Tag Archives: Jewish

For Jewish people only

March 19, 2013 Eternity Matters 29 Comments

As a Christian I seek to share the Good News of Jesus with anyone, including Jewish people. I realize that many things have been done to Jews that go against the teachings of Jesus, so it can be a sensitive subject. And I know that Satan has done a great job of making Jews think the New Testament is an antisemitic manifesto (it is anything but).

However, from an apologetic standpoint I would love to have them read the New Testament and ask themselves if the types of Jews they see represented there are similar to the Jews shown in the Hebrew Bible (aka the Old Testament).

Here’s what I mean: Yes, there were some good Jews in the OT (and the NT). But if you actually read the entire OT you can’t miss the non-stop cycles of rebellion from beginning to end — even though God had chosen them, set them apart and given them special revelation. Scan the book of Judges. Scan the history of the kings. Scan the prophets. It couldn’t be more clear.

So historically speaking, if the Jewish leaders had such a spectacularly awful track record, would it be surprising that the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time would reject their Messiah and persecute his followers?

Please note that I’m not committing the error of thinking that I would have done any better. It is human nature to look at the bad guys of history and think we would have done the right thing. Sure. Sans the Holy Spirit, I’m sure I would have been yelling, “Crucify him!” and “Release to us Barrabas!” I would have denied Jesus more than 3 times. And so on.

But I do challenge Jewish folks — and anyone else, for that matter — to read the entire Bible carefully. It isn’t anti-Jewish. It is pro-Good News for lost sinners of any kind. Please don’t reject your Messiah. Eternity is a mighty long time.

Bible

Jesus: Still the only way to salvation for everyone, including Jewish people

June 14, 2011 Eternity Matters 9 Comments

In Mohler to Weiner: Atone Through Jesus, false teacher Chuck “Jesus is not the only way” Currie is too ashamed of the Gospel to acknowledge that Jewish people need to hear it. He loves himself and the world more than Jewish people, so he instinctively slams Al Mohler simply for claiming what is taught in the Bible over and over: Jesus is the only way to salvation. If you can’t get that simple fact right, Christianity may not be your forte’.

Here’s the comment I left at the Huffington Post (which, of course, they didn’t post).

If Jewish people can be saved without trusting in Jesus, why did Paul say he wished he could give up his salvation on their behalf?

This isn’t about people being arrogant because they think they are right (that is, unless Chuck and all who agree with him are conceding to being arrogant just because they think they are right).

This is about what the Bible teaches. And it couldn’t be more clear: There are over 100 passages in the New Testament saying that Jesus is the only way to salvation. That isn’t what makes it true (Jesus’ rising from the dead does that), but it means that anyone claiming the name of Christ should hold that view. Any other view is the opposite of what the Bible clearly and repeatedly teaches.

If you want to see the kind of people who find Chuck to be religiously enlightening, read the comments that they did post (Logic: They’re doin’ it wrong). You could do a blog post on almost every comment pointing out their multiple logical fallacies and plain old ignorance.

Here are parts of Chuck’s post:

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a regular on cable television, had a message this weekend for scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, which he sent, quite naturally, via Twitter, according to USA Today:

“Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective “treatment” for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ.”

Weiner is Jewish.

Eek! How dare Mohler share the Gospel with someone who is Jewish. Oh, wait, isn’t that what Paul and all the early Apostles did? (“first for the Jew, then for the Gentile . . .”) Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, still always started off in the synagogues.

This isn’t the first time that Mohler has spoken strongly of his belief that Jews need Christ to be saved. He once compared Judaism to a tumor that needed to be removed. EthicsDaily.com reported in 2003:

While Jewish evangelism is controversial today, Mohler said Christians do Jewish people a disservice by failing to confront them with the gospel. He compared it to a person with a potentially deadly tumor, who would rather have a doctor give a truthful diagnosis than say all is well to avoid offending him.In the same way, telling a Jewish person she is in danger of hell “is the ultimate act of Christian love,” Mohler said. …

Notice how false teacher Chuck tries to make it look like Mohler said Judaism was a tumor, when he was merely pointing out that a doctor that won’t tell you what is really killing you isn’t much of a doctor at all — just like people like Chuck are lousy “reverends” and “Christians.”

In addition to his comments about the Jewish religion, Mohler has also described Catholicism as “a false church” teaching “a false gospel.” He says liberal Protestants have abandoned the Christian faith. …

Note to Chuck: The Reformation happened for a reason. Actually, 95 of them. If you don’t think the Catholic church is false you should join it.

And liberal Protestants like you have abandoned the faith! You proudly deny that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

. . .

Mohler’s views are not shared by all Christians.

Correction: His views on the exclusivity of Christ are shared with all real Christians.

