Posted on 11/16/2006 9:39:45 AM PST by Blogger
If so, then the term "anti-semitism" has utterly lost any significance ... it's just an insult-phrase, meaning "people I don't like".
Do you believe it is hateful to evangelize Jews? That is the gist of point #11.
But are God's people really God's people, when they hate the church?
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.- Romans 9:1-8
Not really. It's people I don't like for a particular reason (i.e., their race or ethnic/social group). In reality, we know that witnessing to Jewish people is not an act of hatred but of love. If one truly believes what the Christian religion teaches, but hated the Jews, the logical thing would be to NOT witness to them and help them from perishing. Evangelistic efforts towards people of other religions are therefore not acts of hatred but of love. Coercive "evangelism" is not Christian.
Yes. God chose us in Him even before the foundation of the world. Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, it doesn't depend upon the one chosen but on the Chooser.
According to your article, preaching the Gospel to Jews constitutes "anti-semitism".
Considering that it was written by a Messianic Jew, I doubt that is the intent.
That isn't the Gist of #11. It is 1)Most Jews CONSIDER IT antisemitic. 2) Southern Baptists don't back away from it. 3) Others do. It is not saying that it IS hateful. And considering that the author is a Messianic Jew who is affiliated with Southern Baptists, I doubt that is his intent.
That's straight from the article. I don't know how much more plain it can be. If that claim (made in the article) is true, then the term "anti-semitism" is nothing but rhetorical drivel.
Hyam Maccoby, Revolution In Judaea: Jesus and The Jewish Resistance
Pope Benedict XVI (then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger), Many Religions-One Covenant: Israel, the Church and the World
Where Did All the Anti-Semites Go Last Tuesday?
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin
Statistics about the election have been cascading down upon us like a heavy Pacific Northwest rainstorm. However one astounding fact about the 110th Congress has been studiously avoided. Never before in American history have so many congressmen and senators been Jewish. At least thirteen United States senators are Jewish as are more than thirty congressmen. In addition, many powerful committee chairmanships are to be held by Jews.
Nearly 10% of the seats in the United States Congress are to be held by Jews whose numbers in the population at large are barely over 2% and few consider this worthy of mention. That is strange. What could account for such reticence?
After all, some of us Jews are quick to denounce those who speak of "Jewish power," whether in Washington D.C. or in Hollywood, as anti-Semites.
One possibility is that Jewish commentators who noticed this anomaly decided discretion was the better part of valor. After all, some of us Jews are quick to denounce those who speak of "Jewish power," whether in Washington D.C. or in Hollywood, as anti-Semites. Such commentators might have believed that if they remained mum on the topic, perhaps nobody would notice the dramatic rise of "Jewish power."
Meanwhile those commentators who are not Jewish might have been dissuaded from mentioning this interesting Election Day result for fear of being smeared as anti-Semitic.
Of course, another possibility is that to most Americans, Jews are so accepted that dicing the election results by religion is utterly boring. Hello everybody! Jews are over represented in national politics just as they are on university faculties and just as they are on the Forbes 400 list. Yawn.
For me there is another possible reason for why few were interested in the religious make up of Congress.
The chasm cutting through Congress does not divide Jew from Christian. It divides those who see Judeo-Christian values as vital to our nation's survival from those who view such values as primitive obstructions to progress. There are Jews and Christians on both sides.
Yes, it is true that Americans of Jewish ancestry are disproportionately represented in the 100th Congress. But why does this fact not fill my heart with pride?
Yes, it is true that Americans of Jewish ancestry are disproportionately represented in the 100th Congress. But why does this fact not fill my heart with pride?
Because I am not a primitive tribesman or a bigoted racist, that's why.
Allow me to explain. Primitive people form alliances purely on blood. They depend upon their relatives and distrust everyone else. As these primitive societies begin to grow, their families become extended families and then tribes. To this day, many entire countries such as Saudi Arabia are tribally based. If you are not born into the right tribe, you are forever an outsider.
On the other hand free societies base their alliances on shared ideas, values, and beliefs rather than on blood.
Nazi Germany established a blood-based, racial society which operated on the same brutal rules as employed by Saudi sheiks or tribal tyrants in Africa. German Jews whose families had lived in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne or Nuremburg for centuries and who were deeply immersed in the music of Mozart and the poetry of Heinrich Heine were tortured and expelled by illiterate street thugs who knew nothing of German culture and cared less. The Nazis made blood and tribe count for more than ideas and values.
To me, Judaism is a unique covenant with God. That means that it is even more than a religion. It is certainly considerably more than an ethnicity or a race. Judaism surely means more than an urban tribe whose men are circumcised and who celebrate the coming of age of their young thirteen-year-old warriors with ostentatious extravaganzas.
Thus, to me and surely to most thoughtful people, the importance to me of my representative in government is not his ethnicity, his race, or his color. It is whether or not he shares my deepest values about government.
