I got this method when reading The book: The Apologetics of Jesus. This method is useful against Hebrew Israelites. I’ll tell you why and explain it all in a minute.

Many of the Hebrew Israelites that you see today teach a gospel that is only for Israelites. This shuts out most people in the world from God’s grace.

It’s sad because I get messages from Hebrew Israelites who say not all are like this, and that might be true. But the ones reaching the most people, do believe salvation is only for Israel.

It’s important to me you are not deceived by these cult groups. They have broken up many homes and robbed many people of the Gospel. The true Gospel.

The Apologetics Of Jesus – The 5 Part System

In the apologetics of Jesus, they share something called Jesus’ five witnesses. He uses this to defend himself in John chapter 5. The five witnesses are John the Baptist, Miracles, God the Father, the Torah, and Moses.

Look at what it says on page 23. It explains the five witnesses.

In the Judaistic context, Jesus provides the greatest possible witnesses: the greatest prophet, John the Baptist; the greatest works, miracles; the greatest being, God; the greatest book, the Torah; and the greatest lawgiver, Moses. Any unbiased Jewish jury would have been overwhelmed by the evidence.

These five witnesses should be more than acceptable if they’re unbiased.

Using The 5 Witnesses On Hebrew Israelites

The reason this is relevant to Hebrew Israelites is because they believe they are Jews. I’ve never made a big deal about this. I know some do, but it’s not a deal breaker for me.

The Gospel is more important than if you are Jew or not. Don’t spend more time debating if Hebrew Israelites are Jews or not than who the Gospel is for.

Jesus’ Apology (Part 1) – John The Baptist

If Jesus was walking down the street today and saw Hebrew Israelites preaching salvation is only for Israel, this is what He’d do. He would go into His bag and bring out John the Baptist.

We don’t have much of what John the Baptist preached. He’s the forerunner for the Lord, after all, not the Lord. But Jesus did say he was the greatest born of a woman, and that’s what makes his testimony so important.

One thing he says on this topic is vital. Hebrew Israelites who believe salvation is only for Israel obsess over bloodline. That is the key ingredient to whether you can get saved or not.

This is the same approach the religious leaders who rejected Jesus took:

“We are from Abraham, so we are special.”

But that’s not true. John the Baptist makes this clear in Luke chapter 3 and Matthew chapter 3. Both say the same thing, but I’ll show you Luke’s account.

Take a look at what he says. Luke 3:7 says,

“Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

John doesn’t Agree With Hebrew Israelites

People were coming to John, and he was straight with them, you’ll get destroyed by God if you don’t repent. You must change your mind.

The religious elites looked down on tax collectors, harlots, and any who didn’t seem religious who got baptized, but they didn’t want to get baptized by John.

Their reasoning was, We are the seed of Abraham. This means we are special and salvation is for us.

Much like the Hebrew Israelites today, look at what John the Baptist says in Luke 3:8.

“Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to father; for I see unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

John the Baptist doesn’t say salvation is only for Israel. He says the opposite.

Don’t think because you are Abraham’s seed you are good. John says God can make stones become the children of Abraham like that.

The logic is clear if you follow it: if God can make stones the seed of Abraham, how much more a person who isn’t from the Israelite bloodline?

Your bloodline doesn’t matter when it comes to salvation. Your faith in Jesus matters. That is why in the next verse John the Baptist says,

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which brings not forth good fruit is hewn [cut] down and cast into the fire.”

John the Baptist’s preaching is clear. If you don’t get this right, you’ll get destroyed regardless of if you are an Israelite.

Hebrew Israelites Vs 1st Century Judaizers

Understanding Hebrew Israelite psychology helps you understand the mindset of first century elitists. They see themselves as special. This message by John the Baptist would have rocked them to their core.

Imagine believing your whole life that bloodline secures you, and then someone says to you, “If you have no faith, your bloodline is irrelevant.”

John the Baptist’s message here gets backed by another John: John the disciple Jesus loved.

Take a look at what he writes in the first chapter of his Gospel.

John 1:11-13 says,

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Jesus came to his own, the Israelites, and they didn’t accept Him. Not all, anyway. But those who accepted him by faith from all people, He made them sons of God.

It’s clear this is all people from Israel and not Israel by verse 13.

Not those born of blood, (not only Israelites), not by man’s will, but God’s will.

Jesus makes anybody a son of God if they believe, not if they are born as an Israelite. This sounds exactly like John the Baptist’s preaching.

The Apologetics Of Jesus (Part 2) – Miracles

After speaking about John the Baptist, Jesus will now move to his second witness: miracles. Jesus did miracles for Israelites and non-Israelites. For this post, I will mention only one in Matthew 8.

Jesus rocks any self-righteous Israelite thinking bloodline makes them better.

Starting at verse 5, look at what happens:

“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion begging him.”

Capernaum was up north in Israel, close to Gentile places like Syria, Tyre, and Sidon.