In 1987, The United Church of Christ adopted a resolution that stated in part:

We in the United Church of Christ acknowledge that the Christian Church has, throughout most of its history, denied God’s continuing covenantal relationship with the Jewish people expressed in the faith of Judaism. This denial has often led to outright rejection of the Jewish people and to theologically and humanly intolerable violence. The Church’s frequent portrayal of the Jews as blind, recalcitrant, evil, and rejected by God has found expression in much Christian theology, liturgy, and education. Such a negative portrayal of the Jewish people and of Judaism has been a factor in the shaping of anti Jewish attitudes of societies and the policies of governments. The most devastating lethal metastasis of this process occurred in our own country during the Holocaust.Faced with this history from which we as Christians cannot, and must not, disassociate ourselves, we ask for God’s forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for divine grace that will enable us, more firmly than ever before, to turn from this path of rejection and persecution to affirm that Judaism has not been superseded by Christianity; that Christianity is not to be understood as the successor religion to Judaism; God’s covenant with the Jewish people has never been abrogated. God has not rejected the Jewish people; God is faithful in keeping covenant.

That is how Satan works: The mistaken and unfortunate persecution of Jews is compounded by fake Christians like Chuck deliberately withholding the Gospel from them.

Mohler’s advice to Weiner reminds us that there is still a powerful divide between some Christians and Jews. Christians like Mohler see their faith as superior to the Jewish faith and the Hebrew Scriptures of lesser value and importance than the Christian New Testament.

Well, duh. Chuck obviously knows so little about the New Testament isn’t even funny. Has he ever studied Romans? Hebrews? Anything besides Matthew 7:1 and Matthew 25, which he can’t even get right?

Mohler’s view of Judaism is obscene.

Then so were the Apostle Paul’s and Jesus’ views. I know Chuck will dismiss all of Paul, saying he was a bigoted homophobe, but Jesus couldn’t have been more clear that He was the only way and that the Jews would die in their sins if they didn’t believe in him. In short, Chuck disagrees with God, all the while parading as his representative.

And shame on the Huffington Post for giving space to an apostate “reverend” like Chuck who can’t even find a permanent job (his gig as “acting pastor for the interim pastor” just ended, and yes, that sounds a lot like Dwight Schrute’s “Assistant to the Regional Manager” title — only not as permanent).

Run, don’t walk, from false teachers like Chuck Currie and denominations like the UCC which employ him.

Jesus is the only way to salvation. I don’t care how unpopular that message is, it is the truth and I’ll keep sharing it for those who are authentically seeking the truth and desire to be reconciled with God and to live with him forever.

Roundup

November 21, 2009 Eternity Matters Leave a comment

The latest ACORN video. But Fox definitely shouldn’t mention this in the news, right?

Breitbart to Eric Holder: Investigate ACORN, or else — As if the videos to date aren’t enough, there are more shoes to drop. I’m with the author:

Principle over party, Attorney General. Or your party gets hammered. Your call. Speaking as a Republican, I hope that you try to keep stonewalling; speaking as an American (which takes precedence), I suggest that you don’t.

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Surprise! Global warming proponents play the same as evolutionists do: “Your views aren’t science because they aren’t in peer reviewed journals and they can’t be in peer reviewed journals because they aren’t science.” And if they if they do make it into a peer reviewed journal, then just insist that the peer reviewed journal is no longer valid. Either that, or destroy whoever let the view in. Voila! How very scientific and ethical. Heh.

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More problems for Al Gore & Co., if only the media would report them and ensure that everyone who saw An Inconvenient Truth were aware of them: Global warming hysterics burned by predictions.

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People are rightly outraged at fraud, but are wildly naive to think it only happens in business. There is already a ton of fraud with the TARP funds and other government programs. Who’d have thought that would happen? I mean, just because a massive amount of money is thrown around with little controls, why would that attract bad guys?

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Liberal media rep Norah O’Donnell tries to play “gotcha” with 17 year old — She interviewed her once, then gathered some data, then turned the cameras on. But no media bias here, folks! Now maybe Norah could question Obama & Co. over all their health care lies and broken promises of bi-artisanship.

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Jesse Jackson: “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man” — I’d say you shouldn’t be pro-legalized abortion and call yourself a black man.

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Take that, Jews. White House guts annual Hannakhah party; meanwhile, Obama wishes there were more Muslim holidays to celebrate — great commentary from my favorite gay Chicago bloggers

Bible, Favorites

The Apostle Paul: Two major salvation lessons

September 30, 2009 Eternity Matters Leave a comment

There is a fabulous paradoxical combo-lesson about salvation from the life of Paul: (1) If someone as bad as Paul can be saved, then so can we and (2) If someone as good as Paul needed to trust in Jesus to be saved, then so do we. In other words, he was so bad but not beyond salvation and so good but couldn’t earn salvation.

I was reading Philippians last night and thinking about how I like the Apostle Paul. I appreciate his writing and especially his passion in conveying the word of God. He gets a bad rap for allegedly being anti-female, but if you read him properly and in the context of his culture, he was quite the feminist (in the good sense). A woman in a Bible study once said, “I don’t like Paul. He’s a chauvinist.” I thought to myself, “I’ve got bad news for you. You’re wrong, and he wrote much of the New Testament.”

