Posted on 01/18/2011 10:47:30 AM PST by wmfights
Two thousand years of history have shown the Jewish people that Christians are their worst enemies, a Messianic rabbi pointed out.
“Jews were told you must convert or be killed. If we ignore the history, we’ll never really understand why it’s so difficult to reach the Jewish people with the Gospel,” Jeff Friedman emphasized.
Friedman himself grew up hating Christians. While attending an Orthodox Jewish synagogue regularly in Brooklyn, N.Y., he said he had some brief encounters with Christians and found them offensive, according to Pentecostal Evangel, a publication of the Assemblies of God.
It wasn’t until he was in his late 20s that he began to understand Yeshua, or Jesus. And it was at the most unlikely of places – his hair salon.
After moving to Miami as part of his job as a government pharmacist, Friedman went to get a haircut one day in 1980 where he met Mitzi, his hairstylist. She was a Jewish woman who attended an Assemblies of God church.
“She saw an emptiness in me, and understood that,” Friedman recalled. “I didn’t understand it, so I tried to fill up the empty places with everything that the world had; all that did was leave me more hungry.”
Mitzi was able to tap into that, he explained to The Christian Post. She challenged me to read from the Scriptures – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Psalms – and she showed me the Messiah. For the first time in my life, I was challenged with this question, ‘Who is this Messiah?’”
A week later, Friedman came to faith in Yeshua after accepting an invitation to a Christmas party at the church.
“When I started to read the prophecies of God, it was inescapable. I discovered in the older covenant scriptures that this man that the gentiles call Jesus must be the Messiah,” Friedman said.
Now a founder of Jacob’s Hope, an outreach ministry for the Assemblies of God, and a licensed AG minister and Messianic rabbi, Friedman aims to bring this same hope to Jewish people around the world by providing humanitarian and medical aid, and sharing the Good News of the Messiah.
Friedman noted that although many people are supporting Jewish ministries that provide humanitarian aid – the Gospel is not shared, so people aren’t being evangelized. Jacob’s Hope is working to change this.
Jacob’s Hope currently serves in Belarus, Germany, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Israel, providing humanitarian aid, food, and medical care; training and equipping local pastors and Messianic rabbis to minister more effectively to their communities; distributing Bibles, books, and equipment; building worship and job training centers; and lastly sharing the Gospel of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua to the Jewish people.
“Gentile Christians live in poverty all over the world, but at least they have faith – something to cling on to. But most Jewish people scattered all over the world have nothing and no one. They are spiritually and physically in poverty,” Friedman said.
Hundreds of Jews enter the centers of Jacob’s Hope every month, and a percentage of those people ask questions about why the missionaries are here and why they’re doing what they’re doing. The volunteers and workers have a simple response.
We’re here because of the Messiah, he declared.
Friedman also explained, “We tell them and have a sign that says that all the material they receive comes from Christians from America who love the people of Israel, the Jewish people.”
Over ninety percent of Jews have not heard a culturally relevant presentation of the Gospel. The hopeful Friedman, joining a growing number of modern Messianic Jews today, is seeking to help the Jewish people understand that the terrible things done to them “in the name of Jesus” were not done by true believers and the Messiah who loved them.
“It’s important that we put the Gospel back into its original Jewish context. This Jewish man Jesus, the greatest Jew who ever lived, who kept the law of Moses perfectly, who said 'I come to seek and save the lost sheep of Israel;' he loved the Jewish people.”
He shared his personal convictions from Romans 10 – “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
Friedman works alongside his wife, Vixie, as well as three other AG missionary couples including Chris and Shawna, Jeff and Tammy, and Michael and Judith.
The enthusiastic rabbi soon plans to take 20 health care professionals with him into Ethiopia for eight days in order to minister to thousands of lost Jews with hope for salvation.
Jews use the antisemitism card for unification purposes as admitted by many Jews as Alan Dershowitz.
One wonders if we asked the current Islamic residents in Palestine how the Jew is treating the non Jewish residents I would venture to say the Jews would receive no sympathy for past antisemitism. In reality, the current atrocious treatment of these non Jewish residents of Palestine precludes the Jew from pointing to the Crusades. Holocaust or any other similar examples without being labeled hypocrites..
While I would agree that we should not argue, and animosity is certainly not what I’m after here, would you also not agree that any faith, be it Christianity or Judiasm, which cannot take serious questioning is not worth keeping?
I say this because, all religion and theology aside, iron sharpens iron and even if we agree to disagree, we both are better off after defending our faith because it forces us to examine why we believe what we believe.
ping
No, they don’t have to stop using the Inquisition as a valid explaination of their suspecions towards Christians. Forced conversions are wrong. Period. Full stop. It doesn’t matter if it happened one hundred or five hundred or even two thousand years ago, what’s wrong is wrong and time doesn’t change that.
