Confession of a Christ-Killer
March 31st, 2009I Plead Guilty
I have depressing news about Mish Weiss. Don’t worry; the news about her health is great. What’s depressing is the way she has been treated.
Many people have been praying for Mish. Many of those people are Christians. And Christians want other people to become Christians. I certainly do; I don’t pretend otherwise. But it looks like some people got overexcited and used poor judgment, going overboard in their efforts to expose her to the gospel.
Mish wrote a polite response on her blog, stating that she did not wish to become a Christian. It’s her decision to make. God gives each of us that choice.
Since then, she has been receiving hate mail from people claiming to be Christians. I don’t say “claiming to be Christians” because I don’t think Christians could do this. They certainly could, and I’m sure some of the responsible people are Christians. I say it because it’s possible that some of the vicious morons who sent these emails were just posing as Christians to make trouble. Like the Democrats who call radio shows and use the phrase “lifelong Republican” to describe themselves.
One particularly fine person sent an email accusing Mish of hating Christians. Wasn’t that helpful and loving? She was also called “Christ-killer.” And worse.
I can’t believe there are Christians so stupid, bigoted, and vicious that they would use the term “Christ-killer.” The fact is, every Christian is a Christ-killer. We believe Jesus had to die, and chose to do so, in order to pay for our sins. That means he is our sacrifice. Our sins caused it. So we are the ones who caused the death of Christ. It amazes me that there are people who don’t understand that. Have you sinned? Have you accepted Jesus and asked for forgiveness? If so, you’re a Christ-killer. Get used to it.
A long while back, I got a ridiculous, self-righteous email criticizing me for not pushing Mish to accept Christ. I posted the text here, and I explained why this person was wrong.
Many Christians are unfamiliar with Jews and the Jewish mind. I’m more aware than most. I’ve been living among Jews since I was three. Half of the students at my high school were Jewish. I spent three years at Columbia University, which has a big Jewish population. I lived in Israel for four months. Aaron even got me in to some yeshiva classes.
I know that Jews feel threatened by Christianity. Christians were responsible for the Inquisition, pogroms, and much of what happened in the Holocaust. Hitler was hostile to Christianity, and he persecuted Christians, but many of the people who did the grunt work were Christians, and it was not unusual for them to tell Jews that persecution was justified because Jews killed Christ (I thought it was the Romans!). Some Catholic clerics helped the Nazis. On top of that, Jews believe they cease to be Jews if they accept Jesus, and they are extremely concerned about their dwindling numbers. They are afraid of disappearing as a people.
I am familiar with the sophisticated objections Jews have raised to the divinity of Jesus. I am aware that most Jews do not take proselytizing efforts gracefully; you can’t just give a Jew the same canned speech you would give any Gentile on the street and expect to get anywhere. In all likelihood, you’ll just alienate them and increase their antipathy toward your religion. I know these things. Many ignorant Christians do not. And I will not be judged by the ignorant.
When I got involved in the prayer campaign for Mish, I also knew that the Bible instructs us to look out for the Jews, without any requirement that they become proselytes. No strings attached. That’s the assignment. So I was perfectly content to pray and offer encouragement; I felt no need to badger this poor sick woman.
There is no Biblical precedent for badgering people. Find me an example in the New Testament. There is none. The early evangelists went from place to place, making their case. Those who chose, accepted Jesus. And that was the end of it.
The Bible tells us God calls people to become Christians. He knows who will listen and who will not. If that is the case, then telemarketer-style sales techniques are unscriptural and ultimately serve to harm the church by giving it a bad name.
I believe you pray for people to give in. You try to live a life that makes them jealous of what you have, so they feel moved to try to get it for themselves. You tell them about the benefits you’ve received. And if that doesn’t work, you need to give it a rest, because when you torment people in the name of Jesus, you only drive them farther away.
How stupid do you have to be to think Jesus wants you to call Mish Weiss a Christ-killer? How can a brain as small as yours even manage to coordinate things like breathing? Explain why you think this is likely to make her want to convert. I’m sure whoever wrote that idiotic email or comment reads this blog. Enlighten us all, oh holy one.
Self-righteous imbeciles have probably succeeded in undoing whatever positive work the rest of us managed to do over the last few months. Here’s what I have to say to them: Chabad should hire you to make sure no one ever converts to Christianity again. You are doing things they could never hope to do. I am ashamed to belong to the same religion as you. You are a disgrace. And you are taking God’s name in vain, pretending to serve him by expressing your hatred.
Okay, enough of that. Here is the good news. Mish’s blast cell count has dropped below 30%. That is fantastic. And her blood counts are up. The stronger she gets–I think I have this right–the better she’ll be able to tolerate treatment that could cure her. So the prayers are working. I mean Christian AND Jewish prayers. Nowhere does the Bible say God only hears the prayers of Christians, or that he only hears when you pray in the name of Jesus.
