Let us find out the tactics followed by Christian Missionary to convert Jews.
After exploring the underlying reasons for the obsession to convert Jews, it is vitally important that you understand the means or tactics the missionary will employ to dupe unwitting Jews into accepting Jesus. We will go back to the beginning to explain.
One could argue that Paul, a founding father of the early church, and the most successful missionary that ever lived, confessed to using deception and lies to make converts:
• Corinthians 9:20-22: “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law -- though not being myself under the law -- that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law -- not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ -- that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.”
• Romans 3:7: ‘If through my lies God’s truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?”
• Philippians 1:18: “In every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Jesus is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.”
The veracity of everything that Paul stated and wrote is called into question by the fact that these quotes are found in the books he himself authored. More importantly, if he is the true founder of the religion based on Jesus, then it stands to reason that subterfuge and deceit are legitimate means to the “noble” end of saving the world by having them accept Jesus. It is important to understand this reasoning when dealing with Evangelical fundamentalist missionaries.
The purpose of sharing this information is not to bash Christianity or its followers. Rather, it is partially to instill within the students a greater recognition of the historical struggle we as a people have had to face in rejecting Christianity and to “just saying no to Jesus” as our Messiah. The most serious problem for Christianity over the last 2000 years is the non-acceptance of Christianity by the Jewish people. Recognizing the fallacies and deceit associated with the message, Jewish people willingly suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Romans, and later, the Church in order to remain faithful to the truth of our Torah legacy.
Parts of the Evangelical world, therefore, felt totally justified following Paul’s lead for they believed (according to the NT) that Satan has blinded the eyes of the Jews from seeing the truth. Paul even teaches that, “But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.” (II Corinthians 3:15) In the middle Ages the followers of the Church claimed that the Jewish people really knew Jesus was the Messiah, but they were so evil to the core, they refused to accept the obvious. Considering such anti-Semitic sentiment, it is not surprising that the Church endorsed Paul’s philosophy in dealing with the “Unsaved.”
The Church staged “debates,” artificially-rigged against the rabbis who were restricted against posing any questions of their own and never allowed to say anything offensive against Christianity. Often times, even if they won the debate, they “lost,” – for expulsions of entire communities, Talmud burnings, and even death at the stake, were not uncommon consequences of winning such debates. In spite of all this, Jews remained steadfast and were more than ready to die than to accept a false god.
Highlights: Paul, who was the greatest influence in the development of Christianity, and its greatest missionary, advocated any means, even deceit, to gain converts to Jesus. These tactics are still used today. Jews throughout the middle Ages rejected the claims of Christianity and were suffered torture and death rather than accept a false religion.
Armed with this knowledge, and wishing to overcome this horrific PR debacle, Born Again Christians resort to new tactics for converting Jews. They reason that Jews rejected Jesus because Christians have maltreated them for centuries, and they want to show the “true face” of Christianity. The new message is “Jesus loves you!”
Indeed, Christian organizations from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Assemblies of God spend millions of dollars (200+) a year to break the barriers of Jewish recalcitrance to Jesus by repackaging the message to be more “Jewser Friendly.” How so?
1. Fundamentalist Christians give millions of dollars in support to Israel, most notably, during the recent Intifada. They visit Israel in droves in pilgrimages on a yearly basis. As a group, Christian Zionists are the largest body of gentile “friends” supporting the Jewish state.
2. When speaking with unsaved Jewish friends and associates they avoid using the name Jesus Christ, rather they will use the name Yeshua, the Hebrew equivalent. (The word Christ means, “Messiah”) They will use the word “Moshiach,” instead. Likewise, their missionaries will not display crosses on their persons, in their homes, or in their offices. Instead of calling themselves a Christian they will identity themselves as a “Bible Believer”. By calling a baptismal service a “mivkah immersion” they are concealing its true function.
3. The Messianic “synagogue” was an innovation by these Christian missionary organizations to make Christianity more “Jewish.” They pray with a Hebrew prayer book, read from an actual Torah scroll, and adorn themselves with Tallit and Yarmulka, just as one would find in mainstream Jewish houses of worship. They give them very Jewish names such as Etz Chaim, Beth Yeshua, or Adat Ariel. They have a Passover service, however the 3 matzot represent to them the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. The 4 cups of wine likewise represent the blood of Jesus in their usurpation of these symbols.
This “cross-cultural evangelism,” to coin a phrase, has its roots in the passage penned by Paul we mentioned above where he proclaims “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law I became as one under the law -- though not being myself under the law…” (I Corinthians 9:20) Just how pervasive has this movement become? In 1970 there were 12 Messianic synagogues, today there are more than 400! They are sponsored and operated by groups such as Jews for Jesus, The Chosen Peoples Ministries, the Messianic Voice, and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. In fact, the latter’s mission statement, with all its self-contradictions, confirms this precise phenomenon of “cross-culture” evangelism:
"A movement of Jewish congregations and congregation-like groupings committed to Yeshua the Messiah that embrace the covenantal responsibility of Jewish life and identity rooted in Torah, expressed in tradition, renewed and applied in the context of the New Covenant." A related statement remarks that faith in Yeshua "unites Messianic Judaism and the Gentile Christian Church, which is the assembly of the faithful from the nations who are joined to Israel through the Messiah."
Another important point is the argument that “A Jew can believe in Jesus and still remain a Jew,” or “Weren’t the first followers of Jesus also Jewish?” The fallacy of this logic is simple, the fashioners of the Golden Calf were also Jewish, yet it is obvious that this fact does not mean their action was any less of a crime. Granted, according to Jewish law, there is essentially nothing a person can do to rid him/her self of their Jewish status. Indeed we ascribe to the concept of “Once a Jew always a Jew.” However, one who becomes a “meshumad” (Jew who becomes a member of another religious group) loses privileges associated with being part of the Jewish “community,” e.g. being included in a minyan, burial in a Jewish cemetery, and the like.
Highlights: Evangelical missionary groups, which number over 900 in North America alone, spend $250 Million+ annually to witness specifically to Jews. They have special techniques to make Christianity more “Jewish” by avoiding certain names and symbols. Many have spawned congregations of Jews and gentiles practicing Christianity using Jewish customs. There are more than 200 such congregations around today.