IDEAS IN DEFEATING THE MISSIONARY THREAT IN ISRAEL - GIVE YOUR SUGGESTIONS

I really don't think here in Israel we as Jews should take missionizing lying down. I propose several ways to minimize and eliminate their presence till their leaders leave town or come back to Judaism. Here are my ideas:

1)In every area where their church's exist, Jews should be there before AND after their services with pamphlets, contact numbers and open house-lectures invitations for shabbos meals at people's homes. The people who they come to should be knowledgeable about christianity and Judaism. It's not enough to give them a shabbat experience, they need something for their brain and if you are not experienced, DON'T volunteer except to be there and hand out literature.
2)Be present at all of their special events and hand out those pamphlets. Get names of members so a follow up meeting can be set up. Always have a professional anti-missionary contact to send them to.
3)Find out who supports them financially. Their places of business should be picketed and/or bothered with pamphlets in Hebrew, English and Russian.

There's no reason to get violent and cause a Chillul Hashem. We can defeat them by being better than them (which shouldn't be too hard for anyone). Any religion that believes that 6,000,000 Jews are in Hell and their tormentors are in Heaven, is evil in itself and will disappear once that knowledge is explained to all of our ignorant brothers and sisters.

I look forward in hearing more ideas from members on this topic.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Moshe Verschleisser on October 21, 2009 at 12:25am

I agree that a violent reaction is bad; more than the terrible chillul hashem caused, it just reinforces the angry and violent Pharisee view that many Christians, including those that are Jewish, have. Violent reactions from us just reinforce them.

We do have the problem of lack of available funding to develop professional counter-missionaries; Evangelists are taught their trade in schools, and I know of no Yeshiva that offers comprehensive classes in apologetics. Yes, some of them might have an annual appearance by someone doing a simulated debate, etc, but ultimately, nothing.

I think it would be easier economically if we first educate and publicize about the deceit of messianic "judaism", then gradually expose who is behind the deceit - done, of course, in honest investigative fashion, and not in a way that fuels current views of us. We then pick up an important emotional win, and pick up momentum. The few professional counter missionaries would then be very busy people, but those of us at the lay level would then have done our jobs. How we do things is almost as important as what we're doing.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Jacobs on October 21, 2009 at 2:32am

Thanks Moshe for the reply, BUT we don't need to train EVERYONE which is a waste of time, just a certain group of some hard core activists. What IS needed is a bunch of regular, sweet talking, knowledgeable folks who don't get angry but are able to express their love for their fellow jewish brothers and sisters lost in the cesspool of idolatry, by getting their names so that professional anti-missionaries can explain to them the error of their ways.
Pamphlets, business cards with contact numbers are all that is needed to distribute as these lost souls come out of their churches and stuff it in their hands and pockets.
Pamphlets showing the virgin birth myth, holocaust - hell concept, christian anti-semitism throughout the ages etc should be distributed to these lost souls. No arguements, no yelling "missionaries", just "we love you's", the rest is in the hands of God. We do what we have to, to give them a chance. They probably never spoke to someone knowledgeable of Judaism & C. , all we have to do is to "lead a horse to water", the pure waters of Torah & Yiddishkeit will do the rest. So to sum up we need:
1)Volunteers willing and able to distribute pamphlets, contact numbers, show up at events and church services on short notice,
2)Professional volunteers who can show them the error of their ways,
3)a replacement theology + support system so that they can get into,
4)an entire infrastructure to help them financially as well as socially (as many go there for promises of jobs, green cards, or looking for some social life etc).
All of the above already exist in one way or another in Israel as well as in the USA, we DON'T need massive funds; all we need are people willing to volunteer and help and just show up at their events and prayer meetings.
Anyone think otherwise??

Moshe Verschleisser said:

I agree that a violent reaction is bad; more than the terrible chillul hashem caused, it just reinforces the angry and violent Pharisee view that many Christians, including those that are Jewish, have. Violent reactions from us just reinforce them.

We do have the problem of lack of available funding to develop professional counter-missionaries; Evangelists are taught their trade in schools, and I know of no Yeshiva that offers comprehensive classes in apologetics. Yes, some of them might have an annual appearance by someone doing a simulated debate, etc, but ultimately, nothing.

I think it would be easier economically if we first educate and publicize about the deceit of messianic "judaism", then gradually expose who is behind the deceit - done, of course, in honest investigative fashion, and not in a way that fuels current views of us. We then pick up an important emotional win, and pick up momentum. The few professional counter missionaries would then be very busy people, but those of us at the lay level would then have done our jobs. How we do things is almost as important as what we're doing.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Jacobs on October 21, 2009 at 2:38am

Jake Jacobs said:

Thanks Moshe for the reply, BUT we don't need to train EVERYONE which is a waste of time, just a certain group of some hard core activists. What IS needed is a bunch of regular, sweet talking, knowledgeable folks who don't get angry but are able to express their love for their fellow jewish brothers and sisters lost in the cesspool of idolatry, and helping by getting the names of our lost brothers & sisters so that professional anti-missionaries can explain to them the error of their ways.
Pamphlets, business cards with contact numbers are all that is needed to distribute as these lost souls come out of their churches/meetings/events and stuff it in their hands and pockets.
Pamphlets showing the stupidity and un-Biblical concepts of the virgin birth myth, holocaust - hell concept, christian anti-semitism throughout the ages etc should be distributed to these lost souls.
No arguments, no yelling "missionaries", traitors....just "we love you's", the rest is in the hands of God. (They are according to most poskim 'tinokot shenishbu') We do what we have to, to give them a chance. They probably never spoke to someone knowledgeable of Judaism & C. , all we have to do is to "lead a horse to water", the pure waters of Torah & Yiddishkeit will do the rest.
So to sum up I believe we need:
1)Volunteers willing and able to distribute pamphlets, contact numbers, show up at events and church services on short notice,
2)Professional volunteers who can show them the error of their ways,
3)a replacement theology + support system so that they can get into,
4)an entire infrastructure to help them financially as well as socially (as many go there for promises of jobs, green cards, or looking for some social life etc).
All of the above already exist in one way or another in Israel as well as in the USA, we DON'T need massive funds; all we need are people willing to volunteer and help and just show up at their events and prayer meetings.
Anyone think otherwise??

Moshe Verschleisser said:
I agree that a violent reaction is bad; more than the terrible chillul hashem caused, it just reinforces the angry and violent Pharisee view that many Christians, including those that are Jewish, have. Violent reactions from us just reinforce them.

We do have the problem of lack of available funding to develop professional counter-missionaries; Evangelists are taught their trade in schools, and I know of no Yeshiva that offers comprehensive classes in apologetics. Yes, some of them might have an annual appearance by someone doing a simulated debate, etc, but ultimately, nothing.

I think it would be easier economically if we first educate and publicize about the deceit of messianic "judaism", then gradually expose who is behind the deceit - done, of course, in honest investigative fashion, and not in a way that fuels current views of us. We then pick up an important emotional win, and pick up momentum. The few professional counter missionaries would then be very busy people, but those of us at the lay level would then have done our jobs. How we do things is almost as important as what we're doing.