Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Beyond Chutzpah: Missionary Shamelessness


Paul, the founder of the early Christian church, confessed to employing deceptive techniques to gain converts to his new faith. "If through my lies G-d’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?" (Romans 3:7) Paul's spiritual successors have learnt well from his example. In their zeal for destroying the Jewish faith and nation, missionaries have stooped to the most deceptive and dishonest tactics. While they are a fifth-column determined to convert us, they portray themselves shamelessly as victims of "Orthodox persecution". They feel no guilt at publically accusing the Jewish people of blood libel on international television without a shred of evidence. Of course, intellectual dishonesty is nothing new to Christianity.

A recent bomb attack on the son of a Messianic pastor prompted calls of condemnation on Orthodox Jews. Without any proof, Pat Robertson has denounced Orthodox Jews on his television station for complicity in this attack. This is despite the fact that the Mufti of Jerusalem issued a fatwa against this pastor for converting Muslims and that Fatah took credit for this attack. None of this has stopped the slander directed at the Jewish people. On the other hand, there are numerous cases of missionary abuse and assault on those who try to stop them. Eddie Beckford, head of the Messianic cult in Arab, was caught on video brutally assaulting a counter-missionary activist. Meanwhile, in all of Yad L'Achim's, a major counter-missionary organization, 50 years of activism, not one of its members has been convicted of violence. By playing the victim, they are able to gain sympathy and support to their evil cause.

Missionaries recently entered the mostly religious town of Or Yehuda and distributed missionary pamphlets, specifically targetting the Ethiopian community which is particularly succeptible to Messianic propaganda. Having found themselves in possession of idolatrous and undesirable material, they resolved to dispose of it in the most appropriate fashion. The mayor of Or Yehuda, along with several yeshiva students, went across town collecting these pamphlets and burnt them in a synagogye parking lot. The head of the Israeli branch of the cult which distributed these Christian Bible, Victor Kalisher, the son of Holocaust survivors, stooped so low as to abuse the memory of the Holocaust to support converting Jews. "As Jews we were raised and taught that were books are burned, worse things can happen. That's what I think when I see the pictures of what happened in Or Yehuda. What worries me is that nobody has stood up against this." Messianic activists compared the burning to medieval burnings of the Talmud or the Nazi destruction of Jewish books. By painting themselves as suffering from Jewish "Nazis", they hope to gain public support. These Messianics fail to realize one key difference. The Nazis, or the Christians during the Middle Ages, forcibly confiscated Jewish holy books and burnt them. In Or Yehuda, Jews were subjected to material that is considered higly offensive and had no way to get rid of it. According to Jewish law, anything associated with idolatry must be destroyed. Therefore, the only halachic solution would be to destroy the pamphlets. Yet the missionaries could not make this distinction. They gladly spit on the memory of the 6 million martyred Jews in their crusade to finish off the task of eliminating the Jewish people.

These missionaries have no shame and will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. They spend billions of dollars every year in order to gain influence and convert Jews. Evangelical leaders exert tremendous pressure on the Israeli government to strike down laws prohibiting missionizing and aid Messianics in furthering their agenda in Israel. They have slandered traditional Jews, desecrated the memory of the Holocaust, preyed on the vulnerable and even attacked counter-missionary activists. They are certainly enemies of the Jewish people and must be treated as such. In this day and age, when we are quick to accept "Zionism" as a common building ground, we must carefully re-examine our relationships with spiritual thieves.

22 comments:

Yehudi said...

BK, I was under the impression that it is illegal in Israel for christians to evangelize in Israel. How is it that they are being allowed to do this so openly? How is it that J for J is able to do mass evangelism with no resistance from the government?

Avi said...

Yehudi, it is only illegal to convert minors or to convert someone through promises of money or gifts. Unfortunately, there are no laws against missionizing and those that exist are seldom enforced. There are over 100 Messianic congregations in Israel and J4Js have just launched a 5-year, multi-billion dollar campaign complete with billboard and bus advertisements and a full army of missionaries. A recent proposal to draft an anti-missionary bill was struck down as violating religious freedom of expression. Messianics have been allowed to make aliyah. A new Judeo-Christian party is trying to gain seats in the Knesset.

