Efraim Goldstein-Christian Seminarian

Previously, I documented how Jews for Jesus -Tel Aviv branch founder Efraim Goldstein (real name: Fred) is an ordained Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) minister. I left out that he earned a Doctorate of Ministry from Asbury Theological Seminary, a Christian seminary in Kentucky. The seminary is approved by the United Methodist Church.

As for Goldstein, his dissertation was on mentors to Jews who have accepted Jesus, clearly not a Jewish topic. It was titled, "The common characteristics of mentors of new believers in Jesus in Israel." Here is a link to the abstract:

http://gradworks.umi.com/34/28/3428676.html

Again, how can he (or any Jews for Jesus member) say he represents a Jewish group when he has a doctorate of ministry from a Christian seminary? Clearly, Goldstein lies.

What Do You Call A Jew Who Believes in Jesus?

I often have readers from the Messianic movement tell me that their movement is from the original Jesus movement in the 1st century. But realistically, that is not so. Messianic "Judaism" is very, very new.

If you think about it, what did you call a Jew who believed in Jesus during the 300's? A Christian. What did you call a Jew who believed in Jesus in the 1200's? A Christian.

Pablo Christiani, a Jewish convert to Christianity who lost a debate to Nachmanides, is one of the most famous from this time period. What did you call a Jew who believed in Jesus in the 1500's. A Christian.

This answer only began to change in the 1860's when the answer to what do you call a Jew who believed in Jesus started to become a "Hebrew-Christian." This answer was created by the Church of England, who founded the idea of Hebrew-Christianity (later called "Messianic Judaism") as a means of evangelizing the Jews. It was not until the late 1960's-early 1970's that the answer to what do you call a Jew who believed in Jesus became "Messianic Jew" as Hebrew Christianity embraced this new terminology.

Messianic "Jews" unfortunately have been misled to think that they have some sort of historical tie to Jesus. The truth is that historically, Messianic "Judaism" has exactly the same ties to Jesus as all other branches of Christianity.

Jews for Jesus/EFCA

Within the Messianic world, many of the leaders are ordained Christian ministers. In the case of Efraim Goldstein of Jews for Jesus (the founder of their permanent ministry in Tel Aviv), he is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). How do I know this? Well, it is in the first paragraph of this article from EFCA Today!

http://www.efcatoday.org/site/back-issues/article/before-you-travel-to-israel-for-a-sabbatical

This reminds me how Jews for Jesus founder Martin "Moishe" Rosen was a Baptist minister. Just more evidence that Jews for Jesus, well, isn't Jewish!

FYI-according to a March 1985 article that Goldstein wrote for Jews for Jesus, his parents never gave him the name Efraim. His birth name is Fred.

My Apologies

I would like to apologize to all of my blog and website readers for my lack of focus on the blog and site for quite some time. Over the next few months, I plan to re-focus energy to editing my website (as so many other sites change causing my site to end up with dead links), putting up new sections to the website and writing new blog posts. This is going to take a bit-it is not like the internet is my "day job" (or that I lack for other activities in my life) but I am looking forward to spending more time doing my counter-missionary activities. Enjoy!