Training Messianics in Israel

The Assemblies of God movement is one of the largest Christian sponsors of Messianic congregations in the United States. However, it also created Messianic congregations in Israel. In 2005, Theresa (Terry) Hughes completed her Doctorate of Ministry project at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary on developing a teacher-training course for Messianic congregations in Israel. The goal was to help teachers at Messianic congregations do a better job at training their children and youth. Of course, the Assemblies of God movement is not ultimately interested in Jews staying Jewish. This is another example of how they use the Messianic movement to evangelize Jews, not only in America but also in Israel.

Combined Federal Campaign

If you are a federal employee and are interested in fighting missionaries, you can help by donating to Jews for Judaism through the Combined Federal Campaign.

Jews for Judaism:
Affiliation: Jewish Charities of America
CFC # code, used for making designations: 10169.
Employer Identification Number: EIN #52-1324729. Overhead: 29.5%. Program Areas: X B P.

Lack of Basic Research

If I decided to write a blog about all of the issues I have with the United Nations, I would be here forever. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has posted a report from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) on the status of Christians in Israel "Israel: Situation of Christians; anti-missionary legislation and its use in practice; activities of Yad L'Achim in relation to Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and Messianic Jews." First off, let me point out that Christians are not refugees in Israel, unless they escaped from another country. This begs the question, "Why is this even on the UNHCR website?" I cannot think of a single valid reason.

As for the report itself, it is a poorly researched and poorly organized report. The first section is titled "Legislation." In this section, the IRB tried to figure out what Israeli law is regarding Christians and missionaries. The IRB appears entirely confused, quoting various sources such as Courrier international, the Associated Press and Israel Faxx. For some reason, it did not occur to anyone at the IRB or the UN to check out the law with the Israeli government.

The law is quite simple. All Israeli citizens have equal rights, no matter what their religion. As for missionaries, it is illegal to try to convert minors without their parent's consent. Further, it is illegal to offer monetary or similar enticements to convert. Had the IRB or UN actually bothered to care about good, solid research they would have never published the report. They actually created confusion in a legal realm that is clearly defined.

A Moment of Honesty

Jews for Jesus generally claims to be a "real Jewish" organization. However, a few moments of honesty snuck into their official information that they filed with the UK Charity Commission. On the Activities section of the Jews for Jesus charity overview, their first activity is "ADVANCEMENT OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION." Similarly, on p.5 of their 2008 report to the Commission, under "Objects, activities and achievements," the first activity listed is "the advancement of the Christian religion either in the United Kingdom or overseas."

So, now can Jews for Jesus stop pretending to be Jewish? Let's just call them by their true identity, Christians for Jesus.

The Assemblies of God is Hiring (to convert Jews)

I recently ran into a list of open positions for the Assemblies of God movement (aka the Pentecostals) for shorter missionary opportunities. Under the "URBAN/INTER CULTURAL" section there were job offers in four different states for people to work at converting Jews. Missiouri, Ohio, New York and New Jersey Assemblies of God organizations were all in the market to bringing in more Christians to help convert Jews. Opportunities included "church planting" in New York " and front-line evangelism and assistance with Messianic congregation" in New Jersey. This simply provides further proof that the Assemblies of God movement is one of the most active Christian denominations in the Messianic movement. Here is the listing that I found:
http://usmissions.ag.org/PDF/Associate_Openings.pdf

Why Fake It?

One of the things that I find utterly detestable is that Christian missionaries will take on various false identifies to convert Jews. If you truly have a strong argument for your beliefs, no false identify is necessary. For instance, 60 active missionaries were caught who had lied their way through the Jewish conversion process:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132271

Here is an article on a missionary who was caught pretending to be Hasidic:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/175721

If this is the best way that some Christians find to reach Jews, then this truly speaks horribly about their own belief in Christianity.