ChristSealed:

Amazing. I find it utterly fascinating the vehemence exhibited by non-believers in regards to not only their strong disbelief of the Christian faith, but against Jesus Himself.

Jesus has been referred to as a "teddy bear", an offence against the state; his followers relegated to mere nuisances to be "kicked in the shins" whenever possible.

Sadly, this sentiment persists in what we of this age have come to term "the FREE world." Yet, if ever the collective conscience of humanity were held in contempt and awaiting judgement by some higher, it should scarcely find acquittal for its few listed virtues amongst the entries posted herein.

This lack of tolerance for Christians or even the message of Christianity shows how much this world is in need of a Saviour. The good news is we have one in the person of the risen Jesus Christ, and this truth is incontestable.

The bad news is that our conscience and will has so been turned against Him so as to make it nearly impossible to accept Him willingly and humbly into our lives.

We cannot accomplish it on our own steam. We must lean on His ability in even the endeavor of acceptance of Him. The bible states: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So when you see the workers of God preaching the Kingdom message, don't revile them. These messengers you so despise are actually gifting you with a great service. Gratitude is in order, not reprisal.

I thank God for the previous post. I am a Christian, only having come to Christ 4 years ago, though growing up in the church, an easy place to miss Jesus if church is simply a political or cultural thing.

To the people who don't believe, consider a personal relationship with Jesus carefully before rejecting with vehement reflex. This is not about emotion. It's about God's promise. He said if I accept Jesus into my heart that he would keep me forever.

Above all, know that He is fair and His will is that all of us be saved.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

2Peter 3:9, 10 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Believe today. Don't let your heart harden toward God. Here is how:

Admit to your state of sin, not your "sins", but simply that you are separated from God. (That is the sin state.) Acknowledge the gift that God is offering you, salvation through Jesus. Then invite Jesus into your heart, believing that he really has come to you.

There are no exact words, as God hears your heart, but it may help to read this simple statement as a real example: God, I know I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus died for my sin. I accept that sacrifice and invite Him now into my life.

At that moment, you are saved. No one can ever take that away from you. It is exciting, what you've just done, but you don't have to feel any emotional rush. You are just taking God at his word, trusting his promise. It's written:

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10: 9,10

Take care.

eric

Amazing. I find it utterly fascinating the vehemence exhibited by non-believers in regards to not only their strong disbelief of the Christian faith, but against Jesus Himself.

Jesus has been referred to as a "teddy bear", an offence against the state; his followers relegated to mere nuisances to be "kicked in the shins" whenever possible.

Sadly, this sentiment persists in what we of this age have come to term "the FREE world." Yet, if ever the collective conscience of humanity were held in contempt and awaiting judgement by some higher, it should scarcely find acquittal for its listed virtues amongst the entries posted herein.

This lack of tolerance for Christians or even the message of Christianity shows how much this world is in need of a Saviour. The good news is we have one in the person of the risen Jesus Christ, and this truth is incontestable.

The bad news is that our conscience and will has so been turned against Him so as to make it nearly impossible to accept Him willingly and humbly into our lives.

We cannot accomplish it on our own steam. We must lean on His ability in even the endeavor of acceptance of Him. The bible states: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So when you see the workers of God preaching the Kingdom message, don't revile them. These messengers you so despise are actually gifting you with a great service. Gratitude is in order, not reprisal.

Whats Jews for Jesus opinion about The Blessed Virgin Mary and also the stunning prophecies of Our Lady Of The Roses.ORG So much she said about the middle east is coming true, its unbelievable that Americas New York and national media is ignoring these messages. With thousands of pages of prophecies to read and study this would require intensive study and research by the media. ie HARD WORK There are major future implications for America in these messages, its time for Americas media to end its folly of ignoring these messages for the past, present and future. Yours Sincerely Vincent Ruane.com

Rex: if Jesus really is your Lord and savior then YOU condemned Him along with everyone else because He died so your sins could be forgiven along with mine and everyone elses.

I don't know who you the the "our" in "our Lord and Savior" is but if the first missionaries (who were Jewish, like Peter and Paul) felt about Gentiles the way you do about Jews, you wouldn't have any Lord and Savior (who, by the way, is a Jew.) Oh, am I being cranky? Sorry. As a Jew for Jesus the post below is the only one on this blog that I find offensive.

Not on my watch.

[34] Posted by: Rex Kramer>>

The NY Post article said that ads that discriminate on the basis of race ARE prohibited...I would argue that the "Jews for Jesus" ads fall under this category because Judaism is an ethnicity as well as a religion. Many of the posters have photos of people who look stereotypically "Jewish" with condescending captions like, "who is for these jews?"

