Jews for Jesus, an evangelical group composed, well, of Jews is seeking to proclaim Jesus to their fellows. Their latest effort focuses on Washington, D.C. Jewish spokesman, however, aren't pleased:
The campaign is scheduled to end Sept. 18, a few days after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year -- and the timing has infuriated Jewish leaders. They have planned town hall meetings this week to warn the Jewish community about what they call the coming "threat," and they said they will dispatch counter-missionary teams, which will seek to discredit the group and its conversion effort.
"It's offensive because Judaism is a long-established faith. Nobody wants to be annoyed by people challenging it," said Ronald Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington. "The Jewish community is not opposed to Christians being able to spread their beliefs. But Jews cannot embrace Jesus and remain Jews. We settled that question 2,000 years ago. . . . I mean, can you be a vegetarian and eat meat?"...
"Just because Jews are involved in an enterprise doesn't make it Jewish. Jews worshiped the golden calf -- that didn't make [idolatry] Jewish. It was condemned."
So can a Jew embrace Jesus and remain a Jew? Halber compares such to a vegetarian eating meat or a Jew worshiping the golden calf. The problem is that the Old Testament is full of prophecy about a coming Messiah. Had one conducted a poll in the 1st Century among Jews it would have been practically universal that the Messiah was expected. I don't really think anyone could/would argue with that.
Jesus Himself pointed out that He was the fulfillment of the Law, an argument the former Pharisee Paul makes as well. Jews such as Halber are showing either an ignorance of their own faith or a refusal to acknowledge obvious elements of it.
That really raises another issue, however. Most modern Jews aren't really a people of faith so much as a people with a traditional ethnic identity. They have transformed the Pharisaism that became Orthodox Judaism after the destrucion of Jerusalem in 70 AD into a practical Saduceeism. That is, they have secularized themselves with their only rallying cry being that they are Jews, not Christians.
Are they truly looking for the Messiah that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob promised? If they honestly are doing so, perhaps Jesus is God's Anointed One after all. Or can we ask if a Jewish people who reject even the idea of a Messiah are Jewish at all?
4 comments:
Last spring our church was having a gospel meeting (i.e. revival) and sent out postcards announcing the event to the surrounding area--we used a service that provides the addresses from their database. A week or so after these were mailed out, we got a call from a woman who sounded very annoyed--she worked for a local home for elderly Jewish people, and apparently every resident got an invitation to come hear the gospel of Christ. Her message was, "Please take us off your list--all of these people are Jewish." As if we were rudely breaking some common understanding between Christians and Jews.
you were breaking an unspoken agreement, just b/c you christians seem to believe everyone needs to find christ, we Jews think everyone should be left to find their faith in their own way(this is why active conversion or finding converts is considered a sin in Judaism) also to the blogger the Jews for Jesus issue is one of offense. no one stays a Jew for Jesus he/she only uses it to step on the full fledged evangelical faith. also before you post you comments on the old testiment maybe you should read it again and this time read the correct translation. do a check on you messiah comments!
There's no "unspoken agreement"--sorry. Yes, Christians do think that everyone needs to find Christ. It's a matter of eternal salvation.
As far as Jews finding converts, there is a process by which a Gentile can become a proselyte. Ask your rabbi. As Jesus said: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much as son of hell as yourselves." (Matthew 23:15)
For a Jew (which you represent yourself as) to deny that the Old Testament (TANAKH) predicts a Messiah is either ignorant, dishonest or self-delusional. Pick your translation, I'll be happy to use the Jewish Publication Society's TANAKH or, more appropriately, the Septuagint, the Greek translation used by Jews of the 1st Century AD, of which there are English versions.
I would urge you actually to read the Good News as written by Matthew Levi, a Jew of the 1st Century. You will find it as the first book of the New Testament. There you might discover why the "Jews for Jesus" are willing to accept Jesus as the Messiah promised to Abraham, by Moses and to King David. And please do so with your TANAKH ready and open, as well as your mind.
As for my postcard incident, how in the world, by sending a postcard announcing a local gathering of Christians, was I stepping all over the faith of those individuals? Your interpretation of spiritual neutrality seems to be similar to Google's "neutral" stance on gay marriage.
I mean ... I get church flyers all the time--if I'm not interested, I file it in the trash can!
Post a Comment