The subject says it all in terms of what I am looking for.
I don’t mean this as an inflamatory question. I am earnestly looking for answers.
I am a Christian who knows very little about Judaism. I love to learn. Thought it made a good combination.
Can anyone here help me out?
Beth
Is there any particular reason they should accept him as the messiah?
Well, I want to know why they don’t acccept Zeus as the god of lightning and thunder.
I am not Jewish, and I do not accept Jesus as messiah either.
Carpe Jugulum
Nu Vo Da Da … I can not answer for anyone else. I can only explain why I accept Jesus as my Savior, but I hadn’t intended this thread to go in that direction.
I will say that my initial belief in Him as the Messiah was because it was what I had been raised with, although I didn’t become a Christian until college. So initially it was a “familiarity” belief. (Had I been raised in a Buddhist environment, would I be different? Maybe. I don’t know.)
As I have gotten older I have studied the Bible more. Read of the prophecies fullfilled, and would like to think that my belief is not just blind faith.
Does that help at all?
Beth
Expanding slightly on Nu Vo’s question, why should the Jews (or anyone else for that matter) accept that a person who claims to be the Messiah (or has followers who claim that he is) is in fact the Messiah. All of Christian theology is based on the proclamation by Christ and/or his followers that Christ is/was the Messiah.
Not to be inflamatory, but why should any established religious group believe in the self-proclaimed (or follower-proclaimed) divinity or holiness of anybody, particularly when none of the conditions that the (Jewish) bible say will occur with the Messiah occured while Christ was on the earth. I must say that it is highly implausible, from a Jewish standpoint, that the Messiah would come to earth for a bit and then get executed in order to be able to return later (oversimplyfing Christianity excessively).
Now, now, we don’t need to be so hard on Bigred, guys; we’re here to fight ignorance, after all. Here’s a thread that went over the reasons why Jews don’t accept Jesus as the messiah quite thoroughly, Beth:
I must concur. I think it a far more interesting question as to why so many jews (and later non jews) accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah. There were quite a few people running around at the time claiming to be the messiah and they didn’t get the staying power. For an excelent treatment on the subject I recommend Karl Kautsky’s “Foundations of Christianity”.
I need to dig up my copy and throw around some quotes, It’s been a while since I’ve read it.
You have valid points.
You don’t believe the same way I do.
I don’t believe the same way you do.
Does anyone have an answer to the original question? Is there a prophecy that the Jewish feel Jesus did not fulfill? Is it something else?
Beth
sigh
I was hoping this wouldn’t happen…
Okay, here we go. Beth is asking an honest question here. To her (and theoretically every Christian) the New Testament clearly shows many Scriptural reasons why they worship Jesus. Unless you want this to become the Left behind board, don’t ask for them. Accept that much.
Beth was talking to me about God in a Yahoo chat. I told her the fundamental (har, har) flaw tht I have with the logic of Christians is that one must believe in Jesus or not gain salvation, whereas I don’t think God would do this to His chosen people.
So she asked me why Jews reject Christ as a messiah. I told her they think he’s a cool guy and all, but feel he wasn’t the son of God. She asked me why. I said, well, they consider the Old Testament to be the only divine document and the New Testament the work of men (AFAIK, not 100% sure on that point), and she asked why.
All good questions, and when I only guessed the difference between the two books, and couldn’t answer the last question at all, I suggested she post here.
With this in mind, can someone (CMKEller, are you in the house?) take this on and give it the right answer?
She started a thread at LBMB, but I don’t think anyone there is familiar enough with Judaism to answer it correctly. For example, one guess was that the Jews are “deceived by Satan.” Right…
I hope this clears things up a bit. Beth is not saying “what’s wrong with the Jews,” she is asking “why do they believe this way.”
Yer pal,
Satan
bigred1, the thread *Gaudere linked to has all the reasons that Jews feel that the person you worship as Christ was not the Messiah called for by the Old Testament. For a more brief rundown of where the Big Guy came up short in the eyes of Judaism, you can check this entry from the Soc.Culture.Jewish FAQ .
