Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Lies about other religions

In an article published in the Jerusalem Post,
Ira Liebler attacks the Chief Rabbinate of Israel for forbidding Jewish participation in a recent women's conference. Mr. Liebler claims that the reason for this ban, the fear of Christian missionary activity, is unfounded. Mr Liebler says that Evangelicals such as those who sponsor the conference are nothing to worry about:

"In contrast to other Protestant denominations, Evangelicals vigorously reject replacement theology and regard Judaism as the foundation for Christianity rather than being replaced by it. "

The trouble is, Mr. Liebler is wrong on both counts. Here are some examples from the internet site of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Evangelical denomination in the United States:

"There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord....It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations."

Source.


And they mean it, too: They have targeted exactly 7,822,942 Jews for conversion to Christianity, as shown on this spreadsheet.

Compare this to this statement from the United Church of Christ, a "mainline Protestant" denomination:

"We...affirm that Judaism has not been superseded by Christianity; that Christianity is not to be understood as the successor religion to Judaism; God's covenant with the Jewish people has not been abrogated."

Source.


Or this statement from the United Methodist Church, a different "mainline Protestant" denomination:

"God is steadfastly faithful to the biblical covenant with the Jewish people. The covenant God established with the Jewish people through Abraham, Moses, and others continues because it is an eternal covenant. "

Source.

It is true that not all evangelicals follow the Southern Baptist Convention in their rejection of the validity of Judaism and the need to target Jews for conversion, a point I have previously made.

However, Mr. Liebler is guilty of spreading false information about non-Evangelical Protestants and at best promotes a misleading generalization about Evangelicals. Is this not putting a stumbling block before the blind -- the huge majority of Jews who don't have a clue about the differences between Christian sects?

We wonder why mainline Protestants don't support Israel more; why should they when our leaders spread lies about them? Is there any example before the 20th century in which rabbis intervened in intra-Christian theological disputes? Here, we are publically favoring the group that seems to have a less favorable view of Judaism! Is this really in our interests?


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hear, Hear

9:14 AM  

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