 4:22).

Matthew, here, ignores this context and distorts the true meaning of the verse by claiming that it was actually a prophecy about the childhood of Jesus. It is clear that Matthew obscures the actual meaning by quoting only the latter half of the verse. He omits the first half of the verse that clarifies that it is speaking about Israel.

Here too:

Here Matthew quotes the entire verse, but nonetheless distorts its actual meaning. By examining the original context of this verse from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, we see that Rachel was not weeping for children who were murdered, but for children who were still alive, but taken into captivity:

Thus said the Lord: Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in the end, says the Lord, that your children will come again to their own border. Jeremiah 31:16-17

Two observations in general:

• 1) St. Matthew was a Levite, and while having wasted part of his adult life as an unjust tax collector, he had the training to deal with OT Scripture.
• 2) He, with other disciples, received a lesson or even several ones on how ALL of Moses and the Prophets foretold Our Lord. This means, the "all" is not restricted to what is commonly acknowledged as Messianic prophecies on both sides. It extends to every jot and tittle of the OT books as extant in LXX (so, some more than the ones extant in Hebrew).

It is in other words normal, and St. Matthew was perfectly aware of it, that parts of OT not in themselves overtly referring to a coming Messiah, but either history or prophetic reflection on history should in actual fact also refer to the Messiah. Note very well, that before St. Matthew (and the other of the disciples) accepted this, including how Isaac carrying the wood for his holocaust prefigures Christ carrying the Cross, they had seen him captured, they had heard of his death (Mary and the Beloved Disciple, probably a young Cohen of the 72 disciples, not a fisherman among the 12, though also named John, had seen Him die, and the women who first witnessed of the Resurrection had also so seen Him) and thereon, they had seen Him alive again.

The proof is not so much one or ten or 100 prophecies fulfilled that were originally considered prophecies, the proof is impossibility of finding a piece of OT history or writing which does not fit Christ, either in His first or in His second coming.

This leads to the Messianic utopia described along with certain Messianic prophecies normally so considered also on the Jewish side. The Catholic Church has fulfilled this utopia time after time.

As Scobac also does here, on those surprised at exaltation in Isaiah 53 context being Gentiles, not Jews:

The majority of people in the world actually believe that Jesus will return in the future and that he will be exalted at that time. In reality, the only people who will be shocked if the subject of this chapter were Jesus would be the Jewish people. But we are not told that the Jewish people will be shocked when the Servant is exalted. It is the rest of the world that will be shocked.

While Christianity exists everywhere, and its correct form, Catholicism, exists almost everywhere, Catholics are one billion, non-Catholic Christians another billion, which makes up only 2/7 of the present world population. No, the majority in the world do NOT believe Jesus Christ will be returning in an exalted manner. The majority of people rather are allergic to this perspective. Rabbis Skobac may be relying on an impression from back in Russian Empire, one that Russian Jewry had within that Empire. Orthodox are the largest non-Catholic body of Christians, one third of the non-Catholic Christian billion, and Russians are the largest of the Orthodox Churches. Tengriists and Muslims were a minority. While Muslims in a sense also believe Jesus will be exalted, they first and foremost believe he will humble himself before a greater Messiah, having been that of Jewish nation, before that of the Islamic nation, the Mahdi. So, Muslims will certainly be shocked, as will Tengriists, as will Hindus, as will Buddhists. If you go out of Russia, a majority of people actually will be shocked if Jesus is exalted as Messiah. Especially as Judge of Living and Dead.

One more, the real Jews in God's eyes are the Catholic Church. At present, Jewish nation is mostly outside the Catholic Church, and as such not the real Israel to which Isaiah was speaking, but rather heirs to the evil men who had Isaiah sawn to death.

While this is so, many Catholics are apostasising, and joining the world who will be astonished to see Jesus Christ exalted, while Jews, even before Henoch and Elijah (though some have claimed Moses and Elijah) return, are already starting to convert.

I am heir of Jewesses who already did that conversion, and perhaps up along the Lundahl ancestry some male Jew who did so before them. I intend to remain so. I also intend to defend it. I would like to make some money as a writer doing so.

If Jews who believe the viewpoint of Rabbi Skobac are stopping me from doing so, hoping they are saving me from a bad thing, preserving me for a good thing, let them back down. They are doing a bad thing to me. I have spent years after years writing, and I have also spent years after years begging, because people (and such Jews are on my list of suspects, though not alone there) have stopped me from earning money as a writer. I am here neither accusing nor excusing anyone in particular. I am noting that Jews who hope for another Messiah than Jesus from Nazareth would have a motive.

I have neither pretended to be a prophet, nor the Messiah. I don't intend to pretend so in the future either.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Sts Macarius and companions
28.II.2019

Oh, by the way:

At this point, we will not discuss the historical credibility of the Gospel accounts. Suffice it to say, there are extremely strong grounds for doubting the veracity of these stories.

Obviously, modern academia is riddled with such Jew serving double talk, doesn't make it true, or Gospels historically false. Now, trusting the Gospels, we are not just dealing with any miracles in general (some of which could be false miracles), we are dealing with raising of dead, healing lepers and a few more. As ONE FOR ISRAEL has pointed out, there is even Talmudic tradition saying these miracles need the Messiah for author. The Egyptian magicians could not replicate the passing through the Red Sea, nor were they able to ward off the plagues of Egypt (which did not touch Goshen), nor were they able to raise the Pharao from the waves where he had drowned./HGL

* WHY JEWS DON’T SEE JESUS IN THE JEWISH BIBLE
Rabbi Michael Skobac
http://jewsforjudaism.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Lifeline-Chanukah-2014.pdf