Thus, to me and surely to most thoughtful people, the importance to me of my representative in government is not his ethnicity, his race, or his color. It is whether or not he shares my deepest values about government.
Does he feel that the proper role of government is a limitless quest to improve the lives of its citizens? Or does he believe government ultimately incapable of such utopian grandeur? Does he know that American vitality depends upon Judeo-Christian values shaping our culture rather than MTV doing so? Will he place freedom ahead of security if forced to choose? Does he see the traditional family, in whose warm embrace all the desirable traits of good citizenship are nourished, as the only essential building block of society? Or does he welcome immorality masquerading as rights? Does he know that only private citizens working hard can create wealth for society while all that government can do is hinder that struggle by taking money from some and doling it out to others?
So the real question is not how many Jews there are in the 110th Congress. It is far more useful to ponder the beliefs of many of those in the incoming Congress.
So the real question is not how many Jews there are in the 110th Congress. It is far more useful to ponder the beliefs of many of those in the incoming Congress. Consider what they feel about business, family, the role of religion, and whether they believe redemption is best offered by God or by government.
The sad reality to me as a rabbi, a teacher charged with the education of his people, is that far too many American Jews are utterly ignorant of their covenant. Many more American Jews could tell you the name of Jesus' mother than could identify the mother of Moses. Many American Jews have tragically abandoned the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, replacing it with the fundamentalist faith of secular liberalism.
To me, the real reason that nobody much cared about the number of Jews in the 110th Congress is that the overwhelming majority of them tend in thought toward secular liberal beliefs and in action toward the doctrines of the Democratic Party. If you doubt this, just imagine how the New York Times might have reacted had forty members of the 110th Congress been Orthodox Jewish Republicans.
So I am a little saddened by the large influx of Jews onto Capitol Hill. Not because I don't like their ethnicity, but because I don’t care much for their values.
So I am a little saddened by the large influx of Jews onto Capitol Hill. Not because I don't like their ethnicity, but because I don't care much for their values. However, as saddened as I am by the election results of last Tuesday, I am practically prancing in the sunshine compared to those who make their living fighting anti-Semitism in America. For them, last Tuesday was bad news.
To them I ask only this: Where were all the anti-Semitic voters last Tuesday? How many Jewish congressmen, Jewish senators, Jewish governors, and Jewish members of the United States Supreme Court would there have to be before you would concede that we live in a blessed and close-to-perfect country in which institutionalized anti-Semitism is nothing but a long-gone, bad memory?
What is his intent, then? According to the author, should we or should we not evangelize the Jews? He leaves the question hang.
From the article:
As director of Light, Life, & Peace Ministry and a Christian Jew, ask you to help me turn around the unfair characterization that all Jews are evil and antichrist. This can be very hard since other Mainstream Jews (orthodox, conservative, reform) dislike Christian Jews because of their religious choice to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
Being Christian means being a living image of God's grace, mercy & work in our personal lives. Rom 11:30-31 “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief. Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”
Being Christian means opening channels of prayer for the Jewish people and all other religions Paul expresses his great sorrow for the unbelief and obstinacy of the Jews in Rom 9:1-6 “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” - Though the apostle knew that the Jews were now in a state of rejection, yet he knew also that they were in this state through their own obstinacy, and that God was still waiting to be gracious, and consequently, that they might still repent and turn to him. Of his concern for their salvation he had already given ample proof, when he was willing to become a sacrifice for their welfare Rom 10:1 “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved”.
Being Christian means sharing God's love through our new circumcised heart Mar 12:30 “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment”.
Therefore we apply this same love to all people Mat 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” Joh 13:35 “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another
And understandingly so...But it does not however relieve us from the responsibility to witness to Jews, or anyone else...
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
Sad but true, millions of church-goers haven't solved this mystery yet, even tho the answer is right there...
However, I am sure there are examples of antisemitism from your own comuntiy of believers.
Please feel free to quote from your own comunity rather than finger-pointing at Catholics and everybody else leaving the impression y'all have been free from the sin of antisemitism
I didn't say we were. You keep your house clean, I'll keep mine.
I agree with you. And out of my love for them, I wish Jewish people everywhere the best of everything in life - including a personal relationship with my Lord. If they do not accept Him as their Messiah, I still love them dearly. It pains me when people don't.
Doesn't mean I'm perfect in all of my attitudes towards other religionists either. But the Israelites and Jews are unique in God's economy in many regards. In their history. In their future with Him. He will be faithful to them even when they have been unfaithful to Him. And He will be their God and they His people in a not-too-distant time in the future.
Surely there must be ONE antisemite in the history of your community. Please share...
You have missed the point. Nobody is attacking the Catholics. It's the history being discussed. Try to be a little more constructive and stay on topic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.