Are Christians commanded to proselytize?

Proselytizing of Jews ...
a Divine Order, or Taboo?

Why are Christians so insistent on evangelizing Jews? If the New Testament is so clear and emphatic that
'God blinded the Jews' to the recognition of the Messiah, is their proselytizing zeal then not tantamount to
a challenge against the Decree of God?
Was the apostle Paul instructed to "go to the Jew first"
- or did he misapply his Divine Mandate?
Discover the unabridged Truth on this Christian practice as defined by the Scriptural principles of the Original True Faith



The Original Messianic Instruction to Paul
Christians and Messianics generally feel it their prime spiritual duty and obligation to proselytize and evangelize Jews. In defense, they will claim that Messiah instructed Paul and the apostles to "go to the Jew first with the Good News of Salvation which is obtainable through faith in Him only".
The Christian New Testament (NT) records how Paul primarily targeted Jewish congregations on his evangelical missions. The fact that these proselytizing missions normally ended in failure, with Paul and his company being attacked and 'run out of town', did not detract him from ever returning "to the Jew first" with the Message that he himself, at first, so viciously persecuted.. History has proven over the subsequent 2000 years, that the Jews would not accept his Message, while the 'other nations' would run with it, forming vast 'Christian' churches across much of the world.
Paul (originally Saul of Tarsus, a well educated Jewish scholar, become Roman citizen) has no equal in the annals of Church history for his great influence on Christian theology which is so diametrically contrary to Judaism. Yet, when interrogated by the Jewish leaders, Paul would always profess to be a staunch upholder of the Jewish Faith. The great confusion which this evangelist caused is normally accounted to his 'advanced and deep reasoning'.
An in-depth analysis of the NT records though, will reveal that Paul not only acted contrary to his own claims, but also contrary to the orders given him by Messiah Himself, as well as against the directives of those very Prophetic guidelines which he would quote in his own defense.
It is often overlooked that Paul was not one of the called apostles of Messiah. In fact, the book of Acts is clear that the apostles were very dubious about receiving Paul amongst their leadership because of his former position of persecutor of Messiah's disciples and the brutal stoning of Stephen. He was also involved in heavy arguments with those who opposed his views and ideas (Acts (9:26-30).
Though we only have his own relays of his direct Calling - while he was on one of his persecution trips on the way to Damascus - we do have a NT record quoting Messiah's direct confirmation of Paul's Calling:
Acts 9:15 "This man (Paul) is My chosen instrument to bring My Name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel"
Bearing in mind that 'the people of Israel' by no stretch of Scriptural definition ever refers to Jews only, we certainly do not have a Messianic Injunction here for Paul being so insistent on approaching "Jews first" rather than 'pagans', as Messiah's directive so clearly specifies. On the contrary, the above ruling pays note to 'pagans' firstly. Enter here another popular misconception, that 'pagans' refer to non-Israelite nations only. Fact is that in NT times the Land of Israel was inhabited mainly by Jews (Tribe of Judah). The Jews of Messiah's time despised even their fellow 'Israelites' from Samaria (the Northern part of the Land, original home of the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel - refer the NT discussion between Messiah and the Samaritan woman). They also despised and regarded as 'pagans' their northern Israel tribal counterparts who refused to subject themselves to Judah's 'Scepter' Rule (Gen. 49:10) - a rebellion for which the entire northern 10-Tribed part of ancient Israel was rejected and exiled by YHVH, the One True God of Israel. NT references to Gentiles/pagans/other nations could therefore also refer to exiled 10-Israel, regarded as "the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel", known to be living "across the Euphrates river" in NT times. In our study The One True Gospel, we conclude from the Scriptures, if read in proper context, that Messiah's Reconciliatory Atonement was for the main Purpose of bringing exiled and rejected 10-Israelites back into Covenant with YHVH - hence the need for proclamation of His Name amongst the pagan assimilated exiles of 10-Israel who were dispersed amongst the nations. It is evident that this distinction was not well-known amongst the overpowering Jewish element of the first Messianic congregations of that time. Hence their preference for 'preaching the Gospel to Jews first' - a strategy that today, more than ever before, requires urgent adaptation to its original Divine Intent, which is the Prophetic re-unification between 10-Israel and Judah. This re-union is greatly hampered by the 'Pauline' inspired urge to proselytize Jews. Divine Intent cannot be undone, and just as Paul's 'Jews firstly' strategy was out of line with his Messianic Mandate, causing more damage than success, so, to this day, Messiah's Reconciliation of the two estranged Houses of Israel is greatly hampered by the ongoing Messianic zeal to 'save Jews' for Messiah.
This Message may be totally controversial to you at first consideration. Please acquaint yourself in this regard with the comprehensive Scripturally based studies on this Web Site before persisting in traditions which have been missing the mark ever since Paul persisted in disregard for his true Messianic Mandate. In this context please refer to miscellaneous studies at http://www.revelations.org.za/MenuReturn.htm; The One True Gospel.

