Rabbi warns: Some Christians are attempting to convert Jews

PJ Star.Com (Journal Star) ^ | April 1, 2003 | Sarah Okeson

[ComtedeMaistre]

Rabbi warns: Some Christians are attempting to convert Jews

Speaker says congregations should watch out for Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God

April 1, 2003

By SARAH OKESON of the Journal Star

PEORIA - Jews believing in Jesus as savior, says Rabbi Michael Cook, makes about as much sense as an International Society of Vegetarians for Meat.

"How can you eat meat and still be a vegetarian?" Cook asked.

Cook, perhaps the only rabbi in the United States with a Ph.D. in the New Testament, talked to about 60 people Monday at the synagogue shared by the two Jewish congregations in Peoria.

Cook, a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, said some Christian denominations have stepped up their efforts to convert Jews in the belief it will help bring about the second coming of Christ.

"They believe the only way that glorious end of the world can happen is if enough Jews move to Israel first or accept Jesus," Cook said.

He predicted Jews have about three more decades of strenuous conversion efforts to suffer through because the last time this happened - after the first millennium - efforts to convert Jews didn’t die out until 1035.

"We have 32 years of missionary fervor to get through," Cook said.

In the meantime, Cook ran through a list of believers to watch out for including Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, Jews for Jesus and Messianic Jews.

He said Southern Baptist and Assemblies of God are sometimes misleading in their efforts to convert Jews and that Jews for Jesus was founded by a Baptist minister.

"Their big desire is to convert Jews without Jews knowing they are leaving the Jewish fold," Cook said of Jews for Jesus.

The rabbi said Catholics and liberal Protestants stopped trying to convert Jews after the Holocaust and said Jews had a convenant with God and didn’t need to worry about being saved.

[netman]

Jews believing in Jesus as savior, says Rabbi Michael Cook, makes about as much sense as an International Society of Vegetarians for Meat

Thats what the Apostle Paul thought before his little trip to Damascus.

Ac 9:1-6 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

[Illbay]

I believe that it can even be arranged AFTER they are dead, in fact.

But I totally reject the notion that Jews are special due simply to the fact of their birth. God is no respecter of persons.

[FITZ]

seeking out young Jews who have no connection to the local Jewish community.

Probably those are the most convertible. I have a friend who is Jewish-agnostic married to a fallen away Catholic, there was no religion practiced in that house but they're good people. Their son became a fundamentalist Baptist and they found it hard to understand except they told him to quit preaching in their house ----they told him they never bothered him with religion so they would appreciate if he returned the favor.

[power2]

"How can you eat meat and still be a vegetarian?" Cook asked.

I just can't let this pass, even in the heat of the worthy discussion. Isn't it ironic that a guy named "Cook" uses an analogy of eating "meat" versus being a "vegetarian"?

Ok, OK, so I'm easily amused. It's a blessing, I guess.

[Bella_Bru]

Oh, so an "easy kill" is the goal?

[Gurn]

"Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ." Jews are not exempt from that prophecy.

And you never heard me say they were.

You have an arrogance about you that is revolting, by the way. "I don't belong to a sect. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ."

What the heck is that supposed to mean, or convey, other than some bogus superiority? Do you witness to people by being a jackass?

And I'll ask you again: does the full name of your sect-that's-not-a-sect contain the phrase "of Latter Day Saints"?

[Gurn]

Oh, so Mormonism isn't a sect?

Wow.

I guess you think I've ignored a whole lot of other books besides Acts, huh? Like Nephi and all the other books that Joseph Smith made up.

End of discussion and end of any credibility you might have had.

I must say, however, that most Mormons aren't as arrogant as you.

[Illbay]

The son is of course welcome home. But he has to come home.

If he remains living in prodigality, he has no hope.

[Quix]

I still expect the 144,000 to be Chosen somehow according to God's own criteria.

I SOME cases, I'd probably agree with you but I wouldn't agree that it can be that way for anyone and everyone.

And I believe it's exceedingly foolhardy to pretend to one's self that one can COUNT ON SUCH A POSSIBILITY.

NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION.

[Quix]

I've forgotten.

ARE you LDS?

[HiTech RedNeck]

The Lord arranged that Jewish saints who knew nothing of the gospel as we know it would be saved together with the Christian church. Jesus' transfiguration included Elijah and Moses, and He hadn't even died on the cross yet, much less been resurrected. It appears that at some point in their existence, whether on earth or under trans-mortal conditions, the Jewish saints come to explicitly understand who Jesus Christ is. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get a chance to hear the gospel now.

[Quix]

I do NOT believe in the LDS schema by a long shot.

[FITZ]

Easy kill? I don't think it's exactly that ---but who is doing the converting on campuses? I know on mine it was other students, they always invited people to their groups ---I wasn't much interested because I already had a religion and was staying up with it. I think it's like Jehovah Witnesses ----they go door to door and get a lot of rejections but every now and then they find someone who wants something to believe in. Probably a Jew who has been raised with their traditions and a strong faith is less likely to convert. I wonder if those from kosher-keeping homes are less likely to change.

[Illbay]

Bogus or not, I believe it is the only true Church of Christ.

Others are "sects," having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

Good people, but lacking the fulness of truth.

[Gurn]

But I totally reject the notion that Jews are special due simply to the fact of their birth. God is no respecter of persons.

Unless they believe in the Golden Tablets that noone's seen, right? Or, if they have a penchant for polygamy and are gunning for their own planet after they die, and have a secret initiation ritual, butDON'T BELONG TO A SECT, right?

[Illbay]

Again, "arrogant" or not, I believe what I believe, just as I'm sure you hold strong beliefs as well.

If I believed exactly like you, I'd belong to your sect. But I don't.

[Illbay]

Yes.

[Illbay]

Well, gosh, I assumed that!

[Quix]

God being no respecter of persons seems to me to have to do with our legal worth before the Cross of Jesus.

God spends a LOT of Scriptures illustrating how his Chosen people ARE special to Him and how Believers in Christ are grafted in to that root/shoot/tree.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Never said he didn't have to come home. Never implied it. Are you suggesting that we shouldn't let our brothers know that they are always welcome at their Father's house?

Anyone without Jesus is in need of Jesus, including Jews. That means it is a Christian's responsibility to tell the Good News of Salvation through Jesus' death to everyone, including Jews.

No special gate is provided to them, but no hinderance should be made either. We want all men to walk through the gate, and those of the first Covenant are always welcome to freely join in with the second Covenant.