Think for yourself!

“Take the risk of thinking for yourself , much more happiness , truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way ..” Christopher Hitchens

I do not understand why people today (worldwide) allow celebrities to dictate or even influence what they should believe, do, eat, wear and even who they should vote for. 

It was obvious the influence celebrities TRIED to have on the 2016 elections in the United States.  A lot of people allowed celebrities to influence their vote.  If you are a celebrity in the Philippines it is almost a guarantee you can win any political position you seek.  Your fame will outweigh your  need for the right qualifications nearly every time.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask a celebrity, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly their opinions on life, and they are more than happy to give it to you freely.  I say this sarcastically.

I know I may seem a bit weird or a lot weird to some, but what celebrities think or say have never made me feel happy, content, hopeful, encouraged, or confident.  No I do not know the name of the MOVIE STAR in the latest movies I have seen and do not care to know.  All I care is did I like the movie or not. 

I do not care what these people think, none of whom I know personally, and all of whom live in a world that is so far out of my reach that we have remarkably little in common. If I and one of their domestic staff met in church or any public place I  would have more in common with their staff member than I would the celebrity.

The same is true of CELEBRITY preachers today.  I am not impressed or focusing  on the prophets and teachers and evangelists that millions of Christians come to follow, and worship, as being wiser, more righteous, and blessed than the rest of us.  I have actually have had people tell me, “They’re rich and well-known so that must be a sure sign of God’s favor.”  No, they just  have a charismatic personality and would be good at selling anything and they would make good con artist.  It could have come from the devil or God.  I have always believed this, but recently when Bishop Jake of Potter House in Dallas, Texas said in an interview that “SELLING Jesus is not all that difficult because it is a GOOD PRODUCT and when presented correctly it will SELL ITSELF.”  I take that to mean hurting and desperate people will fall for a line of hope every time if you are charismatic and have sales abilities.

When the Great Christians Leaders give their opinions on homosexuality, people listen, nod their heads, and say, “Prophet Pulpit said it, so it must be right.” When they promote boycotting a store, the believers do it because their Prophet Pulpit is always right.  After all who am I to question Prophet's? When sensible preachers meet with ecumenical leaders to share in a prayer service, some Christians wring their hands, wondering, “Why do they  do this? Pastor Pulpit said it was wrong. Do they not know that Catholics and Evangelical Protestants differ on fundamental issues? and that Jewish people and Christians differ on a REALLY major issue?

The followers of celebrity Christians do not have enough faith in God or confidence in himself to seek wisdom, considering themselves spiritually unqualified to process the tough issues facing people who live in the world today, after all that is what they have been told from the pulpit by these celebrity preachers.  They think if they do not listen to the celebrity preachers and priest they only have mass-media to give them direction in the 21st century.   What about the HOLY SPIRIT, PRAYER, the brain God gave them and their own personal experiences.

God did not call us to be robots of celebrities.   The world is filled, and has always been filled, and will always be filled with difficult issues — difficult because they involve people — and no smart little saying on television, Tweet, or email from any CELEBRITY is going to solve the world’s problems and we certainly should not allow them to think for us.  Some allow others to think for them because they are lazy and it is the easy way to avoid responsibilities.  Simply put not everyone wants to be wise. We actually have to work at becoming wise.

People need wisdom, and wisdom — unlike money, power, celebrity status, and fame is not out of reach of ordinary people. Wisdom is available for the asking, if we only would ask.  You do not have to be a genius to have wisdom.  I know lots of people with extremely high I.Q.’s that lack in wisdom (common sense) and others with little to no formal education that are VERY wise.  Wisdom and understanding are not something you purchase with tuition and class fees, it is a daily, lifelong process of growth.

I have a friend that constantly puts himself down because he looks for the possible negatives in relationships, decisions in general and especially business deals.  I think that is wise.  It means to me he is dealing with reality.  It does not mean he is ignoring the positives, it is only means he is trying to prepare or prevent the negatives.  Being a “happy go lucky” person is not wisdom.  Wisdom means being able to bear the good and the bad in mind simultaneously.

