Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land.
Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.
After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it.
The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue, he said.
The Israeli Maariv daily reported Tuesday that hundreds of Jewish religious school students took part in the book-burning. But Aharon told The Associated Press that only a few students were present, and that he was not there when the books were torched. Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were, he said.
He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a "commandment" to burn materials that urge Jews to convert.
"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets," he said. "I denounce those who distributed the booklets."
Jews worship from the Old Testament, including the Five Books of Moses and the writings of the ancient prophets. Christians revere the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, which contains the ministry of Jesus.
Calev Myers, an attorney who represents Messianic Jews, or Jews who accept Jesus as their savior, demanded in an interview with Army Radio that all those involved be put on trial. He estimated there were 10,000 Messianic Jews, who are also known as Jews for Jesus, in Israel.
Police had no immediate comment.
Israeli authorities and Orthodox Jews frown on missionary activity aimed at Jews, though in most cases it is not illegal. Still, the concept of a Jew burning books is abhorrent to many in Israel because of the association with Nazis torching piles of Jewish books during the Holocaust of World War II.
Earlier this year, the teenage son of a prominent Christian missionary was seriously wounded when a package bomb delivered to the family's West Bank home went off in his hands.
Last year, arsonists burst into a Jerusalem church used by Messianic Jews and set the building on fire, raising suspicions that Jewish extremists were behind the attack. No one claimed responsibility, but the same church was burned down 25 years ago by ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Coward. Let's see him burn a Koran. Then we'll see how brave he is.
Two thousand and eight years and they are still denying the Messiah. Unfortunate.
It's these that the Bible speaks of when it says that "even the elect shall be deceived".
In the End of Days, a charsimatic leader will emerge, and there will be Jewish people who hail this person as their long awaited "Messiah". They will allow him to rule and reign, and only after he defiles the temple, will they awaken to find out that he is truly the anti-christ Jesus spoke of long ago.
With articles such as the above, it's easy to see how they are already waiting in anticipation, expecting their "Messiah" anytime.
The stage is beginning to get more and more ready, soon the curtains will part.
Time is short beloved. Make preparations for His rain and you will not go thirsty!
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner - 1Peter 2:7.
This persecution will not stop, until they call on Him in their distress...HIM WHO THEY HAVE PIERCED! ONLY THE JEWS IN THE TRIBULATION WILL BE SAVED.....IN THE MEANTIME, PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM.
BE SCARED TO OF THE RETURN OF THE EVIL SANHEDRIN!!!! THESE ARE THE SAME GOOMBAS WHO CRUCIFIED KING JESUS!!
THEY WILL DIE IN THEIR SINS UNTIL THEY SAY 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD'.
PRAY FOR JEWS FOR JESUS AND I PRAY FOR MORE CONVERTS IN THE HOLY LAND....STREET BY STREET..
THE WORD OF CHRIST IS BURNED INTO OUR HEARTS....THEY CAN'T BURN EVERY BOOK...HITLER LEARNED THAT.
This persecution will not stop, until they call on Him in their distress...HIM WHO THEY HAVE PIERCED! ONLY THE JEWS IN THE TRIBULATION WILL BE SAVED.....IN THE MEANTIME, PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM.
BE SCARED TO OF THE RETURN OF THE EVIL SANHEDRIN!!!! THESE ARE THE SAME GOOMBAS WHO CRUCIFIED KING JESUS!!
THEY WILL DIE IN THEIR SINS UNTIL THEY SAY 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD'.
PRAY FOR JEWS FOR JESUS AND I PRAY FOR MORE CONVERTS IN THE HOLY LAND....STREET BY STREET..
THE WORD OF CHRIST IS BURNED INTO OUR HEARTS....THEY CAN'T BURN EVERY BOOK...HITLER LEARNED THAT.
@cyberlizard: I can hardly believe what I read.
It is ok to burn the New Testament, because the world lived without it for years?
The way of salvation is written in the new testament only, where do you want to go without it?
The human life of Jesus is written in it just as well, how do you want to become like him, when you can not study him?
This is so sad.
what's more, I do not expect a Jew to convert to a different faith, I expect them to live by faith, call on the L-rd in repentance and come to understand that their Messiah has been once and will return a second time.
truth is though, they appear to place more faith in the second Moses (ramban) than in the first, and his writings seem more important than Tanakh.
burning the new testament is OK - after all, the early church got by for years without one.
Everything we need is actually in the Tanakh. When we as 'christians' can quote so well from the first 2/3s of our bible it will not make that big a difference. (please i am not saying the last 1/3 is unimportant, it is just that we use it to support our position).
May G-d bless the youth of Israel, may he keep them, lift up His countenance on them, and give them a sadly needed Shalom.
I flagged myself. Not meant to offend. I apologise.
They rejected Him then and they still reject Him now. Their hearts will remain hardened until God rescues them from certain destruction. It's all in the Book.