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Most
Christians seek to obey Christ’s commission to go into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature. But many Christians are
reluctant to witness to Jewish people. For some the reason is fear, but
for an increasing number of Christians it is a deliberate policy. We
might expect this from liberal theologians who do not accept the Bible
as the final authority in matters of faith. But a number of evangelical
thinkers are now voicing the opinion that Jewish mission must be
abandoned. This is a serious matter and must be addressed. What are the
reasons - or excuses - that are presented, and what does the Bible say
in response?
1:
"God has finished with the Jews."
"I ask then:
Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a
descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject
his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in
the passage about Elijah - how he appealed to God against Israel:
'Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am
the only one left, and they are trying to kill me'? And what was God’s
answer to him? 'I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not
bowed the knee to Baal.' So too, at the present time there is a remnant
chosen by grace." (Romans 11:1-5, see also: 1 Samuel 12:22; Psalm
89:31-37; 94:14; Jeremiah 31:37; 33:25-26)
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2:
"The Jews are God’s chosen people."
"You only
have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will
punish you for all your sins." (Amos 3:2)
"There will
be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first
for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for
everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For God does not show favouritism." (Romans 2:9-11,
see also: Luke 12:48 cf. Romans 9:4,5)
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3:
"Jews have their own way to God."
"Brothers,
my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may
be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for
God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know
the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their
own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end
of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who
believes." (Romans 10:1-5)
Jesus
answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to
the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
"Salvation
is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to
men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
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4:
"The New Covenant is for Christians, not Jews."
"'The time
is
coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be
like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though
I was a husband to them', declares the LORD. 'This is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after that time',
declares the LORD. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on
their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No
longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying,
‘Know the LORD’, because they will all know me, from the least of them
to the greatest', declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 31:31, see also:
Matthew
26:28; Hebrews 8:13; 9:15)
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5: "It is not God’s time to evangelise the
Jews."
"Preach
the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and
careful instruction." (2 Timothy 4:2)
"Yet when I
preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe
to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16)
"I tell you,
now
is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation." (2
Corinthians 6:2, cf. Haggai 1:2-11)
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6:
"We must comfort Israel instead of evangelising."
"'Comfort,
comfort my people', says your God. 'Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim
to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been
paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for
all her sins.' A voice of one calling In the desert: 'prepare the way
for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God'
... You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a
shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, 'Here
is your God!'" (Isaiah 40:1-3,9, cf. Matthew 3:1-5; Mark
1:1-5;
Luke 3:1-6; John 1:19-28)
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7: "The
church has lost the right to evangelise the Jews because of the way it
has
persecuted them."
We should
never forget that the ‘church’ that persecuted the Jews also persecuted
true Christians. Believers in Christ had their bodies broken on the
same racks and burned in the same fires as the Jews, because they would
not accept that a piece of bread turned into God after being
consecrated by a priest. Christians and Jews are fellow-sufferers.
The greatest
crime of the ‘church’, however, has been to withhold the good news of
Messiah Jesus from the Jews. To preach the gospel to all nations while
ignoring Christ’s own people Israel is the worst form of anti-Semitism.
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8: "Before
we can speak to Jewish people about Jesus we must repent of our
anti-Semitism."
If you are
an anti-Semite you must certainly repent. But repentance is more than
just saying sorry. It involves a change of mind and action. Christians
have been apologising to the Jewish people for years and yet still
keeps from them the most precious thing in the world. If the Church is
truly penitent she will stop refusing to tell the Jewish people that
their longed-for Messiah has come.
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9: "The
Jews will only believe in Christ when they see him return in glory."
"For
there
is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of
all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the
one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of
whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone
preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it
is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good
news!'... Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and
the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans
10:12-15,17)
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10: "The
Gospel is offensive to Jewish people."
"Jews demand
miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but
to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God.’’ (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)
"Brothers,
if
I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In
that case the offence of the cross has been abolished." (Galatians 5:11)
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11:
"Jewish people know the Old Testament too well for me to be able to
witness to them."
"Jesus
replied [to Jewish religious leaders], 'Are you not in error because
you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?'" (Mark 12:24)
"If you
believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me." (John
5:46)
"[Jesus]
said
to them [Jewish disciples], 'How foolish you are, and how slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the
Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And
beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what
was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27)
"But their
minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the
old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in
Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a
veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the
veil is taken away." (2 Corinthians 3:14)
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12: "There
are four billion other people in the world who need to hear the gospel
and only fourteen million Jews. Jewish evangelism is not so important."
"I am not
ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation
of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the
Gentile." (Romans 1:16)
"We
had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves
worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles." (Acts 13:46)
"But if
their
transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches
for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fulness bring!
... for if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans
11:12,15)
A famous
evangelical leader of the last century, Charles Simeon, had a great
burden for the salvation of the Jews. While speaking at a missionary
meeting, he seemed so carried away with the future of the Jews that a
friend passed him a slip of paper with the question, ‘Six millions of
Jews and six hundred millions of Gentiles - which is the most
important?’ Simeon immediately scribbled back, ‘If the conversion of
the six is to be life from the dead for the six hundred, what then?’
(Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope, pp154, 155)
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This article
appeared in the Autumn 1995 issue
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