NYC IRL III
is on April 15th. Do you have what it takes?
Psst–read the thread I linked in to. Pay particular attention to CKDextHavn’s posts. Off the top of my head: the messiah was never intended to be God incarnate, as the Jews read the OT; he was just a man. A man who would bring a significant period of peace and brotherhood to the world, which Jesus did not do. Now, Christians say Jesus will do this when He comes back, but there is nothing in the OT that hints at a “second coming”, so Jews naturally tend to look a bit askance at that excuse.
Here’s another good thread: Coming Messiah? Actually, I think this one’s better than the first link I gave.
Gaudere, thank you very much. That thread was before I got here. I now have a lot of reading to do.
Manhattan, thank you too. I will check out that site.
Satan, WAHHHH!!! 
I would still like any other input.
If you’d like the answer to some of the tangent questions, I’ll try. I’m lousy at “defending” my faith. It’s hard to explain what you feel in your heart. Apologetics is not my forte’. I can only answer for myself. There are other Christians who believe different than I do. Tis a fact of life. There are other Christians on this board who I would love to see pipe in too.
The intent of this thread was for me to learn. Thank you to those who help out 
Beth
A Christian asking reasonable questions and willing to listen to the answers.
I like her!
Eagles may soar free and proud, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.
I dunno, slythe, I have trouble with thinking of the First Division as “Beth.”
Maybe she just likes cinnamon gum?
New contest: Guess the origin of Bigred 1’s name. Everybody but Bigred 1 gets to play!
Eagles may soar free and proud, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.
Bigred, welcome to the SDMB. It’s so nice to see someone trying to learn about other religions without cutting them down. (c.f. the Catholics! thread.)
From Satan:
I wrote a long post about this, but upon rereading it, I decided it was unnecessary. Instead, I’ll pose a question. I hope no one takes offense.
Why don’t Christians believe in the Qur’an?
Good point, Kyla.
Beth, I think that you have already answered your own question:
People tend to stick with the religious and cultural norms they are brought up with. They might reject or return to the religion they are brought up with, but it’s comparatively unusual for people to convert from one religion to another (e.g. Judaism to Christianity; Bhuddism to Islam). By “convert”, I mean conversion driven by nothing more than conviction; I know there are a lot of examples of people converting for practical purposes such as marriage.
To echo Kyla’s question, why do Christians not accept the authority of the Guru Granth Sahib?
That is very interesting… the first Christian did were Jews that did convert to Christianty. Mater of fact the majority of the Christian canon was written by prior Jews. And they didn’t waver in that conversion, they did not convert for marriage, or for anything else, than one who was dead, is now alive. Many died still holding that belief, and died because of that belief. Not just a middling few, but the book of Acts records thousands coming to belief in Christ at the Pentecost.
Why did thay do that?
Peace.
† Jon †
Phillipians 4:13
I don’t know, Navigator. Possibly for the same reasons that, 600 years later, people converted to Islam in their thousands. Or maybe for the same reason that Sikhism has attracted more than 20 million followers in only 500 years. Or maybe for the same reason that the people of northern Europe abandoned the Roman Catholic Church and set up various Protestant denominations en masse in the late middle ages.
All these events seem to have been mass movements rather than individual conversions, which suggests to me that there may have been some underlying political or socio-economic causes. What I was getting at was that people tend to stick with the religion they know, rather than finding a new one. Few people who are brought up in Jewish households convert to Christianity. Few people who are brought up as Hindus convert to Islam. Few people who are brought up as Shintoists convert to Mormonism (despite the Mormons’ best efforts in Japan!)
Lack of exposure is one reason. By and large people are not exposed to religions other than their own except in very superficial ways (in school, through friends, etc.). How many Jews have actually read the New Testament? How many Christians have read the Guru Granth Sahib? To audit the world’s religions seriously to find the right one for ouy (or the “true” one, take your pick) would be more than a lifetime’s work, so we select from the limited range of one or two which we are offered.