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To: Fiji Hill
Beyneynu, from which this story originated, appears to be Christophobic.

Not at all. What they ARE against are missionaries who use fakery such as the people discussed in the article to convince uneducated Jews that JC is part of Judaism. They are certainly not attacking Christianity, only incidents of proselytizing and deception.

7 posted on 11/02/2021 9:01:47 AM PDT by EinNYC
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To: EinNYC

“What they ARE against are missionaries who use fakery such as the people discussed in the article to convince uneducated Jews that JC is part of Judaism.”

I’m not defending these people who I know nothing about. But Jesus was clearly a Jew and a practitioner and advocate of Judaism. The early Christian church was thought of as a sect of Judaism. And the early founders were as surprised as anyone that Christianity would become a predominantly Gentile religion.

The premise upon which Paul (of the apostle fame) championed a Gentile version of Christianity (without ever denying its Jewish roots, as he continued to practice Judaic tradition himself) was the idea that Christianity was a hidden mystery contained in the Hebrew scriptures and had not been revealed prior to his receiving of it directly from God.

He argued that it was always God’s plan to bring salvation to the Gentiles through Israel and that the Jewish Messiah would be a Savior to the whole world. He introduced a different way of viewing sin, atonement, redemption, salvation, and so on. It was non-traditional to say the least. Paul is asserted to be a Pharisee previously called “Saul” who at first did his best to stop the spread of the Christian sect among the Jews by having Christians (they weren’t called “Christians” at the time) imprisoned or even executed. Then he asserted that Jesus appeared to him in a vision, after which he became a follower.

Early Jewish Christians were particularly fearful of Paul, thinking his conversion was just a ruse. But then non-Christian Jews also opposed him, saying his teachings were anti-Jewish (an accusation that followed him everywhere and he constantly defended himself against).

Like most religions, neither Christianity nor Judaism are monolithic. Jews have the added challenge of maintaining a Jewish identity because being “Jewish” is simultaneously thought of in terms of religion, nationality, culture/tradition, ethnicity/race, and language. I do not think any other people-group comes close in terms of the challenges to maintaining an identity, and it MUST be a miracle from Heaven that Jewish people, and the nation of Israel in particular, still exist. God said they were His chosen people and nation, and I don’t see how anyone can deny the miraculous nature of prophecies clearly being fulfilled thousands of years after being written.


77 posted on 11/02/2021 12:48:39 PM PDT by unlearner (Be ready for war.)
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