Purim Edition

In late breaking-news, the Referenced Messianic Jewish Review wants to announce a new battle in the Messianic world. The Church of England has sued all Messianic groups to be the sole purveyors of Messianic beliefs under international copyright laws. According to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, "Hey, we invented the whole idea of Messianic Judaism-Hebrew Christianity so we could convert more Jews. Now we have the Baptist, Pentecostals and all of these other Christian groups trying to use our idea. As the leader of the Church of England, I refuse to let other Christian groups steal our ideas! I want all the Jews to be Anglican! The rest of Christianity can invent their own conversion methods!"

Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt countered, "The SBC has clearly paid more money to create Messianic congregations and leaders than the Church of England. Doesn't spending the most money mean something? Besides, the Church of England are like Catholics and Catholics are all going to hell. So tell the Archbishop that he can go to hell, too!"

The author of this article tried to get the Assemblies of God for a quote, but all of the AoG leadership were talking in tongues so no one can actually understand what they were saying.

Happy Purim!

I Started Reading....

Food for thought....I had the opportunity at Shabbat lunch to sit next to a former preacher. He said that what led him to reject Christianity was when he started to read the Bible in detail and realized that Christianity could not possibly be correct. That has been the pattern I have seen with many Christians who converted to Judaism. Everything was fine until they read the Bible closely. Then they realized that Christianity was wrong and came to Judaism.

Messiah ben Joseph

Have you heard that Judaism talks about the Messiah coming twice? Once as the Messiah ben David and once as Messiah ben Joseph? If you have heard of this, then you have heard a bad representation of what Jews actually believe on the Messiah. Learn more about the Messiah ben Joseph:

http://www.messiahtruth.com/yosef.html

Can I Help You?

Chosen People Ministries (CPM) is one of the oldest Messianic organizations designed to convert Jews to Christianity. CPM was created by Leopold Cohn, a man who invented his own personal history. Leopold Cohn claimed to be an Orthodox rabbi who found Jesus. In reality, his real name was Yitschak Joszovics and he was an ordained Baptist minister with no rabbinical degree. Much like it's dishonest founder, CPM continues to target Jews for conversion.

One of CPM newest endeavors is using charity in Tel Aviv as a method to reach people for conversion. CPM's Tel Aviv Messianic Center was built to serve the many poor and indigent Jews in Israel, including elderly Jews. In and of itself, this sounds like a worthwhile cause. However, rather than just helping these unfortunate Jews, they are also using it as a platform for conversion. On the CPM webpage (accessed on 2/7/10) it says:

"Whatever you donate before December 31 will be used to feed the hungry in Israel, provide a warm place for those who are cold to have a cup of tea or coffee with a believer who will lend them a sympathetic ear and of course share the Gospel with them."

As a Christian group who has worked to convert Jews for over 100 years, CPM does not know how to help without the option of conversion.

Coming Back

As the Messianic movement gets older, there are many children who come from Jewish lineage but were raised Christian through the Messianic movement. Some of these children want to return to true Judaism. Here is a Conservative Jewish opinion on the process of return:

http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/zelizer_apostates.pdf

Isaiah 9

One of my favorite countermissionary reviews on Isaiah 9:
http://www.messiahtruth.com/isa9o.html