WHAT'S WRONG WITH MISSIONARIES AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH JEWS?

By Shlomoh
February 9, 2011
Euclid, OH


My mother and father came to America at the beginning of the 20th century to find a better life unlike many Eastern European Jews who came to America to escape the persecution of the Christians. I am not sure about the early history of my father. He came here when he was 5 years old and he came from a rather large city called Rovner in what was then the Russian Ukraine and is now the Polish Ukraine. He never mentioned anything to us about terouble between Jews and Christians in his city.

My mother, on the other hand, did talk about it. Her town, Mechelpolya [the modern Michailovka] was situated at the far eastern end of a Ukrainian forrest, out of the mainstreasm, out ot the sights of the Czar, and for the most part, relations between Jews and Christians were ok. Except on Christmas Eve when Jews had to stay indoors to escape the dangerous harrasment of drunken goyim roaming the streets looking for any jew foolish enough to be out and about.

I must have been about six years old the first time I heard that the "Jews killed God". In school I was in the boys' room and a little gentile child asked me if I was Jewish and then informed me what a horrible people we were. I really didn't know what he was talking about and when I asked my mother, she had a look of horror on her face. She did not come to America to be confronted by this accusation. A little later I made friends with the son of an Italian family that lived in my ethnic Jewish neighborhood. Neither he nor is family ever said an antisemitic word to me except that his mother would refer to me sometimes as "you people" and also my friend informed me that Catholicism was the ONLY true religion.

So at an early age I was confronted with historic dual philosopies of Christian antisemitism and Christian replacement theology. Today, when we come across the sentiments of deeply religious Christians, why are we surprised to encounter these same themes? They are the quintessence of the religion of the Crucified Man. Oh yes, I know we are living in modern times in the West where all people are supposed to be respectfull of the other man's faith, and that we are all part of the great Judeo-Christian Tradition in which we all worship the same God although by different paths. How wonderfull if that were true. But unfortunately it's not.

God knows that there are men of good will all around us. Once I asked a friend of mine what he thought was the essential difference in the reltionship between THEM and US in this modern New World and the relationship between us in the pre-modern Old World. He said to me, "The major difference between then and now is that now the Roman Catholic down the block and the Protestant down street invite you [the Jew] over to his home for a backyard barbecue, and he [the Christian] doesn't care how you worship, or Whom.  

We also have men of good will among us. We have people who quoite our Tradition that "The Righteous of all peoples have a share in the World To Come". And I do not doubt for one minute that my nonJewish friends are people of good will else they would not be my friends. And believe me, I wish them well. At the same time, I know that there are very toxic, hatefull people in our midst; Christians who still call us people "who killed the Lord Jesus ... and [who] displease God and are hostile to everyone" - [1 Thessalonians 2, New Testament]; and Jews who so hate gentiles that they damn all conversions to our faith. Unfortunately they cannot be avoided. They have to be acknowledged simply because they tread on the whole IDEA of what it means to be American. The idea of Jews going over to the Catholic friend's barbecue is upsetting to our more fundamentalist brethren but given the choice between that and a pogrom, I'll take the former.

People who know my background often ask me how I feel about missionaries and what to do about them? The truth is, I just don't know. There was a time when I would have said that they ought be stopped but that time has passed. The same America that gives you the right to say " to hell with the Christian missionaries" gives missionaries the right to say "the Jews are no longer the People of God because they killed the messiah, and only by accepting the messiah whom they killed can they be saved."

We Jews have 613 responsibilities to live up to. THEy have ONE major one, to "save" Jews. it is their one major MITSVAH! How can we stop them? We can't. We shouldn't try. To try to stop them is like them forcing US to remove certain verses from the ALEYNU prayer.

So can we do anything? Yes we can. We can educate Jews in the scriptures to make a point. Oh no, I am noit talking about the JEWISH scriptures. I am talking about THEIR scriptures. There are many reasons that I advise not to argue about the TANACH with them. Among them are: many of us are not trained to do so, they will counter argue any of our arguments, our rabbis of long ago have already countered their assertians about so-called prophecies concerning brother J to no affect, and most important of asll - OUR Book needs no defense, THEIR's does. So let them defend their book; we don't need to defend ours. We should be as acqainted with their book as they think that they are acquainted with ours - although they really aren't. They are only acquainted with some poor [mis]translations of our Book.

Well what about their scriptures? If only theirs said that the messiah came and saved them, that would be ok. We could always say that no messiah has yet come to save us. But that's NOT what their book says. The INTENT of their books is to say that His coming has made OUR religion and our Peoplehood null and void. But wait! There's more!

