BAPTIST PRAY FOR JEWS TO CONVERT

BAPTIST PRAY FOR JEWS TO CONVERT

Hugh Fogelman

The Southern Baptist Church, the largest Protestant movement in the United States has called upon its members to pray for the conversion of Jews to Christianity during the Jewish high holidays. There are people who will say, "so what, they are not hurting anyone.” But to a Jew, they really are!

Jewish organizations are responding angrily at this anti-Semitic attack because it shows how insensitive and hostile these Christians are. One of the largest Jewish organizations, the B'nai B'rith, issued a statement saying:

"The arrogance in such a call for prayer is plain to any Jewish person. By having Christians pray for Jews acceptance of Jesus contradicts the legitimacy of Judaism."

This is exactly what I have been writing about; Christians, in their mind and theology, have to de-legitimize Judaism―to make it obsolete―for Christianity to be the one and only true religion.

The president of a Jewish group wrote a letter to Dr. Jerry Rankin, Director of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptists, saying that:

"you have the rights to your religious beliefs, but with that right comes the obligation to respect the rights of others to their religious beliefs. That includes Jews and Muslims, whom you also reportedly have targeted, and Hindus and Buddhists, with whom you plan to "intercede.” But "intercession" with believers of other faiths is really interference."

The president of the B'nai B'rith also wrote to Dr. Rankin explaining that:

"Jews believe that the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, is complete in and of itself. Those who believe in the Torah, in God's words to the people of Israel, are Jews. And they are "complete" Jews. Those believing that the Hebrew Bible needs to be completed by the New Testament are not "completed Jews," but are simply Christians. Jews are not some lesser category of Christians in need of "completion" or conversion any more than the followers of Jesus are incomplete Muslims, in need of the "final revelation" of the Muslim Koran. As Jews, we await the coming of the messiah, a human messenger of God, not the Second Coming of a messiah who didn't fulfill anything."

Another Jewish group wrote:

"In recent decades the Roman Catholic Church has acknowledged Judaism as a living religion of continuing scriptural authenticity. We urge the Southern Baptist Convention to do likewise."

Still another Jewish group wrote:

"While Baptists misguidedly pray for our conversion; we will be praying on our High Holiday for the opportunity to better follow God's word, the Torah. As we do so, we will not have the effrontery to beseech God to convert the believers of other religions."

In June 1996, the Southern Baptist Convention declared "Open Season" on Jews when they directed their "energies and resources" toward the proclamation of the gospel to the Jewish people. Their resolution makes a statement that Jews are lacking something―Jews aren't as good as Christians, for they are blind to see the truth―that the Jewish belief is invalid. This is confirmed by Reverend Bailey Smith, at that time leader of the Southern Baptist, when he said: "God doesn’t hear the prayer of a Jew.”

In mid 1999, New York was aggressively set upon by the Christian group, "Jews for Jesus.” Many dozens of people were handing out their literature all over the metropolitan area. Full page ads ran in the newspapers and huge billboards at the entrances to bridges and tunnels and placards on subways and buses proclaimed that you can be "more Jewish" if you believe in Jesus. And for two weeks, radio commercials on major New York stations carried the same crusade. With their yearly budget of over $11 million, Christian missionaries have gone all out in the attempts of making Judaism seem wrong!

FOOTNOTE:

The Southern Baptist movement has considerable political influence in the United States. I wonder how many Republican and Democratic candidates are Southern Baptists?

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