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BAPTISTS hope to "convert" JEWS Selected from the on-going INTERNET BOOK, "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets" ( http://www.terrific-tabs.com (link to home-page) by John N. Todd III, M. D. (link... about the author)
11/00; 9/01; 12/01; 3/02; 5/02; 7/02; 9/02; 11/02; 2/03; 4/03; 5/03; 1/04; 8/04; 10/23/05 See related "tablets": Rigid DOCTRINISM (link) AND: PREACHERS claim to have all the answers (link) AND: FREE-WILL -- they say (link) AND: Some call it "The Great Commission" (link) AND "ISRAELITES" -- according to God (link) CLICK HERE to go to the "FRONT PAGE" of "The Doctor's Terrific Tablets" CLICK HERE for ALPHABETICAL INDEX of this entire WEBSITE CLICK HERE to EMAIL your thoughts to the author This essay, by John N. Todd III (the author of this website), was published in its entirety in "The Tuscaloosa News" (Alabama), in June 1996, in response to a lengthy Tuscaloosa News opinion-piece stating that "The Baptists want to convert 'The Jews' to Christianity". We Methodists love the "Southern Baptists" -- but sometimes the zeal and fervor of the Baptists may seem, to us "outsiders", to be a bit "pushy". Last year, after their annual convention, the "Southern Baptists" adopted a resolution apologizing to the Black citizens of America for 200 years of mistreatment of Blacks.... presumably by American Baptists. Before that, in 1993, an article entitled "Baptists count the lost", appeared in a Birmingham newspaper. The gist of that article was that the Alabama Baptists had counted the "Christian" church-goers (the "saved") in Alabama, and subtracted that number from Alabama's total population -- and had come up with a huge number of Alabamians that the Baptists decided were "lost". At that time, many of us non-Baptist "believers" smiled at the smugness of a doctrinal church that would arrogate to itself the authority to decide, for God, who is "saved", and who is "lost".... based on the Baptists' presumption that their interpretation of what God has allowed us humans to understand, is correct.... and based on the Baptists' conviction that all other denominations and religions are wrong, in the sight of God.... and hence "lost".... and excluded from God's favor. Now this.... recent articles in the New York Times and in the Tuscaloosa News report that at the 1996 annual convention of Southern Baptists, a resolution was passed "calling for efforts to convert Jews to Christianity". The Baptist "domestic missionary agency has appointed a missionary to undertake such work." The plan, according to the article, is to "direct our energies and resources toward the proclamation of the Gospel.... to the Jews." Jewish spokespeople have responded predictably, with remarks like, "The Baptists should talk about a mission to the Christians, because it was in Christian Europe that the holocaust occurred." A rabbi, speaking for the American Jewish Committee on interreligious affairs, is quoted as saying, "Singling out Jews as a target for conversion, is a great disservice to Christian-Jewish relations." My reason for writing this response is to pose a few questions for readers of the Tuscaloosa News, as follows: Is the Baptist "Christian" doctrinal variation correct, in the eyes of God? Are Baptists the only ones who are accurate in their interpretation of the Bible -- and the "truth" of God? If so, should the rest of us then conclude that, for example, the Roman Catholics are "left out"? What about the Presbyterians, the "Mormons", the "Eastern Orthodox" Church, the Church of Christ, or the "Assembly of God"? Are some of these church-groups "in" -- and the others "out? Is there a solitary doctrine that God accepts.... to the exclusion of all others? (See link Is there a God's Church.) What about various alternative "Protestant" doctrines? Are those of the Arminian persuasion correct in their beliefs? If so, are the followers of Calvin, or Luther wrong.... and thus omitted from the salvation that comes from God (link)? (Consider this fun-thought: "The Ark of the Southern Baptists".... to compare with the Jewish "Ark of the Covenant". AND, see link Circumventing God.) The readers of this article, and I, may think that we know the answer to the next question, but I will ask it anyway: Are the Muslims, the world's largest "religious" group (who also claim to be "children of Abraham", and whose mantra is "There is but one God") irretrievably "lost".... because they do not agree with the Baptists? Here's the big question: Who are we humans to decide whom God can accept, or "choose" -- and "save"? Do human-beings have the authority to force our earthly restrictive "religious" doctrines on other humans.... or on God? (See link, Doctrinal Rigidity.) I am not a Jew, and I am not a Baptist; but I can understand Jewish disdain when a non-Jewish organization tells the Jews what "religious" beliefs they should "accept". Turn the insult around.... suppose the Jews told the Baptists that the Baptists are wrong, and that they should accept Jewish beliefs, and rites, and ceremonies. Can you just imagine how the Baptists would respond!! Many God-fearing "spiritually-minded" individuals would declare that it is God alone who decides who is acceptable to Him, and who will enter the Kingdom of God -- irrespective of the divergent opinions of humans. As Jesus (God-Incarnate; God-the-Son) says in Luke 16: 15 (NIV) "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men.... but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight." And from Paul, in Acts 17: 24 (NIV) "The God who made the world and everything in it, is the Lord of Heaven and earth.... and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything; because He Himself gives all men life, and breath.... and everything else." James 4: 12 (NRSV) There is one Lawgiver and Judge -- who is able to save, and to destroy. So then, who are you to judge your neighbor?
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