- On Sept. 29, 2005 Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith, condemned the Southern Baptist Convention for encouraging
Messianic Jewish members to witness to Jews. "If people convert,
that's their own business," Foxman said, "but don't use them
as a tool to convert other people." Foxman protests such evangelism,
stating the Southern Baptists are using Christian Jews to "go after
other Jews."
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- Attempts by evil Jewish leaders to forbid proclamation
of the Gospel to the Jewish people is an old story. In the book of
Acts the Pharisees "commanded them (the Jewish disciples) not to speak
or teach at all in the name of Jesus." But Peter and John refused
to be silenced, "for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen
and heard." (Acts 4:18) These Jews kept on preaching to the Jewish
people.
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- A few days later the Pharisees again seized them, saying,
"We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name,
and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring
this man's blood upon us." Peter and the apostles answered firmly,
"We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:27-28) The disciples'
defiance earned them a flogging and threats of imprisonment and even death,
but Scripture tells us, "Every daythey kept right on teaching and
preaching Jesus as the Christ." (Acts 5:42)
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- The spiritual and physical ancestors of ADL/B'nai B'rith
were attempting to impose "speech crime" edicts upon Christians,
limiting speech and free expression of politically and religiously incorrect
ideas. They were also determined that no one should remind the world
that it was they who had crucified Christ. They clearly considered that
to "bring this man's blood upon us" was an act of bias-motivated
ethnic intimidation, i.e., a hate crime.
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- It is remarkable how little has changed in the last 2000
years!
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- Will Southern Baptists Obey God - or Jewish Leaders?
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- How will Southern Baptist leaders react to Foxman's demand
that their Jewish members stop witnessing to Jews? Will they go ahead
boldly "teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ?" Or will
they cancel plans to develop their unique Messianic Jewish outreach, particularly
on Jewish holidays? Especially at such times, when Jews are spiritually
sensitized, Foxman resents Christian evangelism as "offensive."
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- About four years ago the government of Israel informed
evangelical organizations worldwide that members of Christian tour groups
visiting Israel would no longer be permitted to witness to Jews in that
country. Some 50 evangelical organizations complied. In doing so,
they reaffirmed their willingness to abide by Israel's anti-missionary
law, passed on Christmas Day 1977. Such thought crime legislation
threatens up to five years in an Israeli prison to any Gentile who offers
as little as a Gospel tract to an Israeli.
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- In agreeing to Israel's ban on evangelism, did the leaders
of these 50 organizations respond as the disciples did? They did not. They
feared the Israeli thought police more than they feared God. They wanted
nothing to do with New Testament-style boldness in witnessing. They were
unwilling to suffer loss of income or approval by man, much less endure
public shame and imprisonment for Christ. They did not quote the disciples'
defiant words to the Israeli government or argue that Israel's demand violated
their conscience and those of millions of evangelical tourists they bring
to Israel.
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- Instead, they encouraged Christian visitors to accept,
while in Israel, not only lack of free speech but also an end of any possibility
that the Holy Spirit might lead them to witness to an Israeli. Such
is negation of Christ's command to preach the Gospel "to all nations."
(Matt. 28:19) This is unholy violation of a Christian's conscience
while visiting a supposedly "holy" land.
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- Perhaps these leaders thought that protesting the Israeli
ban on free speech might seem "unloving" or even "anti-Semitic."
Perhaps they feared a Divine curse if they did not "bless" Israel
by complying with its demands. Of one thing we are certain: These leaders
were in no mood to lose lucrative income from Holy Land tours - a cash
cow that can only be milked by appeasing the government of Israel. In
short, unlike the apostles, they were ashamed of the cross of Christ.
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- Israel: Land without Free Speech
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- Israel is a nation reestablished after millennia of pogroms,
dispersions, and restrictions on Jewish rights. Today it has flourished
largely because of tremendous moral and financial favor from nations of
the Christian West. It receives annually much more than five billion dollars
in aid from Christian America. Some compute that the whole Israeli experiment
during the last 50 years has cost America and the world three trillion
dollars. (See Thomas R. Stauffer's article, "Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs," June 2003.)
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- Israel touts itself as a land enjoying free speech: "the
only democracy in the Middle East." Yet remarkably, after a full century
of unprecedented approval and total support by Christians, Israel still
denies its Christian visitors a very simple privilege: a free religious
discussion with an Israeli.
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- How will the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention
respond to the threatening of Abe Foxman, high priest of the New Sanhedrin?
I don't know. But I must remind them that: Jesus meant what He said when
He warned, "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous
and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when
He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:38)
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- Three powerful video documentaries by Rev. Ted Pike explain
what the Bible really says about God's plan for the Jewish people and the
Christian's relationship to Israel. Come to www.truthtellers.org for
a 7-minute preview of The Other Israel, Why the Mideast Bleeds, and Zionism
and Christianity: Unholy Alliance. Order VHS or DVD at www.truthtellers.org,
503-631-3808, or the address below.
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- NATIONAL PRAYER NETWORK
- P. O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
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