Evangelicals recycle messianic old “good news”

This is weird, or would misleading and deceptive be more accurate terms?

On June 26th the Standing with Israel newsletter section of Charisma Magazine ran a feature article by messianic “Rabbi” Baruch Rubin entitled: Messianic Judaism Recognized in Israel and Elsewhere

The text of the article reports that, The Messianic Action Committee (MAC) “under the name Action Committee for Messianic Judaism in Hebrew, has been officially recognized as an Israeli not-for-profit organization. This means that the government of Israel now officially recognizes Messianic Judaism!”

Well, Jewish Israel felt that the Christian rabbi was pushing the envelope a bit far, because attaining non-profit status in Israel is not analogous to being recognized as a branch of Judaism. So we decided to investigate the misleading report.

It was odd that no other messianic or evangelical publication was reporting this “good news” that emanated from Charisma Magazine - the premier publication of the Strang Communications Company.

You know, Stephen Strang - the publisher of Pastor John Hagee’s books and a Regional Director of CUFI (Christians United for Israel). The same Strang who signed the WEA statement calling for continued efforts to evangelize the Jews. The same Stephen Strang who chose to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary with a Charisma cover story celebrating the messianic missionary community in Israel and hailing them as “brave Christians celebrating the love of Jesus in Israel”

The Christian “rabbi” Baruch Rubin regularly contributes to Charisma’s Newsletter section. On June 30th (five days after the original post), Ruben’s article was still featured alongside the posts of recognized writers like CUFI's David Brog, and organizations like the International Christian Embassy (ICEJ). And no other outlet had picked up what was billed as monumental news in the messianic world (wow! non-profit status!!).

It was even stranger when we discovered that the confused Christian “rabbi” had recycled one of his old articles:
The following article represents some of my thoughts over the past ten years, or so. Some of the material may be a bit outdated—just overlook the references to time, and listen for the heart in each story.

But how old is this news?

At least 7 years old, as Shelomo Alfassa reported it on May 14th 2002:

“Calling it a “significant breakthrough”, messianic Judaism has been officially recognized by the Registrar of Non-Profit Societies, which is a department within Israel’s Ministry of Interior. There you will find this Christian group with an official sounding name Vaad Poala Lma'an Yahadut Meshichit (Action Committee for Messianic Judaism).”

By the way, Shelomo’s old article, "When the High Court Welcomes Messianic Jews" is well worth a read, and very timely (unfortunately the numbers have changed in seven years in Israel from "5,000 converts from Judaism in over 38 groups" to an estimated 10,000-20,000 and 120-150 groups)

How low will the messianic propaganda machine go? Well, Jewish Israel feels if messianic Christians are so desperate as to start scraping the bottom of the recycle bin for news – any old news - to promote their worn-out charade, then the tide may be turning and that would be truly good news for the Jews.

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Comment by ellen on July 14, 2009 at 11:18am: Interesting about the Presbyterians being involved. I guess every denomination has had its day when it comes to duping the Jews. Keep sending those original names of congregations. It's certainly worth a "Before and After" post. Thanks!

Comment by Jason Levinson on July 14, 2009 at 3:48am: Shalom Ellen,
The Messianic congregations work very hard to hide their background. The Presbyterian movement was one of the main founders of Messianic congregations in the US during the earlier part of last century. They first started planting Messianic congregations in the 1930's. For instance, Dan Juster of Tikkun Ministries used to be in charge of Chicago-based Adat Hatikvah. Of course he changed it's name to Adat Hatikvah from it's original name, First Hebrew Christian
Church of Chicago, back in the 1970's.

Comment by ellen on July 13, 2009 at 9:00am: Shalom Jason,
It would be so interesting to do a study on the original names, logos, and slogans of a lot of these organizations.
So telling! It would really expose the deception for a lot of people. Some of the old letterheads are mind-blowing and would alleviate any confusion in a very big way.

Comment by Jewish Israel on July 13, 2009 at 8:53am: Hi Patty,
When we are asked, "on one foot, what's the problem with CUFI and Hagee?" Jewish Israel simply points to Strang...the rest is commentary and we suggest folks go and study it at
http://jewishisrael.ning.com/page/the-cufi-files-part-2
Part 1 on Pastor Hagee is at
http://jewishisrael.ning.com/page/the-cufi-files-part-1
The reports need to be updated with new information, but they are a good start.

Last year representatives from Jewish Israel met at Rav Simcha HaCohen Kook's home with Rabbi Arye Scheinberg (Pastor Hagee's good friend and confidant) and Rabbi Scheinberg acknowledged the wealth of evidence and problems with certain CUFI directors. He assured us that Pastor Hagee was well aware of the situation with at least one of his main directors and publishers. We were told that Strang was “out” and that other changes were forthcoming. But as far as we know Strang is still very much "in". Although James Hutchens is out.

Comment by Jason Levinson on July 13, 2009 at 5:18am: Ahh....dear old Barry "Baruch" Rubin. He runs a congregation called Emmanuel Messianic Jewish Congregation in Maryland. It's original name was Emmanuel Presbyterian Hebrew-Christian Congregation. Just one more church plant to convert Jews.

Comment by Patty Abbatoy on July 12, 2009 at 10:51pm: Fascinating post! I think the Strang-Hagee connection needs a lot more exposure to warn Jews about the malice behind CUFI/Hagee and the truth behind the CUFI Night to Honor Israel sham. A little HaTikvah, Israeli flags, and politicians gushing over Hagee and Jews lose their senses when it comes to Hagee and his ilk.

Recycling and twisting old news doesn't surprise me. They'll distort and manipulate anything to trick people into believing that "Messianic Judaism" is an accepted branch of Judaism.