Proverbs 3:13 says, "Happy is the man (or woman) who finds wisdom and the man (or woman) who gets understanding." Proverbs 24:13–14 says, "My son (daughter), eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs 16:16, "To get wisdom is better than gold; to get understanding is to be chosen over silver." It is a matter of life and death.  The ultimate, eternal happiness that all people long for will only be found by those who first "get wisdom."

Wise people do not let others do their thinking and make their decision.  They listen to all advice and then seek guidance from the Holy Spirit and make their own decision.  

The mass conversion of Jews to Christianity will bring about Jesus' second coming - REALLY!

The Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations said, “Catholics should witness to their faith, but not undertake organized efforts to convert Jews.”  The document they issued said, “Catholics should take a different approach to Judaism than to other religions.”

The Vatican commission produced the new document to mark the 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking document on Catholic-Jewish relations, “Nostra Aetate,” in which the church rejected the notion that Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death. The new document describes the Torah as, “… the instruction for a successful life in right relationship with God.” The new document could also be a prelude to Francis visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue on January 17, 2016.

Until reforms in the 1960s, Second Vatican Council, prayers at Catholic Masses on Good Friday, described Jews as “faithless” and called for their conversion. In the past the church was clear on their belief that all Jewish people were guilty for Jesus' death. Many historians and theologians said the prayers and the collective guilt concept contributed to anti-Semitism and the unnecessary persecution of Jews.

In 2008, in response to requests from traditionalist Catholics who reject any theological dialogue with the Jewish religious leaders, Pope Benedict XVI allowed Catholics to return to using the old prayer used in the Tridentine Rite. Benedict tweaked the prayer slightly to refer to “the blindness of that people”, meaning the Jews. Many Jewish organizations still found the prayer offensive and it caused a mini-crisis between Jews and Catholics.

The latest Vatican document appears to be another step toward easing Jewish/Catholic tensions created in 2008 and it comes a week after a group of Orthodox rabbis issued a statement calling Christianity part of a divine plan in which God would have Jews and Christians work together to redeem the world.

The new Vatican document is more in line with the thinking of Pope Francis. Pope Francis has often called for collaboration between religions to obtain justice, peace, conservation and reconciliation. He has also repeatedly stressed that a Christian can never be an anti-Semite, especially because of the Jewish roots of Christianity. Pope Francis has definitely been more compassionate and open than Pope Benedict XVI. He has attempted to move the church further away from entrenched traditions that no longer serve a purpose.

Vatican-Israeli ties were strained again earlier this year when the Vatican signed an agreement recognizing the state of Palestine. The signing of that document damaged the prospects for advancing a peace agreement and slowed international effort to convince the Palestinian Authority to return to direct negotiations with Israel.

I welcome the attempt by my church, the Catholic Church, to improve Christian/Jewish relationships. I vigorously oppose what many in the Evangelical Christian churches are doing to entice vulnerable young Jews to convert to Christianity which is damaging Christian/Jewish relationships.

In some Evangelical Christian churches they do not have Sunday services they meet only on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. I see this as a deliberate attempt to keep young Jews that are showing an interest in Christianity from attending Temple. They never have a cross or an altar in their meeting room. Instead, there is a Holy Ark with a Star of David adorning its velvet cover, and a stage for prayer services in the center of the sanctuary. The leader will wear the vestments of a Jewish Rabbi. I see their efforts as an attempt to make the young Jewish believers think there are no differences, are only slight differences, between Judaism and Christianity, which is not true.

In some Evangelical Christian congregations they greet each other with joyous shouts of “Shabbat Shalom” and “Baruch Hashem”. The meeting room is filled with the beat of a modern Israeli musical. These congregations are purposely designed to appear Jewish, but they are actually fundamentalist Christian churches which use traditional Jewish symbols to lure the most vulnerable of the young Jewish people into their ranks and their marketing ploys are proving to be successful.

These groups estimate they get 8,000 young Jews to cross over to the “Hebrew-Christian” movement each year. These fundamentalist Christians are unyielding in their commitment to convert Jews to their zealous brand of Christianity. There are an estimated 70 million fundamentalist Christians in America. The Southern Baptist Convention passed numerous resolutions encouraging its more than 15-million American members to target the Jewish people.

