Author of Contradict – They Can't All Be True.
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Andy is in the process of turning his book, Contradict – They Can’t All Be True, into an audio edition. This episode is a sampling of the work in progress as he reads the first chapter. The influence of Hinduism in the West with its connections to religious pluralism is addressed, which leads perfectly into next week’s episode asking the question, “Is it OK for Christians to do yoga?”
We should be evangelists first and apologists second. When defending the Christian faith, we should always strive to incorporate the Gospel into our defense. Why should we do this? How can we do this? Andy gives a brief explanation at the start of this episode, before reading an excerpt from his book Contradict – They Can’t All be True to answer these questions, before running these concepts through in practice on Cross Defense, a radio show hosted by Rod Zwonitzer on KFUO out of St. Louis, Missouri! Enjoy.
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Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah, because they claim he didn’t fulfill Messianic prophesy. Andy received an email from someone arguing that there were four key prophesies Jesus did not fulfill. The sender also listed other ways in which Jesus contradicted the Hebrew Bible. Andy discusses this email with Crean Lutheran High School’s Old Testament teacher, Conni Schramm. She provides a Biblical response to all of the man’s objections. Her first response to the email is shocking, and it should serve as a reminder for all of us entering into such debates via online messaging!
How would you have responded to these objections? The following is the email Andy received at andy@contradictmovement.org in its entirety (swear words are blanked out):
I am contacting you because one of your members noticed my Israeli Air Force shirt today and proceeded to launch into horribly misinformed evangelical nonsense. I’ve had more enlightening conversations with Time Warner Cable technical support. He shared his nonsensical worldview with me, and I felt I should contact you, giving you feedback on one of your flock. Simply put, he was an idiot, but just barely intelligent enough to be _____________.Let me speak frankly, then: Jesus of Nazareth was not the messiah.
What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? One of the central themes of biblical prophecy is the promise of a future age of perfection characterized by universal peace and recognition of God. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 32:15-18, 60:15-18; Zephaniah 3:9; Hosea 2:20-22; Amos 9:13-15; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 8:23, 14:9; Jeremiah 31:33-34)
Specifically, the Bible says he will:
- Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
Second one was already standing – he’s out!- Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
There was an enormous population of Jews outside Israel that stayed outside – nope.- Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)
If anything, more people were killed in his name than any other reason.- Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: “God will be King over all the world ― on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zechariah 14:9). – Nope.
If an individual fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be the Messiah. Jesus failed at all four.
The Messiah must be descended on his father’s side from King David (see Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:17; Ezekiel 34:23-24). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father ― and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father’s side from King David. (1) – Yet the genealogies of the gospels CONTRADICT EACH OTHER
The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. The Torah states that all mitzvot remain binding forever, and anyone coming to change the Torah is immediately identified as a false prophet. (Deut. 13:1-4) So, he’s a dissident.Throughout the New Testament, Jesus contradicts the Torah and states that its commandments are no longer applicable. For example, John 9:14 records that Jesus made a paste in violation of Shabbat, which caused the Pharisees to say (verse 16), “He does not observe Shabbat!” And a blasphemer.Quite Frankly, sir, your evangelical organization is a sham, and the word “Contradict” in your title only refers to contradicting yourself. You can’t hold that all parts of the bible are true if Jesus BLATANTLY contradicts the Torah, though you hold that it is the binding word of God (written by people, by the way, even Torah) even though it is contradicted by a blasphemer and political dissident who accomplished exactly nothing. Jesus contradicts Torah, yet you worship Leviticus 18:22. YOU ARE CONTRADICTING YOURSELF! Normally, I don’t get too upset about these things. This person was hell-bent on converting me back to idiocy, and I am hell-bent on letting you know the following:1. That your followers are ________. You won’t win any hearts and minds with people like that.2. That your followers are also idiots, they are incapable of thinking for themselves save the lies with which you fill their heads.3. I shall make it my goal to contradict your insidious movement whenever the opportunity arises.
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Andy Wrasman, George Allen III, and Adam Stetson discuss how they came to use a Contradict poster for evangelism at University California Irvine. What were their previous evangelism efforts? Why did they decide the Contradict evangelism table method was their favorite? How do they use the poster to spring into sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? What tips do they have to share from their outings? What are their most memorable encounters and relationships formed via their Contradict outings? What do they appreciate the most about each others’ personality and approach to sharing the Gospel? Answering all of these questions, they hope to inspire and encourage you to consider a similar approach to sharing the Gospel in public spaces.
Jay Clair has been a very active member on my Contradict – They Can’t All Be True Facebook page.
I discovered that he had a blog called Blue Eyed Shy Guy. The blog stood out to me because I am a fan of Mario 2 for the NES, and to my knowledge it was the only Mario game that featured the Shy Guy characters. Jay explains the name of his blog at the start of the podcast. For this show we discuss one of his blog posts that really stood out to me: “What is Meant by God?”.
The blog post originated as a reply to an Avengers meme that his brother sent him. Many people compare belief in Jesus to belief in Zeus, basically saying, they’re both mythological gods. Yet, Jay responds with a break down of the difference between God with a capital G and god with a lower case g. Doing such shows that belief in Jesus is nowhere near the same as belief in Zeus. His work also shows that there isn’t as many proposed Gods to consider if someone is evaluating the world’s religions for truth.
Click here to listen to Episode 4: Jesus vs. Zeus (Right click to download).
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Andy Wrasman 