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Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews: Some Skeptical of Growing Phenomenon
The Washington Post ^ | January 8, 2006 | Alan Cooperman

Posted on 01/07/2006 8:30:28 PM PST by quidnunc

Danville, Va. – Everyone who worships at the Tabernacle quickly learns three facts about its deeply conservative pastor. He comes from a broken home. He rides a canary-yellow Harley. And he loves the Jews.

There is some murmuring about the motorcycle. But the 2,500 members of this Bible-believing, tradition-respecting Southern Baptist church in southern Virginia have embraced everything else about the Rev. Lamarr Mooneyham.

Out of his painful childhood experiences, Mooneyham, 57, preaches passionately about the importance of home. Out of his reading of the Bible, he preaches with equal passion about God's continuing devotion to the Jewish people.

"I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book — the Chosen, the Chosen," says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. "I'm a pardoned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye."

Scholars of religion call this worldview "philo-Semitism," the opposite of anti-Semitism. It is a burgeoning phenomenon in evangelical Christian churches across the country, a hot topic in Jewish historical studies and a wellspring of support for Israel.

Yet many Jews are nervous about evangelicals' intentions. In recent weeks, leaders of three of the nation's largest Jewish groups — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Union for Reform Judaism — have decried what they see as a mounting threat to the separation of church and state from evangelicals emboldened by the belief that they have an ally in the White House and an opportunity to shift the Supreme Court.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Israel; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: christians; evangelicals; proisrael
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To: Free Baptist
"Christian support for Israel is hardly a new "phenonemon"."

This is correct. I too was wondering where the author of the article had been. I've been listening to pro-Israel Christian preachers since early childhood. President Reagan was very much in tune with Christian preachers who were pr-Israel.

It goes back a lot further than Ronald Reagan.

121 posted on 01/08/2006 7:18:47 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Lishu`atkha qivviti, HaShem!)
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To: DoNotDivide

"What Bible are you reading from?"

Probably the same one you read. Gal 3:26-29. The question revolves around whether it is fleshly or spiritual Israel that is the subject at hand. The are not all Israel who are of Israel.



122 posted on 01/08/2006 7:31:32 AM PST by DX10
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To: Free Baptist

Interesting.....Thanks for your insight.


123 posted on 01/08/2006 7:34:23 AM PST by Conservative Goddess (Politiae legibus, non leges politiis, adaptandae)
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To: DoNotDivide

"My pastor tonight noted that Christ did not come to destroy the law (OT), but to fulfill it!"

"Destroy" is the correct rendering of the Greek in that passage in Matthew. The meaning of the word is to tear down or disassemble. (New wine in old bottles.) He did not come to amend the old law. He did abolish it! Eph 2:14, Col 2:14, all of the Hebrews letter.



124 posted on 01/08/2006 7:38:30 AM PST by DX10
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To: quidnunc
Non-Jewish American leftists would sell them down the river in a New York minute

The did just that during the Crown Heights riots of 1991.

Dinkins and Cuomo overtly decided that the Black Coats of Brooklyn were less important politically than the "urban youth" vote.

Dinkins went on to say he was disgusted when the "Park Avenue Jews" stopped supporting him. The Dems are loathesome things.

125 posted on 01/08/2006 7:39:02 AM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: DX10; DoNotDivide
DND> "My pastor tonight noted that Christ did not come to destroy the law (OT), but to fulfill it!"

DX>"Destroy" is the correct rendering of the Greek in that passage in Matthew. The meaning of the word is to tear down or disassemble. (New wine in old bottles.) He did not come to amend the old law. He did abolish it! Eph 2:14, Col 2:14, all of the Hebrews letter.

124 posted on 01/08/2006 8:38:30 AM MST by DX10

How do you read

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

b'shem Y'shua

126 posted on 01/08/2006 7:56:00 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Trust in the YHvH for ever, for the LORD, YHvH is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:4))
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To: ConservativeMind

God has shown mercy to the Gentiles.


127 posted on 01/08/2006 7:56:38 AM PST by GOPPachyderm
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To: XeniaSt

"How do you read


John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
b'shem Y'shua"

Precisly as written. Christ is speaking. In another place he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except by me." I never heard of the term "replacement theology", but I do recognize that a dispensation is a system of rules regulating the affirs of men. Christ was not frustated in his ministry as he was crucified from the foundation of the world. Our reconcillation to God through Jesus Christ was always in the mind of God. Regards.


