My Life Story on The Unshackled Radio Program

You can hear my testimony on The Unshackled Radio Program where it was produced as a radio drama:

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

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Why God Uses the Lowly

Have you ever come across the prayer of David in Psalm 51 where he expresses his heart’s great desire to God: “Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean?” I read this early this morning & began to wonder, why Hyssop?

As I began to read up a bit on this plant common to the Mediterranean regions what I learned about Hyssop that was perhaps most remarkable was that it was quite an unremarkable plant. Solomon talks of plants “from the Cedar tree…to the Hyssop,” denoting how its stature was the least among plants.

When Jeremiah was pulled from the filth and mire of his imprisonment in the days of Zedekiah, we are told that he was ultimately pulled from that pit by Ebed-melech using “old cast clouts and old rotten rags.”

God tells us that He uses lowly things for His work:

“But God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world to confound the wise; and God hath

chosen the weak things of the world to

confound the things which are mighty;” 1 Corinthians 1:27

God used the lowest shrub, the Hyssop, to apply the blood of redemption to the doorposts in Egypt to protect his people from the death angel. Temple priest would later use this lowly bush to apply the blood of sacrifice to the altar. “Rotten rags” were used to rescue Jeremiah from the dungeon.

Maybe you thought you weren’t important enough, or educated enough, or experienced enough, or strong enough, or wise enough, or talented enough to be used by God in His work. I have news for you: the more those things are true about the person God uses, the greater the certainty that He will get the credit.

You could be just who God is looking for today.

Jerry Kaifetz

Posted in Encouragement & Inspiration | 1 Comment

When Christian Leaders Abuse Their Authority

by Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

With another clerical scandal in our back yard, this time of the Roman Catholic variety, we can see once again how far we are from learning anything vaguely resembling a meaningful lesson in all of this. The tragic element, once again, is that our blind loyalty to religious institutions and tradition rather than scriptural principles and innocent lives is exercised at the expense of children.

In traditional biblical Christianity, the believer is his own priest. He has direct access to God, and does not need a robed intermediary who thinks marriage is incompatible with serving God. In the nineties, we saw the child abuse scandals at the hands of First Baptist Church of Hammond and their child molesting deacon and scandal ridden pastor. Then came other child molesters in ecclesiastical garb who had also been spawned by this church and their college in Indiana, Hyles-Anderson College. The most notable was Andy Beith, the Christian school principal from Lake Station who abducted and repeatedly raped an eleven year old female student and became the object of a nationwide F.B.I. manhunt before being captured in Las Vegas.

Having attended First Baptist Church of Hammond, graduated from their college and seminary, and having spent a year at the church in Lake Station that hired Andy Beith, I have some insight as to why certain institutions seem to be more prone to child molesting scandals than others. No, it’s not something in the water. I saw it all happen, I understand the pathology, and I know how keep it from happening and how to fix it once it has.

The Christian scriptures have held for several millennia that spiritual authority does not rest in any office: it ultimately rests with the group, the “eklesia“. Roman Catholicism is based on the complete overthrow of this basic principle, establishing a man-made church hierarchy that woos the church with its accouterments, fanfare, rituals and costumes. Thus the accountability is not to the people, it is to appointed individuals over whom the local church members exercises no influence. Given the understanding we derive from the Bible concerning man’s nature, this is a recipe for disaster, especially when the contrived element of forced celibacy is added to the mix.

In traditional, biblical Christianity, the believer is his own priest. He has direct access to God, and does not need a robed intermediary who thinks marriage is incompatible with serving God, and whose own church history has left millions dead and tortured in it’s wake for the crime of “heresy:” expressing an opinion that disagreed with that of the church.

The abusive pastoral legacy left to Northwest Indiana and the rest of the nation by Jack Hyles is in principle not any better. The late Jack Hyles bequeathed upon himself the title of “God’s man,” once boasting from the pulpit in my presence that the “entire spiritual fate of this nation rests on these two shoulders right here,” pointing to his own shoulders. The requirement in his church was termed “blind loyalty” — you supported him 100% and didn’t ask questions. Nothing could set the stage for the disastrous abuse that befell this group any better than this mindset, as we see demonstrated over and over again, apparently without learning a thing from seeing children repeatedly victimized there. Hyles’ number one Bible teacher, Joe Combs, now sits in Tennessee prison for decades to come for enslaving and abusing his illegally adopted daughter. Many church cults have leaders who live their lives with a strictly Old Testament mindset. Combs was a brilliant Bible teacher, but knew nothing of grace. This is always a dangerous mindset when it lives in the minds of church leaders. I am convinced that even after a decade in jail, Combs probably doesn’t think he has done anything wrong.

What will it take to see a pattern in these churches, and to begin understanding the reasons why they abuse? It all has to do with the unwillingness of churches to hold their leaders accountable to biblical standards of leadership. Instead, we weekly provide them with a platform for self-exaltation and endorse a religious agenda designed to centralize ecclesiastical power more and more and to increase the artificial disparity created between “God’s man” and the average church member.

Anyone asking questions is painfully reminded of the cardinal rule in these churches: DON’T STAND UP IN THE CANOE! The system becomes quite adept at the political ostrasization of anyone demonstrating the capability to think independently and critically in applying correct biblical standards of behavior to church leaders and events. Righteousness loses its place of honor on the altar and is replaced by the church itself. This perversion of holiness has brought to human history the persecution and even the death of millions. This dynamic is responsible for the Inquisition, a dark, dark time in human history when the process described above was wielded by Roman Catholicism, endorsed by popes and executed by Jesuits. The cost in lives was 50 million! The torture devices they used now fill many museums in Europe. (The Rack, the Breast Ripper, the Iron Maiden, the Cage, etc..)

So when you see legitimate, biblical authority abused by church leadership, act with courage, with much prayer, and with the determination to see righteousness prevail regardles of personal cost.

I am including here a video I produced on Pastoral Authority. You will also find on Youtube my 5 part series entitled, “How a Good Church Becomes a Cult.” These are 100% Bible based. They are designed to teach truth.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in Church, Fundamentalism And Church Cults | 5 Comments

Follow God, not Man.

What do You Mean, Am I 100% for any Christian Leader?
By Dr. Jerry Kaifetz

When King Agrippa acceded to the throne in A.D. 37 he quite freely represented the head of the emperor on coins he had struck locally. This was always an offense to the Jews, for their law forbade the likeness of any man or animal. In common fashion, knowing where his base of power lay, King Agrippa also had this inscription made on the coins he issued: “King Agrippa the Great, Lover of Caesar.” Today, our currency carries a notably different inscription: “In God We Trust.”

King Agrippa sought to do in A.D. 37 what many Fundamental, Independent Baptists are trying to do today. They are using personal loyalty to a man as the cornerstone of social, political, and religious justification. No doubt the basis of the political process in the first century Mediterranean world was founded on the exacting of 100% support for Caesar. We can well imagine such a question as “Are you 100% for Caesar?” as the required bass for political justification in that world.

