ljs@hlexa.UUCP (Lotta Stallman) (12/05/84)
Meyer Steinberg says: "For those not familiar with Christian doctrine, one of the fundamentals is, in order to speed up the coming of Jesus, all jews must be converted to Christianity. that is why there are so many missionaries." I have been a Christian since a couple of months after I was born, many years ago, and I was rather startled by this exposition of "Christian theology." As I always heard it, there are so many missionaries because Paul (I think - he was the missionary to the Gentiles, and is in a certain sense the author of much of Biblical theology) said, go into the world and spread the Good News of the Gospel. He was not particularly concerned with Jewish converts as with pagans. As for the (second) coming of Jesus, this is in no way determined by the number of Jews converted, and He will supposedly come when He wants to. There is some discussion among fundamentalist sects about a "remnant saved by grace," but I have never heard anything about the second coming being dependent upon the number of Jews converted. I think people in this newsgroup seem to think there is always a "Christian" point of view on things. On the contrary, the range of Christian theology is as broad as, apparently, the range of Jewish theology, at least as evidenced by the discussions here. There is very little consensus among all Christian groups. Even mainline Protestant denominations question the virgin birth and the divinity of Jesus - which questions appear as heresies to other denominations. I do, however, find it offensive to be referred to as "pagan" or "idolotrous," although I understand where the ideas come from (graven images, et al). I enjoy this newsgroup and have learned a lot from reading it. I just want to set the record straight on this point of "Christian theology."