My friend, we are in a period of shmad, spiritual destruction. We must use every resource at our disposal to stop it.

Yehudi said...

This hurts my heart.

Papa Frank said...

"Paul, the founder of the early Christian church, confessed to employing deceptive techniques to gain converts to his new faith. "If through my lies G-d’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?" (Romans 3:7)"

Now read this statement in context and tell me that this was Paul confessing to employing deceptive techniques.

Romans 3

1What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

2Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

3For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

4God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

5But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

6God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

7For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

8And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

9What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

15Their feet are swift to shed blood:

16Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17And the way of peace have they not known:

18There is no fear of God before their eyes.

19Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

21But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

27Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

29Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

30Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

31Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Avi said...

It makes even more sense in context. Paul was saying that he has proved Christianity to the Jews through his lies. He repeats this basic idea again.

Corinthians 9:20-22: "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law -- though not being myself under the law -- that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law -- not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ -- that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak." This is the basis of Christians donning Jewish garb in order to convert them. Think of Moishe Rosen, an ordained Baptist minister and founded of J4Js who calls himself "Moishe" to make himself sound more Jewish.

Philippians 1:18: "In every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Jesus is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice." Honesty isn't what matters. What matters is "proclaiming Jesus".

Papa Frank said...

Then what deceptive technique is Paul advocating here?

Avi said...

Nothing specific. Deception in general is okay if it is for the sake of spreading Christianity. That is the basis of the Messianic movement which calls itself "Judaism".

Papa Frank said...

The Messianic movement would indeed be a form of Judaism where it is adhered to by those who consider themselves Jews first and foremost. I find a world of difference between those who are Jews and have come to believe in Yeshua as Messiah when compared with those who believe in Jesus and then turn to become or to costume themselves as Jews. Messianics do not belong in only one category just as there are different types of Jews and different types of Christians. I would wholeheartedly agree that there are Messianics who are wolves, just as there are Christians who are wolves, but I do not believe that applies to all of them. If there is a Jew that believes that God has shown him that Yeshua is Messiah then would that Jew not be just as guilty to ignore what he believed to be a word from God as you would claim him to be for "abandoning" Judaism? Jews for Jesus as a group is a group that I have never encountered and have no opinion about them one way or other.

Avi said...

Jason, please answer this quesiton honestly. What right do you have, as a WASP goy, to determine what is Judaism and what is not? For the past 2000 years, it has been the universal consensus that belief in Jesus is not kosher. Messianic Xianity does not resemble any sort of Jewish worship, but a Messianic would feel quite at home in a Baptist church. Just because a Jew practices it does not make it Jewish. If a Christian accepts Allah and Muhammad, he becomes a Muslim and not a "completed" Christian.

Miracles and divine revelations are really irrelevant. Our faith is not based on miracles but on the eternal revelation at Sinai (the anniversary of which is Shavuot, this coming Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday.) Nothing else can change our faith. The Torah in fact warns us against prophets who will ask us to worship over gods and prove themselves with miracles. Nonetheless, we remain faithful.

Papa Frank said...

It is not my right but rather my opinion. Just as it is your opinion that rejects them. I view Jews as being diverse based on my own experience. I know Messianic Jews and they would be just plain pissed off if I were to call them a Christian. They have no home in Christianity as they do not accept Christianity. You say they have no home as Jews as you believe them to be Christians. They practice Jewish customs and follow Jewish holidays and Jewish celebrations. They dress as Jews and pray as Jews and live as Jews. I can't help but to think of them as Jews. I am not saying that all who claim to be Messianic Jews are truly Jews but I would certainly contend that some are. Why do you believe that Jews can have every other sort of difference in opinion and argument and still be brothers but one mention of Yeshua and out of the brotherhood you go? All that does is serve to show the power in the very name of Yeshua. I would not in any way contend that you should accept their opinion as your own but I would contend that they have the right to their opinion without having to be ostracized. I also know many orthodox Jews that reject Yeshua as Messiah that agree with me and would simply agree to disagree with their Messianic brothers.