Anyone who has made a study of the Word of God and undertaken this task with any degree of seriousness will easily be able to see that God has a certain basis upon which we are to establish or disestablish fellowship with others. Certainly foremost as a qualification would be salvation. God does not want His people to have close fellowship with non-Christian people. There are also certain types of Christians whom God does not want His people to select for close socializing. (II Thes. 3:6) Indeed it is quite possible to live what could be termed a good Christian life and yet to offend God by our associations.

Jehoshaphat was king over Judah, reigning twenty-five years in Jerusalem. God tells us that he walked in the way of Asa his father, “doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.” (Being upright, teaching God’s, standards & principles, etc….) In the very next verse however, God adds that despite the religious conformity, “… the high places were not taken away.” This ultimately led to an unholy alliance: “And after this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly.” (II Chronicles 20:32, 33, 35)

There is one alliance that is preeminent in establishing the individual person in the eyes of God, and thus in the eyes of Christians. This is one’s alliance or relationship with Christ. Idolatry takes place when a man decides that another criterion will top the list of qualifications for religious justification or personal fellowship amongst believers. The emperor worship of Roman times is an easy example of this to identify. It is, quite simply, man giving another man the place that rightly belongs to God. This consists not merely in attributing characteristics of deity to a man such as a Roman emperor, but it also encompasses the ensuing implications upon which that society will find itself structured. People will have to justify themselves and ensure their political lives by being perceived as unwavering in their loyalty to a man. The clear implication of this kind of behavior is that one man alone is responsible for the well being and advancement of members of that culture. This is a usurpation of a role that belongs only to God; in other words, IDOLATRY!

When someone asks me the infamous question: “Are you loyal to . . . . . ?” there are a few questions that I must ask of that person in order to do justice to the question.

#1. What do you mean by that? Do you mean, Am I willing to give him unconditional support? In other words, am I willing to endorse him and support him regardless of any fact that may come to light regarding his life? It would seem to me that if I answer that I am indeed willing to do this, that I have precluded the use of any standard that may by its very definition include a qualification for support and fellowship. Is there any book that we have ever read that has such qualifications as these? If so, then are you asking me if I would give and leader unconditional support regardless of injunctions from any source on the basis of any facts on his life that have or may come to light? If that is the case, you may as well rephrase the question in the interest of honesty and candor to read something like this: “Are you 100% for . . . . . regardless of what he has done, and regardless of how God has told Christians they must deal with sin?”

#2. Do you mean by your question that I should be unwilling to entertain the possibility that a Church leader has or could commit some transgression worthy of my withdrawing fellowship from him? If this is the case, then a concept has drifted from the distant horizon of your religious perspective. It was blown by an ill wind directly from the landscape of Catholicism until it obscured the light that once shone upon us all to give us a clear view of the doctrine of the total depravity of man. (Rom. 7:18, Is. 64:6, Lk. 17:10.) Only the Catholics believe that any one man is beyond the reach of error. This place they have reserved for their Pope. Are you asking me if I am willing to give such a place to a man? There is no middle ground here. Either you answer “yes” to that question, or you must admit that it is possible that a mortal man could have done those things which many have accused Christian pastors of doing. If he could have done these things, then consider the implications of disfellowshipping someone because he or she has entertained that possibility. The only person you have the 100% faith in is Jesus Christ. Attributing traits that belong to Him to any man is the vilest form of idolatry imaginable.

#3. Are you asking me if I have effectively shielded myself from hearing any bad reports about someone? You know, “rumors, hearsay,” and other things “reported commonly among you,” such as the Apostle Paul listened to about the Corinthian people. It certainly is a shame that some of you were not there to straighten out poor Paul. One would have to conclude that even God erred in that situation, because He saw fit to include Paul’s response to these “bad reports” in the Bible, even making an entire book about it, namely I Corinthians. (Paul’s secondary concern was the over-emphasis on following human leaders.) Imagine God using a man to write two thirds of the New Testament who had “died spiritually!”

Now please allow me to ask you some questions. Are you willing to be a part of excluding me from attending a New Testament Church founded on the principles of Christ because I am willing to believe that someone may have sinned to whom you have attributed practical immunity to error? Are you willing to call good Christians apostate who regularly win souls, attend church, preach Christ, raise Christian families and have a shining Christian testimony simply on the basis of their relationship to one man? Will you welcome into your church a famous pastor’s son who has given now public evidence of repentance after having appeared with his nude wife in pornographic magazines and advertised for public sex while you ostracize solid Christian men?

When you take a trip somewhere and you hear a bad weather report, do you rush to the radio to turn it off? Sorry, not me . . . I plan an alternate route or delay my trip. At the very least, I check my tires, windshield wipers, and bring my umbrella. I know that rain is a certain thing. We have had it since the days of Noah and will always have it here on earth. Sin is the same thing, only it predates rain by about 1700 years. There is no place on earth immune from the effects of the weather, and there is no man who doesn’t sin (present tense). If you ask me if I am 100% willing to believe that a place exists that is immune from effects of weather, I must answer “no.” Unbelieving scientists have been unwilling for years to examine the evidence that conclusively proves that there was once a great deluge upon the face of the entire earth. God calls them fools. Anyone who blindly refuses to examine evidence, for whatever reason, deserves the same title.

Dr. Jerry Kaifetz

Posted in Fundamentalism And Church Cults | Leave a comment

A Rebuttal to a Jewish Critic of Christianity

The Flaws of Christianity
Moshe Ben-Chaim
Rebuttal in BOLD by Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Many people anticipate a certain, false happiness during the holiday season. From the lights and decorated trees, to the gifts and parties that smother many in imagined “holiday cheer”. Of course, it is the media and those in search of this temporary, seasonal happiness that promote these seductive and simulated sensations. Should we allow our lives to be permeated and guided by what is popular? Are we to simply follow the crowd, without questioning our beliefs?
Our souls are at stake, and our limited time here in Earth demands that we take stock in what our actions and beliefs must be. Are we living life properly, what our Creator asks, what is truly best for ourselves? We must realize the false notions we harbor, be we Jew or Gentile. It is imperative that we all question these popular notions and not blindly coast through life, losing what could be a marvelously inspiring and enlightening existence. What a tragic loss of G-d’s gift of life to each of us, if we do not engage our intelligence, given to man and no other creature. G-d desires that we use this intelligence in the most important of all areas – our belief in Him and His plan for mankind.
I fear some Gentile and Jewish readers may become inflamed with feelings of religious persecution when reading this paper. This is not my intent. Had only the books of Christianity remained with no adherents, this paper would be equally needed. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the basic flaws of Christianity in order to benefit both Gentile and Jew, who find baseless appeal in its false notions. I hope through the analysis presented, you recognize my intent is to dispel false notions, not to mock a group of people. No gain is realized when one attacks an individual. Christianity predates all Christians alive today. Therefore, the critique presented is one of an ideology, not of individual adherents. My wish is to increase your understanding of G-d’s words, His desire is for our good, and to display what is contrary to the Torah system.
I. Essential Flaws in Christianity’s Tenets

