Referenced Messianic Jewish Review Blog

The official blog of the Referenced Messianic Jewish Review. The Referenced Messianic Jewish Review studies the history, composition and theology of the Messianic Jewish movement.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Christian Seminaries Get Involved

As the Messianic "Jewish" movement has become more and more influential in the Christian community as a method of evangelizing the Jews, many Christian seminaries are getting involved in the movement. Denver Seminary, The King's Seminary, St. Petersburg Theological Seminary and Alliance Theological Seminary are just a few of the Christian seminaries that are training their students to become missionaries to the Jewish people. In many ways it is hard to swallow. Christian theological seminaries, the heart of Christian education, training people to pretend to be in a Jewish faith while spreading Christianity. It appears that many Christian leaders have truly shown they are willing to trade everything, even honesty, to make Jews into Christians.

It is fascinating to see how the seminaries present their programs. Alliance Theological Seminary advertises that it is training students to become "rabbis" of congregations. How a Christian seminary could ever advertise that it is training "rabbis" is a bit baffling. There should be a question that comes to the reader's mind such as, "Since when did a Christian seminary train anything but pastors?" Denver Seminary points out that their program is part of a focus on "diversity." Again, this is interesting because ultimately the focus is actually not on diversity. The focus is the elimination of the diversity of Judaism in this world by evangelizing the Jews to become Christians, through the use of the Messianic movement. One of the program goals of The King's Seminary, under the name "The King's Jewish Voice", is that their school "specifically prepares the student for effective ministry within the Jewish world." Well, that pretty much sums up the entire purpose of the Messianic movement and why it was created by Christianity. On a side-note, there are so many bizarre and off-target items on their website that I could write on and on about them, but I expect little more from a Pentecostal seminary like The King's Seminary when it is talking about Judaism. Ultimately, the King's Seminary is a Pentecostal seminary of the Assemblies of God movement and the Assemblies of God have numerous official Messianic "Jewish" groups sponsored for the evanglization of the Jews. Then there is the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary with it's "The Netzer David International Yeshiva." A yeshiva is a Jewish school of learning. The St. Petersburg Theological Seminary is a Christian evangelical training ground. Obviously, the logic is conflicting, to say the least. One of the goals of the "yeshiva" is to train it's students to "to sensitively and effectively interact with rabbis and others from within the Jewish community." Exactly what part was supposed to be sensitive or effective. The Messianic "Jewish" movement is a Christian movement. How do you sensitively interact with a group that you are dishonestly attempting to convert?

The message that many Christian seminaries are giving the Jewish people is this: We are out to get you and if we have to present ourselves as Jews to do so, we will do it. It makes one wonder what ever happened to basic morality and honesty that everone expects to be the focus of a religious seminary.