Last week, I posted about the missionizing GOD TV signing a seven-year contract with HOT, the Israeli cable television provider, to host the channel.
Given they may now lose their license since they engage in missionary activities, which are illegal in Israel, GOD TV’s CEO has come up with a laughable excuse.
Fearful of losing its license to broadcast in Israel, an evangelical network insists that its missionary activities are not a violation of Israeli law.
In a video message posted over the weekend, God TV CEO Ward Simpson declared that the network has no intention of using its platform to convert Jews to Christianity, which could be considered a violation of its broadcasting license and of Israeli law.
https://youtu.be/txiwxR6axgA
He suggested, rather, that its goal was to persuade Jews in Israel to embrace Jesus as the messiah without renouncing their Judaism – that is to say, it hoped to turn them into Messianic Jews, also sometimes known as “Jews for Jesus.”
I’ll give points for being creative, and making me laugh.
Message to Ward Simpson: Give it up. Jews do not believe in Jesus as messiah. While an individual Jew could accept Jesus as the messiah and technically remain Jewish — rejection of any core Jewish belief or practice does not negate one’s Jewishness — the beliefs of messianic Jews are theologically incompatible with Judaism.
As an aside, Ward Simpson reminds me of Ned Flanders.
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