Christianity claims G-d Spoke with Jesus
In fact, Christianity claims far more than this. Christianity claims that Jesus WAS God . It is essential that you become fully aware of the historically proven event at Mount Sinai where G-d demonstrated His existence and selected the Jews to adhere to His Torah. This event was witnessed by approximately 2.5 million people, a proof not duplicated in any other culture or religion, and recorded in Deuteronomy 4:9-15. While I do not doubt this event, the witnesses were at the base of the mountain and did not see the event for themselves . (Exodus 19:3-25) It is impossible that history contain the account at Sinai where the Jews heard an intelligent voice emanating from the fiery mount Sinai, seeing no physical source, and that such a story be accepted by the world through the present – were it false. Had Sinai never occurred, it would not be accepted back then, nor would it survive through time. Had Moses lied, and attempted to convince individuals they saw such a miracle, they would view Moses as a fraud. Imagine someone telling you that you were at an event that you didn’t attend, that there were 2.5 million others there, and that specific miracles occurred. You would view the person as bizarre, and he would have absolutely no success at convincing you or others that you witnessed that which you did not. The unanimous acceptance today of this event as history – not only accepted by Jews – confirms its truth. Concocted stories of a peoples’ history, witnessed by millions, are not unanimously accepted. Sinai occurred. G-d selected the Jews and no others, and He gave a law not ever to be altered. G-d selected the Jews through an awesome event to serve for the precise purpose of a proof. Judaism is not based on belief. No science is. Every single one of these arguments applies perfectly to the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Not only does reason deny acceptance of all other religions, but G-d’s very words attest to the fact that Judaism will be the one eternal and exclusive religion: Christianity is NOT another religion. It is the FULFILMENT of the Jewish religion. Jesus Christ met every single criteria established in the Jewish Scriptures for the Messiah without exception.
Deuteronomy, 4:33,34: “Has any people heard the voice of G-d speaking from amidst fire as you have heard, and lived? Or has G-d miraculously come to select one nation from others with miracles, signs and wonders, and with war, and a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great awesome deeds, as all that Hashem your G-d did for you in Egypt in front of your eyes?”
Here, Moses reminds the Jewish people here of their selection. G-d selected the Jews from all other nations. This was never performed for any other nation. Christianity does not accept G-d’s selection of the Jewish nation.. Christianity denies G-d’s very words. This is blatantly untrue and offered with no support. They concoct stories of supposed miracles which Jesus performed. But any individual can suggest G-d spoke to them, or that they performed miracles. There is no way to disprove such lies. Then without evidence to the contrary, how does one call anything a lie? But be mindful, nor is there any way to prove them. All religions are based on individual testimony, as this is something others cannot disprove. It is a safe position. Not Judaism. Judaism is based on historic events witnessed by millions. This applies precisely to the truths of the New Testament, the number being in the thousands. Who, when & where were the “millions” of witnesses to any OT event?
Christianity Claims G-d became Physical
The notion of G-d becoming physical is an impossibility. He Who created all of physical existences, is the One Being not subject to those laws. G-d governs all physical matter. To suggest G-d can become physical and be subject to His own physical laws, means that He does not control the universe. A clear contradiction and impossibility. A weak and easily disprovable argument. G_d, in His omnipotence, can manifest any way He chooses. Any attempt by man to limit His overall being to that manifestation is extraordinarily shortsighted.
Christianity Claims Jesus Died for Other Peoples’ Sins
Deuteronomy, 24:16; “There will not be killed fathers for sons (sins, nor) are sons killed for father’s (sins). Each man in his own sin will be killed.”
This verse teaches that the theory of the death of Jesus on behalf of others’s sins, is contrary to G-d’s own words. G-d’s system is just, only the one who sins pays the price, not another. G-d teaches us intellectually sound ideas that are reasonable and conform with justice.

REBUTTAL by jk:
The ENTIRE Jewish Scripture is about substitutionary death and atonement, symbolized fully and for thousands of years in the ritual and SUBSTITUTIONARY sacrifice of sheep and other animals in the temple. Deu. 24:16 does not address the atonement on the sacrificial quality of the Jewish Messiah, it clearly addresses a judicial issue.

Christianity Endorses a “Blind Faith” System
Belief can be used for any idea or religion. Belief seeks no support from reality. Christianity teaches what is not real. Contrary to Christianity’s own goals, they teach that defectors, finding other religions more emotionally appealing is proper.

REBUTTAL by jk:
After over 30 complete and careful readings of the New Testament, I find not a hint of such a teaching. Scripture and verse, please!

Christianity’s tenet of “blind faith” would require them to allow Christians to follow another religion and deny Jesus, if they followed faith. How can they argue? They are not based on reason, so a system of faith other than Christianity cannot be argued as wrong. An incoherent and contradictory position. If however Christianity attempts to lodge reason to justify Christianity as the supreme religion, they thereby deny their principle of blind faith, as they have demonstrated an attempt to justify their religion via reason, and not faith.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Christianity’s heroes of the faith are enumerated by the Apostle Paul, (a Hebrew Scholar trained by Gamaliel and member of the Jewish Sanhedrin) in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Chapter 11 includes among these examples of faith for the Christian, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthae, David, and in in Genesis we find Abraham listed as the model of faith for the Christian and Jew. (Genesis 15:6)

Christianity Denies our Use of G-d-given Intelligence
In the most important of all areas – our belief in G-d’s word – Christianity asks us to abandon reason .WHERE? Scripture & verse, please. Sinai was orchestrated by G-d to achieve a proof of G-d’s existence and His desired system for man. No other religion can make such a historically proven claim. G-d intended man to use his reason and arrive at the correct life. He told Abraham exactly the opposite: “And he believed in the Lord; and He counted to him for righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6) Christianity asks man to violate G-d’s intent and abandon reason, living by faith. Reason and faith are not mutually exclusive. They complement each other in a beautiful way. One never has to abandon one for the other.
Not Observing G-d’s 7 Noachide Laws is a Sin Against G-d
Christianity’s laws oppose G-d’s will that all gentiles follow the 7 Noachide laws outlined in the Torah. Again, no specific examples are listed.
Religion of Love
A Rabbi once noted, the claim by Christianity to be a religion of love is an attempt to deny an underlying religion of hate. Jesus in effect murdered G-d, as Jesus’ existence replaced G-d’s existence.

REBUTTAL by jk:
This is an exraordinarily childish rendition contradicted by none other than the prophet Isaiah in describing the death of the Messiah in chapter 53. Calling their religion one of love attempted to deny Christianity’s true, hateful and aggressive ideology displayed by the Crusades, Christianity’s intolerance of other religions, and their creed of eternal damnation for those who deny Jesus. To ascribe a purely Roman Catholic endeavor as representative of all of Christianity, much less the responsibility of all Christians, is as irresponsible as it is ecclesiastically devoid of understanding. Apparently, the author thinks that the Pope speaks for all Christians. Volumes and volumes have been written about the disparity between Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity, for which the entire Reformation stands as just the beginning of that testimony.