Paul had perhaps the most dramatic conversion experience ever. He went from a full-time job of persecuting Christians to being the greatest evangelist for Christianity of all time. That would be like Osama Bin Laden quitting terrorism to head up the Anti-Defamation League.

Paul’s life has at least two great lesson about salvation, though it is powerfully important how different they are:

1. If someone as awful as Paul can be redeemed, there is hope for us. Jesus’ sacrifice covers all our sins if we will only repent and believe. In Acts 9:5, Jesus said that Paul was persecuting Christ himself. Paul went about terrorizing, jailing and murdering Christians as his day job. If his sins can be forgiven, so can yours.

2. If an outstanding Jew like Paul still needed Jesus to be saved, then so does every other human on the planet. Consider Philippians 3:4-6:

“. . . If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

Paul had the ultimate Jewish resume — part of the chosen people, well educated, zealous, very righteous on human terms and so much more. He had all that going for him but He still needed Christ. If such a stellar Jewish person like Paul had to have faith in Jesus to be saved then, then so do we. (Side note: What makes any Christian think we shouldn’t witness to Jewish people?)

Don’t swallow the stereotypes. Read Paul (and more!) and learn for yourself. Rejoice in the truth that just like him, you need to be saved and you can be saved.

False teachers

A different kind of denier

March 11, 2009 Eternity Matters Leave a comment

Holocaust deniers are routinely derided for their ridiculous statements, and rightly so. But what is sad is that there are so many Christians who perpetuate a different kind of denial about the Jewish people, and that is teaching that they don’t need the Gospel. For example, transparently false teachers like Chuck Currie parade as ministers of the Gospel who (rightly) criticize Holocaust deniers but deride those who seek to share the Gospel with Jewish people.

As Greg Koukl points out in Tactics (great book – go read it!), people who criticize those who try to change the religious beliefs of others live in contradiction to their own views. After all, Jesus commissioned Christians to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). That is one of our important religious views.

So if Chuck or some other critic thinks we shouldn’t do that, then they are trying to change our religious views. Apparently they don’t think that is such a bad thing after all, as long as they are trying to change your views and you aren’t sharing the Gospel with Jewish people. Consistency isn’t the strong suit of liberal theologians.

Jesus shared the good news with Jewish people, most of the early Christians were Jews, the disciples shared the Gospel with Jewish people, Paul had an incredible passion for the Jews and wished he could give up his own salvation if it would save his brethren (Romans 9), and so on. The Bible is clear that Jews need Jesus. He’s their Messiah. In fact, if He isn’t the Messiah then there will be no Messiah.

To paraphrase Currie, the Gospel simply cannot be denied and those that do (like him) should have no place in positions of authority in any church.

Denying important truths, whether temporal like the Holocaust or eternal like the Gospel, is a profoundly bad thing.

Christian worldview, Favorites

Anti-Semitism and “Who killed Jesus?”

July 9, 2008 Eternity Matters 17 Comments

This is a rerun from 2006. Long time readers: Try to look surprised.

In light of Mel Gibson’s alcohol-fueled anti-semitic comments as well as an article in the Houston Chronical religion section that referred to stupid things Christians sometimes say to Jewish people, I thought it would be worth posting this from my Christian FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page.

Q. What does the Bible teach about how Christians should act towards Jewish people? There has been so much hostility towards them over the centuries.

A. Many Christians are very kind to Jewish people and are Israel’s staunchest defenders. However, throughout history, some unthinking Christians (or at least people who have called themselves Christians) have blamed the Jewish people for killing Jesus. If anyone blames “the Jews” for killing Jesus or is unkind to Jewish people, they should consider the following:

Jesus was Jewish.

The apostles were Jewish.

Nearly every author of the Bible was Jewish.

The Israelites were chosen by God to be His people, and they received the first covenant. God still feels fondly towards them.

Only some Jewish people wanted Jesus killed. Blaming all Jewish people for Jesus’ death is as illogical as blaming all males, since only males (Jewish and Roman) are recorded as having been involved with his death.

The Apostle Paul cared so much for the Jews that he would have given up his own salvation if it meant that more Jews would follow Christ.

The New Testament clearly states that Jesus came first for the Jews, then for the gentiles.

Jesus was the Messiah predicted by over 100 prophecies in the Old Testament.

Jesus would not condone hurting others in His name.

Since Jesus died for our sins, we all killed Jesus as surely as we put the nails in His hands and feet. If we weren’t sinners, He wouldn’t have had to die in our place.

Would they like to be held accountable for any acts their ancestors committed?

Would they prefer that Jesus hadn’t died for their sins? Speaking for myself, I would be in big trouble if Jesus hadn’t taken my punishment and bridged the gap between God the Father and me.

Jesus forgave his killers, saying as He was dying, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Most importantly, Jesus let himself be killed. John 10:17-18 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. “

If you can think of anything to add to the list, leave a comment.

P.S. Things we can learn from Mel:

1) Alcohol can cause serious problems.

2) One stupid act can undo a lot of good work.

3) Think first, then speak (or type).

Bible, Favorites, Politics