2. I have already responded to point 2 at my web site.  Do a search for genealogy of Jesus or go to https://evidenceforchristianity.org/jesus-is-not-of-the-david-lineage-through-solomon-as-required-by-2-sam-714-and-1-chron-1711-14-therefore-he-is-not-the-messiah-also-he-did-not-build-a-third-temple-as-prophesied-in-ezek/

3. Isaiah 7:16 is about Hezekiah, not Jesus.  The content in Isaiah 7:11-16 is a double-prophecy, both about Hezekiah, a prefigure of Christ, and about Jesus of Nazareth.  This is a matter of the critic not understanding the nature of this prophecy.  Isaiah 7:14 is what I have called a double-prophecy, as discussed many times at my web site.  Please do a search of the term double prophecy at the website.  By the way, of all the criticisms on your list, this is the only one which does not have an “obvious” explanation.  In other words, it is the only one for which the response is not rather obvious, but one which needs a more nuanced explanation.

9. This is a rather disingenuous false interpretation of what Jesus said.  Obviously, Jesus was not talking about his followers walking on water and raising the dead.  He is talking here about the explosive growth of the Kingdom under his apostles and other followers after his death.  The “greater things” are not miracles, per se.  This is an example of a critic not making a serious attempt to understand Jesus.

10.  Again, a serious misunderstanding of what Jesus said.  This is qualified in the inspired Word of God, for example in James 4:3, where we are told that asking with selfish motives will not work.  Also in 1 John 5:14 where we are told that anything we ask for, if it is within his will, we will have it.  So, if we ask God for things that oppose his will, or that are from a selfish motive, then we will not receive these things.  As a Jew, and with a Jewish audience, Jesus expected that his audience did not interpret him as saying that, literally, everything they pray for would be granted.  Jesus often spoke in hyperbole.  He also said that if we were to pray with sufficient faith, we could move mountains into the sea (Matthew 17:20).  It is a rather obvious over-literalization of this critic that is creating the problem, not the words of Jesus.

11.  I have answered this at my site.  Do a search for three days and three nights.

14. Jesus is the one who came down from the Father, lived among people, and who, eventually, returned to the Father.  There is no parallel in the biblical narrative.  Both Elijah and Enoch were taken, but they were most likely taken to Paradise, as was the thief on the cross.  Unlike some of the other criticisms above, one can argue that the Jewish writer in this case has a point, but Jesus is unique, in that he came from the right hand of the Father, and, later returned to His right hand.  Neither Enoch nor Elijah did so.

26.  I count myself as a pretty “staunch defender” of Jesus.  We can admit that, on the surface, the two passages mentioned, Matthew 10:34 and Matthew 26:52, seem to contradict.  One mentions bringing a “sword” and the other says that those who live by the sword die by the sword.  However, any “staunch defender” of Jesus will note immediately that in Matthew 10:34 Jesus is talking about a metaphorical “sword.”  In this passage, he is talking about spiritual division that will occur in families over Jesus.  Some sons, daughters, wives and husbands will choose Christ, while their other family members will not.  This will bring a spiritual division into such families.  Anyone even remotely trying to understand Jesus when they read Matthew 10:34 will understand that he is not talking about a literal sword.  The claim of this person that “even the staunchest defenders” of Jesus cannot explain this contradiction is untrue.  Even the relatively weak and not-terribly-well-versed Christian can see that Matthew 10:34 is about a spiritual sword, and Matthew 26:52 is about a physical sword, which Peter brandished in this case.

30.  Jesus did claim to be Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5)  Jesus always and fully obeyed the biblical command regarding the Sabbath.  Now, he may have broken some of the legalistic extensions of the Sabbath law which was promulgated by the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, but he never violated the actual Sabbath law.  For example, in John 5 Jesus healed a man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years he did not break the commandment not to work on Sabbath.  He told the man to pick up his mat.  Picking up a mat is not “working!”  Healing a person of their grave misfortune is not working!  Jesus never broke the Sabbath.  He did tell us that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath, explaining the spiritual purpose, but he did not personally break the Sabbath, nor did he condone any Jew to do so either.

40.  The Bible never says that we are saved by faith alone.  In fact, it says the exact opposite.  James told us that we are not saved by faith alone in James 2:24.  This is a case or putting a common false doctrine of Martin Luther and others into the mouth of Jesus.

44.  Like criticism #14, there is a slight grain of truth in this one, but this is only the result of a mischaracterization of what Jesus is actually saying.  When pointing out a potential contradiction in the words of another, we are ethically required to ask ourselves if this is truly an actual contradiction, or is there a rather obvious possible interpretation of one or the other statement which can make them align. This author is regularly violating this basic principle of fairness.  He is cherry-picking supposed contradictions, without doing what all of us should do before throwing a stone, which is to ask if there is another perfectly obvious explanation.

So, let us do what this critic ought to have done, and look at the context.  In the context, the audience is demanding a sign.  Jesus NEVER responded to demands for a sign by doing a sign.  He refused to be manipulated by his enemies. Obviously, his audience was well aware that Jesus did signs!!!  He often pointed to his miracles as signs of his right to speak from God. But, for those who pridefully demanded a sign as proof, Jesus said that he would not do so.  He said something like this:  You want a sign.  OK, well just wait.  As Jonah was miraculously raised from the large fish on the third day, so I will miraculously be raised on the third day.  No, I will not give in to your disingenuous demand for a showy “sign” to prove who I am.

So, as you can see, these criticisms are a mixture of blatantly bogus claims, and claims of contradiction which are rather easily responded to by simple common-sense looks at the texts themselves.  Some, like Isaiah 7, need some explanation, but others are rather obviously not a contradiction at all.

John Oakes