 |
Ellen W. Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a
painter, columnist, and author of .
website: http://www.artfromzion.com
|
|
|
|
By Ellen W. Horowitz
January 2, 2008
 Bookmark to del.icio.us
 |
| Raanan Gissin, frequent foreign press spokesperson for Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategic and media advisor during the Disengagement - as he marches with Messianic Jewish missionaries who led the 40th anniversary Jerusalem Reunification Parade through the streets of Jerusalem on May 14th 2007 |
| |
Well, relations between Jews and Evangelical Christians in the Holy Land have become so steamy that yet another counter-missionary group -- Jews for Judaism -- has been called in to douse those fervent flames.
[Note: My writing is not aimed at sabotaging and destroying any positive aspects of our political and religious alliances. Rather, the purpose is to elucidate the obligations and ethical imperative incumbent upon Israel to transform any Jewish-Christian interfaith undertaking into an honest, proper and permissible endeavor.
I feel that Jewish community leaders and organizations both in Israel and the Diaspora need to be aware of complexities of the Israel - Evangelical alliance and they are required to grapple with the issues and employ the wisdom and foresight required to make serious, educated and heartfelt Jewish choices.]
Is Jesus Kosher?
Even though they claim to boast a new kashrut certification, the Bible Times Center has Jesus on their menu. The Founder and President of the BTC is Richard Bristol. He and his wife are messianic missionaries. You can hear it directly from them in the audio of the speech they gave at the Messianic Jewish Church, Roeh Israel, in April 2007.
It was Clarence Wagner of Bridges for Peace who brought the missionizing Bristols to Eretz Yisrael, even though BFP claims that they are not involved in missionary activity. Apparently this is the loophole: working through surrogates.
The BibleTimes Center is directed by Ann Thrasher, who "became a Christian in 1975. Having lived and studied as a Jewish woman, and raising four children in a Jewish home, Ann had a deep and personal knowledge of the Hebrew Scripture and the Promised Land, Israel. She came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah prophesied in Holy Scripture...blah..blah..blah...."
One wonders how and why a kashrut certificate was issued to an organization like The Bible Times Center. Ask your rabbi.
Hagee under fire by his flock
Pastor John Hagee of CUFI caught a bit of hellfire and brimstone from Messianic Jews and other Christians who were unhappy with his Zionistic theological spin on the Messiah and the Jews. It seems the very Israel-friendly pastor was compelled to rewrite sections of his book, In Defense of Israel.
Sample complaint:
Messianic Jews Respond to John Hagee
On November 28, 2007, the Executive Committee of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations issued the following statement concerning certain doctrinal positions espoused in the recently published book, In Defense of Israel, by Pastor John Hagee.
Hagee's response and remedy:
A Special Message from Pastor John Hagee Regarding His Book In Defense of Israel
"God could have sent His Son to earth as the reigning Messiah the Jews were expecting. Instead He chose to send Him as the suffering Messiah, who submitted to the Cross, and I thank Him every day that He did. But I also regret daily that this divine move has led so many of the fallen humans it saved to denigrate and persecute the Jewish people from whom our Lord sprang." So it was, Hagee says, God's choice that led to millennia of anti-Semitism.
Hagee stressed that the primary value of the Jews is in bringing Jesus into the world. "I am deeply grieved for any confusion my writing may have caused the body of Christ. It was never intended. I trust this letter and the expanded edition of In Defense of Israel will clarify what I believe. I also hope that we can return our focus to what I had anticipated to highlight all along, the fact that we Christians must shift from condemning the Jews for what they missed to thanking them for what they gave."
And speaking of giving, and getting....
ECKSTEIN BUYS HIMSELF A SEAT AT THE TABLE
For a mere $45million you too can purchase a seat on the board of the Jewish Agency. Rabbi Eckstein's coup elicited some rather telling headlines from the press (Eckstein is a Jew, right?):
JEWISH AGENCY TO APPOINT FIRST EVER CHRISTIAN BOARD MEMBER (Haaretz)
CHRISTIAN SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL TO SIT ON JEWISH AGENCY BOARD (Jpost)
JEWISH AGENCY GIVES EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS POWERFUL SEAT AT TABLE (JTA)
Timing is everything, and the jury is still out as to whether Eckstein and IFCJ saved souls, endangered souls, or bought souls after an arduous and lengthy campaign. aimed at bringing Iranian Jews to Israel. One year and forty Jews later, The Jewish Journal of LA had this to say:
PROJECT TO LURE JEWS OUT OF IRAN PROVES UNSUCCESSFUL
From the LA Jewish Journal: Following the revelation in October that $10,000 per person was being offered by a Chicago-based Christian-Jewish nonprofit to encourage Jews to leave Iran and immigrate to Israel, organizers of the project in Israel and the United States admitted to being disappointed with the lack of response to their efforts.
