I am back…for a little while anyway. While away, a writer at Haaretz wrote a column on “Why ‘Jews for Jesus’ is Evil.” After an avalanche of responses, he followed it up with “When Converting a Jew to Christ.” You might gain some insight in reading these, especially if you are less familiar with the Jewish aversion to Jesus. Most Jews, in my experience, can’t articulate why Jesus isn’t for them; they just have been taught that this is so since birth. Of course there is a lot of stuff out there from Jewish people against Jesus, but this is recent and published in one of the major Israeli newspapers. May these motivate you to pray and study.
Yeah, Todd you definitely have the right attitude – may articles like these motivate us to pray.
When I first read these articles on Haaretz I used to tell people in my office that he has a special place in hell (the name of his column). Little did I know that a week later I’d be having coffee with him. God works in mysterious ways!
I just read C.S. Lewis’ introduction to his wife’s book, “Smoke On the Mountain” (Joy Davidman). She was Jewish and communist before she became a “converted Jew”. This is what Lewis had to say:
“In a sense the converted Jew is the only normal human being in the whole world. To her, in the first instance, the promises were made, and she has availed herself of them. She calls Abraham her father by hereditary right and well as by divine courtesy. She as taken the whole syllabus in order, as it was set; eaten the dinner according to the menu. Everyone else is, from one point of view, a special case, dealt with under emergency regulations. To us Christians the unconverted Jew (I mean no offence) must appear as a Christian manque; someone carefully prepared for a certain destiny and then missing it. And we ourselves, we christened gentiles, are after all the graft, the wild vine, posessing ‘joys not promised to our birth’; though perhaps we do not think of this so often as we might. And when the Jew does come in, she brings with her into the fold dispositions different from, and complementary of, ours; as St. Paul envisages in Ephesians 2:14-19.”
I’ll never forget worshiping at the church of converted Jews at the King David hotel. It was as if a fullness of worship was present there the likes of which I’d never noticed before or experienced since. Law and Grace, perfectly wed.
Christopher – very interesting quote. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Sara Ruth – you’re not the only believer who I’ve since heard has had contact with the author of those articles. Very interesting how God works.