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Hope I'm not hammering this into the ground, but have some more thoughts/questions after more reading.
In fact, today I bumped into a TV thing about "Jewish Voice Ministries International" on "Feed the Children." I am always interested in Third World issues and am painfully aware of how hard life is for so many people around the world, and I am so fortunate in my life. Anyway, I watched this show about this group doing a medical mission to what they are calling "abandoned Jews of Ethiopia," who the group says have been "abandoned by Israel and left on the runways" and who are, obviously in very poor health and conditions. JVMI has good ratings for its use of funds for the medical mission from Charity Navigator, but the overarching mission is to prostyltize about Jesus. Their web page notes how many patients they treated (about 15,000) and 2,775 salvations!
So I did some more reading on these Jesus-accepting Jewish groups, or those who try to preach the good news, etc., to Jews, and saw that there is *a lot* of anger on the part of the Jewish, Israeli, religious people about a basically Pentecostal Jesus-pushing movement, also, because of the history of Jews not accepting Jesus and all that happened thereafter and thereof.
A guy named Rick Ross has some sort of "cult watch" site, and there is a list of articles about the messianic Jewish movement.
It sounds very pernicious- to go around preaching and trying to convert people. It sounds, frankly, as rude as anyone trying to preach and convert anyone else (something Jews famously do *not* do).
I know I posted about this before, so hope if someone has something to add, they will do so, and please do not give quotes from the bible as something to add, because that is not what I am asking.
If Messianic "Jews" would just act like Jews and stop proselytizing, perhaps the Jews would not have such disdain for this group of Chrstians who call themselves Jews.
Quote:
"abandoned Jews of Ethiopia," who the group says have been "abandoned by Israel and left on the runways"
I hope your radar went up when you saw that part. Surely you all understand that Jews do not abandon Jews. It's the equivalent of saying the US Marines leave their dead on the battle field (which they obviously do not). Jews recognize we have an obligation to all mankind to treat them with respect, but in a world of limited resources, nobody could blame people for helping out their own kind first, could they?
And i don't have all the facts (somebody with hot google fingers could probably find links), but i recall israel went to great lengths to airlift Ethiopian Jews into israel back in the 1980s, and they have slowly been working to integrate these folks into Israeli society.
Exactly, as my father always says, "You can always go to Israel, in fact, they say, "We'll come and get you!"
I believe there was an airlift regarding Yemen, and Ethiopia and other places. The TV show said that this group (obviously terribly poor, lots of blindness, health issues, etc.) were persecuted by all around them, first for being Jews, and then for accepting Jesus. Huh? They showed a "prayer room" along with the medical attention, where people could "pray and hear the good news." Poor devils. Wouldn't you do anything to get that infected mouth treated, or that dying kid treated? The excitement on the website about the "salvations" was truly obnoxious.
I gather that these "messianic Jews" hold Jewish services and so on, but yes, they are acting like Christian fundies, and are identified as Christian by their belief. The more I read, the more obnoxious it sounds. Believe me, I am in danger of finding any of this OK.
Similar tactics are also used towards us Muslims. but so far the Chrislam movement has not moved very much.
People, the ideas they come up with. There is no such things as a Messianic Jew or a Christian Muslim. The two groups are Christian groups with a new angle on proselytizing.
I think the fact that 99.99% of Jews will have nothing to do with the Messianic Jewish movement, I think it's pretty clear that the term "Messianic Jew" is an oxymoron.
I think the fact that only Chrstians "accept" the "fact" that there are Jews who believe in Jesus, and not one mainstream Jew on will admit the same, is also telling.
The sad thing, is I've noticed on this forum a never-ending ignorance of the two facts above. I was shocked to see that so many Chrstians (and I would have assumed Chrsitians who participate in religious online forums would be the most educated ones out there), simply had no idea of the two items I stated above. Shocking! What do they teach you in those churches? And perhaps a better question: "Why do they teach you that?"
And i don't have all the facts (somebody with hot google fingers could probably find links), but i recall israel went to great lengths to airlift Ethiopian Jews into israel back in the 1980s, and they have slowly been working to integrate these folks into Israeli society.
there are people on the margins of the falasha community in ethiopia about whom there is some controversy. I think a group of ethiopians who claims to be descendants of falashas whose ancestors converted to christianity under duress.
I would note that the integration of the Falasha's into Israeli society has not been aided by certain Haredim who do not accept their halachic status as Jews (the halachic question is interesting, in that the "liberals" (Masorti and I think most Modern O are defending the authority of a medieval rabbi, against opposition that asserts the superior authority of modern scholarship on secular matters)
I think the fact that 99.99% of Jews will have nothing to do with the Messianic Jewish movement, I think it's pretty clear that the term "Messianic Jew" is an oxymoron."
Do I need to clarify for folks here that you are not a part of the Jews for Jesus church? ALL Jews await the coming of messiah. It's one of our 13 principles of faith (c'mon Walter, I know you got a link for those)
And yes, may he (moschiach) come speedily and in our days. And while we're on the subject of blessings... may the Jews for Jesus church leave us Jews alone, and quit proselytizing towards our less educated Jewish brothers and sisters. I dare a messianic Jew to try to convince me to believe in Jesus.
I think "messianic jews" are an insidious nasty little Christian group with obvious alterior motives.
They are some of the worse sorts of Christians, IMO.
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