II. Christianity’s Primitive Nature and Mass Appeal
Deification of Man
Christianity appeals to many through false ideas. We already mentioned one, a guilt free existence because Jesus’ died for one’s sins. Accordingly, man’s sins can be absolved, and man takes no responsibility for his corrupt actions. This is light years from the true New Testament doctrines of Bible Christianity. The Old Testament concept of the Messiah / Redeemer perfectly illustrates the ATONEMENT for guilt, not the elimination of guilt. This is perfectly symbolized in the Passover: saved by the blood of the lamb. This is quite enticing, although baseless and false. Another primary idea is the satisfaction of the emotional need for approval from man, i.e., the man Jesus is the central focus. His humanity is not that focus, but rather His divinity as the second person of the Trinity that goes back to genesis 1 and its use of plural nouns to describe God.
Man attaches to his parents, projecting on them a supreme, authoritative status. A child seeks approval, and finds parental disappointment most devastating. Many individuals never grow out of this emotion and find this satisfaction even in adult life, by idolizing human figures and creating heroes. Christianity satisfies this need through its portrayal of Jesus as superhuman, a clear display of man deifying man, not G-d. Again, this bypasses entirely the fact that Christians ascribe divine identity to Jesus Christ, not “superhuman” status. Conversely, Judaism teaches that man is simply flesh and blood, with no powers. G-d remains as the central focus of Judaism.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Numerous laws prohibit man from seeking man’s approval and the projection of superhuman qualities onto man. In contrast to Christianity’s saints, Canonization is a ROMAN CATHOLIC practice NOT representative of anyone else.

Judaism’s prophets shun the spotlight, as seen from Elisha who himself did not approach Naaman with G-d’s instructions for healing, but Elisha sent his servant to give those instructions to cure Naaman’s leprosy. Elisha wished G-d alone to maintain responsibility for the government of man and nature. Additionally, idolatry, warlocks, enchanters, and witches to name a few, are prohibited by Judaism. Each law is an example of Judaism’s goal to extricate man from believing any power exists, aside from G-d. As Ibn Ezra and Maimonides state, all these practices are false. G-d created all matter and all laws governing them – He alone Who created these laws, controls them. Man, a creation, cannot over-power G-d. Man is the created, not the Creator.
Denial of the Sexual Drive – Holy People – Virgin Birth
As a permutation of the previous corruption, Christianity places nuns and priests on pedestals.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Again, the sad error of equating Roman Catholicism with all of Christianity. This is like asking an Eskimo why he doesn’t wear a sombrero since he is an “American” like the Mexicans.

Part of their aura is their deprivation of sex. Christianity seeks to create saints by praising those who abstain from areas in which man feels shame or guilt. Conversely, Judaism does not deny man’s powerful urges, but asks man to channel those urges to the proper partner, and only at the appropriate times and circumstances.

REBUTTAL by jk:
As does Christianity in nearly every book of the New Testament. Celibacy is rarely mentioned and then only for a very select few.

Judaism does not wish man to be steeped in desires, nor to deny his desires. Judaism directs man to the proper balance of satisfaction and abstention. Man is taught to guide his desires, not to follow them blindly. This practice redirects man’s energies towards the higher goals of pursuing wisdom and justice. Man finds true satisfaction only when he engages his true self – his intelligence. Current accounts of priests sodomizing children demonstrate Judaism’s accurate view on the need for sexual satisfaction, and the repercussions of those who deny real desires. Judaism teaches reality, Christianity teaches lies, in the most fundamental area. It may very well be that the “virgin birth” story was written to deny the sexual in connection with Jesus, from his “conception”.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Again, confusing the Catholics with Evangelical Christians. Statements like “it may very well be” ring of innuendo and slander, not scholarship or intellectual straightforwardness.

The contradiction of nuns and priests is that on the one hand, they claim their life’s work to be G-d’s will , i.e., their existence is a good. On the other hand, their abstinence does not allow new children to enter the world, who themselves could become nuns and priests. If they feel human existence is a good when one is a nun or priest, their very abstinence prevents other nuns and priests from being born and continuing their work.

REBUTTAL by jk:
This is true, and a justifiable indictment of Roman Catholicism, which the Reformation effectively addressed./strong>

Christianity Teaches Fantasy in the Most Fundamental Area – Eating of Jesus’ Body
Matthew 26:26-28 “26. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; 28. for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

REBUTTAL by jk:
As all Christians know from Sunday School age on up, this is intended as symbolism only, not transsubstantiation or cannibalism.

Christianity’s practice of eating a wafer symbolizing Jesus’ body, traces itself back to primitive, cultural rites. In one rite, members of a cult would drink the blood of animals, believing it to permeate them with that animal’s characteristics. When we study a man-made religion, we will undoubtedly discover evidence of man’s base, instinctual drives. Man-made religion is in truth a projection of man’s instinctual desires that are repressed – their system will reflect man’s instinctual nature. Again, Christianity succeeds at deviating completely from G-d’s will. Unlike Judaism, this practice of eating the body of Jesus has no correlation to anything true, thereby reinforcing fallacy. It further embellishes the need for attachment to the physical, yet represses natural, human desires and need. Highly misunderstood and overstated; it is pure symbolism.
Jesus’ Resurrection
Belief in immortality and fortunetellers are fabricated solutions to man’s two basic fears; 1)death, and 2)security about his own Earthly fate. With the resurrection of Jesus – his “second coming” – Christianity gives false hope not only in Jesus’ immortality, but in his followers’ as well, as they too will share in the ultimate, eternal kingdom. Resurrection also attempts to validate Christianity; The second coming alludes to Christianity’s unspoken doubt of Jesus’ validity, as his first coming was not successful.

REBUTTAL by jk:
In fact, His first coming accomplished everything prophesied by the Jewish prophets concerning the Jewish Messiah. Read Psalm 22 for a vivid description of the crucifixion or Isaiah 53 for a wonderful understanding of the Jewish messianic prophecies, each and every one perfectly fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

III. Christianity Denies G-d’s Words
False Prophets
The Torah teaches that we are not to follow a prophet who goes against G-d’s word:
Deuteronomy, 18:19, 20. “And it will be the man who does not listen to My words, but who speaks in My name, I will inquire from him. However, a prophet who sinfully speaks a matter in My name which I did not command to speak and he speaks in the name of other G-d’s, you must kill that prophet.”
Jesus spoke against G-d’s laws in G-d’s name, attempting to change what G-d said. G-d’s Torah teaches that this crime is so great, it deserves death.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Unless, of course, he spoke for God because he was the Jewish Messiah. If He was not, then who was the Messiah. Was Isaiah delusional?

