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The first thing to note is that this pamphlet is produced by Jews for Jesus — this is essentially a branch of evangelical Christianity that tries to disguise its Christian roots by playing themselves up as the “true” Jews and saying that it’s very Jewish to believe in Jesus. They are particularly reviled in the religious Jewish community because they deceptively target mainly those Jews who don’t know much about Judaism thereby framing the person’s conversion as a “return” to his/her Jewish roots.
Of course, the idea that members of a religion have a monopoly in defining that religion (ie. Orthodox Jews saying Jews for Jesus aren’t Jewish) is very suspect. Also from a certain perspective, any form of evangelism involves some deception. Even if the person doing the evangelising genuinely believes their message 100%, they still cherrypick from their scripture when wooing converts. However, it does seem that by deliberately disguising their Christian agenda, Jews for Jesus are adding an extra layer of deception on top of the standard deceptions of Christian proselytising.
Unfortunately for them, they don’t do a very good job of disguising their evangelical affiliations. Based on this pamphlet alone, the jig is up. The arguments used in the pamphlet are the standard (and extremely crude!) ones used by evangelists like Ray Comfort. It’s true that there are many orthodox Jews who also try to psychologically explain away atheists by suggesting that they’re only in it so they can be sexually immoral (see this hilarious site — it is NOT a Poe…) However the version that has atheists disbelieve in God because they don’t want to face the judgement of the afterlife is an obviously Christian version of this.
The other thing I found hilarious about the pamphlet is how they genuinely seem to believe that they can substitute caricatures of atheists (good ones at that!) and quotes from the Bible for an actual substantive argument. I mean, if you think about it, the formal argument of the pamphlet is this:
The “New Atheists” believe faith and religious thinking are illogical and harmful.
The Bible says otherwise.
THEREFORE the “New Atheists” are wrong.
Aristotle himself would be proud.
No matter what the tactics Jews for Jesus use in their other evangelical activities, I think even the most zealous Orthodox Jews can rest easy about this pamphlet. Even from the perspective of a [non-Christian] fundamentalism, this particular message shan’t be persuading anyone who wasn’t already keen to get into John 14 and “Y’Shua“…
2 comments ↓
So, Jews for Jesus are Christian? I didn’t know that. I remember hearing them when I was at Berkeley, in California. They were around, but I didn’t care much to find out who they were. I believed (perhaps that’s what their advertising said) that they were Jews who happened to have accepted Jesus. Go figure… Ok, they are Christian and they are doubly deceptive: (a) because they are procelytizing and (b) because they are doing so by using other people’s identity. They must be addressing morons though. Because, even if, initially, one of their converts falls for Judaism, surely, later, he or she will find out that he was really procelytized by a bunch of Christians. As, I said… go figure…
And, yes, that site, the one of the jewish philosopher is “funny”. Funny, isn’t it, how a converted person can be more conservative, more fundamentalist, more stuck than the real thing.
In his family history page he writes:
“My 33rd great-grandfather was Rollo (Hrolf) Rognvaldsson,
a Viking chieftain from Norway who converted to Christianity and become the
first count of Normandy in 911. My 41st great-grandmother St. Begga of Landen
(died 698) is a Catholic saint, as is her mother St. Ida of Nivelles and her
father-in-law and my 42nd great-grandfather St. Arnulf of Metz.”
I find this funny, to say the least…
“The real thing”?
There are other groups who practice Judaism and believe Jesus is the messiah who are not affiliated with evangelical churches (although the average orthodox person would still consider them Christian) — but the organisation called “Jews for Jesus” is basically a wholly owned subsidiary of Evangelical Convert the Jews Inc.
Not sure what you mean by someone falling for Judaism — their target is Jews who take all their beliefs on (including their Christian ones) thinking this is part of the Jewish faith.
I read JP for actual laughs, he’s hilarious. He’s like the Jewish Ray Comfort but even more caricature-like!
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