He meets the centurion, a Roman soldier. He’s not an Israelite. When you read Luke chapter 7, he makes this even clearer. But either way, it’s clear in both passages that this Roman soldier is not an Israelite.

I’ll show you how in a minute. But verses 6 & 7 tell us that the centurion has a sick servant at home.

He wants Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus obliges. Then this Gentile centurion says something mindboggling in verses 8-9. Look at what he says:

“The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this go, and he goes; and to another come, and he comes; and to my servant do this, and he does it.”

He says speak and the servant will get healed, but follow his reasoning and logic:

I’m a man who says to people do this and do that, and it’s so because I have authority over them.

Likewise, Jesus…I have faith that you have authority over sickness, disease, and location.

When you say the word where you are, my servant at home will get healed.

Look at what happens next:

“Jesus heard the man and marvelled,”

and he says,

This is the truth. I have not found faith like this anywhere in Israel.”

This Gentile has more faith than any Israelite. That is a deep cut for any Hebrew Israelite. But Jesus is not finished. Follow the logic of the rest of his reply based on this example.

verse 11 says,

“And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”

Many people will come from the East and West and sit down in the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent the promised line, but those from the East and West are people like the Gentile centurion.

This gets clearer when you read verse 12.

“But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This is all about faith in Him, not your bloodline. This sounds exactly like John the Baptist’s preaching, exactly like the opening of John’s Gospel, and exactly like the faith shown by this non-Israelite centurion.

Jesus’ Apologetic (Part 3) – God

Jesus would then move to the greatest being, which is God, to prove His case.

Jesus is God, so His miracles would suffice. But Hebrew Israelites like this also reject Jesus being God. Because of this, He would give an argument from God in the Old Testament.

Jesus would give an example of the Ninevites and Jonah. Jonah is like the Hebrew Israelite, the legalistic religious leaders in Jesus’ day.

Jonah knows God is gracious and merciful, so instead of preaching to Nineveh, he runs away. But when Jonah gets to Nineveh and preaches, it says in Jonah 3:3,

“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”

From the king down, they believed God and got saved. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 12, the Ninevites will condemn those rejecting him because they believed.

This doesn’t mean all Ninevites everywhere and all time got saved. Nineveh got destroyed by God a few years later.

But those people in Nineveh with Jonah got saved by God. And this doesn’t even include the Gentiles saved in Jonah chapter 1 when Jonah runs away.

Gentiles come to trust in God and take God’s message to different parts of the world. And the message would get shared with a life-changing testimony to go with it. Near-death experiences are some of the greatest testimonies there are.

Jonah Is Angry Over God’s Grace

Jonah chapter 4 starts with Jonah angry. God spared his enemies. It’s the same with Hebrew Israelites today. When you say the Gospel is open to all who believe, Hebrew Israelites ignore this.

They deflect and talk about the bad treatment they received from white people.

No one is denying African Americans got treated in an ungodly way. We can cover the history of many peoples treated in ungodly ways. But look at what God says to Jonah about Nineveh to end the book…

“Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and [much] cattle?”

What did Paul say in Acts to the Edomite king, despite Edomites betraying Israel?

He said,

“I wish to God you and everyone here would be a Christian like me, without my handcuffs.”

Jesus’ 4th Apologetic Move (Part 4) – The Law

Jesus would then move to the greatest law, the Torah, the five books of Moses.

Jesus would show how Israelites left Egypt, and so did non-Israelites. It’s easy to miss this, but there are examples that remind you this was not only Israelites.

The people who enslaved Israelites for hundreds of years, some were now leaving with them. There were Egyptians, slaves from other places, and others who believed in God too.

I’ll give two quick examples.

Exodus 12:38 says,

“And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, very much cattle.”

Leviticus 24 speaks of the man with an Israelite mother but Egyptian father. He would be Egyptian.

He wasn’t the only person in the camp like this, but he cursed his God and got put to death.

In the Torah, you have Gentiles and Israelites in the camp destroyed for unbelief. But it’s obvious not all from both groups were. Passages like this remind you there were people who were not Israelites in the group.

This all matches with John the Baptist. It matches John’s Gospel, Jesus’ miracles, God’s treatment of people like Nineveh who believed, and it matches the Torah too.

The 5th Apologetic Of Jesus (Part 5) – (Moses)

Then Jesus would move to His 5th witness, Moses. God used Moses to write the Torah, so the previous examples would suffice. But let’s look at another example of Moses.

In Deuteronomy, we see the song of Moses.

Look at some of the lines which line up with everything I’ve shown you today.

Starting at Deuteronomy 32:19, look at Moses’ song.

“And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And He said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”

Moses’ song talks about God drawing other people to Him because the Israelites had no faith.

The Apologetics Of Jesus (The 5 Moves)

Jesus would build a case like this based on the five witnesses. Any unbiased person would accept the truth of God’s Word. There’s all this evidence showing salvation is for all who believe. But sometimes it’s not about the evidence. I talked about that in my post when the World’s smartest atheist admitted this too. God bless.

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