Incomparability to Judaism
A further, false proof of Christianity’s claim of the supreme religion is the following: We might ask why G-d did not perform such an undeniably true event as Sinai, on behalf of Christianity. If G-d wishes something to have recognition as truth, Sinai teaches that He has the ability to create an undeniably true event, witnessed by millions. Why are all religions – including Christianity – bereft of such events? It is clear that G-d does not endorse Christianity or any religion. G-d endorsed Judaism alone, and He promised in the Torah that such a event will never be reproduced: The Old testament is as much part of the Christian Scriptures as the New Testament.
Deuteronomy, 5:19: “These matters (the Ten Commandments) G-d spoke to your entire assembly from amidst flames, cloud, and thick darkness, a great voice not to be repeated, and He wrote them on two tables of stone and gave them to me.”
G-d clearly states that such a revelation at Sinai, a selection of a people, and specifically a giving of a law, will never be repeated. Again, the giving of a law by G-d will never be repeated. These are G-d’s words and Christianity denies them with their fabrication that G-d endorsed a new system of Christianity. Christianity’s ideology is based on lies told to its followers, duping them into the belief that G-d has a new plan, even though G-d stated such a revelation will never be repeated. Christianity lies to its followers.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Christianity teaches that Law was superseded by Grace. That is exactly what the Jewish prophets taught was going to happen when the Messiah came and died for the sins of the people: Isaiah 53.

Christianity Violates G-d’s Command not to Alter G-d’s Torah
Deuteronomy, 4:2: “Do not add on to the matter which I command you, and do not detract from it, to observe the commandments of Hashem your G-d, which I command you.”
G-d teaches us not to alter the Torah, yet Christianity does so in so many areas – again denying G-d’s words. Christianity suggests that G-d “changed His mind”. This is absurd, that a Perfect Being knowledgeable of all past and future history, would create a complete and perfect Torah system at one point, which includes a law not to alter it in any way, and then contradict His own words as Christianity suggests. Did not Abraham change G_d’s mind concerning Lot’s destruction??? What about Moses changing G_d’s mind about the destruction of His people??? An example is that Christianity abrogates divorce laws.
IV. A Corrupt Philosophy and Plagiarism
Christianity Portrays Jesus Reasoning to be Unjust:

REBUTTAL by jk:
No such a conclusion is evident from this passage!
Matthew 26:6-13: 6. “Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7. a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table. 8. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9. For this ointment might have been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.” 10. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12. In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Jesus is on record as preferring kindness to himself over the poor. His reasoning is that he will not always be around. Therefore one must prefer to share oil with Jesus than using the monetary value of that oil to support the needy. Read the account: it was for the anointing of the Messiah before his atoning self-sacrifice

Christianity Mimics the Torah to Earn Credibility
Compare to the Torah’s words to Christianity’s plagiarism:

REBUTTAL by jk:
Christianity borrows and mirrors MUCH of the Jewish Scriptures, because they are a vital foundation for Christianity. Judaism and Christianity are inexorably linked, and forever will be. Christianity is a FULFILMENT of Judaism, not its repudiation!
The Torah says in Exodus, 4:19:
“G-d said to Moses in Midyan, go, return to Egypt, for there have died all the men that sought your life.”
The New Testament says in Matthew 2:20:
“Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
The Torah says in Exodus 1:16:
“And (the king of Egypt) said, “when the Hebrew women give birth, and look upon the stone, if it is a son, kill him, and if it is a daughter, let it live.”
The New Testament says in Matthew 2:16:
“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under,…”
In both statements above Christianity attempts to equate Jesus to Moses by distorting the truth and provoking the emotion of pity. Christianity continuously portrays Jesus as the victim to foster identification and more adherents. Just like Moses was threatened by Pharaoh, the story constructed in the New Testament makes Jesus the victim of King Herod. Coincidentally, the events at the time of Jesus’ birth were conveniently fabricated to mimic a similar threat, which had taken place during the time of Moses’ birth. The reader of the New Testament feels pity and compassion for Jesus in the name of plagiarism. The goal of the New Testament is to equate the statures of Jesus and Moses, which is absolutely impossible. In so many statements contained the New Testament, if read carefully, one will find authentic Torah accounts plagiarized with slight changes, replacing true Torah personalities with Jesus. This is by DESIGN!
Plagiarism is also seen clearly in the first quote; just as Moses was threatened and then afterwards informed to return as all those seeking his life are dead, the New Testament again attempts to plagiarize a known story of Moses and transpose it onto Jesus. For the very goal of engendering pity as a tool for identification with Jesus, Christianity adopted the symbol of the Cross. The Cross’ unanimous acceptance as a central icon of their religion displays how correct the developers of Christianity were that pity is a sure-fire lure to attract adherents.
A most obvious plagiarism describes the sale of Jesus by one of the 12 disciples for 30 pieces of silver. It is almost identical to the sale of Joseph by one of his 12 brothers for 20 pieces of silver in the Torah. Compare:
Genesis 37:25:
“And there passed by Midianite men, traders, and they drew him and lifted him (Joseph) out of the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and they brought Joseph to Egypt.”
Matthew 26:14-15:
“14. Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15. and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.”
Christianity uses another statement from the Torah and distorts it in order to evoke empathy and identification with Jesus who is again being portrayed as the “victim.” Yet, the goal of Christianity is to raise Jesus to a leadership role. The downtrodden Jesus becomes a great leader as Joseph, who was sold by his brothers would eventually become a great leader. Christianity found many ways to distort the Divine Word of G-d in order to gain mass acceptance and many followers.
In summary, Christianity lies to its people, it contradicts G-d’s own words, it is a religion where reason is replaced by belief, and deceit is the means of attracting to-be proselytes. Do not feel compelled to adhere to Christianity due to its popularity, or its leaders’ reputations. Many people are drawn in by the impressive structures of churches, ancient paintings depicting Jesus, the Church’s long history, and the sense of piety associated with nun’s and priests’ garb. Do not be impressed, for previous idolaters also made great structures, wore ornate clothing, and were widespread, yet, we comprehend their false ideas – based on reason alone. Reason teaches, that which is false, cannot become true because we adorn and decorate it. King Solomon taught, “A gold ring in the snout of a pig, (so too is) a beautiful woman with a deviant personality.” (Proverbs 11:22) Radak’s last statement on Zephania, 1:8 teaches that G-d punished certain Jews who dressed in clothing more impressive than their brother Jews, only to project a false piety. External dress is frowned upon by G-d, as this has no bearing on one’s perfection, destroying social harmony in its wake. So too, we are not to be impressed by Christianity’s adornment of their clergy, nor of their beautiful structures or moving, choric hymns. What is false cannot be made true no matter how much they adorn themselves, no matter how effective they are at mimicking Judaism and no matter how much pity they evoke for their fabricated man-god.
G-d’s Torah, and reality, requires one to use his mind, seeking proof for one’s actions. Torah is built on rationale, containing proofs so man may function in accordance with intelligence, leading a life which is pleasing and reasonable. Man, being so impressed with the sensibility of the tenets of Judaism, is encouraged to derive much benefit not only in actions that are good for oneself and society, but as one engages one’s mind, one discovers new insights which offer the most satisfying life. Intelligence is the one faculty G-d gave man and no other being. G-d desires that mankind enjoy life, and use intelligence alone to study reality and perceive wisdom which affords a person the greatest existence.
Intelligent inquiry is the sole tool enabling our appreciation of all sciences, and of Judaism. G-d created sciences and Judaism to reflect His wisdom. Through our minds, we see beauty in the Torah system, we find solid proofs and reasons for G-d’s laws and ideals, we become enamored with the depth and structures of Torah laws, and we continually grow towards G-d’s goal for man – a being appreciative of, and attached to what is real and true.
G-d’s perfect Torah system applies to both gentile an Jew. There is no other G-d-given system. There is no other good for mankind.

