Sticky situation

[Mad Matt]

My wife and I have some friends, the wife is Jewish and the husband is somewhat atheistic. The main reason we hang out, other than to witness, their daughter (Maggie) is a good friend of our daughter (C.C.). Their daughter goes to synagogue and is also learning Hebrew (!). The sticky situation arose when her and my daughter, who recently received Christ (thank you Lord), got on the subject of religion. Maggie was like "Jesus who?" What is the best way to talk to our daughter C.C. about this? I don't want to tell Maggie "This is the messiah the Jews are waiting for...but you hung him on the cross". Probably would kill the friendship. Oh yeah, both girls are 7 years old. Please advise, any help would be greatly appreciated.
God bless.

[micah719]

Matt, don't shy away from teaching The Lord Jesus Christ. To be accurate, it wasn't just the Jews that murdered Him....it was us, all of us. See this sticky situation as an opportunity to preach Christ crucified. As for being 7 years old....He did say not to hinder the little children to come to Him. Their faith will likely be a whole lot purer and more trusting than that of us grizzled old sinners, and they don't have the shipload of baggage to deal with either. One way of reaching Maggie might be to listen to what Arnold Fruchtenbaum has to say about The Lord Jesus Christ and Salvation and the Bible...his perspective is Jewish and he knows how that mindset functions, and he reveals a lot of what is hidden in the Bible from us gentiles and only apparent or significant to the Jew. May The Lord Jesus Christ guide you and bless you all.

[Hannah]

Technically the Nation of Israel might have "hung Jesus on that Cross" but never forget that the Sin of ALL of us put him there. So in reality Jesus did not die just because of the Jews but for ALL of Mankind. I really would not even bring up the fact the Jews put Jesus on the cross at this point. God is the one who judges and He has done that in Israel's case already and God is the one who forgives and for Israel He has done that as well. That is why it doesn't bear bringing up the point when evangelising (especially amongst Jews).

How do you approach the answer of the question "who is Jesus?". Well there are many kids of other religions that do not know who Jesus is and there are kids with no religion as well who do not Jesus either. Think how you would answer your daughter if her friend was not Jewish. That may help.

Another way to look at it is in the same way as telling young kids about sex or where babies come from. You answer according to what was asked and in simple way that is appropraite. For example 'where do babies come from?"................. "Mummies Tummy". Often kids are satisfied with a direct and simple answer that doesn't go into complicated lesson on Human Reproduction. "How did the baby get there?" Well that is a bit more tricky but you get my point I hope.

Stick to what you think is most important for your daughter to know and understand at the moment, in a way she will be able to relate to and it will then be relayed to her friend (if the conversation comes up again) in a way that hopefully opens her up to wanting to know more and not manage to offend her mother.


I don't know if this has been helpful enough?

(Sorry if I have been harsh in my opening statement. I didn't mean to critise you personally. Just reminding us all we too share in placing Jesus on the cross. )

[ACFI]

Mad Matt, I don't know if the Lord led you to the solution to the problem yet or not, but maybe some of this will be helpful...God Bless you brother!!!

The Suffering and Death of Christ
One of the most amazing predictions about Christ in all of Scripture is that of Isaiah 53:2–12. This precise description predicts twelve aspects of the Messiah’s sufferings and death, all of which were literally fulfilled (see Matthew 26—27; Mark 15—16; Luke 22—23; John 18—19). Jesus...

1. Was rejected
2. Was a man of sorrow
3. Lived a life of suffering
4. Was despised by others
5. Carried our sorrow
6. Was smitten and afflicted by God
7. Was pierced for our transgressions
8. Was wounded for our sins
9. Suffered like a lamb
10. Died with the wicked
11. Was sinless
12. Prayed for others Further confirmation of the predictive nature of Isaiah 53 is that it was common for Jewish interpreters before the time of Christ to teach that Isaiah here spoke of the Jewish Messiah. Only after early Christians began using the text apologetically with great force did it become in rabbinical teaching an expression of the suffering Jewish nation. This view is implausible in the context of Isaiah’s standard references to the Jewish people in the first-person plural whereas he always refers to the Messiah in third-person singular, as in Isaiah 53 (“he,”“his,” and “him”).

Predictions elsewhere about Christ’s death include:

- The piercing of His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16; cf. Luke 23:33)
- The piercing of His side (Zechariah 12:10; cf. John 19:34)
- The casting of lots for His garments (Psalm 22:18; cf. John 19:23,24)

While it wasn’t recognized until after the fact, one of the most precise predictions in Scripture gives the very year in which the Christ would die.

