Jesus is not from the “David Lineage” and he did not fulfill the Hebrew scriptures. Proofs are:  1) Messiah must be a descendent of David through his son Solomon (2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Chr. 17:11-14, 22:9-10, 28:4-6) but Luke 3:31 describes the lineage of David’s son Nathan, not Solomon.  2) Ezekiel (37:26-28) said “he will build the Third Temple” but Jesus did nothing of the sort.  ​3) Isaiah (43:5-6) said “he will gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel, but again Jesus didn’t do that.  ​What’s your answer?

1.  According to Matthew 1:6-7, Jesus was the direct descendant of Solomon, the son of David.  Therefore this point is simply not correct.  Given this passage in Matthew, why would anyone make such a claim?  Perhaps they do not know the Bible very well.  Luke gives Jesus’ descent through his father, whereas Matthew gives Jesus’ genealogy through his mother.  We have two genealogies of Jesus–one through his adoptive father, and one through his mother.  His father was descended from David through Nathan, and his mother was descended from David through Solomon.  This charge is simply false.

2.  If you look at the prophecy in Ezekiel 37:26-28, it does not mention a “Third Temple.”  Therefore this charge is baseless!  This prophecy was written before the second temple was built under Zerubbabel. The prophecy is from about 587 BC, close to the time the first temple, the one built by Solomon was destroyed, whereas the second temple was completed in 520 BC.  Therefore, as with the first charge, the one making this charge seems to not know their Bible very well.  By the way, the prophecy in Ezekiel 37:26-28 was fulfilled by Jesus.  “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant.  I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will be my people. The nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.”  So, in a sense, Jesus did establish what could be described as a “third” temple in heaven.  Jesus is the one who established the new covenant referred to.  Because of the covenant through Jesus, Christians will live with the Lord forever.  Hebrews 8:1-2 describes this new sanctuary–the sanctuary/temple in heaven where Jesus serves and ministers for us. Jesus dwells in the real sanctuary, of which the temple in Jerusalem was a mere shadow. (Hebrews 9:6-10).  Again, the charge you describe is more of a sign of the biblical ignorance of the one making it than of a problem with Jesus being the Messiah.  By the way, Ezekiel 36:24-32 is a parallel to Ezekiel 37:26-28 which explains in a bit more detail how Jesus/Messiah will bring in a new covenant, how he will put his Spirit in his believers, who are the new temple of the living God (Ephesians 2:19-21).

3.  Isaiah 43:5-6 is a wonderful prophecy, which was fulfilled in detail by Jesus. How could the one making this charge not know this?  Like Paul said, quoting Genesis 12:3, 18:18, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham. (Galatians 3:8-9) In other words, all those who have faith in Jesus are Israel, and are God’s chosen people.  Paul also said in Romans 9:6-7 “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham’s descendants.”  Jesus has indeed brought all the true children of Abraham back to the renewed kingdom of God–in the church.  We who follow Jesus are the true Israel. (Galatians 4:21-31). Jesus wonderfully fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 43:5-6.  Again, this is simply a false charge, coming from someone who apparently does not know the New Testament well enough to see the error.

John Oakes