Therefore, I think the "Jews for Jesus" posters, etc. are absolutely rascist and I think it's disgusting that they are allowed (in such great numbers) all over mass transit. Anyone who tries to target a relgious group based on physical characteristics is just following in the tradition of figures such as Hitler; in light of events in history as well as the current situation, these people should be ashamed. Their actions are anything but "holy." Jesus would hate them.

Still view the Israeli government as anything besides hyper-militant?

Anonymass,

I haven't read any of the Rapture books so I'm not up on all that. I'm interested in hearing your view of that as long as the Blog Police don't think we are deviating too far from the topic...

I think the Jewish people have set up shop in Israel as a nation after 2,000 years and they don't intend on going anywhere soon. As for the militant part, I guess being surrounded by 200 million arabs, many of which don't think you have a right to exist, might have something to do with their military posture.

President Bush is doing no less in support for Israel than any other president, democrat or republican, has done so I can't see the tie to the rapture thing so please explain your position.

Uursa

I have one thing to say as far as this topic is concerned. Who the hell cares! What the jews don't have a right to advertise? Who cares if they use this form of expression to spread there message! Move on!!!!

By evil bidding, I mean the enabling of a militant Israeli state.

Financial, political, etc.

You know, the whole 'Rapure'/end times kind of nonsense that leads people like our moronic president to assert that the holy land needs to be under the control of the Jewish people.

"Doing the Orthodox Jews' evil bidding?" Where did you get that from? In Israel, it's the Ultra Orthodox who have made it felony to speak to anyone under 18 about Jesus. You can go to jail for it. Talk about 1st Amendment rights...

Jesus' major problems were with the ultra religous of His day, it's no different today. He sat around with the lowest classes in the Jewish society of that day and ate and drank with them.

They loved it when he confronted religious hypocrisy head-on. I have friends who are "secular", we have great discussions about all kinds of things about art, science, God, theater, books, history, you-name-it. The shame of the Christian evangelical community is that we gave up the high ground of being the driving force of the American intellectual world. Who do you think started Princeton, Columbia, and other higher ed institutions in this country? It wasn't "secularists". See Merle Curti, The Formation of American Thought.

Uursa

As self-righteous as Christian wackos may be in terms of shunning the secular lifestyle, Muslim zealotry is ten times worse.

Thank your lucky stars that we don't have that brand of doom & gloom from our Times Square soapbox 'prophets'.

I liked it much better when all religions hated one another. At least there was some balance. It irks me to no end that evangelicals are doing the orthodox Jews' evil bidding.

I am a follower of Jesus and a gentile but never really liked Jewish people or thought much about them until I met Jesus and realized, duh, He's Jewish, how could I possibly not love and support the Jewish people?

So to all the offended Jews out there who don't like Jews for Jesus, before you get too offended remember that the current stream of American evangelicals, despite all their faults, are probably the best gentile allies you have ever had on the planet. You may have to put up with some prosyletizing here and there but hey, it's in our blood, OK?

It's interesting how things have flipped. The big stink in Jesus' day was whether the gentiles could even become followers of Jesus because they weren't Jewish!

uursa

...seriously, if an organization started promoting secularism using the same techniques, you KNOW a lot of folks would go absolutely apeshit.

Part of the reason that people get offended at assertions of Christianity is that they know it is accompanied by all kinds of judgemental assumptions. Like your claim that a secular life is "empty."

I wonder if people would be just as upset if it was an Islamic advertisement or some New Age ad. Mention the Name of the Savior of the world and people who don't know Him really get offended. Maybe they just don't like to be reminded that, without Jesus, their life is empty.

Wow - I'm actually surprised by all the outrage. I'd rather see these ads than those ridiculous Dewars ads of yesteryear (anybody remember those?). This J4J organization must have a fair amount of cash to have launched this campaign - any famous/loaded members, I wonder?

>Aside from the snark at the end (with the smiling, attractive people - what *would* we put in the ad?)

Happy families, of course!

The tagline:

"Living a good life is its own reward."

(Brought to you by the Council for Secular Humanism.)

wow. so I wonder who's idea it was for 'jews for jesus' to make posters entitled 'jesus for jews'. as if thats not confusing: making your slogan the exact reversal of your name.

they have case studies on the some of the trains. "I was an activist my whole life, but never had a big enough cause. now I do." or something like that.

I was approached by these guys outside the botanical garden on sunday, they were wearing shirts which replaced the 'F' of 'for' with the subway 'F' symbol. I think the star of david was in there too. the shirts had 'jesus for jews' on them; at first I thought they were an opposition or splinter group to 'jews for jesus'. the woman just asked me, "Will you be in the city tomorrow night?"