Thomas,

Jews do not go to Philo and Josephus to learn what G-d is and isn't. This is getting the equation backwards. Jews go by Torah, by Nach, by our up-close-and-personal experience with G-d, passed down to every generation from the beginning.

Philo and Josephus don't tell Jews how to be Jews and what to worship. These are two random Jews plucked out from millenia of Jews - from Egypt and from Rome - who's writings demonstrate what Torah and Nach have already stated.

The GT is rejected based on it's failure to correlate to what it claims to fulfill. The burden or proof is on it to do what it claims, and it fails. Of course Christians don't believe this, or have apologetics for why this is, but they are all immaterial to us.

They are free to think what they want, but we have been preserved by G-d as Jews for our keeping Torah and the mitzvot, and not going after an adulterous relationship with one that is not ours. In my opinion the preservation of Jews and Judaism through all we've faced is as great if not greater a miracle of G-d than those which delivered us from Egypt.

While Christianity is a 2-billion strong religion based on worship of a man (antithetical to Torah), as an atoning human sacrifice (again Torah, and fails to be a proper sacrifice in maybe every conceivable way), and with few (though any is too many) halachic Jews to speak of.

It is Christianity which shows signs of alteration and change (thousands of splinter sects all claiming to be the true way), while Torah observance then is still Torah observance now. Christians can harp on offerings, but if the Third Temple was standing today they'd be claiming offerings are obsolete and worthless anyway (as mark has said), so this is a very circular argument on their part.

Chaim has already - on many occasions - shown where there was atonement without animal sacrifice both while Temple stood and while no Temple stood. Christians don't accept that, that's fine. They also don't accept the Sabbath, or when Torah says G-d is not a man. We do.

Netanel