Paul's own testimony to his Calling
Paul repeatedly admitted to his mission to 'the pagans' rather than the Jews - yet he persisted in proselytizing "the Jews first" wherever he traveled. In his defense before a Jewish crowd who had seized him and beaten him in the Temple complex in Jerusalem, Paul testified:
Acts 22:17 "Once, when I was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance and then I saw Him (Messiah). "Hurry", He said, "Leave Jerusalem at once. They will not accept the Testimony you are giving about Me" ... Then He said to me, "Go! I am sending you to the pagans far away."
In Romans 1:5 he claims: "Through Him (Messiah) we received Grace and our apostolic Mission to preach the obedience of Faith to all pagan nations in honour of His Name."
In Galatians 2:7 he once more recognizes his mandate to preach to 'non-Jews': "I had been commissioned to preach the Good News to the uncircumcised..." and then he makes an astonishing statement in total contradiction of what the NT states about the mission of the apostle Peter. Paul claims "... just as Peter had been commissioned to preach to the circumcised."

Paul's blatant misapplication of a Divine Sign
Contrary to Paul's statement that Peter was called to evangelize "the circumcised" (the Jews), Acts 10 records a very explicit Divine confirmation to Peter that he should not preach to Jews only but to non-Jews, because "what God has made clean, you have no right to call profane." Peter was given a Divine Vision, in preparation for God sending a non-Jewish Messianic convert, Cornelius, to him for further guidance.
From this event we also clearly note the exclusively pro-Jewish attitude of the early Messianic era, which was born out of Judaism in a Jewish Land, amongst Jews primarily at first. To correct this attitude, God had to show Peter in a vision, that the Good News should be preached to non-Jews, who should not be regarded as 'profane' by the Jewish Messianics, because God regards them as 'cleansed' also, when they come into the Faith.
The Vision used by God for this purpose (Acts 10:10), entails a container of mixed animals, birds and crawling insects, with the Divine Command to Peter to "Eat!" - which he refused, of course, being a Jew. This vision is also often misapplied by Torah rejecting Messianics, to be a Divine rejection of the 'Kosher' dietary laws and Divine sanction for eating whatever we please. The logical counter reasoning would be: "Does God now allow us to eat all those crawling animals, snakes, rats and vultures which no doubt were in that container? Do we wish to eat these?"
Peter got the correct Message after deep contemplation of this strange vision, as he admits to Cornelius:
Acts 10:28 "You know that it is forbidden for Jews to mix with people of another race and visit them, but God has made it clear to me that I must not call anyone profane or unclean. That is why I made no objection to coming ..."
How clearly it depicts the resistance of those first Jewish Messianics to bring the Gospel to pagans, gentiles, 10-Israelites or anyone non-Jewish. So much for those, who think that the original disciples of Messiah and the early Messianic congregations were Christians and churches! Far from it! They were as exclusively Jewish as the Messiah Himself was an orthodox Jew!
Yet, it was the Divine Intention to "bring the Gospel to pagans", in order to conform them to the One True Faith - Judaism. Moreover, it was His Intention to reconcile exiled and rejected 10-Israel with His Covenant once more, like the Bridegroom taking back His Divorced and rejected Bride! Refer The One True Gospel, The Great Return

