Posted on 11/30/2004 6:49:02 AM PST by SJackson
Can a group number as many as 70 million individuals fly under the radar? Outside of the context of politics, Christian evangelicals are virtually invisible in American culture, except to be laughed at or feared.
Just as the image of the Jew can be a dangerously misleading generalization, the same is true for the image of the evangelical.
Listen to many Jews talk about conservative Christians and you'd think they're discussing the Taliban.
This disconnect between image and reality is of no small importance in the aftermath of a presidential election in which evangelicals and "moral values" voters are said to have provided the margin of victory for President Bush.
As much as many Jews like to think of themselves as open-minded (i.e., liberal), there is more to the divide between Jews and evangelicals than disagreements about church-state separation or abortion.
Some of the same people who are most fearful of the Christian right are also quick to dismiss the support that many of them demonstrate for Israel. They tend to put it down to millenarian beliefs based in a fundamentalist worldview that values Jews only to the extent that they help bring on an end-of-days Messianic return of Jesus.
All of which should prompt us — no matter where are votes went earlier this month — to ask: Who really are these evangelical moralists?
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Listen to many Jews talk about conservative Christians and you'd think they're discussing the Taliban. "
Ever since the book of Acts was written, the Christians have been in "..fear of the Jews..".
Numerous mentions of it.
"Ever since the book of Acts was written, the Christians have been in "..fear of the Jews..".
Numerous mentions of it."
This is a new accusation. Could you please document?
The dismissal of Evangelicals because the Jews think it is to bring back the Messiah is completely mis-guided.
Evangelicals have different motivations. The strongest guiding factor is that we believe God when He said, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee." God, in the New Testament has encouraged Christians in many places to aid the Jewish people.
If there are any Jewish people reading this, please realize this. We cannot rush the return of the Messiah. God's timing is what it is. We help because we love you.
Sensei Ern
I just did a compound search in the entire King James Version of the old and new testament (online at the Univ. of Va) which sought any place in the bible where the words "fear" and "Jews" appear within 40 characters of each other and there were two mentions, neither of which were in The Book of Acts and neither of which indicated that gentiles should fear the Jews.
(In fact, in John, the reference was to the fact that Jesus should fear certain Jews when He went to Jerusalem near the time of His Crucifixion.)
I wholeheartedly agree.
Ditto.
The opening hymn at church last Sunday was the Advent song Emmanuel. I doubt if that Taliban has anything like it.
(Evangelicals have different motivations. The strongest guiding factor is that we believe God when He said, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee."
I wholeheartedly agree.)
Amen. We are cut from the same cloth, and we are not to judge our brothers (or sisters). God judges each of us in our own time.
Thanks for an excellent post.
lookup:
John: 7:13; 9:22; 19:38; 20:19
Acts: 2:2; 17:5; 18:12; 26:7
There are no instances of Christians attacking Jews anywhere in the Bible (that I am aware of ).
I just read the verses you provided and did not feel that I was being exhorted to "fear the Jews," but instead each of these statements was about what was happening to Jesus, Paul and the early Apostles. My reading of the references you provided indicated that they were basically referring to the Jewish authorities (of which Paul was, prior to his conversion, a member).
You can't blame (Jesus certainly didn't) the status quo from defending itself from the greatest revolutionary (and greatest revolution) the world has ever known.
The word of God is "dyn-O-mite."
Here is the bible link I spoke of earlier...thought you might enjoy it...
Thanks for the link, I think I had seen that once before and didn't bookmark it. I've got it bookmarked now.
I did not mean that Christians were exhorted to fear the Jews. Christians are not supposed to fear anyone but God.
I thought I had misunderstood you...thx for clearing me up.
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