Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Christians are Deceiving Many Jews

Christians are Deceiving Many Jews
Jn.14: 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Could our Lord made it any clearer? All have sinned, and the soul that sins it shall die. That means Jew or Gentile or Martian.
Matt.3: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
I have addressed the danger of earthly Zionism which favors the secular nation of Israel as if that is part of the New Testament command to the church. When the church runs about supporting this and supporting that she openly reveals her imprisonment to the temporal and her disdain for the eternal. In this age of gospel grace there are only two kinds of sinners - lost and saved. Ethnicity is irrelevant except if it helps in our communication of the everlasting gospel. A lost Jew is equal to a lost Arab. A lost Jew is the same as a lost Gentile. There is no difference, they both stand in eternal peril.

Here is a danger.
As my link reveals there is a distinct and diabolical danger when we join hands with unbelieving Jews around the cause of secular Israel. As evidenced by my link, many Jews feel a kinship with American evangelicals, not because they are kind, but because they are militant about Israel. And this earthly bond blinds them even further to their spiritual state and their desperate need for Christ. Jews sought to kill the Apostle Paul while today they break bread around a table of respectful compromise.
This also reveals the depth of blindness within American evangelicalism. The church has constructed a theology which lives and dwells comfortably within the political system. These earthly “causes” are misguided and serve only to stroke our egos and water the ever present western competitive spirit. And the blind support of Israel, due to a twisted application of Abraham’s Covenant, is injurious to the spiritual health of the church. During the Reformation the church was full of rabid anti-Semites while today she is full of Biblical and gospel ignorance as well as ambivalence.
As believers we should not be in favor or against any government. Our kingdom has never been of this earth. Israel in its present state is no more “precious” to God than is North Korea. His will is for souls to be saved, and in this gospel age God does not deal with secular nations wholesale. He deals with individuals and He deals with the church. I have found Scriptural hints that seem to indicate a future sovereign miracle for the Jewish remnant still alive at the end of the age, but there is no hint of earthly Zionism for the church today.
There is a very subtle element to the church showing earthly favoritism. Just as anti-Semitism is bigotry toward Jews, so is Zionism bigotry toward a certain sect of the Gentiles, namely Arabs and more specifically the Palestinians. It may not be intentional, but it presents a major stumbling block for the gospel among the precious Palestinian people and the greater Arab and Muslim community. It creates a spiritual mess and sounds an uncertain sound. It is gospel confusion.
But perhaps one of the greatest disservices, and yes even sins, created by this falsehood is when unbelieving Jews feel a sense of spiritual comfort and security because Christians treat them as spiritual brothers and sisters. Even false prophets like John Hagee teach salvation for Jews without Jesus simply through their ethnicity and their embracing of the Old Testament covenants. It does not matter that no Jews even practice the Law in its fullness anymore. In some ways the orthodox Jews practice a sort of emergent brand of Judaism, trimmed down and brought up to post modern standards.
How could we have ever thought that the church would be engaged with assuring unbelievers that their standing before God was safe? What a tragedy! What a heresy! And just like nationalism concerning America, nationalism concerning Israel creates all sorts of unholy alliances. Men like Glenn Beck are welcomed into the community of faith not just as a brother, but as a spiritual leader. Never mind that he denies the deity of Christ and believes in a salvation of works, all that matters is that he has a rabid allegiance for Israel. Unbelieving Rabbis are invited to preach God’s Word to supposed Christ followers? And even Benjamin Netanyahu, far from being an orthodox Jew, was invited to speak at such rallies including filling John Hagee’s pulpit. What a mind boggling spectacle. And in the evangelical community, the more militant and saber rattling the Israeli Prime Minister is, the greater the evangelical support. Come to think of it, the same is true here in America.
But to believe and convince unbelievers that they can inherit eternal life through an avenue which does not include Jesus is apostasy at the highest level. It discards the cross in favor of a mangled Biblical creation and a refusal to rightly divide the Word. It generates all kinds of fleshly excitement as well as a subtle form of hatred. It renders Christ a course along the doctrinal smorgasbord which can be taken or left. With paostasy on this level no wonder Mormonism is rapidly becoming a member of the evangelical community. Roman Catholicism has been a memebr in good standing for decades.
Oh the trappings of compromise and error that line the streets in today’s brand of evangelicalism. The Word no longer means anything at all. Even words like Christian and disciple and believer have been so compromised and so diluted that they are now spiritually impotent. And growing openly in the midst of this monstrous spiritual apostasy is the Christian version of Zionism. A pastor boldly states his support for Israel and the evangelical crowd roundly applauds. No tears for the salvation of Jews. No night watches in prayer for God to open their eyes. No fastings to seek their release from the spiritual imprisonment in which they now suffer.
Those kinds of things must bow to pep rallies and mouth frothing support of any Israeli military action. The banner of the Star of David replaces the banner of the name of Jesus. The humble preacher of 70 members who lives and prays faithfully to Christ will never find a spot on the speaker list at these rallies. The speaking spots have been taken by millionaires like Beck and Hagee and Robison, and secular icons like Netanyahu, as well as a smattering of unbelieving Jews and rabbis. And you still are unconvinced of the apostasy in the western evangelical church?
It is a spiritual form of anti-Semitism to withhold the gospel from the Jews and sing them false lullabies concerning their eternal souls. Whatever the prophetic plan holds in the future is in God’s hands, however God has placed the gospel in ours. Let us preach it to every creature and then the end will come.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Word of God must be interprited literally. I trust the bible as Holy spirit inspired, it is the only thing we as Christians can lean on as authority for what we believe. I agree that Jews who do not believe in Christ as well as anybody else who does not believe in Christ will not be saved. Jesus is the only way to the Father. However, I do not believe that John Hagee believes or states that the Jews will be saved apart from a faith in Jesus Christ.

He, as well as I see Israel as a country that God gave to the jewish people. They have done many wonderful things for the world and all of the Israel hating nations around them have benefited greatly in many different ways from them. While both judiasm and islam miss the cornerstone crucial for salvation; I believe that islam is a much more violent and oppressive culture.

I also believe God that whoever blesses Israel will be blessed and whoever curses Israel will be cursed. This does not at all mean that I believe they are saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

You are right that we as Christians should be deeply in prayer for the jewish people to recognize our messiah Jesus. Many christians have been doing this while at the same time supporting Israel's right to exist. There never was a nation of Palestine before the creation of Israel by the way.

Rick Frueh said...

John Hagee in an interview ith the Houston Chronicle:
"I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption" (Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988).
"I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith... In fact, trying to convert Jews is a waste of time. Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity." (Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988, sec, 6, pg. 1).

Now that you have these facts, will you adjust your perspective of Hagee?