To the Jew first
Notwithstanding Paul's repeated admissions that his mandate was to the non-Jews, he nevertheless persisted in stirring confusion by his Gospel Message amongst Jewish congregations wherever he went.
The following chapters from the NT book of Acts confirm Paul's persistent approach of 'Jews first' on his missionary travels:
Acts 13:4; 13:14-38; 14:1; 15:16; 17:1; 17:10; 17:16; 18:1-4; 18:5,19; 19:8; 28:17.
Time after time he would fail a successful mission, often, in justifying himself, ascribing this failure to Prophetic prescription, thus acknowledging that he was operating in disregard of Divine Prophetic Intent.
Acts 13:44-52 describes such an event when the Jews opposed Paul. In response, Paul scolded them, saying:
Acts 13:46 "We had to proclaim the Word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourself worthy of Eternal Life, we must turn to the pagans. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when He said (and he then quotes Isaiah 49:6) 'I have made you a Light to the nations so that My Salvation may reach the ends of the earth'"

Note carefully, that Paul recognizes that, according to this quoted portion from the book of Isaiah, they were commanded by God to go to 'the pagans'. Nowhere do we find Scriptural backing for his insistence to go "to the Jews first". And when we go to the original Scriptures in Isaiah from which he quotes, we find astounding and explicit confirmation that this Divine Command in fact refers to the restoration of the 12 Tribes of Jacob and the Return from exile of the survivors of 10-Israel! - NOTE the two verses preceding the portion which Paul quotes!

Isaiah 49:6 "Is it not enough for you to be My servant, to restore the (12) Tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel (10 Tribes exiled amongst the nations)?" This Divine Intent is repeated in the foregoing verse 5: "And now YHVH has spoken; He Who formed Me (prophetical reference to Messiah's Manifestation) in the womb of His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him; to gather Israel to Him."

This once more confirms the conclusions as defined in this Web Site of BIBLE REVELATIONS regarding the True Purpose of Messiah's Reconciliatory Atonement, i.e. to reconcile the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel with the Covenant of YHVH and to 're-erect the fallen down Tabernacle of David' by re-uniting the estranged 2 Houses of Israel - and also the teaching of this very study, that it was not the Divine Intent to "bring the Good News of Messiah YAHU'SHUAH to the Jews first" as Christians insist on doing.

Yet, Paul would continue to take his missionary Message "to the Jews first", as the several recorded instances mentioned above, prove."

The last paragraphs of the book of Acts record one more such failed attempt of proselytizing of Jews by Paul. Once again, he scolds them; once again he bases his rejection on Prophetic Scripture. But this time, in typical derogating anti-Jewish style. He even (probably deliberately) misquotes the Prophetic Word, thereby laying an accusative base followed to this day by anti-Zionistic and anti-Rabbinic Messianics in their condemnation of "those Christ rejecting Jews." The following quote of his statements are from the NT, as compared with the original text of Isaiah which Paul uses as confirmation:

Acts 28:26
"Go to this nation and say:
'You will hear and hear again but not understand,
see and see again but not perceive;
for the heart of this nation has grown course;
their ears are dull of hearing
and they have shut their eyes;
for fear they should see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart
and be converted
and be healed by Me."
Isaiah 6:9
"Go and say to this people,
'Hear and hear again, but do not understand;
see and see again but do not perceive.
Make the heart of this people gross;
its ears dull;
shut its eyes
so that it will not see with its eyes,
hear with its ears,
understand with its heart
and be converted and healed."


Note the underlined emphasis - Paul turns it into a condemning accusation, blaming their stubbornness - a stance often used against the 'Christ rejecting Jews' by Messianics. Whereas the Prophetic Scriptures render it as a Divine Decree to the Messenger: "Make them blind and deaf ... so that they will not hear and see." Which is the reasoning of this Web Site: What God has decreed, no man (not even Paul) should dare to challenge. Paul persisted in his disregard for his Divine Mandate, which he never hesitated to emphasize as being 'to the pagans'.
Following in his foot steps, to this day, most Messianics persist in this challenge of the Divine Decree!

The Jewish grinch who stole Christmas

Posted: December 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Burt Prelutsky

© 2006
I never thought I'd live to see the day that Christmas would become a dirty word. You think it hasn't? Then why is it that people are being prevented from saying it in polite society for fear that it will offend?

Schools are being forced to replace "Christmas vacation" with "winter break" in their printed schedules. At some major retail chains, the word is verboten, replaced as a matter of policy by the generic Happy Holidays. Carols, even instrumental versions, are banned in certain locales. A major postal delivery service has not only made their drivers doff their Santa caps, but ordered them not to decorate their trucks with Christmas wreaths.

