Hamas War

Monday, April 18, 2011

If They Believe in Jesus, They Can Never Convert to Judaism!

There's a strange story going around about a thousand or so Evangelical Christians who want to convert to Orthodox Judaism and make aliyah to the Shomron.

I once found myself translating during an interview/test of a potential convert to Torah Judaism.  What one believes in is crucial to be accepted as a גר צדק Ger Tzedek, Righteous Convert. Evangelical Christians can never convert to Judaism, and if they lie about their beliefs, their conversions are null and void:

Question: "What is an Evangelical Christian?"

Answer: To begin, let’s break down the two words. The term "Christian" essentially means "little Christ." "Christian" is the term given to followers of Jesus Christ in the first century A.D. (Acts 11:26). The term "evangelical" comes from the Greek word that means "good news." Evangelism is sharing the good news of the salvation that is available through Jesus Christ. An evangelical, then, is a person dedicated to promoting the good news about Jesus Christ. Combined, the description "evangelical Christian" is intended to indicate a believer in Jesus Christ who is faithful in sharing and promoting the good news.

Their beliefs are the antithesis of Judaism, plain and simple. There's no way of getting around it.

12 comments:

aparatchik said...

Are you sure they still "believe in Jesus"?

Anonymous said...

Many call themselves Christians and are not. Whether through ignorance or deceit I don't know.

Anonymous said...

These are messyanic christians. It is a disgrace that no one bothered doing the most minimal background check on the guy heading this group, Baruch Avrahamovich.

Follow the Russian links and use Google Translate. Messyanic christian ephraimites. May they drop dead before they put their feet on our soil.

Batya said...

a, aparatchik, shy gave the answer.

shy, thanks
We have work to do

ellen said...

Shy Guy is correct. The leader of the group is a Christian messianic.

There are growing numbers of evangelical christians who think of Israel as their inheritance.

Israelis in the public and private sectors who have been nurturing a relationship with fundamentalist Christian "pro-Israel" groups must realize that they can't get these very devout and very nice people hot on Israel as the land of jesus and not expect it to exact a serious cost in the form of our birthright.

Batya said...

Thanks, Ellen, you're my expert in these matters.

Keli Ata said...

I certainly hope the story isn't true, but I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it is,for all of the reasons Ellen cited.

Hopefully none of these people are in the process of converting Orthodox. I would think during the long process they would slip up and reveal themselves to the rabbi, and congregation.

Batya said...

I hope their grand announcement warned the right people.

goyisherebbe said...

There have historically been some slipups (small numbers) in conversions by the Rabbinate here in accepting people who intentionally defrauded the rabbis into accepting them despite the fact that they never gave up their Christian beliefs. Today the Beit Din uses a former Christian who is a kosher convert to vet people in this category to make sure "stealth missionaries" don't get through. There has been enough talk by pro-Israel Evangelicals over the years about starting a messianic settlement in Judea or Samaria. There are active messy congregations in Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim, but never a massive group aliyah. Hard to believe it will happen. Of course, if there is a group which truly repudiates its Christian beliefs and converts, they could be accepted, but it would still be a good idea for them to join a community of born Jews who are knowledgeable rather than maintaining their isolated existence.

Batya said...

thanks for the info
What bothers me is the attitude/editorial stance of A7 which doesn't seem to understand the dangers.

ellen said...

Go to JewishIsrael.com

Everything from the perplexing headlines to the conflicting and missing details in the varying reports indicates that something is very amiss with this venture and with the people behind the scenes.

Jewish Israel decided to investigate. The answers we received are cause for alarm. We have just posted the first part of a continuing report.

Batya said...

Will you be posting it here?