BF2S Forums Why do Born Again Christians love Jews so much?

I hate seeing Pat Robertson begging for money so early in the morning.

It's because they believe in a literal translation of the bible and the Old Testament states that the Israelites are 'God's chosen people'.

We have plenty of evangelicals here (from what i've read), let's hope some answer this. I'd also like to say that if you like Jews so much, convert to Judaism. Nobody is stopping you.

Wasn't it Jews that killed Jesus. Or has that turned to Muslims now?

MUSLIMS KILLED JESUS BY DENYING HIS FREEDOM - I can imagine that on the back of peoples car.

Religion is so funny.

I just wish people would stop believing so strongly in religious prophecy.  More often than not, actions that result from these beliefs lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.  In other words, such prophecies would not even come true if people did not act like they will occur.

For example, we could have avoided a lot of pain and suffering over the last 60 years or so if America had taken in more Jews after WW2.  We had plenty of land to spare here.  So, a huge amount of Jews poured into Israel, and now, America seems to think that we must protect Israel at all costs partly because of the Rapture.  If we just put that silly prophecy aside, we could maybe come up with some sort of compromise to help defuse the situation.

*nods* It makes sense in that context, but it's still a loony belief.

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:

... Why do christians believe and support so much a group that has aboslutley no faith in their messiah, Christ? ...

Well, a few reasons really.

Judaism and Christianity share a common history and a faith in the same God.  Of course their histories and faiths diverge with Christ, however there is an affinity based on that common background.  This kinship is a relatively new development, as there is a long history of antisemitism from before the time of Christ up through the modern age.  Interestingly, Islam as well shares a common history (Ishmael I believe) with both Judaism and Christianity but diverges much earlier in the Old Testament.

Secondly, as believers in the Old Testament, Christians generally believe that the Jewish people are God's chosen people.  The importance of that cannot be overstated, even though the Christian faith still maintains that since the time of Christ all people need to accept Christ as Messiah to be received into heaven.

Basically this commonality leads Christians to be sympathetic to the Jewish plight and also leads to a feeling of brotherhood with the Jewish people.  As a Christian you are responsible to take care of your brother.  The atrocities suffered in WWII and the Russian pogroms pointed out a massive failing of Christians to look after their brothers.  This kinship and guilt leads many Christians to fully support the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of Israel.  Note that the "people of Israel" and "land of Israel" are separate and the people were without a land throughout much of their history.  The deliverance of the land to the people is one of the major themes through their history and seen as a fulfillment of a promise from God, Himself. 

For me, it all boils down to this... You hear people say "God is on our side" all the time.  I don't think so.  God doesn't choose sides.  I want to be on His side.  I believe in the Old Testament and that Jewish people are His chosen people.  Given that belief, I'm going to be on that side.  However that doesn't mean blanket support for their occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, etc.  They've encroached beyond the promised land and I believe they are now suffering the consequences of it.

Last edited by ph4s3 (2007-07-01 09:12:06)

ph4s3 wrote:

Basically this commonality leads Christians to be sympathetic to the Jewish plight and also leads to a feeling of brotherhood with the Jewish people.  As a Christian you are responsible to take care of your brother.  The atrocities suffered in WWII and the Russian pogroms pointed out a massive failing of Christians to look after their brothers.  This kinship and guilt leads many Christians to fully support the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of Israel.

That may be the case for Christians in USA but in Europe Christians are generally speaking extremely critically of Israel and of organisations such as AIPAC. The majority of Europeans support the Palestinian cause, not the Zionist cause.

ph4s3 wrote:

Basically this commonality leads Christians to be sympathetic to the Jewish plight and also leads to a feeling of brotherhood with the Jewish people.  As a Christian you are responsible to take care of your brother.  The atrocities suffered in WWII and the Russian pogroms pointed out a massive failing of Christians to look after their brothers.  This kinship and guilt leads many Christians to fully support the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of Israel.  Note that the "people of Israel" and "land of Israel" are separate and the people were without a land throughout much of their history.  The deliverance of the land to the people is one of the major themes through their history and seen as a fulfillment of a promise from God, Himself.

Why only brotherhood with the Jewish people? Where not the gentiles also called?

Some Random Website wrote:

Uri Avnery, is the leader of Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace group. He was discussing the theology of many Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians in a 2002-JUN essay, and wrote: "According to its theological beliefs, the Jews must congregate in Palestine and establish a Jewish state on all its territory so as to make the Second Coming of Jesus Christ possible...the evangelists don't like to dwell openly on what comes next: before the coming [of the Messiah], the Jews must convert to Christianity. Those who don't will perish in a gigantic holocaust in the battle of Armageddon. This is basically an anti-Semitic teaching..."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_isra.htm

Fen321 wrote:

Why only brotherhood with the Jewish people? Where not the gentiles also called?

Well, the kinship aspect stems from a common background.  The gentiles in the Old Testament were simply unbelievers and could have been of any other religion (usually multi theistic) or none at all.  The common belief between Christians and Jews is the belief in the Old Testament and a belief in the same God.  The gentiles believed in neither. 

Generally speaking though, Christians are supposed to view all people as their brother and are responsible to take care of all people regardless of those peoples' faiths or any beliefs they may or may not have in common. 

I was trying to highlight that this sense of kinship is strong because of that common belief system and that it has a bearing on how one group of people relates to the other.

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:

Will Jesus come back sooner if there are more jews in Israel?

Anybody who says they know when he's 'coming back' is no sort of a believer. Jesus himself didn't have the foggiest.

ph4s3 wrote:

ph4s3 wrote:

What exactly is a "Zionist" and how is that different from typical Jewish person?  I've seen them used in contexts where they seem interchangeable but I think it is important to find out the distinctions.

Apparently I didn't wonder about it too much... Using Google, "define: zionist" delivers the following:

Google wrote:

Zionism is a political movement among Jews, although supported by some non-Jews and not supported by some Jews, which maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland. Formally founded in 1897, Zionism embraced a variety of opinions in its early years on where that homeland might be established. From 1917 it focused on the establishment of a Jewish national homeland or state in Palestine, the location of the ancient Kingdom of Israel

More, on:
[list][*]Google[*]Wikipedia

Zionists view the West Bank and Gaza as part of 'the promised land' the jews are supposedly 'entitled to' according to the Torah (which obviously contravenes international law). There are more extreme Zionists such as the Kahanists who have ludicrous ideas about the 'Greater Land of Israel' stretching from the Nile to the Tigris.