Defending Our Faith at 35,000 feet

Defending Our Faith at 35,000 Feet

Once, while flying, I sat next to an Evangelical Christian who recognized me as a Rabbi. He asked me for a single reason why I don't accept the New Testament as Scripture.

I explained that because I believe the Hebrew Bible is the Word of God, any contradiction found in the New Testament would disqualify it as being true.

As an example, I cited the Torah's account of Jacob’s family descending into Egypt in the Torah portion of Shemot or Exodus. In Exodus 1:5, as well as Genesis 46:27 and Deuteronomy 10:22, the Torah explicitly states that the number who descended into Egypt was 70. This is the same number we highlight every year in the Passover Haggadah.

I then asked him to open his New Testament to Acts 7:14. He was speechless when he read there that 75 people went down to Egypt, not 70. Regardless of how the New Testament arrived at that figure, it is inconsistent with what the Jewish Bible says.

This discrepancy opened the door to a deeper discussion, and I spent the rest of the flight pointing out other contradictions and explaining the Jewish view of God and the Messiah, as well as how it differs from the Christian view. By the time we landed, he expressed his respect and gratitude, and said he recognized that he had much more to learn.

This story illustrates why it is so important to be knowledgeable about our own Bible, so that when our faith is challenged, we have the knowledge and clarity to know what to answer.

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz

The second edition of my book - Know What to Answer - When Someone Challenges Your Faith is available for purchase on Amazon at: https://a.co/d/crv9E0L