Jesus Messiah Fellowship
Light To The Nations
Persecution, Intolerance, And Hate Of Messianic Believers
By Cohen G. Reckart, Pastor
The Cross Is The Jewish Sign Of Hate And Intolerance Of Jesus Messiah.
Jesus prophesied that the same hate shown to him by unbelieving Jews would be shown to his Messianic Followers (John 15:18). He expanded this warning of hatred to come from all nations for his name's sake (Matthew 24:9). Persecution of Messianic Believers started on the Temple mount by a secret and elite group of religious Jews and according to the book of Revelation the last attempt of hate to purge Messianic Believers from the world will come out of Jerusalem and a rebuilt temple by a Jewish antichrist. The same tricks and claims against Jesus will surface again against the Messianic Believers who confront the world with the same Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus and the Apostles preached. We can be silent for fear of offending the Jews (John 20:19), or we can speak up because we were commanded to preach the Gospel to all nations.
A new devise has been in the making against Messianic Believers now for several years. This new antichrist methodology has one purpose and that is to stifle or to kill (crucify) the Christian voice on issues of religion, social morality, government, and education. This is now being used against Messianic Believers by Internet Service Providers (ISP) as seen recently against the American Family Association and experienced by the Apostolic Messianic Fellowship also.
This growing tool of hate is called *intolerance.* Any Christian, Christian Organization, or Group who voices an opinion about religion, social morality, government, and education and puts this in writing and posts the same on the internet is now considered *intolerant* and to have committed a crime! This alleged *intolerance* is now becoming a crime against humanity and Messianic Believers are the main target of this new antichrist devise. Actually when the accusation of *intolerance* is used against Messianic Believers it is a tool of hate and intolerance itself disguised by those who have long hated Jesus and Christianity, they have just found a new way of doing it with public and government sanction, ...like the crucifixion! This is persecution clear and simple. Others can have an opinion against Jesus and Messianic Believers but Messianic Believers are being censored and their voices silenced about our own opinions even of those who speak against us?
I here quote the profound words of David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus in their August 1998 Jews for Jesus Newsletter:
"There is much talk today about our pluralistic society. From a worldly perspective, tolerance is the greatest good. But today's society has twisted the meaning of tolerance, making it practically synonymous with relativism. True tolerance is treating people decently regardless of how they may differ from you. The false tolerance demanded by today's society requires that you accept all beliefs as equally true, or if you can't do that, you keep quiet about it. To suggest that someone else's religious belief might not be true is wrongly labeled as intolerance. If someone believed she could take a street that only runs east and west to go north, would it be intolerant for someone else in the car to suggest a turn? No. Somehow, when it comes to spiritual matters, the world insists on a degree of relativism that would spell disaster were we to apply it to the physical realm.
Therefore, the Christian belief that Jesus is the only way of salvation is perceived as intolerance, even bigotry by the world's standards. So the pressure is on us to compromise our strong stance and conviction in order to gain acceptance, in order to avoid being marginalized by the unbelieving world. Yes, we live in a pluralistic society, but pluralism means everyone's or no one's opinion is true.
Whenever we proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, the inference is that all other ways are false, and therefore those who trust anyone or anything other than Jesus for salvation are mistaken. You don't have to tell people they are wrong; the message itself pronounces them wrong. This will always be viewed as intolerance by those who don't believe. And those who are considered intolerant can expect to be rejected. That is why the idea that we must be accepted by those whom we wish to evangelize doesn't work; it requires a twisted notion of tolerance that is incompatible with the message we are duty-bound to proclaim." To this the Apostolic Messianic Fellowship says: AMEN!
Christianity is not just a way to God, it is the ONLY way to God. Jesus is the exclusive Messiah to the Jewish and Gentile world. That is our faith. To be intolerant of that faith and use threats of censorship against us because we write our faith in opposition to false ways, false religions, immoral social trends, fraud and abuse by government against Messianic Believers is subtle hate. Censorship of Christian education via Christian opinion, theory, logic, and fact by persecution using the accusation of *intolerance* will not stand at God's judgment. The same hate that roused the multitudes with urging and prompting from agitators to cry for the crucifixion of Jesus is now being used against Messianic Believers.
Perhaps no greater cry could the Pharisees make then that Jesus was intolerate of them and trying to set up a new Jewish sect with opposing views, teachings, doctrine, and plan of salvation without their permission, control, oversight, and censorship over them. And to think that Jesus would say in his Kingdom the Pharisees would be thrust out, was considered by them to be the final bigoted remark they would take from him. Now he must die, his followers persecuted, and Messianic Believers killed.
The Cross was originally the symbol of Jewish hatred and intolerance of Jesus. The cry: Crucify him, Crucify him, was the hint to Pilate what manner they wanted him killed. Jesus said that each of us must take up our cross, that is be willing to be hated and be the victim of Jewish and Gentile intolerance. I am a firm believer that the year 2,000 should be the year of the Cross and again bring before the world the fact that the same hate and intolerance of Messiah at Calvary still exist today. How long before Messiahians are arrested for speaking their faith? How long before Messianic Believers are put to death for speaking their faith? Intolerance will lead to the next great blood-bath of Messianic Believers world wide under the antichrist regime soon to appear. The spirit of antichrist against Jesus and Messianic Believers is now in a revival mode around the world and the same tactics of *hate and intolerance* used in the first century are being used once again by those who cry *intolerance!*
Consider the hate shown to Jews for Jesus by other Jews and Gentiles under the disguise of the accusation of *intolerance * (copied from JfJ Aug 1998 Newsletter):
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