They can quote scripture to support their belief and there is scripture that can be used to support their belief. There is scripture that would just about support anyone’s belief. That is why one must read scripture with a critical mindset keeping in mind the historical time in which it was written.

I believe the Evangelical Christian goal is a selfish goal they are trying to hasten the coming of end time. Evangelical Christians widely believe that the mass conversion of the Jews will bring about Jesus’ “second coming”. They believe the Jews, in a sense, are holding up the second coming of Jesus.

A few decades ago, there were only a handful of Messianic congregations throughout the United States. But today, several hundred actively attract and recruit Jews who lack a sound Jewish education and support system. Their mission field is largely University Campuses. These young Jews, often away from home for the first time, are buying the manipulative rhetoric and persuasive techniques of the Hebrew-Christian missionary movement.

These Messianic congregations have been quite successful among all the most vulnerable segments of the Jewish community – the very young, the very old, and the former Soviet Union Jews.

There are over 1,000 Christian missions dedicated to converting the Jewish people. It is estimated that there are more than 250,000 Hebrew-Christians in North America and Israel.

The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest denomination in Christendom. Yet, despite Rome’s past bitter relationship with the Jewish people, today’s Catholic Church is, for the most part, not interested in converting Jews. Mainline or liberal Protestant denominations, Methodist, Episcopalian, Unitarian, etc., are also not interested in converting Jews. The Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America and the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod has each adopted statements of conviction on the necessity of Jewish evangelism.

It is significant to me that Christianity swept through Europe almost overnight. The same is true for Latin America. Yet, the Jews, despite the unyielding persecution and the forced exile they have endured refuses to convert. This question has perplexed many of the Evangelical Fundamentalist so much that during the mid-1970’s they convened the most significant symposiums ever held in Switzerland and Thailand. They sought to unravel the mystery of why the Christian Church had been so unsuccessful in their efforts to convert the Jews and what new techniques could they employ to finally attract masses of new, unclaimed Jewish souls.

I could have told them Jewish people historically tend to equate Christianity with persecution. Jewish people often feel somewhat uncomfortable just hearing the words “Jesus Christ,” and when they see a Cross or a Church icon, it rarely conjures up warm, affectionate feelings. Jewish people tend to feel alienated by churches and its rituals. I am sure the Vatican’s position during World War II contributes to these feelings. It is my opinion the Vatican was more interested in protecting church property and priest in Germany than they were in protecting the Jews.

To overcome the Jewish people’s anti-Christian mindset the Evangelical Fundamentalist came up with a new strategy. The new sales pitch goes like this: When you’re becoming a believer in Jesus, you are not converting to another religion. On the contrary, you’re becoming a ‘fulfilled Jew’ or a ‘completed Jew.’ After all, Jesus was a Jew and his followers were Jewish; therefore, it stands to reason that believing in Jesus is the most Jewish thing you can do!

They also developed the slick idea of “Messianic synagogues,” that I discussed earlier in this piece, which are designed to look nothing like a church. They are deliberately built, furnished, and decorated to resemble a typical synagogue. They adopt Jewish holidays, for example you can watch on Christian television throughout the world and you will see Messianic congregations holding elaborate and well-publicized Passover Seders.

These groups shrewdly include Christian doctrines into the Messianic Passover Seder like: The matzah has stripes because Jesus had stripes across His back as a result of the scourging that he endured during his trial. The matzah is broken because Jesus was brutally broken on the cross. The matzah is wrapped in a white towel because Jesus was wrapped in a white burial shroud. The middle matzah is hidden because Jesus was hidden away in the tomb following his crucifixion. The matzah is brought back at the end of the meal because Jesus will return in the Second Coming at the End of Days. They claim this is all prophecy that Jesus fulfilled.

I believe God has called Christians to provoke Israel to jealousy—to draw Jewish people to the Messiah through our acts of love and kindness, speaking out against anti-Semitism and by doing so we will introduce the Jewish people to the Messiah. I personally do not seek to make Jewish converts. I prefer to let my life introduce these people to the Messiah. I let my life speak for me, while I pray and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.