Now, I’ll grant you that it’s used more now as a crutch to stifle religious debate and stir up an emotional response than as a legitimate gripe, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was wrong.
As for how Israel treats the Muslim squatters on land that God Himself deeded to the Jews, they’re getting off far easier than the Canaanites did when the Israelites first occupied that piece of real estate.
The history of Christian and Jews is simply overstated and not entirely accurate as narrated. Sure there were many Christian misdeeds but the dynamic was not a monolithic become Christian or die for 2000 years. First of all the early Church 2000 years ago was almost all Jewish. This changed dramatically with the Talmud which decisively rejected Jewish Christians, Christians in general, Christ in very strong terms if not offensive. This is a neglected chapter in the sorrowful relations of Jews and Christians over the 2000 years. What part did the Talmud play in poisoned Jewish Christian relations and relations with Gentiles in general? There is always two to tango in historical conflicts. Christian attitudes towards Jews or misdeeds were not monolithic. They often differed from place to place with some places being worse than others and it was not always convert or die. For one thing Thomas Aquinas taught that a forced conversion was worthless. Sometimes you had differences between higher and lower clergy or interventions of the Popes to defend Jews. To be sure there were plenty of misdeeds but all the history has to be set forth. Plenty of times Jews were conspiring with Muslims or other enemies of Christianity and then weren’t there separate rules for dealing with Gentiles as opposed to fellow Jews? While this gentleman says he was taught to hate Christians, I never was taught to hate Jews.
YHvH's blessing on you and yours. Thank you for the ping.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
Agreed. I’m just not here for a comparative religion debate. I have no problem that religious opinion is expressed forcefully here. People can even try to show how excellent and well founded their faith, principles and practice are.
If folks want to debate the fine points of theology, have a party.
I just think the overt attempt to convert people on FR is an inappropriate use of the space. Like in my post above, I know that Mormons are essentially obligated to try once to convert everyone they meet. But having been shut down politely, they leave you alone.
If folks want to operate in that spirit, I don’t object.
But I’ve been badgered by Jews for Jesus too much to tolerate it any more. Further, I paid for this site, as did each other full-on Freeper, and it is offensive to have my money used as a forum to abuse my beliefs; kinda like NPR.
So, let’s try for more ecumenicism, and less conversion, please. It will tend to promote harmony among a wide variety of strong conservatives without starting flame wars.
I think I’ll skip the “Prove to me Moses was a polytheist” argument, thanks.
:-)
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
I think we can join forces, Christians and Jews, and look at who is killing whom, and fight them.
If a person of either Jewish or Christian persuasion can forgive, and doesn't demand punishment for inter-generational guilt, then we're pretty much past any difficulties.
Let's all go kill some Islamofascists before they kill us!
Agreed. I’m glad you could sense the jest in my “Bring it” quote.
“In reality, the current atrocious treatment of these non Jewish residents of Palestine”
If you believe that lie, there is no reason to discuss.
Will they “ speak-in-tongue” in a language older than Hebrew?
IMHO....Jesus spoke with the Jews, not the gentiles, it was his desire that all people would come to faith in G-d and salvation through his life, death and resurrection....
However it was not *Automatic* that he Apostles knew how to
minister to gentiles...They were Jews and knew the Law of GOD, and it took some time and great debate with one another on how to approach a Pagan/Gentile World...
Saul/Paul was like General Patton..Not everyone can be a great leader...
Paul had a time with the people of Corinth, that place was a mess when he arrived there!
Just another school of thought....
Perhaps to be more relevant we should cite the Know Nothing movement or Naivest activities of 19 Century America which has to be a proud protestant moment.
I am sure the Palestine non Jewish residents would have some question concerning the gift of God to the jack booted thugs who identify themselves as Jews.More Americans are beginning to listen and sympathize with the plight of these peoples especially when the Jews continue cite persecution from centuries past. The past is making prisoners of the Jew.
No one forced you to open this thread and read it. Christians also contribute to Free Republic. Hyper sensitivity is a weak defense at best.
He learned his anti-semitism when he was a RCC Priest.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
“I am sure the Palestine non Jewish residents would have some question concerning the gift of God to the jack booted thugs who identify themselves as Jews.”
You are delusional. I’ve been to Israel (not Jewish).
The only place where non-royal arabs can get ahead is Israel. Everywhere else, they’re not citizens and treated like garbage.
The problems in Gaza, et al, are directly the fault of terrorist arab leaders who refuse to live in peace with their neighbors, so they can keep a state of war and thus steal from their own people.
You’re a long time poster at FR. I can’t believe your still here sheltering such anti-semetic nonsense in your brain. It’s one of the few places where the MSM blockaid is broken.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Nope. In fact, Judaism discourages conversion by non-Jews to Judaism, and makes conversion a long and difficult process to make sure that it’s for the right reasons, etc.
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