Tuesday 15 May 2018

Former politician Michele Bachmann apologizes to Jews for saying they need to be evangelized

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Acts 17:29-30

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
I Corinthians 1:23-24

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Galatians 2:21

Here we go again, with yet another Christian grovelling before Jews, asking their forgiveness for the heinous crime of saying that they need to come to God through the blood of His son Jesus Christ. As reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 14, 2018:

Michele Bachmann apologized in Israel for statements she previously made calling on Jews to convert to Christianity in order to help bring the End of Days.

Bachmann, a former congresswoman from Minnesota who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, said in 2015 that Christians need “to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can, even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, He’s coming soon.”

Bachmann made the comments during a radio interview in Israel while on a tour organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.

Bachmann apologized for that statement Sunday at a joint Jewish-Christian Bible study at the Knesset, held in honor of Jerusalem Day. She asked for “repentance from the Jewish people for the horrible and arrogant way Christians — myself included — treated and regarded the Jewish people.”

“I ask for forgiveness from the Jewish people for what it is that we have done,” said Bachmann. “I apologize profoundly and ask forgiveness from the Almighty God that these statements brought pain.”

The event was co-sponsored by the Knesset Caucus for the Encouragement of Bible Study, the Schindler Society and Israel365’s Yeshiva for the Nations, which aims to teach Torah to non-Jews. This was the third such Bible study and the first one to take place on Jerusalem Day.
As reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 8, 2015 (links in original):

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called for an intensified effort to convert Jews to Christianity.

Bachmann, a former congresswoman from Minnesota who ran for the Republican nod in 2012, was in Israel last week on a tour organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.

Toward the end of the week, she spoke on the council president’s radio program, “Washington Watch,” and discussed the meaning of the recent intensification of violence in Israel and the West Bank. She cast the violence as a signal of the return of Jesus, which would necessitate mass conversions.

“We recognize the shortness of the hour,” Bachmann said on the program hosted by Tony Perkins, “and that’s why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can — even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, He’s coming soon.”

The first to report Bachmann’s call was Right Wing Watch, a project of People for the American Way, a church-state separation advocacy group.
If Ms. Bachmann was of the view that Christians have to "convert" Jews en masse prior to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, she was mistaken. Conversion is God's work, not ours. If however, she meant that the gospel should be proclaimed to Jews, she was correct, and shouldn't have apologized. Ms. Bachmann's name has been linked with the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation at times, so I'm not sure exactly what she did mean. The gospel is "to the Jew first," and they need to come to God in the same way Gentiles do--through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross; it's not "arrogant" to proclaim that. As the above passage from Galatians says, if it's possible to come to God through keeping the law, then Christ died in vain.

I'm one Christian who's tired of Christians constantly apologizing to politically-correct groups, especially when they're apologizing for the alleged sins of other people. I'm always hearing that Jewish resistance to the gospel is the result of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism. That seemed a good explanation until it occurred to me (long after it should have, I must admit) that such a rationalization fails to explain Jewish opposition to Jesus Christ during His ministry, or Jewish persecution of Jewish believers in Christ and Jewish attempts to prevent Gentiles from coming to Christ in the 1st century, when there was no Gentile church around to persecute Jews. As the passage in I Corinthians 1 cited above says, He's a stumblingblock to the Jews.

A Bible study put on by the organizations mentioned in the article above is highly unlikely to acknowledge Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and the rest of the Old Testament, and Christians might want to reconsider their participation in such Bible studies. As the Lord Jesus Christ said:

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
John 5:45-47

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