CNN reported that "a fairly large number" of New Testaments were burned in a town outside Tel Aviv. According to reports, Uzi Aharon, the deputy mayor of Or-Yehuda organized students who confiscated and burned several hundred copies of the New Testament. The deputy mayor gave several interviews to Israeli media talking about how he had collected the New Testaments and other Messianic propaganda to stop their spread through out his city. Soon he was doing damage control when pressed by foreign media whose Russian, Italian and French audiences back home were highly offended. He claimed that he had only confiscated the material and unruly students had burned them after he had left. The incident upset many religious freedom advocates and others in Israel; public burnings of sacred texts brings back images of Nazi book-burnings of Jewish sacred texts in the 1930's.
Messianic Jews are a minority in Israel. They are Jewish and practice the rituals of Judaism, but they also believe in the divinity of Jesus. Much like the first Christians in the New Testament, they maintain the dietary restrictions and festivals of Judaism, but see their meaning in the salvation brought by the Messiah Jehshua (Jesus Christ). Messianic Jews often suffer discrimination in Israel. The CNN story pointed to a bombing at the house of one Messianic pastor and the boycott of a high school Bible competition when one of the winners was discovered to be a Messianic Jew. (You gotta love that, right?)
On a lark several years ago, I counted the number of Bibles I had in my office-- there were 22. Granted, half of those were versions included with my computer Bible. But access to God's word is not much of a problem for any of us; no one come barging in to confiscate and burn our Bibles. That is a blessing that many in the world cannot claim. Read your Bible today... and then pray for your brothers and sisters around the world who may find that difficult to do.
Messianic Jews are a minority in Israel. They are Jewish and practice the rituals of Judaism, but they also believe in the divinity of Jesus. Much like the first Christians in the New Testament, they maintain the dietary restrictions and festivals of Judaism, but see their meaning in the salvation brought by the Messiah Jehshua (Jesus Christ). Messianic Jews often suffer discrimination in Israel. The CNN story pointed to a bombing at the house of one Messianic pastor and the boycott of a high school Bible competition when one of the winners was discovered to be a Messianic Jew. (You gotta love that, right?)
On a lark several years ago, I counted the number of Bibles I had in my office-- there were 22. Granted, half of those were versions included with my computer Bible. But access to God's word is not much of a problem for any of us; no one come barging in to confiscate and burn our Bibles. That is a blessing that many in the world cannot claim. Read your Bible today... and then pray for your brothers and sisters around the world who may find that difficult to do.
4 comments:
Even do I am an atheist, confiscating books and burning them is a violation of freedom of speech; moreover if such a book is the new testament which I believe does not preach on violence to another race or religion.
The confiscation of books is an unpleasant or destructive force; if not challenged it leads followers to commit other behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill. The burning of books does damage and waste the time and resources of those who did the research and wrote the books and the person they did the work for will not be happy. (If pacifists allow violence it to go unchallenged it often escalates toward more permanently damaging forms of violence. “Violence (in any form) is very uncool”.)
New testaments are being mailed into the countries where they can be. More than 500 thousand have already been mailed. . . will they add to the poor air quality as they are burned by the heavy handed rouges who have been claiming to be acting under the authority of Communists Party Officials? Forbid it! I would think that all nation would want Christian citizens as they are being taught to obey those who have the rule over them and to put God first as they serve their fellow man; feeding, clothing and providing shelter for those in need. Working honestly, paying taxes and not letting others abuse or take advantage of those who are weak and/or handicapped. Letting them who can not work have what they need from the abundance of that which has been set aside in storehouse for them.
New testament Bibles will be secretly printed within (or near) restricted nations in hostile areas, where packages cannot be mailed from the U.S. in a covert effort to get Bibles into more places in China, guerrilla-controlled areas in Colombia and into North Korea. Many villages have no open church or local preacher. In North Korea, mission workers risk immediate imprisonment and possible death if caught distributing Christian literature. They know that the message of love and real lasting peace is the ultimate hope of those who live in or near the darkness.
Bibles passed out with food in Iraq by Christian groups has resulted in the salvation of some living there who were impressed by the care and love from Christians. Some have been killed by there own families for sharing that same faith. Caution should be exercised (for ones own and those you are teaching) when teaching others in areas where and when the conflicting religions have taught their followers to persecute and or kill those who teach Christianity.
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