Jews for Jesus leader criticizes evangelicals

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Jews for Jesus, the nation’s largest Messianic Jewish organization, is accusing leading evangelical Christians of caving in to Jewish pressure to downplay the gospel, The Washington Times reported in January.

“There are those who have worked both overtly and subtly to demonize Jewish believers in Jesus and to make the work of Jewish evangelism seem unacceptable,” David Brickner, president of the group, wrote in a letter titled “The War on Jewish Evangelism” that was sent to 110,000 donors.

“If you press (certain evangelicals), they will say, ‘We believe everyone needs Jesus to be saved, but we don’t want to be offending people,’” Brickner told the Times. “Pastors are nervous about taking the heat, and a lot of churches, especially the megachurches, are looking for the big-tent philosophy. They do as little as possible to offend and as much as they can do to attract.”

The group had to speak out, said the Rev. Lon Solomon, a board member of Jews for Jesus and senior pastor of McLean Bible Church, the Washington, D.C., area’s largest evangelical congregation.

“I am deeply concerned about the growing tendency in evangelical Christian circles to accept the idea that Jewish people have a separate arrangement with God than gentiles,” he said, “and that Jewish people therefore don’t need personal faith in Jesus as their Messiah to go to heaven.”

Brickner singled out Lloyd Ogilvie, Gary Bauer, Jack Hayford, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Pat Boone and the late Bill Bright for endorsing The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a pro-Israel group run by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who opposes Jewish evangelism.

Brickner also said a comment made by evangelist Billy Graham in 1973— “In my evangelistic efforts I have never felt called to single out the Jews as Jews”—was the “most damaging” statement made by an evangelical leader.

“His statement ... is interpreted by some as disapproval of Jewish evangelism,” Brickner wrote. “In fact, that comment ... is still quoted by Jewish community leaders as proof that Graham does not approve of evangelistic ministry directed to Jewish people.”

Christianity Today noted that Graham’s comment should be viewed in context. The full quote was: “In my evangelistic efforts I have never felt called to single out the Jews as Jews nor to single out any other particular groups, cultural, ethnic or religious.”

ReligionJournal.com
Published by Keener Communications Group, February 2004

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