How to Respond to Christian Missionaries: A Jewish Perspective

Judith asks: “Hello. I’ve heard that there is a group of Christian missionaries in our country who claim that Jesus is the savior and approach people in the street with this message. How should one respond to them?”

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Hello Judith,

Do you know what Jesus’s last recorded words were when he was crucified? According to Christian sources themselves, he cried out: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
He could not even save himself.

Only after his death did a small group of people declare him to be the “Messiah,” while the Jewish people and all the sages of Israel — those who faithfully transmitted the original Torah from generation to generation, rejected Jesus unequivocally. It was pagan nations, not the Jewish people, who believed in him, and from those idol-worshipping cultures Christianity emerged — cultures that had previously bowed to wood and stone.

This also explains many of Christianity’s beliefs. For example, Christians believe that God Himself impregnated a virgin woman. Missionaries also believe that the crucified Jesus was none other than God incarnate — God who became flesh and blood. Like the most primitive idol worshippers, they believe that the eternal, infinite God — Who has no body and no physical form, Who created and rules the entire universe, was born from a woman, grew up as a human infant, and was eventually killed by human beings.

Catholic Christians even perform an annual ritual in which they eat bread and drink wine, believing these turn into the literal flesh and blood of their god. They also believe in something called the “Trinity,” claiming that God is somehow three beings who are one — apparently unfamiliar with the verse: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”

The strange beliefs of these missionaries (known in Israel as “Messianic Jews”) do not end with ideas that contradict logic; they also include beliefs that violate basic moral intuition. They believe that the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust all went to hell simply because they did not believe in Jesus. Consider the victims of the Nazis — men, women, children, and infants. Then it will not surprise you that these same Christians believe that even a starving child who dies in Africa goes to hell merely for not believing in Jesus — including babies and innocent people. They call this a religion of love and peace.

Now consider the stark contrast between falsehood and truth: according to Judaism, righteous non-Jews also have a share in the World to Come — and will even participate in the resurrection of the dead, if they live moral and upright lives.

You are not obligated to engage with these missionaries at all, because they are not truly seeking truth. You’ll notice that they deliberately approach young people who are more naïve or disconnected from Judaism. Anyone who understands why the Torah of Israel is true will not take their claims seriously. I have written many articles addressing Christianity and its arguments.

Why Christianity Cannot Be True — In Brief

All religions claim that some prophet or “messiah” told the masses that God revealed Himself to him. False prophets who made such claims were not necessarily malicious; some may have suffered from psychological disorders. But it is obvious that the Creator of the universe — Who designed reality with such extraordinary wisdom, would not deliver His true Torah and “manufacturer’s instructions” in a way that any individual could fabricate.

For this reason, the Torah of Israel was given in a national revelation before an entire people. It is the only religion in the world that was revealed publicly by God to a whole nation — approximately three million people, accompanied by undeniable miracles: the Ten Plagues of Egypt, including blood and the death of the firstborn, the splitting of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, and many others.

The revelation at Mount Sinai was a historical event witnessed by an entire nation, not by isolated individuals. That is how we know the Torah truly came from God and was not invented by a human being.

Christianity emerged long after the giving of the Torah. Christians themselves admit that the Torah of Israel was given by God — but then claim that it was later annulled and replaced by their religion. Imagine a father and son: the son acknowledges that his father is righteous and just, but the father sadly insists that the son has rebelled and gone astray. It is obvious that we should follow the father, and not the son’s new path.

The same applies to Christianity and Islam. Both are offshoots that acknowledge the Jewish Torah but claim a new path. Only the Jewish people continue to observe the original covenant passed down from our ancestors, as commanded regarding Shabbat: “It is an everlasting covenant between Me and the Children of Israel.” (Shemot 31:16)

This is also the strongest response to Christianity: Mount Sinai. If God had wished to change or abolish the Torah, He would have had to reveal Himself again at Mount Sinai before the entire Jewish people — just as He did the first time. One does not cancel a covenant signed in front of three million witnesses by speaking to a handful of individuals. Such a claim is illogical and easily fabricated — indeed, Islam makes the exact same claim while denying Christianity.

God demonstrated His existence and power openly through miracles witnessed by the Jewish people so that all would know the Torah of Israel is true.

Jesus and Muhammad both attempted to abolish the obligation of practical commandments, yet neither ever validated their claims with public miracles witnessed by millions. For this reason, neither Christianity nor Islam can be true.

Furthermore, the Christian New Testament was written by four anonymous individuals nearly a century after Jesus’s death. Christianity was not transmitted by millions who witnessed its events, but by a few individuals who could have been mistaken or dishonest. This is the difference between legend and national history: legend is transmitted by isolated individuals without verification, while true history is transmitted by millions who witnessed the events firsthand.