128 posted on 01/08/2006 8:04:41 AM PST by DX10
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To: del4hope

"That said, it continues to be debated on this thread whether or not that included the Jews."

Read Romans 11:13-25. That might help clear it up for you.


129 posted on 01/08/2006 8:19:56 AM PST by antisocial (Texas SCV - Deo Vindice)
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To: Thinkin' Gal

>>>"I'm a pardoned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye."

How can he be so sure who "they" are, or even who he himself may be in God's eyes?

Deut 32:9-10
9 For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

People, even pastors, don't read (and understand) the Scriptures enough to know the difference between Judah, Israel, Jacob, Joseph, etc. depending on the context.

Rom 11:25-27
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 fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so ***all Israel shall be saved***: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

ALL Israel shall be saved. All of Israel is the apple of God's eye. This pastor wrongly equates the descendants of Judah with "all Israel".

What Jesus said about the Pharisees still applies today:

Matt 15:14
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

There's a big ditch coming up ahead.



130 posted on 01/08/2006 10:27:19 AM PST by the-ironically-named-proverbs2
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To: Soul Seeker

Well said! Very well said.


131 posted on 01/08/2006 10:35:18 AM PST by Zack Nguyen
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To: American in Israel
"I have come to believe that the blinders are formed partly of religion. If you seek Judaism because of cultural identity, or because of religion alone, with the current radical prejudice against Jesus, you will end up in a dead end street. But if you seek Judaism to get to know God it will actually point you right at the Messiah." Amen, as with most Christian "religions" also.
132 posted on 01/08/2006 11:55:48 AM PST by del4hope (Snowflake....with school excuse)
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To: Thinkin' Gal

Great posts, this one and the previous.


133 posted on 01/08/2006 11:58:05 AM PST by del4hope (Snowflake....with school excuse)
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To: DX10
XS>"How do you read ?

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

b'shem Y'shua"

DX10>Precisly as written. Christ is speaking. In another place he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except by me." I never heard of the term "replacement theology", but I do recognize that a dispensation is a system of rules regulating the affirs of men. Christ was not frustated in his ministry as he was crucified from the foundation of the world. Our reconcillation to God through Jesus Christ was always in the mind of God. Regards.

128 posted on 01/08/2006 9:04:41 AM MST by DX10

What are the commandments that we are asked by Y'shua to keep?

b'shem Y'shua

134 posted on 01/08/2006 12:05:46 PM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Trust in the YHvH for ever, for the LORD, YHvH is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:4))
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To: SJackson
A Christian naming their son Joseph, I've never heard of that before.

that was a joke right?

135 posted on 01/08/2006 12:08:30 PM PST by wardaddy (my acupuncturist is a Jewish Conservative......)
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To: wardaddy
A Christian naming their son Joseph, I've never heard of that before.

Yes. I watch TV on occasion. Joseph, Joe, is usually a mafia don. Jake is his lawyer, the CPA, probably Reuben.

I've known a number of Josephs, only one I can think of is Jewish.

You might like our local palestinian Christian comedian.

Christian Fundamentalism Drives American Extremism [They do suicide bombasts]

136 posted on 01/08/2006 12:14:18 PM PST by SJackson (Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy. B. Franklin)
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To: SJackson

Dang SJ, I know a slew of joseph goyim.....ranging from all denominations....


the surname Joseph is common among Jews and some Arab Christians....just as a side note

the only Abes and Moses I've known were either Jewish or black....blacks used to like Biblical names a lot before they started making names up that sounded Muzzie...a tragic turn that parallels the Great Society cliff dive....seriesly


137 posted on 01/08/2006 12:19:39 PM PST by wardaddy (my acupuncturist is a Jewish Conservative......)
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To: Giant Conservative

Isn't it incongruous with belief in one universal almighty all-encompassing divinity to contend that favoritism from such is extended to a particular group?




Yep, that's why Paul said:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.


138 posted on 01/08/2006 12:22:46 PM PST by Tevin
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To: Zetman

Yep the Catholic Church now officially states that Jews Muslims (and I think just about everyone really) can go to Heaven. What a joke. No wonder churches are empty today.


139 posted on 01/08/2006 12:32:42 PM PST by Tevin
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To: Tevin

Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-christ that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.


140 posted on 01/08/2006 1:05:20 PM PST by Tevin
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