Daniel was speaking of both the exile of Israel and the atonement for sin when he recorded a prayer of confession for the sins of his people and a vision that the angel Gabriel gave him:

Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One [Messiah], the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens,” and sixty-two “sevens”...After the sixty-two “sevens,” the Anointed One will be cut off... (9:24–26).

The context indicates that Daniel knew Gabriel was speaking of years, since he was meditating on the “number of years” God had revealed to Jeremiah that Jerusalem would lay waste, namely “seventy years” (v. 2).

God told Daniel that it would be seven “sevens” plus sixty-two “sevens” (years) after the decree to rebuild before the Messiah would come and be cut off (die). In other words, it would be 69 × 7 = 483 years to the time of Christ’s death. Artaxerxes ordered Nehemiah “to restore and rebuild Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:25; cf. Nehemiah 2) in 445/444 B.C. Adding the widely accepted date of A.D. 33 for the crucifixion would be 444 + 33 = 477.

Add six years to compensate for the five days in our solar year that are not in the lunar year followed by Israel (5 × 477 = 2,385 days or 6+ years): 477 + 6 = 483 years. Daniel’s prediction takes us to the very time of Christ.

Christ’s Resurrection
The Old Testament also foretold the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead. In Psalm 16:10 David declares, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”

This passage is cited in the New Testament as predictive of the resurrection of Christ. Peter said explicitly of David’s prophecy, “But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay” (Acts 2:30,31).

Indeed, using passages such as this, “Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’ he said” (Acts 17:2,3).

This would scarcely have been possible unless his skeptical Jewish audience did not recognize the predictive nature of passages such as Psalm 16.


The Ascension of Christ
In Psalm 110:1, David even predicted the ascension of Christ, writing, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”

In Matthew 22:43,44, Jesus applied this passage to Himself. Peter also applied it to the ascension of Christ: “For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”’” (Acts 2:34,35).


PROPHECY AND THE MESSIAH
It is important to note the unique aspect of biblical prophecies. Unlike many psychic predictions, many of these were very specific, giving, for example, the very name of the tribe, city, and time of Christ’s coming. Unlike forecasts found in tabloids at the supermarket checkout counter, none of these predictions failed.

Since the 191 prophecies of the Messiah were written hundreds of years before Christ was born, the prophets could not have been reading the trends of the times or making intelligent guesses. Many predictions were beyond human ability to fake a fulfillment.

If Christ were a mere human being . . .

-He would have had no control over when (Daniel 9:24–27), where (Micah 5:2), or how He would be born (Isaiah 7:14).
-He would have had no control over how He would die (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53).
-He would not have been able to do miracles (Isaiah 35:5,6).
-He would not have been able to rise from the dead (Psalms 2, 16).

It is statistically impossible that all these events would have converged randomly in the life of one man. Mathematicians have calculated the probability of just sixteen predictions being fulfilled in one person at 1 in 1045. For forty-eight predictions to meet in one person, the probability is 1 in 10157. It is almost impossible to even conceive of a number that large. But it is not just a statistical impossibility that rules out the theory that Jesus engineered His prophecy fulfillments; it is morally implausible that an all-powerful and all-knowing God would allow His plans for prophetic fulfillment to be ruined by someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), nor can He break a promise (Joshua 23:14). So we must conclude that He did not allow His prophetic promises to be thwarted by chance. All the evidence points to Jesus as the divinely appointed fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. He was God’s man, confirmed by God’s signs (Acts 2:22).

[mattfivefour]

BTW, to comment on an earlier statement in this thread, nobody murdered Jesus. No-one had that power. (John 10:18) The Jews and the Romans may have been the instruments, but Jesus sacrificed Himself. As He said, He alone had the power to lay down His life ... and to take it up again. Ant thank God He did! For without that sacrifice we would yet be in our sins with no hope of ever being saved.

[ACFI]

Amen Mattfivefour!!!

[Chris]

Good thread.

[OliveOilMom]

I would tell your daughter that her friend is Jewish, like Jesus was, but Jewish people don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah yet. I would tell her that if she wants to know more about what her friend believes, that you will find out the information and tell her. If she asks more questions, then I'd suggest asking the parents what the answers are to those. Finding out what her friend believes wouldn't hurt her faith. Jesus said that we cannot be plucked out of His hand.

I would also talk to the parents of the other girl and let them know that the kids are talking about religion and that they might want to let their daughter know too that her friend has a different religion and if she has any questions about it, you will be glad to answer them.

That way, everybody is on the same page, and lines of communication are left open, and you can witness without seeming to be pushy.

[Chaya]

Olive Mom, I think that is good advice. Remember, the kids are only 7 years old. For your daughter to share her own faith and experience with her friend is all that is necessary. Then when your daughter's friend decides that she too would like to ask Jesus into her heart, you can deal with your friend being mad at you.