Here are my qualifications to answer the first three questions (the last two are opinions). I am a Jewish-Christian, raised Jewish, and was a Religious Studies minor in college. I have read extensively on this subject, written papers about it etc. As long as my memory holds up, I should be fine.
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Keeper of the Grove:
1. Aren’t you guys (Jews) waiting for the second coming of King David? |
</strong>Religious Jews are not waiting for the second coming of King David. They are waiting for the
Messiah, who will supposedly be a descendant of King David. (Messiah is a word borrowed from Hebrew; it means anointed one i.e. called/blessed by God. The Greek translation is Christos.) The Messiah will supposedly rescue the Jewish people, which leads into your second question.
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| 2. Isn't one of the main things separating Jews and Christians the belief that Jesus was not the second coming of David? |
As noted above, Jews are not waiting for the second coming of David. The Messiah was not predicted to be a resurrected King David. What the Messiah was supposed to be was a hotly debated topic 2000 years ago, mostly because the Jewish people were conquered and oppressed by the Roman Empire. It also seems that there were any number of people proclaiming to be the Messiah, so it wasn't unusual for any Messiah wanna-be to be questioned. The writers of the NT felt that Jesus fulfilled the requirements of Messiah-hood for many reasons, but mainly because the death of Jesus on the cross absolved mankind of sin (as long as a person believed in Him). Thus Jesus rescued Israel, and as Paul and Peter discover, the Gentile world as well. Jewish leaders of that time rejected him because he claimed to be the "Son of God," in essence saying he was equal to God. A major no-no.
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| 3. Aren’t you (Jews) waiting for the same type of person David was - A battle lord - Or someone who will unite the Jews, like a King? |
Ok. There are some predictions in the OT that portray the Messiah as a conquering king, similar to David. The Messiah is predicted to be a root from David (which is why Matthew and Luke give long genealogies of Jesus, tying him to the seed of King David.) From my experience and schooling, I have found that a great leader-warrior is exactly what Jewish people expect the Messiah to be. That has been true for thousands of years. (Christian scholars are divided about the explicitly military-warrior predictions, some saying that Jesus fulfilled them already by "saving" Israel on the cross, others that those predictions will be fulfilled when Jesus comes back during the Apocalypse.)
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| 4. If you are Jewish and have read the New Testament or The Koran, or the Book of Mormon, what do you think of them? |
Well, I obviously like the New Testament.
I have not read the Koran or the Book of Mormon completely. From what I have read and read about them, I find them to be interesting works but I do not believe that they are "inspired" writings (my personal view).
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| 5. What do you think about the Jews For Jesus movement? |
Rather than say what I think, let me just say that Jewish people hate them in Israel and dislike them here in the US.
I thank you for satisfying my curiosity ahead of time.[/qb][/QUOTE]
I probably glossed over some important points, but I hope this helps. Keeper, what religion or non-religion are you and why the interest in this topic?