REBUTTAL by jk:
Christianity is the fulfilment of judaism. Jesus Christ was and is the Jewish messiah. Read
Isaiah 53 and see if you can draw any other honest conclusion. I was a Jew for 35 years and when I read it, I could not deny that isaih was speaking of Jesus Christ! To quote Dr. Max Wertheimer, a Jewish scholar and Rabbi who became a Christian, “I began to sudy [Isaiah] and read . . . “I gave my back to the smiters.” Then I read . . . Thus saith Jehovah.” I asked, does God have a back? Did He give it to the smiters? Then I read he “gave His cheeks to them that pluck off the hair,” and how He hid not His face “from shame and spitting.” I asked myself, when did Jehovah have these human characteristics? In my confusion, I began to read Isaiah from the beginning. I was stopped at the 6th verse: “For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given…” I was suddenly faced with the doctrine of the Trinity . . . Upon that word “Echod” the entire [mopnotheistic] philosophy of Judaism is based. . . . I found to my amazement that that word was used to describe Adam and Eve , who became one. … Suddenly I was struck with the error that I had believed and proclaimed all through my miistry: Echod cannot mean absolute unity, but a composite unity!”
I COULD HOLD OUT IN UNBELIEF NO LONGER! I was convinced of the truth of God as it is in Jesus Christ. I cried, LORD, I BELIEVE THAT THOU AS JEHOVAH YESOUS HAS MADE ATONEMENT FOR ME. I BELIEVE THAT JEHOVAH YESOUS DIED FOR ME. I BELIEVE THAT THOU HAS MADE PROVISION FOR ME. FROM HENCEFORTH I WILL PUBLICLY CONFESS YESHUAH AS MY SAVIOR AND LORD.

Thus, after months of searching, I was convinced that Jesus was the righteous servant of Jehovah, (JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU), The Lord our Righteousness. Dr. Max Wertheimer

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Delayed Gratification — The Great Achievement of Character

One of the great moral principles of human civilization that is fundamentally linked to the success rate of the human race on the societal as well as personal level is the ability to impose on oneself the delay of gratification. The Apostle Paul himself seemed to derive great satisfaction from having achieved a victory that is more often the cornerstone of eastern faiths when he expressed that he had brought his own body “under subjection.”

The underlying premise in understanding the inexpressibly vast implications of this concept begin to come into clear focus for us when we understand that pride and self-will may well be at the root of nearly all crimes. People steal when they don’t mind violating another person to advance themselves. People murder for the same reason. It is difficult to imagine a crime that does not have self-will and the closely linked inability or unwillingness to delay gratification as its fuel.

Ancient societies were often very judicious in determining how the process of inheritance was to unfold. There was almost universal recognition that wealth was not at all the principal measure of human success, other that perhaps by measuring diligence, perseverance and regarding the positive character traits and astute decisions that led to its creation.

When wealth is obtained through a process such as inheritance or through the disproportionate rewards of a society that rewards athletic talent or the ability to entertain, those fast-track lives have a history of developing into some of the least stable individuals within our society. The reason, in large measure, is that they have never had to learn to delay gratification. This is perhaps most disastrous in personal relationships, for when another person becomes a source of disappointment, the tolerance level and the ability to minimize one’s personal needs for the benefit of another human being are often below the threshold required for successful human dynamics. The results are fights, arguments, breakups and divorce, or worse. When two people categorically and chronically refuse to make their personal needs subservient to the other’s, the relationship develops a fatal pathology from which it can never recover.

So it looks like the Apostle Paul was onto something when he emphasized the importance of self-mastery. Add to that the crowning jewel of Jesus’ teachings: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and it becomes difficult to think of one problem in the world that those two life principles would not thoroughly solve . . . doesn’t it . . . . ?

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in America's Morality, Articles | 1 Comment

Making Sense of Moral Chaos

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Americans everywhere are aghast at this summer’s spate of child abductions and murders. It is difficult for us as a nation rooted and steeped in moral principles to fathom the mindset of any person who has degenerated to the behavioral level we have seen in the recent abduction murders in California and Oregon. Our moral landscape has tilted and we are all walking about cocking our heads to try to restore the horizon and make sense of a world in moral chaos.

We have been systematically desensitized to evil by the shifting sands of moral relativism foisted upon us by liberal thinking academics and social architects. We have been indoctrinated by those who have not demonstrated the ability to distinguish between freedom and license, and for whom all human behavior falls on a purely arbitrary scale of right and wrong. In order to bring this national picture into something resembling a discernible focus, we must enter the minds and lives of the perpetrators. Although it has been noted before, it bears repeating that one element that all of these moral degenerates have in common is an addiction to child pornography. If we would but for a moment make the effort to disabuse ourselves of our emotions and political ideologies, it is my firm belief that most of us can “walk the cat back” to the dark alley from which his twisted and frightening form first emerged.

America’s moral climate has undergone significant change. What was unthinkable fifty years ago has become commonplace today. We have allowed those who think this way to dominate our institutions of so-called higher learning, turning them in thought factories complete with thought-police, capable of mass producing only what is ejected from their molds. In so doing, we have discarded the principles of righteousness and decency that have charted the success of every civilization for the last four millennia. We are going the way of the Roman Empire, and what is most stunning, for many of the same reasons.

When a body of water becomes deeper, the bottom feeding fish no longer feed at the same depth; they still, however, feed on the bottom. When a culture redefines what is morally acceptable, those who live on the fringes or beyond the limits of those moral boundaries move accordingly. Since deviant behavior intrinsically does not satisfy, we must understand that there are no plateaus, no stable footing, no place of satisfaction there—only a slippery, downward slope whose end we may well have not yet imagined.

Ultimately, we may come to the inescapable conclusion that our culture is in a kind of reverse evolution. As we embody more and more the behavioral models that revolve primarily on the gratification of individual desires, and as we devalue such time-honored concepts as life, family, and innocence, it should be obvious that what defines our very humanity is slipping from us and that our behavior seems to resemble more and more what we have observed through the lenses of film makers on the African Savannah.

The question is, is this the way we want to go? Are organizations such as the A.C.L.U. helping or hurting our society? Can any ally of the pornographic industry retain an element of virtue, or is the blood of more and more innocent children too high a price to pay for what they would call “freedom of expression?” Is theirs the correct interpretation of the First Amendment, or could a moral anarchy resulting in a complete societal divorce from religious principles and tradition in fact be their goal? Can those professionals who seek to measure and quantify moral deviancy in clinical terms and consider that they have shed light on ghastly behavior by giving depravity a dispassionate character be truly helping anyone?

