Jesus of Nazareth
To Christians, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Savior, and the True Son of the Living God. All forms of Christianity accept this, in fact the acceptance is a necessary part of being a member of a Christian church. The many differences between the protestant religions with each other and with Catholicism do not vary this fact. In fact most Christians would be surprised to learn that Islam also accepts Jesus (Isa) as the messiah.
But to certain followers of Judaism and to some other religions Jesus’ claim as the messiah is considered to be false, and Jesus, even in acknowledging his historic existence, is a false messiah. Some consider him to be the false messiah to have done the most damage of all the false messiahs which have come since his death. The Messianic Age foretold by the Biblical prophets has not yet arrived, nor is it awaiting the Second Coming as prophesied by Jesus and taught by Christian doctrine. Judaism also does not allow for the worship of an individual, for them there is no Trinity as there is in Christianity.
Jewish belief in the messiah and his arrival are dependent on several events which have not occurred, nor did they occur during the life of Jesus. These include the return of the Jews to their homeland, that which was promised to Moses, and the rebuilding of The Temple at Jerusalem. They also include the age of peace which certainly has not befallen humanity.
To Jews Jesus is a false messiah simply by making the claim that he was both God and man, which is a heresy in Judaism, and the idea that the messiah can be a heretic is unthinkable. In the earliest days of the followers of Jesus they established the belief that he was both God and man, which is the basis of the schism which took Jesus’ followers, most of whom were Jews, away from Judaism and formed the basis of what is now called Christianity.
According to the Jewish faith, Jesus is a false messiah because he did not fulfill the prophecies put forth by Isaiah and Ezekiel. Nor was he a paternal descendant of King David. The Jewish messiah is to reign as the King of the Jews (one reason for the derisive sign which was supposedly ordered by Pilate). Any fundamentalist Christian would howl at the suggestion that Jesus could be considered a false messiah, but to a very large number of people that is what he was at the time of his death, and that is what he remains.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
The Los Angeles Times
The American Encyclopedia entry Ann Lee
Those Who Would Be Leaders by Russell R. Rich
God is not Great. How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
The New York Times
CNN
The Bible
The World Factbook
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