Even though he upped the ante, there were few takers. What was supposed to be a major PR coup fell a bit flat. But make no mistake, we in Israel are thrilled to welcome our people home -- no matter what the numbers. But some of us do feel a little discomfort over the tactics (which include checks which always tend to bear a mandatory cross) CNN reported it like this:
Eckstein, in fact, believes it's no "coincidence" that the people came to Israel on Christmas Day, which Eckstein describes as "kind of a Christmas present to these folks from Christians in America who seek to tell Israel and the Jewish people that they're not alone."
-------
And Speaking of Christmas...
The Jpost ran a featured editorial -- on Xmas Day -- by Pastor Elwood Mcquaid. It seems Mcquaid was invited by the Jpost staff to write the oped for the Christian holiday.
Jews for Judaism, Tovia Singer of Outreach Judaism, and Jeffrey Goldberg of New York Magazine fingered Mcquaid for his missionizing past:
ELWOOD MCQUAID, CHIEF MISSIONARY
by Tovia Singer
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/39289
INSULT AT AUSCHWITZ
In a remarkable fund-raising letter obtained by Jews for Judaism, Reverend Elwood McQuaid, head of a New Jersey-based missionary group, writes that Holocaust memorial ceremonies are ideal "strategic fields" for converting Jews...McQuaid, a Baptist minister whose Jewish conversion mission is second in size only to "Jews for Jesus"...
Elwood McQuaid served as the executive director of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry for 12 years and still works closely with them. Attached is the original logo of the organization (a cross inside a crown which is imposed over the Star of David). It has since been replaced by a far more politically correct version. But Ministry Watch still gives the Mcquaid affiliated organization credit for doing their job well: Although "friends of Israel," FOI is careful not to compromise the Gospel. FOI clearly teaches that Israel as a nation is currently in a state of unbelief, and that its citizens, like all people, desperately need to hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah (Christ). To this end, FOI publishes materials and conducts seminars designed to help believers effectively share their faith with Jewish persons.
Source: http://www.ministrywatch.com/mw2.1/F_SumRpt.asp?EIN=231365331
--------
EVANGELISM DEFINED (OR WHY JEWS NEED TO BE VIGILANT)
The magazine Christianity Today is featuring a piece by Evangelical author Mark Dever, who serves as the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Dever explains very clearly why humanitarian assistance and missionizing must go hand in hand in order for an Evangelical to fulfill his religious mission. It seems strings are indeed attached and there is no such thing as unconditional love:
Being involved in mercy ministries may help to commend the gospel... Displaying God's compassion and kindness by our actions is a good and appropriate thing for Christians to do. But such actions are not evangelism. They commend the gospel, but they share it with no one. To be evangelism, the gospel must be clearly communicated, whether in written or oral form.
The Christian call to evangelism is a call not simply to persuade people to make decisions but rather to proclaim to them the good news of salvation in Christ, to call them to repentance, and to give God the glory for regeneration and conversion. We don't fail in our evangelism if we faithfully tell the gospel to someone who is not converted; we fail only if we don't faithfully tell the gospel at all. Evangelism itself isn't converting people; it's telling them that they need to be converted and telling them how they can be.
From: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/decemberweb-only/101-12.0.html
------
I had an inquiry last week about The Jerusalem Prayer Team and their agenda.
This is just a sprinkling of what you should know before you decide whether or not to accept funds from the organization:
MISSION: The mission of the Jerusalem Prayer Team: To guard, defend and protect the Jewish people, and the Eretz Yisrael until Israel is secure, and until the redeemer comes to Zion.
FOUNDER: Mike Evans, who had a Jewish mother and a Gentile father says,
"His Son Jesus has brought this once lonely Jew so close to Him that I can now proclaim that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of Mike Evans as well." The Messiah, Yeshua, has given Mike Evans the burden to pray for Israel and all his beloved Jewish people.
MIKE EVANS IS ALSO THE FOUNDER OF THE CORRIE TEN BOOM FOUNDATION:
Corrie ten Boom taught that Jews were "completed" when they became Christians. She told her readers of visiting a hospital where she met a terminally-ill Jew whom she urged to accept Christ; with satisfaction, she recounted that the man prayed to Jesus with what was almost literally his dying breath. Source
With "friends" like these, maybe our avowed enemies -- who directly tell us of their desire to eliminate and replace us -- at least don't insult our intelligence or -- given the apparent acceptance of these practices and practitioners in the Jewish State -- the lack thereof.
Still donšt get it? Let me spell it out for you...
The spiritual and theological aspirations of the Evangelical movement are an integral part and driving force behind the motivation to assist Israel. The fundamentalist Christian religious obligation to spread the Gospel - with the hope of influencing (towards conversion) the Jewish people -- is an especially problematic and inseparable component of the Evangelical agenda.
This presents the Jewish state and people with an irreconcilable conflict of interest and will cause irreparable damage, unless the government, private sectors, and religious bodies in Israel establish clear guidelines, legislation and limitations which will enable an appropriate working relationship with these Christian groups.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