Let’s keep it up. We can’t ask for better results than this.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Technically, the Jews didn’t kill Jesus, the Romans did. And if you think about it, no one is to blame for Jesus’ death. That was his mission. God did not send his only begotten Son just to be a great philospher, and teach people ‘the way’. He sent him to Earth to die for us and absolve us our sins. The participants did what they were supposed to do. It’s another of the great mysteries – God gave us free will, but we still had to fulfill his will.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:48 AM
We’re clearly responsible for his death, because we are responsible for the sins that made it necessary.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:51 PM
The Jews are God’s people, PERIOD. We who have accepted Jesus are merely grafted in. You were right to say that whoever wrote that is taking God’s Name in vain and God doesn’t take that lightly. He guards His Name very closely and punishes those who disgrace it severely.
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To do that to a healthy person is bad enough, but when someone is as sick as Mish, it is unthinkably evil. To whoever wrote that I say: Have fun explaining yourself to God when you are standing before Him to give account.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:54 PM
what wormathan said!
March 31st, 2009 at 4:49 PM
what wormathan said!
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I second!
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Steve, I was waiting for you (or someone) to bring this up. Mish’s blog is not the place for it (it would look too much like a religuous debate and not enough like the prayers, love and support that Mish really needs).
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I think whatever example yourself, myself and others have made there was probably set back significantly by a few thoughtless and evil individuals (maybe on purpose). Hopefully actions (i.e. prayers) will speak louder than words and show that not everyone who calls himself a Christian deserves the title.
March 31st, 2009 at 6:49 PM
Mish is Jewish? I thought she was just someone who needed (and needs) prayers!
March 31st, 2009 at 6:53 PM
Jim! You have to chime in on some of this lathe stuff before I do something stupid.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:32 PM
OKay, I’m not out to alienate anyone here, including myself. But Paul (Apostle to the gentiles) said in Galatians 5:6:
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Jesus said to some unbelieving Jews: “You are of your father the devil.”
God has a plan for Israel. But being a Jew is no special deal (except to a Jew). Trust me, I’m not a hater of Jews. It’s just that if you do not believe in Jesus, you are rejecting HIm. The Bible has a lot to say about people who reject Jesus. The nicest thing it says is that they can change their mind.
And I have been praying for Mish’s health, not her conversion. Because I was asked to.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:43 PM
May Mish see her health improve and may she also realize that not many folks are the blithering idiots that you’ve described here. Don’t let the nuts get you down. You’ve done exactly right in praying for her and asking others to do so too.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Steve I really do not know who you call “Christians”. I for one know at first hand how some “Christians” work. As I am a confessed pagan. “Wiccian”, I have been harassed by these so-called god fearing folk. They are vicious in there anger at you not believing in the “Lord”! They poisoned my dog, luckily I got him to a vet before he died. Painted “devil worshipper” on the front of my house. I do believe that “Christians” sent those disgusting e-mails to her. Religious fanaticism is the worst kind of insanity!
March 31st, 2009 at 10:30 PM
It would not be very polite to say what I really think of the trolls who’ve been pestering Mish.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:22 AM
Some knuckleheads are beyond normal comprehension. G-d is too mysterious for them.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:54 AM
Ed,
In the passage you quote, Jesus was rebuking the close-minded and hateful Pharisees who had perverted God’s word into this absolutist, exclusivist cult-like nightmare. They had forsaken God in the name of their man-made religion, an saw themselves as superior to others. The worst kinds of religionists, and Jesus had no love for that type.
He said he came for the Jews first, and then the Gentiles. Please don’t take one out-of-context scripture to indict the Jewish faith. That’s the kind of stuff skinheads and their ilk do.
Jesus WAS a Jew! And as you read the New Testament, you’ll find that it considers converts to The Way as Jews also…adopted sons and daughters “grafted in” to the True Vine. Viewing Jews as anything other than “brothers in arms” is perilous at best.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:32 AM
Ed,
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My Bible, all in the original Hebrew (not like the 24,000 versions of the Christian scripture that Josh McDowell notes), has nothing to say about rejecting Jesus nor ever equated the promised messiah (I’ve intentionally written the temporal and 100% human Davidic king in lower case) with God. Ps. 145 says God is near to all who call upon Him, whether or not they’re Jewish. My scripture is pretty emphatic in many places that God isn’t a man or a son of man nor resembles anything on earth, the seas or the skies… and that God doesn’t change.
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If the nicest thing your Bible says is that I and my family can change our mind to think like you, you and the hundreds of millions in congregations who believe like you can keep it, thankyouverymuch.
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Anyone can define a Jew as the child of a Jewish mother or someone who converted according to Jewish law.
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Get back to me when I can get even a pew of Christians to agree what a Christian is or where they existed definitively and maintained their own traditions for the last 2000 years so that we can agree what one is, today.
