D’varim / Deuteronomy 18 is prophetic, but it is not a messianic prophecy. It says “A prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me, the L-rd, your G-d will set up for you you shall hearken to him. According to all that you asked of the L-rd, your G-d, in Horeb (Sinai), on the day of the assembly, saying, "Let me not continue to hear the voice of the L-rd, my G-d, and let me no longer see this great fire, so that I will not die." Do you see anything about Moses? Nope. Moses is the speaker, but D’varim / Deuteronomy 18 does not say “believe in another prophet because you believed in Moses.” And the Jews did not just “believe” Moses because Moses told us to believe in him. Again, we can’t fault the list maker – this lie comes straight from John 5:45 – 47 which says “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” This claim is that Moses wrote about Jesus. Oh yes? Find me the quote. It does not exist. - There is not one single word from Moses which spoke about Jesus. So far we’re on #41 of the supposed 365 prophecies in the Jewish bible about Jesus and not one of them has been about Jesus so far – and we are nearly done with the Torah (five books of Moses). Why did the Jews believe Moses? Was it because of what Moses said? No. Did the Jews believe in Moses because of the miracles he performed? Also no. Remember that the Jews did not believe Moses simply because Moses told them G-d had spoken to him. They didn’t believe Moses because Moses performed miracles (miracles can be faked). The Jews believed Moses because G-d spoke to THEM. G-d told 3 million Jewish men, women and children the ten utterances (commandments) and was with the Jews daily for over 40 years in the desert. IF Moses had made up even one mitzvah not given by G-d then Moses would have been removed as prophet. We know this clearly because when Moses failed to follow G-d’s instructions completely (striking a rock for water rather than speaking to it as G-d commanded) he was punished. . . So John has it wrong. We did not believe Moses – we believed our own experiences, our own eyes and ears and hearing G-d for ourselves. Moses was incidental. Judaism is not a religion based on miracles. It is not priests or leaders going up a mountain and telling us to believe their word (this list includes Jsus, Mohammed and Joseph Smith). Judaism is the personal eyewitness experience of every man, woman and child, standing at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago. D’varim / Deuteronomy 5: “Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them: Listen, Israel, to the rules and laws that I am publicly declaring to you today. Learn them and safeguard them, so that you will be able to keep them. G-d your L-rd made a covenant with you at Horeb (Sinai). It was not with your ancestors that G-d made this covenant, but with us - those of us who are still alive here today. On the mountain, G-d spoke to you face to face out of the fire.” Indeed, D’varim / Deuteronomy 13 tells us not to believe someone who claims to be a prophet if anything that person says contradicts the Torah – and as we’ve seen numerous times Jesus often contradicted the Torah. “If there should stand up in your midst a prophet . . . and he will produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you, saying "Let us follow gods of others that you did not know (at Sinai) and we shall worship them do not hearken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for HASHEM, your G-d, is testing you to know whether you love HASHEM, your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Artscroll) D’varim / Deuteronomy 13. Finally, D’varim / Deuteronomy 34 tells us that Moses was the greatest prophet who ever (or will ever) live. G-d spoke directly to Moses (whereas with all other prophets He communicated through dreams and visions). G-d not only spoke “face to face” (one on one) to Moses, but He also spoke to the entire Jewish nation to convince us not only of who He is, but to recognize the unique relationship He had with Moses. "Ask, now: of the earliest days that were before you, since the day that G-d created man upon the earth, and from one end of the heaven to the other end, has there ever been such a great thing as this or was there ever heard anything like it? Has a nation heard the voice of G-d...?" (D’varim / Deuteronomy 4:32). Moses was a great prophet, but as great as Moses was, Jews do not pray to Moses, or through Moses. When we retell the story of the Exodus at Passover his name is not even mentioned! Moses was simply a messenger of G-d, just as the real messiah will be G-d’s servant. As we’ve already discussed – there is only one G-d! The Rambam (Maimonides) states (Foundations of Torah, ch. 8): "The Jews did not believe in Moses, our teacher, because of the miracles he performed. Whenever anyone's belief is based on seeing miracles, he has lingering doubts, because it is possible the miracles were performed through magic or sorcery. All of the miracles performed by Moses in the desert were because they were necessary, and not as proof of his prophecy. "What then was the basis of [Jewish] belief? The Revelation at Mount Sinai, which we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, not dependent on the testimony of others... as it says, "Face to face, G-d spoke with you..." The Torah also states: "G-d did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us -- who are all here alive today." (D'varim / Deuteronomy 5:3). False prophets are easy to spot. No prophet may change any law of the Torah. “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor shall you subtract from it, to observe the commandments of HaShem, your G-d, that I command you.” (D’varim / Deuteronomy 4:2). All of the prophets after Moses re-enforced the words of the Torah and their roles were to bring people back to Torah observance. Even Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17. But Jesus himself broke many mitzvot -- and that is no crime. Everyone sins. Jesus' mistake was in never atoning for his sins. The issue is not breaking a mitzvah, but changing them and even worse, encouraging people to change the mitzvot (commandments). D’varim / Deuteronomy 13:1-4 states that all mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever, and anyone coming to change the Torah is immediately identified as a false prophet. Thus Jesus was a false prophet. Throughout the Christian bible, Jesus contradicts the Torah and states its commandments are no longer applicable. (John 1:45 and 9:16, Acts 3:22 and 7:37). These claims that the mitzvot are no longer applicable eliminate Jesus from any possibility of being a prophet. On top of those statements it is easy to find examples of Jesus not only breaking many commandments -- but also encouraging his followers to also break them. . . Jews are to marry (Jesus did not). To have children with one's wife (Jesus did not). Respect your parents (Jesus did not, and he encouraged others to disrespect their parents). . . To see a list of the 613 mitzvot follow this link. For more information read the post "What is Prophecy?" Thus this claim of John 5 is false, D’varim / Deuteronomy 18 is not about Jesus – and the Jews did not “believe” Moses just because of some claim by Moses – yet John 5 has Jesus saying “believe me because you believed Moses.” Yet another of the 365 supposedly fulfilled “prophecies” is found to be incorrect.
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