As you know, Dr. Jeff, I have no ready answers, but I'm workin' on it. I just wanted to point out a factor that should shape our response. Today's "anti-missionaries," like the scribes and Pharisees of old, have been "born again" with satan's spirit; they are the offspring of vipers, actively attempting to prevent innocents from attaining life through the indwelling of the Spirit of Yahweh. In short, they have blasphemed the Ruach Qodesh. Therefore, it is pointless to try to convince them of the truth. Our focus should be on their would-be victims, giving them enough solid truth so they can make choices based on factual knowledge, not agenda-driven misinformation. They need to be taught that the answers they seek cannot be found in any religion, but only in a personal, familial relationship with Yahweh and His Messiah.

We (speaking in the broadest of terms) must be successful, because in less than twenty years, we know that 144,000 young Jewish men will slip through their fingers, countering the counter-missionaries and turning the hearts of their people back to Yahweh. I realize (with mixed feelings) that they will not come to faith before the rapture (otherwise, they'd be caught up before they're cued onto the world's stage). But it's what we say and write here and now that will (or at least can) prepare them to recognize the hand of Yahweh in their deliverance from the hordes of Magog, early in the Tribulation, the singular event that will turn Israel as a nation back to their God.

kp

I appreciate your input KP.
How right you are, brother.
It is the innocent brethren whom we must attempt to reach so that they are beguiled by 'Satan's minions.'
Steve, I believe that you misunderstood my question.
By not realizing that Miriam's biological father's name was Yosef, it is easy to get confused by the genologies presented in MattithYahu and Luka.
I think that Andrew Gabriel Roth, an Aramaic scholar and believer, explains it best on his website (www.aramaicnttruth.org).

Jeff