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The Christians I admire most are what are called “mensches” in Yiddish, and who happen to believe that Jesus connects them in spirit and mission to the Biblical God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to accompany and receive blessing via the Jewish people. If your faith is making you a better person, a better “mensch”, more power to you.
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Steve knows my father. Now while my Dad can be difficult, he’s a good man. Is my father the devil? Do I pray in a synagogue of Satan with my neighbors?
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Ask Steve and Moxie who have met my children if they are somehow spiritually defective or if they deserve being called “God’s children” as they are, not only if they jump the gun and declare someone the promised scriptural messiah while West Point is still admitting cadets and hasn’t yet morphed into an agricultural college. While there are still jihadists who’d dhimmify us and Marxists who’d secularize us, that is sufficient evidence that Jeremiah 31’s messianic prophecy, “And they shall not teach any more one his neighbor and one his brother, saying, ‘Know ye the Lord;’ for they all shall know me, from their small to their great ones, saith the Lord, for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin I will no more remember.” As long as anyone is still debating scripture, that’s scriptural proof that the messianic age hasn’t arrived.
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Here’s my messianic vision:
“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord to be his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant: even them will I bring unto my hold mountain, and I will make them rejoice in my house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:6-7.
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Has the Third Temple been built? Sacrifices restored? All nations considering Jerusalem’s Temple a house of prayer? Or is Jerusalem still a burdensome stone? Ask yourself if Zechariah 12 has been fulfilled in total yet? Are you all keeping Sukkot per Zechariah 14:16? Zechariah 12:6-9? PLEASE let me know when the promises of Zechariah 8 are at hand!
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My sons, patrilineal Levites, are learning their Temple responsibilities for the day the Third Temple is built. I am not worried for their eternal souls at the moment. I worry more for the souls of those who seek to turn them from their present path based on fulfilling as much scripture as possible.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:21 AM
I’m not sure what Ed is saying. I probably should not have posted the comment, because it’s confusing. In any case, I should point out that Josh McDowell argues for the authenticity of the New Testament, not against it. He argues that it was committed to writing not long (a few decades) after the time of Jesus, that its authenticity is substantiated by very old manuscripts, and that it is more firmly supported than many works historians refer to without hesitation.
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McDowell does not refer to 24,000 “versions” of the New Testament. He refers to 24,000 ancient copies of the New Testament which are still in existence and which confirm that current versions are accurate.
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Some Christian scholars say that the harsh language Jesus used toward SOME Jews of his day reflects an old rabbinic custom of speaking very freely and severely to others within the faith, in a way that would not be acceptable from a Gentile. I do not know whether this is true, but I do know that no rational Christian believes that Jesus spoke ill of Jews in general. After all, that would include his mother, his brothers, Abraham, and Moses. Perhaps Ed’s use of the word “some” is an effort to show that he agrees with this.
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Aaron, I can understand why you would want to respond to Ed, but your comment goes beyond that and attempts to discredit Christianity. Please don’t cross that line. I have repeatedly made it clear that I do not intend to host comment wars in which Jews and Christians fight over whose religion is right.
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Anyone who wants to learn the Messianic responses to the Jewish arguments against the divinity of Jesus should go to this site: http://www.jewishvoice.org/site/PageServer?pagename=find_JewishObjections. The Jewish arguments are well-known; there is nothing new in them. The same can be said of the responses.
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If you disagree, send them an email.
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I am not going to post responses to Aaron’s arguments against Christianity.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:02 AM
At least we all can agree that it would be a God given miracle for Mish to get better – which is of course the point. Keep praying folks!
April 1st, 2009 at 9:40 AM
The biggest impediment to Christianity is the bulk of the people who profess to be Christians.
The people slamming on Mish are the ones who will get to the Judgment Seat only to have Christ tell them that He never knew them and send them off to be with the goats.
In my days before really coming to any sort of faith, I enjoyed debating several of my wife’s dopey Bible-thumping relatives (they would fit well among the ones sending the hate messages to Mish). When they brought up the need to be teetotalers, I raised the first public miracle by Christ. When they would lump on the Jews, I’d note the blessing on all who bless Israel and teh curse on all those who curse Israel – and ask them if Abraham, and David, and Daniel, and Job (etc.) are in heaven – and then if they had professed belief in Christ, who hadn’t been here yet.
But in the end, those sorts are fully blinded by their spiritual pride – and are precisely the sorts of Pharisees Christ reserved his most hateful language for – there isn’t really any getting through them.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:46 AM
The worst Christian conceit of which I am aware is the ridiculous assumption that we are smarter than, and morally superior to, the Jews. Many of us seem to think we could never behave like the Jews Jesus criticized. Turn on TBN or EWTN, and you will see that Christians proudly commit the types of errors Jesus criticized, over and over, often exalting them as examples of obedience. The folks who are insulting Mish are in the same boat.