These are important questions. They do, however, become much easier if we will simply take one, small step. The next time you see a picture of a child victim—innocence slain by a monstrous predator—just put your child’s face on that photo. My guess is that this simple exercise will perhaps help you to understand what the little old lady in the back row of church last Sunday has understood all her life: terms like “first-amendment-rights,” “alternate lifestyle,” “nonjudgmental,” and on occasion even “tolerance and diversity” are often little more than clever euphemisms for what we used to call evil.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in America's Morality, Articles, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hummingbirds Disprove Evolution

Hummingbirds and Evolution
An article by Eugene Halonen is from Christian News, March 27, 1989

“The stark reality is that if both flowers and hummingbirds were not there, together, fully developed and fully functioning, at the very same moment in time, both species would quickly die!” During the week of February 12, 1989, public television channels presented a beautiful documentary on hummingbirds. The material included spectacular and unchallengeable proofs of creation that the narrator repeatedly described as adaptations due to evolution. He stated that in the tropical rain forest there are species of flowers, which, because of their peculiar design, can be pollinated only by hummingbirds with bills of matching design.

One flower is curved, preventing insect pollination. ONLY one particular species of hummingbird with a matching curved bill can penetrate to the stigma and can thus pollinate the flower. The other is a large flower, 6 to 8 inches long, which can be pollinated only by the Sword Bill Hummingbird whose bill is longer than its body length.

Each of these flowers is dependent for its very existence, therefore, on the hummingbird that pollinates it. And each hummingbird, as well, is dependent for its existence on the flower that it pollinates–the bird must have the flowers’ nectar to sustain its life. Since the flowers have no perches, the tiny birds must hover at the flower’s opening with wings beating 1200 times per minutes, and heart beating 398 times per minutes. The hummingbird uses such an enormous amount of energy while hovering, that it MUST FEED EVERY 3 TO 5 SECONDS.

Evolution (transmutation) requires millions of years (and hundreds of thousands of transitional fossils for each transmutation according to Darwin) to progress from a simple amoeba to a creature as amazingly complex as a hummingbird. Consider, too, the astronomical odds against a specific species of flower and a specific species of bird, from two totally different kingdoms, appearing on the scene at the very same instant. But the stark reality is that if both flowers and hummingbirds were not there, TOGETHER, FULLY DEVELOPED and FULLY FUNCTIONING, AT THE VERY SAME MOMENT IN TIME, both species would quickly die!! The hummingbird without the flowers’ nectar would falter and fall to its death within 10 seconds or so; and the
flowers would wilt and die shortly thereafter, having no pollinator to keep them alive.

You might well ask, “What does the hummingbird do at nightfall when the flowers close?” Would you believe that evolution, in its omniscience and mercy, has provided the hummingbird with the ability to perch firmly on a branch, then slow its heart rate to 36 beats per minute, and then reduce itself to a state of torpor where energy consumption is almost nil?

Isn’t evolution amazing? Without a mind of its own, evolution has somehow managed (thru the evolutionary magic of “natural selection,” “survival of the fittest,” and “millions of years”) to bring together two marvelously complex species, a flower from the Plant Kingdom and a Hummingbird from the Animal
Kingdom; and, in its eternal wisdom and goodness, evolution miraculously brought them forth (after millions of years) in the same split second in time, fully developed, perfectly compatible, ready to serve each other, and to live happily together for all time. Although mindless, evolution is clearly a kind and caring father!

The Lord Jesus had some fitting words applicable to those who would promote such SCIENCE, “falsely so-called,” Matthew 23:24, they are “blind guides who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel,” and Matthew 15:14, ” … they are blind leaders of the blind…”

And finally, please understand, if evolution cannot explain the origin of the universe (and it cannot) and of all life therein (and it cannot), then there is only one possible alternative, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” Genesis 1:1; and Genesis 3:20, “and Adam called his wife’s name Eve [Eve means “life-giver” in Hebrew] because she was the mother of ALL LIVING.”

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The Palestinian Issue – An Honest History

The following article is by Dr. Jerry D. Kaifetz <–

As the rhetoric, emotion and religious fervor of the current crisis in Israel continues to overflow from a rolling boil, it would seem both timely and informative to examine the purely historical record of the Palestinian conflict. A documented, historical record which is detailed and replete should not be subject to opinion or spin. Here are a few historical facts which should be safeguarded from the political intents of revisionist historians:

1. When Israel’s independence was declared in 1948, the majority of Arab refugees were not expelled. Sixty-eight percent left without seeing an Israeli soldier. History reveals that Arab leaders called on the “refugees” to flee. The UN then amended its standard definition of a refugee, seemingly to suit Arab refugees. The universal description of a refugee changed in1948 to describe a Palestinian refugee as someone who had been in Palestine for only two years before 1948, not those who had been forced to leave “permanent or habitual” homes, as had been the traditional UN standard.

2. The Jewish Haifa Worker’s Council issued an impassioned appeal to the Arabs to stay, even as Arab forces combined from every direction to crush Israel. Israel was victorious, yet Arabs have since refused to accept the reality of that defeat, or the defeat of 1967 and 1973.

3. After the 1967 annexation of the West Bank by Jordan and for the next two decades, the myth of “Palestine for the Palestinians” remained unexpressed. King Hussein of Jordan in 1960 expressed great dismay that Arab leaders “…have used the Palestine people for selfish and political purposes,” calling these actions “ridiculous and even criminal.” The prominent Palestinian spokesman Al-Ayubi complained bitterly that neighboring Arab states had “shut the doors of citizenship in the faces of the Palestinians and imprison them in camps.”

4. Hundreds of historical sources document the persecution and genocide of the Jewish people in Arab states from the time of Mohammed in 625 to the twentieth century. This begins with the Meccan army’s extermination of the Jewish tribe at Quraiz. It was then legitimized by Mohamed’s successor in the “Charter of Omar, which stated that no non-Muslim was “allowed to exist” among “believers.” Special taxes on Jews existed in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey until 1925.

5. Hitler’s crimes against the Jews have been frequently justified in Arab writings. Anwar Sadat published an open letter to Hitler sympathizing with his cause. In 1973 Egyptian writer Anis Mansour wrote that “Hitler was right” about the Jews. “Would that he had finished it!” exclaimed Mansour.

6. In 1947 the “Disaster of the Jews of Aden” described an anti-Jewish uprising in this Saudi Arabian town as an Arab-led mass murder, pillage and complete destruction.

7. Between 1949 and 1952 more than 123,000 Iraqi Jews living in near slavery were forced to flee rampant persecution there. This slavery was later documented by the British vice-consul in Mosul. In 1948 Zionism became a capital crime in Iraq and many Jews were publicly hanged in the center of Baghdad. Seventeen Jews were publicly hanged in Baghdad between 1969 and 1973, while dozens more were slaughtered in their homes.

8. In Cairo, the caliph had the Jewish quarter destroyed in 1012, along with all of its Jewish residents. Hundreds of Jews in Egypt have since been put to death for failing to show respect for the prophet Mohammed. Historians have documented continuous blood libel persecution of Jews in Egypt throughout the 19th century. As late as 1964 the president of Egypt still publicly pledged Egyptian allegiance to the old Nazi cause.

