Chizuk Emunah (Pt 2) Under the Microscope: Chapter 59

Acts 1:6 and 7, "When they [the Apostles], therefore, were come together, they asked of Jesus, saying, Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? and he said unto them. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power." The enquirers were evidently awaiting the restoration, and learnt from his own avowal, that he did not consider himself the restorer of the kingdom of the Jews. At the same time he owned, that the termination of Israel's exile is only known to the Almighty. If Jesus had considered himself divinely inspired, he would have given an answer in unison with his supernatural knowledge. 

In Acts 1, Jesus encounters his disciples for the last time before his ascension:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:6-11)

 It's true that the disciples were awaiting God's restoration of Israel. In Jeremiah, God promised the Jews eventual supremacy over the world.

“For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.”

 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.” (Jeremiah 33:17-22)

 God says that only if you can break the day/night cycle can this covenant be broken. What is the covenant promising, that there will be a Levitical (Jewish) priestly system making animal sacrifices on the altar forever. Even the Catholic priests do not pretend to be Levitical, nor do they make burned offerings or grain offerings. This makes me very skeptical of any view that says the Church is now Israel.

Troki makes 3 arguments in this chapter:
1. Israel has yet to be restored
2. By not saying that he will restore the kingdom, Jesus denies being Messiah
3. It is impossible for Jesus to know when this will take place, and therefore Jesus is not God and did not get this information from God.

The first point is unobjectionable. We still await the full restoration of the Jewish nation of Israel. The second point is a giant leap in logic. All Jesus said is that the timing is not for the disciples to know. He does not deny that he will restore the kingdom. In order to give a positive argument that Jesus is not Messiah, the anti-missionary will need to show that Jesus is in some way disqualified from fulfilling Messianic prophecies in the future.

One might punt to Maimonides and say that if the person dies, then he cannot be Messiah. First, this puts the cart before the horse. Maimonides came in the Middle Ages, and wrote in reaction to Christian doctrine. He could easily stipulate theological criteria that directly conflict with Christian teaching because they conflict with Christian teaching. Secondly, this criterion flies in the face of Jewish tradition. The rabbis had a Messiah ben Joseph who died for the people. I was listening to an Orthodox Union podcast called Nach Yomi, and the rabbi mentioned that there were traditions describing Messiah ben David as poor and afflicted, and that the influence of Christianity caused the rabbis to suppress this tradition.

The third objection is also multiple leaps in logic. Jesus did not say anything about not knowing the day or hour of his return, the way he did during his trial. Troki also assumes, without argument, that if Jesus did not tell his disciples the time of his return, that he did not know it. There are plenty of good reasons for him not to give this information.

Jesus himself said this in Matthew 24:

"But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into."

Even the Talmud seems to agree in principle with this idea.

Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, and the land of Israel [thereupon] quaked over an area of four hundred parasangs by four hundred parasangs, and a Bath Kol came forth and exclaimed, Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind? Jonathan b. Uzziel thereupon arose and said, It is I who have revealed Thy secrets to mankind. It is fully known to Thee that I have not done this for my own honour or for the honour of my father's house, but for Thy honour l have done it, that dissension may not increase in Israel. He further sought to reveal [by] a targum [the inner meaning] of the Hagiographa, but a Bath Kol went forth and said, Enough! What was the reason? — Because the date of the Messiah is foretold in it.
(Megillah 3a)