Catholics Should NOT Try and Convert Jews
It was very clear when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the ONE AND ONLY WAY during this age of Grace that we find ourselves in. Muslims can't get there blowing themselves up while chanting to Allah, Buddhists can't get there no matter how many times they think they will be reincarnated, Hindus can't get there dunking themselves in the Ganges River, Indians can't get there by doing a rain dance and Jews can't get there by going to a synagogue a few times per year or having a bar mitzvah.
So just as WE WERE ALL LOST...THEY ARE ALL LOST! Just like WE NEEDED A SAVIOR....THEY ALSO NEED A SAVIOR.
So what are the Catholics saying today about spreading this Good News of Jesus to all corners of the world?
Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said on Thursday in a major new document that drew the Church further away from the strained relations of the past.
Christianity and Judaism are intertwined and God never annulled his covenant with the Jewish people, said the document from the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with Jews.
"The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelization to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views," it said.
It also said Catholics should be particularly sensitive to the significance to Jews of the Shoah, the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, and pledged "to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies."
"A Christian can never be an anti-Semite, especially because of the Jewish roots of Christianity," it said.
The document coincided with the 50th anniversary of a revolutionary Vatican statement that repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Jesus' death and launched a theological dialogue that traditionalists have rejected.
They feel there should be a so-called "Jewish mission" to convert Jews because they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah, and were therefore bound to be displeased by the new official stance on conversion, a senior Vatican official said.
"In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews," said the document, adding that there was a "principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission."
A Vatican expert in Catholic-Jewish dialogue said it was the first time a repudiation of active conversion of Jews was so clearly stated in a Vatican document.
Until about 1960, prayers at Catholic Masses on Good Friday, the day commemorating the death of Jesus, labelled Jews "perfidious" and called for their conversion.
That prayer was eliminated from general use after the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council introduced a new missal, or prayer book used at Masses.
But later a prayer for the Jews was allowed to remain in the old-style Latin Mass, sometimes called the Tridentine Rite, used by ultra-traditionalists such as the Society of Saint Pius X, whose members reject the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
In 2008, former Pope Benedict further reformulated the prayer used by the traditionalists to remove language Jewish groups found offensive, such as "the blindness of that people".
Thursday's document said Catholics should "bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews" but that they should do so in "a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God's word..."
Here; http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Catholics-should-not-try-to-convert-Jews-Vatican-says-in-landmark-document-436915
Nice! So the Catholics have now made it official that they won't tell Jews about Jesus!!
Silly Catholics....haven't they heard that countless Jews are accepting Christ like no other time before?
Five years ago I got into a debate with a staff member at St Thomas University in St Paul, MN. He loudly told our group that he wished we could all be more pious like our Muslim brothers and sisters who pray five times per day, give to charity and read their Korans. When I pushed against this obvious perversion....he got very flustered and publicly said in a loud tone in front of 50 Catholic witnesses, "I don't believe what Jesus said about being the ONLY WAY! And furthermore if I ever told my students at St Thomas that Jesus was the ONLY WAY, I would be escorted off campus that very day!"
Awesome! How many people are paying $50,000 per year to send their kids to that place?
To me this adds more evidence that the Catholics and the Pope are going to play a big part in the LAST DAYS CHURCH and the ONE WORLD RELIGION.
If today the Catholics won't tell the Jews about Jesus and we already know they won't tell Muslims about Jesus....when do they welcome the Hindus and Buddhists under the ONE RELIGION tent?
"On that day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord...."
"Depart from me, I don't know you."
posted by dennis at
11:55 AM
4 Comments:
The Catholic position reminds me exactly of the true dispensational premillenial view held by 99% of American evangelicals, who also believe that God's promises and covenant to OT Israel were not fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Therefore, evangelizing the Jews is a waste of time they say. John Hagee is the poster boy (and a big one at that:); broadcast to 100 million evangelicals WW) for the dispensational scheme of end times events. Note below some of Hagee's well documented public comments about evangelizing the Jews:
"I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption" (Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988).
"I'm not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith... In fact, trying to convert Jews is a waste of time. Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity." (Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988, sec, 6, pg. 1).
Do you agree with Mr. Hagee, that evangelizing the Jews is a waste of time because of their special covenant relationship with God?
Yes, God made a unilateral, irrevocable COVENANT promise to Israel. They have not been fulfilled yet...but they will be. The nations are gathering around Israel seeking her destruction...just as the Bible said they would. Jesus WILL come for His Bride (the church) before devastating destruction is poured out...that's a promise and also our BLESSED HOPE!
I believe John Hagee was quickly reprimanded by some of his brothers and I don't believe for a minute what he said. The Jews NEED Jesus.
I"m not sure where you get the idea that John Hagee is the "poster boy" for evangelicals. He isn't my poster boy.
Maybe try to dig up some more recent comments from Hagee and see if he still is saying the same things he said 25 years ago? Maybe he has matured in his understanding? Maybe you have matured in yours over the last 25 years?
Not sure why you ask me if I agree that evangelizing Jews is a waste of time when the VERY BLOG POST that you posted this comment on clearly said the JEWS NEED JESUS JUST LIKE WE ALL DO.
Carry on Anonymous....your 'work' is done here.
"...They have not been fulfilled yet..." But the Bible is so incredibly clear... "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass."
Joshua 21
43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
Joshua 23
14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things[a] that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed. 15 But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, 16 if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”
Matthew 23
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
Hi Anonymous,
you should probably spend your time trying to convince Pastor Greg Laurie, Pastor Jeff Schreve, Pastor Robert Jeffress, Pastor David Jeremiah, Pastor Mike Fabarez, and our own Pastor Max Frazier that your preterist views are worthy of further discussion....because they have millions more followers than I do. I am comfortable with their prophetic understanding of how things are going to play out fulfilling ALL THAT GOD SAID would be fulfilled.
Even if I was going to engage you and try to show you the errors of your thinking, it would probably be a waste of time....so I'm really not going to try and convince someone from the Internet named "anonymous" that this Dispensation of Grace will one day come to an end and that the 70th Week of Daniel has not yet been fulfilled but WILL HAPPEN EXACTLY as God's word said it will.
One hint for your continued study....WHEN was Joshua written and those promises fulfilled? When was Ezekiel and Isaiah written and WHEN were ALL those fulfilled? When was Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John and WHEN will those promises be fulfilled?
I can tell my 10 year old son, "Everything I have promised to you son, I have done!"....but now that he is 20 I have made some further promises for him that will commence on his successful graduation from college. Does that word picture help you?
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