It is stated in their book, Luke 17:1,2 - "Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea ..". This verse refers to the man who informed on him and turned him over to the authorities to be executed. That is, this person was DESTINED to betray him so that the saga of salvation would take place. But even so, his divinely appointed mission to have briother J killed is damned. He himself is damned for that which Heaven appoointed him. What is really the problem with this? The problem is that this person really represents US as a people. His very name means "Jew".

According to their book, OUR role in divine history was to deliver J to be killed and to turn away from him. That was our job but we are cursed for it. See the quote from 1 Thessalonians 2 above. It seems also that every compliment given to us is a back-handed compliment that only increases the over 200 insults to us in the entire book.

Look.

Romans 11:1,8,28 - "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid ... According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day ... As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes."

Let's get clear about this. God has hidden the "truth" from us but we are still guilty just like that disciple of him. We are therefor enemies of the gospel and ONLY beloved of God for the sake of our ancestors, NOT for our own instrinsic worth as human beings. And even if WE ourselves have been divinely made blind, not so our leaders.

"Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done [concerning his resurrection]. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
- Matthew 28:11-13

Got it yet? Our own religious leaders WERE FULLY AWARE THAT HE HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD BUT INTENTIONALLY AND DIABOLICALLY HID IT FROM US! Why would they do that?

There's an answer. believe it or not.

"Jesus said [to the Jews who had once believed in him], “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father´s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don´t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’
John 8:42-47 -

As if this were not enough, look at Matthew's gospel, chapter 23 and you will find the most awful insults heaped upon our rabbis. According to these verses, they do not have the least shred of human decency, not to mention of Jewish decency. I will not quote these verses. Google them and feel nauseous on your own.

Although there are many more verses in their book insulting to us and our religion, I will only quote one more to make a point.

In chapter 8 of Matthew, there is a story about a Roman military officer whio comes to J to ask him to heal his servant.

"The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
Matthew 8:8-10

There is more to these verses than meets the eye.

Matthew is SUPPOSEDLY the least antisemitic book of the whole goyish megillah but that means it is still antimsemitic. Missionaries present their book as a so-called "Jewish book" but is it really? I don't think so. Even the Jewish references are lost on the goyim who read it. They don't know Jewish history and so they are made prejudicial to it by reading that book.

Anyone familiar with Jewish history knows that the Romans were an invading amd occupying power who did not treat our people very well. In a real Jewish book, this oppression would be reflected just as our oppression by foreign occupiers is reflected in the book of Judges. But in the NT, the Romans are treated as some background figures who move through the events as though a dream. They have no real substance and their cruelty is only barely mentioned in passing without any criticism. See Luke 13:1 for example.

According to the story above, J is saying that this uncircumsized Roman pig has more faith than any Jew he knows. I am sure that this story warms the heart of any Jew who reads it.

So what is the IKKAR of al lof this? Namely, as a Jew, I have to tell the missionaries that regardless of all else, why would I want to accept a messiah who not only hides his MESHICHUT from Jews but who is an out and out ANTISEMITE? Why would I accept as a divine savior a person who is called God by his followers and whose followers say that only THEY are the real Jews?  See Romans 2:28 and especially Galatians 4:25. Google them please! Can a jew read these things and NOT be offended?

Why, after reading them, would any Jew who has self-respect want to accept thisd individual as a messiah regardless of what any gentile missionary has to say about so-called prophecies? These verses form their own book are a much better argument than any verse from OUR book. Because what can any missionary say to things that are so blatantly anti-Jewish? He can only give weak apologies for them but he cannot delete the verses just as we cannot delete the verses in our Book about the genicide against the Caananites. And why would we and why would they even if we both could?

I began this essay with comments about America and the relationship between people of good will, jew and Christian. That good will remains, BARUCH HASHEM despite millenia of ill will between our two communities. I know that what has been written a long time ago remains. Our SIDDUR contains a lot about how the goyim are killing us and how we want to be taken away from all that. No one here in America is killing me but there are some very enthusiastic Christians who are attempting to kill Jews spiritually. I use the word "enthusiastic" knowingly. It comes from the Greek EN THEOS, to literally "in God". That is, the enthusiasm of the missionaries to turn jews into nonJews is God inspired, they believe. For no matter what they say about a Jew remaining Jewish even after believing in their SHTUSS, eventually the Jew will be swallowed up and assimilated by them, and why not?

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
1.Galatians 3:28

Well there really is gentile in J but history shows that after accepting the anti-Jewish path, Jews disappear as Jews in the nonJewish majority.

This has been my small contribution to the problem. I am sure that there is always more to say but let's begin with what has been presented here. Pass it along to anyone who may be interested. It may bear fruit. SHALOM AL KAWL YISRAEL!


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