Evangelical Group Says Jews Need Conversion

Deseret News ^ | Oct 12, 2002 | AP

[jstone78]

Evangelical Group Says Jews Need Conversion

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — The World Evangelical Alliance is taking issue with an August report from U.S. Roman Catholic bishops that opposes efforts to target Jews for conversion.

The evangelical organization, an alliance of 120 national and regional church fellowships and 75 non-denominational ministries, has reaffirmed and reissued a declaration defending Jewish evangelism that was written in 1989 by 16 theologians from nine nations.

One of those theologians, the Rev. J.I. Packer, an Anglican teaching at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, endorsed the reaffirmation. "Sharing Jesus Christ with our Jewish friends is as important a task as ever it was," he said.

The 27-point statement decries anti-Semitism and confesses that Christian churches have "been much to blame for tolerating and encouraging it," but says this history doesn't remove the right to share Christianity with Jews.

The Catholic bishops said deepened appreciation of God's unbroken covenant with the Jewish people means "campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer acceptable in the Catholic Church."

But the evangelical paper defends such targeted evangelism and denies that Israel's covenant relationship by itself brings salvation or that "any person can enjoy God's favor apart from the mediation of Jesus Christ."

"Faith in Jesus Christ is humanity's only way to come to know the Creator," the paper asserts.

[Mr. Mojo]

Of course. I'd imagine Christians believe that about all obesevant Jews who lived before Jesus preached, not just Moses. But what do Christians believe happened to pre-Jesus pagans (as far as Heaven and Hell is concerned)? After all, they never had the chance to hear the gospel. And how about the 99.99% of the world - Jews included - who lived either concurrent with or right after Jesus who had never even heard of Jesus? Are their asses smoking down below as we speak, in your opinion?

[freebilly]

Betty, did you inherit insanity or did it develop on its own?

[freebilly]

According to our Book of Hebrews, men of great faith who pre-date Christ were somehow given a foreknowledge of the coming Christ. But what happened to others who died prior to Christ's arrival is not something that's specifically covered in The New Testament.

One school of thought is that the "virtuous pagans" who lived without knowledge of Christ are in neither Heaven nor Hell, but in some type of "Limbo", but I don't know enough about it to comment on it intelligently....

[freebilly]

Betty, let me hear you interpret Hebrews 11:24-26....

[Mr. Mojo]

Interesting....Thanks for the info.

[ApesForEvolution]

Someone needs to evangelize to the Catholics...(donning anti-catholic flame retardent gear now...)

[ApesForEvolution]

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?

[ApesForEvolution]

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?

[ApesForEvolution]

Every once in awhile our pastor recants the "hell bound train" and all. Reminds us a)the devil is just as real that the Word says he is and b)God is more concerned with our eternal condition than our temporal comfort. Ideally, 'on earth, as it is in heaven' is His wish. He gives us the dunamos - whether we accept it and activate it is us to us. More than anything, I remember how lost and hopeless I was without the Lord. I am eternally grateful and remember the amount of grace it took for me to stop being like I was. I've a long way, but at least I feel sorry for the miserable people that are hurt and hopeless, that I know for a fact it doesn't have to be that way.

[ApesForEvolution]

There are plenty of 'Christians' that felt sure they wouldn't be sitting eternally in hell right now, rest assured. The point is, what happens to the real you, the you that exists beyond that flesh, the one no one can see, when your eternal ticket is punched and you transfer on to the rest of eternity? That's the question for every man or woman, labeled or not.

[ApesForEvolution]

You know, as many times as the 'anti-chosen' prophet, LostTribe, has asked for documentation, the more I think the LostTribe really doesn't know the answer/can't find it/doesn't own a Holy Bible/lost the O.T.???

I tire so of having to do all of the fishing for the supposed 'master angler know-it-alls' scriptures, but then again, I suppose it's rather a calling...I think we should keep forcing him to take the journey himself, ya think?

[ApesForEvolution]

JW and Mormons are cults. Not part of the body of Jesus Christ.

[ApesForEvolution]

Amen. It truly amazes me. Dazed, glazed and amazed...

[ApesForEvolution]

Please, Ms. B4B, ask the Lord to open your eyes. Self deception, anger and bitterness aren't a recipe for faith-walking success.

[ApesForEvolution]

Has Christ already preached to those who fell asleep before their hope of glory arrived or is that opportunity yet to come? I'm rusty on that. The Psalmist David had a lot to say about the Lord's eviences all around us, before the hope of glory, Christ, came to earth. It's amazing how people would rather cling to what's in their brain than what God convicts in their hearts (pride), isn't it??

[freebilly]

I Peter 3:18-20 has this to say--

For Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago....

So it appears that Christ preached to those who had died prior to his arrival. I would think that Christ would only give the Message to those who could hear and make a decision to accept or reject it.

[Technogeeb]

Whats the difference between christians saying accept jesus or go to hell, and muslims saying all non-muslims are infidels?

That's easy; the Christians think they are trying to help you avoid it, while the Muslims are obligated by their religion to use violent force to try to send you there.

In other words, there is no fundamental doctrine of Christianity that requires conversion of the infidel or his death at the point of a sword. Unfortunately, Islam cannot make that claim...

[Technogeeb]

Well, I am a Christian, and I disagree. God never revoked His Covenenat with Israel,

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of Divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. - Jeremiah 3:8

Of course, as the later verses suggest, that doesn't mean he won't change his mind and take her back if/when she apologizes for her actions. I agree that God doesn't arbitrarily revoke Covenants, but that doesn't mean the other party can't choose to reject them. Part of the covenant of Israel was the promise of redemption by the Messiah. If the Jews are correct and that Messiah has not yet come, then the Covenant still stands. If the Messiah comes and is accepted, then the Covenant still stands. But if the Messiah has come, or will come, and is rejected, then the terms of the Covenant have not been met.

The evangelical Christians believe that we Jews are still God's chosen people. But even God's chosen people must still accept the gift that the Covenant has provided in order to obtain redemption.

[Technogeeb]

Oh, I see. So all you had to do in order to be saved was the believe in God and "hope" for a Savior.

Pretty much; although this assumes that God actually follows through on his part of the bargain and ends up providing that Savior sooner or later.

So, in other words, Jesus' actual death meant nothing and had absolutely no effect on the salvation of humanity

And this is where your logic falls apart. The Christians teach that the Covenant of God to those who believed in the coming Messiah was fulfilled in Christ. In other words, they believe that God DID come through with His side of the agreement, and therefore those who believed in him (before he even was) were redeemed by his actions. If God did not provide Christ for a sacrifice (i.e., didn't keep His side of the bargain), then you would be correct. But if he didn't do that, then you would be doomed to Hell as well...

And even ignoring that argument, if the bible is to be believed, it is known that Moses received salvation (read Hebrews). Are you really saying that your opinion of the final destination of Moses is more accurate than that described in the word of God?

[AmericaUnited]

The (post Davidic) House of Israel soon became The Lost Tribes of Israel who won their freedom from the Assyrians ~610 BC. These 5 MILLION Israelites spread quickly to the West and North as they exploded into history as The CELTS, later known as Europeans and Americans. It was to these non-Jewish Israelites in Galatia, Ephesus, Corinth, etc. that Jesus first sent his 12 apostles.

Oh, now I get it! This is where some of that white supremacist garbage comes from. You know, we "Aryan white boys" in American are really the "chosen" people….