Torah and Jewish Idea > Torah and Jewish Idea

Dear Christianity,

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muman613:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_for_jesus

Jews for Jesus is a conservative,[1] Christian[2][3] evangelical organization that focuses specifically on the conversion of Jews to Christianity. Its members consider themselves to be Jews – either as defined by Jewish law, or as according to the view of Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus defines “Jewish” in terms of parentage and as a birthright, regardless of religious belief.[4] The identification of Jews for Jesus as a Jewish organization is overwhelmingly rejected by Jewish religious denominations[5][6] and secular Jewish groups[7][8] due to the Christian beliefs of its members. The group's evangelical activities have garnered mixed reactions from other Christian individuals and organizations, largely divided between liberal and conservative Christian lines.[9][1]

History

The organization was founded by Moishe Rosen, an ordained Baptist minister[10] who was born Jewish and converted to Christianity at the age of 17[11]. Rosen was the head of the San Francisco arm of the American Board of Missions to the Jews (an organization now known as Chosen People Ministries). In 1973, Rosen broke off from that organization[12], and in September of that year, incorporated Jews for Jesus as Hineni Ministries with its headquarters in the San Francisco area. Over the next few years, it established branches in other cities. In 1979, it shut down its branches for up to several years to retrain its missionaries. It then went on to open more branches, mostly in United States cities, in the 1980s, as well as abroad in the 1990s. Rosen remained its executive director until May, 1996 when he was replaced by David Brickner,[1] also a Baptist minister[13]. Moishe Rosen died in May, 2010. The organization has maintained its headquarters in or near San Francisco, California since its inception.[14]
[edit] Aims and organization

Jews for Jesus is based in San Francisco, California. Jews for Jesus official mission statement is "to make the Messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide." Through media advertisements, production and distribution of literature, producing music and organizing person-to-person evangelism, the organization asserts that "a specifically Jewish mission" is necessary, saying "Jewish people tend to dismiss evangelistic methods and materials that are couched in Christian lingo, because they reinforce the assumption that Jesus is for 'them' not 'us.'"[15]

Jews for Jesus promotes awareness of the Jewish heritage of the Christian faith. Their website contains brief descriptions of Jewish festivals.[16] The group also provides programs that provide their Christian interpretation of Jewish holidays such as Passover, Sukkot and Hanukkah, explaining what they consider messianic elements and how they believe these festivals are related to Jesus.

muman613:
One last post on this thread...

I have no problem working or socializing with non-Jews. I recently befriended a very nice Mexican man who is a Mormon. We share discussions on the Tanach and philosophy. He is very careful not to say things which will send red flags concerning the nature of Hashem {Non-corporeal, Infinite, Omniscient, etc.} and I respect him for this. He has not tried to convert me to believe what he believes. I do believe that he has learned something from me concerning the Tanach.

But I also study a lot of anti-missionary material so that I will be able to debate the topics. I know about many of the tricks used by missionaries like Jews for Jesus. The Jewish wisdom tells us to know what to say to someone who believes 'heretical' {from a Jewish perspective} beliefs.

http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter2-19.html

--- Quote ---"Rabbi Elazar said: Be diligent in the study of Torah. Know what to answer a heretic. Know before Whom you toil. And faithful is your Employer that He will pay you the reward for your labor."

We are continuing to study the teachings of the five primary students of R. Yochanan ben Zakkai (Mishna 10). This mishna presents the words of R. Elazar, R. Yochanan's fifth and final student.

R. Elazar advises us to be prepared to answer all challenges put forth by heretics. We must anticipate their arguments and be ready with proper and appropriate responses. We must know how the other side is translating (and usually mistranslating) verses and what those verses truly mean. (Don't allow them to turn "a son has been born to us" (written many hundreds of years before the Common Era) into "a son will be born." And certainly don't let them tell you "maiden" means "virgin". By the way, by this I don't mean by this that others are not entitled to their own beliefs. But telling us our own Scripture says it -- when anyone who speaks Hebrew knows it does not -- is going a bit too far.)

And this should not be a difficult task. We have the original Hebrew and all the ancient commentaries on our side. Truth really does speak for itself. Nevertheless, as we all know, getting others to buy truth is 10% content and 90% packaging. We must not only know what to answer. We must well know how to say it.

The term our mishna uses for heretic is "apikorus." This is the Hebrew equivalent of Epicurus, the Ancient Greek philosopher (3rd-2nd Centuries B.C.E.), founder of the Epicurean philosophy ("Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we may die" -- especially with eating habits like that). (The Epicureans were actually more "rational hedonists," but for our purposes, the folk-simplification is sufficient -- and also telling.) The term apikorus in Jewish literature has become synonymous with one who adheres to any doctrine contrary to the basic tenets of Judaism. Certainly Epicureanism is practically antithetical to all we believe in. Death is not an end to existence to be ignored and disregarded. To the contrary: this world is no more than an entranceway before the Banquet Hall (4:21). The eventuality of death should not drive us to indulge ourselves, but to spend our lives preparing for that future grand entrance. (See also earlier, 2:15 .)
--- End quote ---

Sephirath:
The prophets looked forward to a time when all of humanity will be united in worship of the G-d of the Jews (Zephaniah 3:9). Though humanity is a world apart from the vision of our Nivim. Currently there are over 900 christian groups actively involved in targeting the Jewish people in North America alone. These missionizing society are currently spending over $250 million dollars per year on there efforts (one quarter billion usd). Presently in America the intermarriage rate in near 65 percent a raise from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey recording a rate of 52 percent. This near 15 percent decline in Torah standards in the last few decades is one of the grates low watermarks of the last 2000 years of Jewish history. This assimilation is directly tied to proselytizing christian denominations and there secular society. In protestant germany 1935 the trend was strikingly similar with near 50 percent wandering away from the standards of Torah, we receive the shoah with thoughts like this. There is no peace with a people that holds the desire of murdering our souls, history has attested throw 1500 years of a peaceful Hebrew people being slaughtered like lambs.
Why worry more about the enemy then your own people. I don't see the problem of one honest Jew speaking his mind, Do you?

Yaakov Mendel:

--- Quote from: Sephirath Ben Baruch on August 26, 2011, 08:15:44 PM ---Why worry more about the enemy then your own people. I don't see the problem of one honest Jew speaking his mind, Do you?

--- End quote ---

The righteous Gentiles on this forum are NOT our ennemies. They are our friends and I worry about my friends, whether they are Jewish or not.

nessuno:

--- Quote from: Yaakov Mendel on August 27, 2011, 04:26:46 AM ---The righteous Gentiles on this forum are NOT our ennemies. They are our friends and I worry about my friends, whether they are Jewish or not.

--- End quote ---
Thank You.

This is meant to be divisive and attempts to damage the goals of JTF.
It is sad that some people never miss jumping on that bandwagon.  I guess it's going in the direction they would like to see JTF take. 

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