9. The Jews of Morocco and Tunisia suffered relentless persecution from the seventh century at the hands of Arabs. Rapes and looting, burning of synagogues, ripping of sacred Torah scrolls and murders were “so frequent that it is impossible to list them,” writes one historian of that period. In 1946 Fez was attacked by the Arab Almohads, leaving 100,000 Jews killed. In Marakesh, 120,000 Jews were slaughtered. Muslim law required the denial of Jews to raise their own children if the parents had been deemed to convert to Islam just to avoid execution. Algerian Jews fared no better, suffering pillage and massacre, including the fierce persecution of 1640 called the al-Khada. Jews were forbidden to resist or bear arms under Muslim law. These persecutions lasted in North Africa until the French liberation of WW II.

10. When Kairouan, Tunis was declared a holy city of Islam in the 13th century, all the Jews were immediately expelled after years of hardship. Syrian Jews fared no better. While celebrating a Muslim holiday in 1945, a mob of students descended on a synagogue during prayer time and viciously beat the praying Jews, later burning their books in the street. Jewish leaders were informed that unless they publicly denounced Zionism and surrendered fleeing Jewish refugees, they would be put to death. Mass-murders of Jews occurred in Lebanon in 1945, 1947, 1948 and 1950. Libyan Jews were sent to prison camps by the thousands in WW II where most died. Persecution of the Jews under Khadafi has been just as bad.

The Arab world has been virtually emptied of its Jews. In 1948 there were 850,000 Jews in Arab lands. That number has now been diminished by over 95%. The state of Israel has borne the burden of these true refugees without fanfare or crazed chauvinism. When we think of “Middle East Refugees,” most of us think immediately of the Palestinians. It is a sad commentary on our world that the struggle of Jewish refugees has been seemingly erased from the pages of history. It deserves to be remembered, and the right of Israel to defend itself from its historical oppressors of thirteen centuries should never be questioned.

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

Posted in Islam, Israel & the Middle East | Leave a comment

Jerry Kaifetz

My name is Jerry Kaifetz.   I was born in Paris France right after WW II.  My father was a G.I. whose unit received two Bronze Stars, and my mother was the first war bride and a passenger on the first passenger transatlantic flight.

I grew up in France as well as the U.S., attending public schools in Plattsburgh N.Y. and also Paris.  My family had a small villa on the French Riviera where I spent many summers.  I returned to France as a professional skier in my late twenties.

I have been a Christian since 1983.  Just a few months after God’s grace and mercy opened the door to my salvation at a little  Baptist church outside of San Diego, He also called me to proclaim the unsearchable riches of the Word of God.

Within a few short months of having placed my personal faith in Jesus Christ as the atonement for my sins,  I sold or gave away all that I had and went off to Bible college.  The more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know and the more I wanted to learn.  That process  culminated in a B.S. in Pastoral Theology and a Th.M. in Pastoral theology, as well as a Ph.D. in philosophy in religion.

During these years, a host of other events and blessings flowed abundantly into my life.  A small truck washing business that I started in Bible college soon grew.  Before long I had come up with some chemical formulas for products used in that trade.    Now with over two dozen products developed, the truck washing business has given way to a successful chemical company, Omega Chemical, which sells these products to the truck washing industry nationwide. ( omegachemical.com.)  I have had the good fortune to be  twice named to Who’s Who publications, including Who’s Who Among Leading American Business Executives, a testimony to God’s continued hand of blessing and guidance throughout the years.

Parallel to the business activities that have occupied my life has been a ongoing and heartfelt hunger and dedication to disseminate the great truths of God’s Word through churches.  I have been an associate pastor and an interim pastor, as well as having spoken in many churches throughout the years.  Having come to Christ through the door-to-door outreach of a local church, I have always had a heart for fulfilling the Great Commission.   I  have  had the  great privilege  these  many  years  of  leading many  to  Christ   “from house to house,”in the great tradition of the early Church.  I was  the  recipient of  The Sword of the Lord Award For Evangelism in 1986.  I have taught hundreds of pastors on the subject of personal evangelism, differing from some the methods of some by placing strong and primary emphasis on the role of repentance and sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirt in making the best use of the many fields “white unto harvest” that surround  us all.

Before coming to Christ, my life was one that most people would find exciting, fast moving and  even glamorous.   Having lived all over the world,  and educated in  the capital of Western art and culture, as well as Ivy League schools in the U.S., God has enabled me to  bring to my ministry a meaningful and worthwhile perspective framed in a setting that never fails to hold people’s attention.  My many years of international ski racing experience and sporting exploits around the world provide a richness of illustrative power that keeps the attention of young and old focused on my perpetual conclusion: the greatest excitement that the world has to offer pales in comparison to the deeper thrills and inner satisfaction of  truly giving one’s heart to God and co-laboring with the Creator of the Universe in bringing people to the liberating truths of Jesus Christ.

I am the  author of World Class Truth, a book for Christian teenagers on my experiences as a professional skier and adventurer.   This book, first published in 1990, is an expression of Paul’s great sentiment of Philippians 3:8: “Yea doubtless, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of  Christ Jesus  my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ.”

World Class Truth is a journey into adventure, thrilling exploits and far away settings in which the reader comes to see plainly and in detail the very best that the world has to offer.  There is no doubt that the first thirty years of my life were experiences of privilege, glamor and exhilaration.  The purpose of the book is to provide an honest and sincere comparison: how in fact does the Christian life compare to the best the world has to offer?  Every honest young person who reads this book will come to the conclusion that the Apostle Paul did in Philippians 3:8.  Every parent, youth pastor and pastor will find great support in having those in their charge experience these adventurous accounts and Christ-honoring conclusions.

I have  also written a children’s book called The Little Drop of Water Who Learned to Give Himself Away as well as many articles for Christian and secular publications.  I  have  been interviewed by the N.Y. Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun Times, CNN, CBN and a host of other media.

I have  taught for many years on Creation Science and the fallacies of Evolution.  I have taught my  26-week course on Creation Science with convincing results: the faith of believers is dramatically strengthened while the doubts of skeptics are persuasively  confronted.  It is unlikely that those believing in or compromising with evolutionary theory could emerge from this course without great doubts as to this deceptive and  faulty theory. I have been blessed in my Christian life to be able to use  an academic  background that includes training at the Institute For Creation Research, where my  Ph.D. thesis is now part of the graduate research library.    I owe a great deal to Dr. Henry Morris, who was a regular speaker in my home church and who greatly helped to undergird the foundation of my early Christian beliefs with sound science.

I am predominantly an  expository preacher with a biblically centered message and ministry.

The Kaifetz family includes my  wife Gwen, a former Christian school teacher and mother of our two grown  children, Michael and Elisa.  Both of our children were  home-schooled.

My  testimony has been shared with millions, often with copious blessings coming  upon us from the Holy Spirit.  Having been raised in the Jewish faith and come to Christ as an adult, this is a testimony that never fails to hold peoples’ attention.  From the Red Sea to the French Riviera, to the top of mountains and the bottom of the world’s oceans, my testimony  gives a dramatic evidence  as to the failure of the world’s allure and excitement to compete with the riches of God’s amazing grace and to the joys of a life genuinely lived for Jesus Christ.  You can hear my testimony on The Unshackled Radio Program where it was produced as a radio drama:

Jerry D. Kaifetz, Ph.D.

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