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Another unfortunate problem is the use of the term “Pharisee” to describe any close-minded, venal, religious person. I’ve done this myself. In actuality, Jesus himself was probably a Pharisee, and there were Pharisees who treated him well and accepted his claims.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:56 PM
And as you read the New Testament, you’ll find that it considers converts to The Way [i.e., Christians] as Jews also…adopted sons and daughters “grafted in” to the True Vine.
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Yes.
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Paul (a Pharisee), explains in his letters to the Romans (8:15,23, 9:4), to the Galations (4:5), and to the Ephesians (1:5) that all Christians – are Jews by adoption through Jewish custom and the Law.
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…admittedly rather non-kosher Jews.
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Rather.
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…but I still think wormathan said it right and best: To do that to a healthy person is bad enough, but when someone is as sick as Mish, it is unthinkably evil. To whoever wrote that I say: Have fun explaining yourself to God when you are standing before Him to give account.
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April 1st, 2009 at 5:18 PM
Pretty much every blog runs certain kinds of risks. The risk for a political blog is appealing to polarizing and hyper-partisan sentiments that distract from reasoned and informed discourse. Or attracting a demagogic or flat-out deranged type of dissenter. Basically, Im talking about HuffPo or Kos here.
the same holds true for blogs with religous views. sadly, these nutsacks tormenting Mish when she is in her darkest hour have no interest in Christ; rather, they seem to be hooked on power. You can imagine them being all proud of themselves for demanding the conversion of a little girl on her sickbed.
More broadly, there is just a certain kind of person who cannot hold religous views sensibly. I have to say, growing up in Scarsdale NY, that I was always amazed at the hostility many so-called liberal Jews harbored towards Catholics and especially evangelicals. The town, and the broader NYC tri-state region, was not exactly a hotbed of proselytizing Jews.
I never thought there was terribly much trust and respect between the two religions, when you pricked the surface, and Mish’s experience proves there is good reason for that.
Anyhow, what happened to Mish was appalling.
April 1st, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Sin killed Jesus. The sins of the whole world. And apologize to Mish for this Christian. I love the Jewish people. My Savior was one.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Aaron, please accept my apology for offending you. Not my intent. If you don’t believe that Jesus is the Christ, Messiah, Anointed One, you’re not unlike millions of people or even some of my family.
As a Jew, knowledgeable of Scripture, there are things I wish you could explain to me from a Jewish perspective. I’ve written as much to Steve.
I tried to say something along the lines of: as a Christian, I don’t believe that currently Jews are a special people unto God.
From a Christian perspective, a person must accept Christ for salvation. This is not Jew hating or Hindu hating or hate at all. This is the Christian perspective as Paul the Apostle laid it out.
If you don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah, then none of the above applies and I understand. And we can be friends. I have friends who reject Christ. So did Jesus.
Of course Jesus is a Jew.
And Steve is right, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and he and another asked for Jesus’ body when the Apostles were cowering.
Gamiliel counseled against killing Jesus.
I just read in Acts (14?) tonight about believers who were Pharisees.
The apostles were all Jews. Most of the early church were Jews.
But I will still believe that if you do not accept Jesus’ offer, then as Jesus said, you will perish.
Once again, my apologies.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Great post as usual, Steve. Gives me lots to think about. I have one question/request, You state that “..the Bible instructs us to look out for the Jews.” By us, I assume you mean Christians. If it’s not too much trouble, could you post the verses (just the book and number, I mean) that support this contention? It would be very much appreciated. I attended a Bible study recently that was led by a gentleman who revealed himself as the study progressed to be, if not an anti-Semite, at least a person suffering acutely from the passion of bigotry. I wanted to refute some of his assertions that were based in (his interpretation of) Scripture. I never intend to go back to that particular Bible study, but I would like to know for my own edification. Thanks!
April 2nd, 2009 at 2:18 AM
Jesus spoke as a peer and mentor to the likes of Nicodemus a Pharisee. He was one of the two men who took down his body and placed it in a tomb, Joseph of Arimathea the other.
It’s arguable that the biggest reason that the Pharisees had such heartburn with Jesus is that he was viewed as one of them by the public, but that HIS teachings were being given more credibility than their own.
If he’d been just another layman, the Pharissees probably could have shut him up a lot easier? Although his popularity with the general population prevented that until such time as the Pharisees managed to convince the Roman authorities that he was a threat to THEIR authority as well.
Jesus spent the bulk of his ministry speaking to the Jews. It was his disciples that he sent out to the Gentiles.
Christians need to understand that, though we are deeply loved by God, we are still the tagalong little brothers compared to His first love, the Jews.
The Bible gives some pretty clear warnings against those who persecute the Jews. Christians should be the LAST ones doing it!