Avi said...

I doubt that you know any Orthodox Jews who feel like you.

CHRISTian = follower of CHRIST. Its as simple as that. The fact that Messianics follow Jewish customs is irrelevant and really a strawman argument. Shabbat, kashrut, the miztvot, are not Baptist or Evangelical beliefs and only serve to 'kasher' their treif. Their worldview is one of Baptist Fundamentalism and not Judaism.

I love every single Jew, regardless of their level of observance. Ahavat Yisrael is one of the greatest mitzvot and causeless hatred is the reason ofr our exile. But once a Jew accepts another god and converts to another faith, and much worse, converts other, which is being a choteh u'machti, a sinner who leads others to sin, for which there is no repentance, they are NO LONGER a Jew. What disqualifies them is the fact that they accept the Christian deity and Christian tenets.

Papa Frank said...

That is your opinion and you are welcome to it but there ARE indeed many orthodox Jews who would disagree with you on whether or not you can be a Messianic and a Jew at the same time.

Papa Frank said...

To follow Christ is to follow God as the Son continually pointed to the Father. He only did the will of the father. While here He never stopped pointing to the Torah and encouraging people to follow it.

Safiyyah said...

Why should it be illegal in Israel to evangelize, or otherwise restrict religious freedom?

Isn't Israel a democracy?

There are other people besides Jews who live in Israel.

Do they have equal rights in the Israeli democracy?

Devorah Chayah said...

Saffiyah, Israel has to choose between being a Jewish State and being a democracy. She can't be both. If a Jew wants to live under democratic rule, he can go to any number of other countries, but only in the Land of Israel can the Jew live according to the covenant ratified at Sinai. That covenant (the Torah) obligates us to put to death anyone who comes to a Jew and tries to convince him to follow false gods. At the minimum, this should mean that xians cannot stay in Israel long term and missionizing to anyone would be grounds for immediate deportation...the MINIMUM!

BK, check this out:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1812430,00.html

Ralph said...

Devash said...
"Saffiyah, Israel has to choose between being a Jewish State and being a democracy."

So, when do you suppose that choice will be made?

גילוי said...

Ralph:

Less than a decade should suffice.

Safiyyah said...

I agree that they can't have it both ways.

For example, people have big problems if they try to evangelize in Saudi Arabia.

Shariah law and democracy are like oil and water.

"Democracy" probably won't work in Iraq either.

Keli Ata said...

In my humble opinion--messianic Jews can observe Shabbat, Kashrut, everything...but the central point in Judaism is the Oneness of Hashem.

For that sole reason, I believe, Messianic Judaism cannot be a legitimate form of Judaism but rather a branch of Christianity.

And as I've written on my blog numerous times referring to the trinity as a compound "one" doesn't cut it.

Ralph said...

Keli Ata said...

"And as I've written on my blog numerous times referring to the trinity as a compound "one" doesn't cut it."

I have no doubt that the 'Trinity' concept dates back to pagan origins and as you say 'doesn't cut it'.
However the concept and, I would care to add, the reality of a Father and Son relationship as being "One" is a quite different, and positive, approach. Many of us are familiar with close family relationships, particularly with fathers and sons.

Magdeburger Joe said...

You really hit a home run with this article. No one kicked down doors of Christian homes and took away their family bibles. This is exactly what had been done in the past by Christians to Jews. In the past, when the sword worked to convert us, the Christians did not hesitate to use it. Their use of "love" is tactical. Meanwhile, Arab Christians are being driven out by their Muslim "brothers" and the evangelists are too busy targeting Jews.
Keep up your good work
Magdeburger Joe of magdeburgerjoe.com

Ralph said...

Father and son - a scriptural example:-
"Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it."
(source-Jewish Virtual Library at 'http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible
/Proverb22.html')


So, if a son is 'trained up' in the ways of his father, they will be 'as one', but not in the numeric sense.
Or is that too simple?

"Joh 14:28 Ye have heard me tell you, 'I am leaving, and I will come back to you.' If ye loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I."
(source - Jewish New Testament - Translation by David H. Stern)