How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is happening? And in case you find that designation objectionable, would you deny that India is a Hindu country, that Turkey is Muslim, that Poland is Catholic? That doesn't mean those nations are theocracies. But when the overwhelming majority of a country's population is of one religion, and most Americans happen to be one sort of Christian or another, only a darn fool would deny the obvious.

Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn't, that people who came here from other places made every attempt to fit in. Assimilation wasn't a threat to anyone; it was what the Statue of Liberty represented. E pluribus unum, one out of many, was our motto. The world's melting pot was our nickname. It didn't mean that any group of people had to check their customs, culture or cuisine, at the door. It did mean that they, and especially their children, learned English, and that they learned to live and let live.

That has changed, as you may have noticed. And I blame my fellow Jews. When it comes to pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian, agenda, you find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists and the ACLU at the forefront.

Being Jewish, I should report, Christmas was never celebrated by my family. But what was there not to like about the holiday? To begin with, it provided a welcome two-week break from school. The decorated trees were nice, the lights were beautiful, "It's a Wonderful Life" was a great movie, and some of the best Christmas songs were even written by Jews.

But the dirty little secret in America is that, in spite of the occasional over-publicized rants by the likes of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards, anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society; it's been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity. For example, much of the hatred spewed toward George W. Bush has far less to do with his policies than it does with his religion. The Jews voice no concern when a Bill Clinton or a John Kerry makes a big production out of showing up at black Baptist churches or posing with Rev. Jesse Jackson because they understand that's just politics. They only object to politicians attending church for religious reasons.

My fellow Jews, who often have the survival of Israel heading the list of their concerns when it comes to electing a president, only gave 26 percent of their vote to Bush, even though he is clearly one of the most pro-Israel presidents we've ever had in the Oval Office. Unlike Clinton, who had Yasser Arafat sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom so often even Monica Lewinsky got jealous, Bush saw to it that the Palestinian butcher was persona non grata at the White House.

It is the ACLU, which is overwhelmingly Jewish in terms of membership and funding, that is leading the attack against Christianity in America. It is they who have conned far too many people into believing that the phrase "separation of church and state" actually exists somewhere in the Constitution.

You may have noticed, though, that the ACLU is highly selective when it comes to religious intolerance. The same group of self-righteous shysters who at the drop of a "Merry Christmas" will slap you with an injunction will fight for the right of an American Indian to ingest peyote and a devout Islamic woman to be veiled on her driver's license.

I happen to despise bullies and bigots. I hate them when they represent the majority, but no less when, like Jews in America, they represent an infinitesimal minority.

I am getting the idea that too many Jews won't be happy until they pull off their own version of the Spanish Inquisition, forcing Christians to either deny their faith and convert to agnosticism or suffer the consequences.

I should point out that many of these people abhor Judaism every bit as much as they do Christianity. They're the ones who behave as if atheism were a calling. They're the nutcakes who go berserk if anyone even says, "In God we trust" or mentions that the Declaration of Independence refers to a Creator with a capital "C." By this time, I'm only surprised that they haven't begun a campaign to do away with Sunday as a day of rest. After all, it's only for religious reasons – Christian reasons – that Sunday, and not Tuesday or Wednesday, is so designated.

This is a Christian nation, my friends. And all of us are fortunate it is one, and that so many millions of Americans have seen fit to live up to the highest precepts of their religion. It should never be forgotten that, in the main, it was Christian soldiers who fought and died to defeat Nazi Germany and who liberated the concentration camps. Speaking as a member of a minority group – and one of the smaller ones at that – I say it behooves those of us who don't accept Jesus Christ as our savior to show some gratitude to those who do, and to start respecting the values and traditions of the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens, just as we keep insisting that they respect ours.

Merry Christmas, my friends.


Burt Prelutsky has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times, a movie critic for Los Angeles magazine and a freelance writer for TV Guide, Modern Maturity, the N.Y. Times and Sports Illustrated. He has also written TV scripts for shows such as "MASH," "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Diagnosis Murder." His book "Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco" was recently updated and is available from WND's online store; or if you'd rather order by phone, call WND's toll-free customer service line at 1-800-4WND-COM (1-800-496-3266).