WASHINGTON (JTA) – Robert Jeffress, a pastor who has said Jews and other non-Christians were destined for hell, was a guest at President Donald Trump’s Hanukkah party.
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Jeffress, who is pro-Israel, was invited to Trump’s signing of an executive order on Wednesday that would withhold funds from schools that allow anti-Semitism on their campuses, including some forms of anti-Israel activity. The White House Hanukkah parties were on the same day.
“Robert Jeffress, I see you right here,” Trump said at the first of two parties. “And what a tremendous faith leader you are and a tremendous man you are. Pastor, thank you for being here so much, also. We appreciate it.”
Jeffress has preached for years that non-Christians (which includes Mormons, according to his theology) may be good people, but nothing but the acceptance of Jesus as God saves one from an eternity in hell.
“Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, not only do they lead people away from the true God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in hell,” he said in 2009.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called out the Trump administration last year for inviting Jeffress to give the convocation at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. In his defense at the time, Jeffress said his views were commonplace among evangelical Christians.
Jeffress posed for a photo at the party with Alan Dershowitz, a leading pro-Israel advocate and prominent attorney. Trump is thinking of adding Dershowitz to his impeachment defense team.
It’s his belief, just like we make the bracha ” Shelo Asani…….” every morning. There are opinions that umos haolam are not getting into Olam Habah only in special circumstances. He’s not anti semite, but he’ll get jumped on regardless. Let ‘s not be hypocrites.
I don’t consider religion a choice. He believes it because it appears true to him. He doesn’t bear anyone ill will.
Why would Trump invite Evangelical preachers to a Chanukah party? Couldn’t he find a rabbi somewhere?
Jeffress is in fora big surprise when he finds out he’s been praying to a myth who was a Jew.
The Jewish religion does not condemn non-Jews to hell. This preacher condemns those who have other beliefs – including Jews – to hell. Totally inappropriate to invite him to a Hanukah party.
Who cares? It is his belief as wrong as it is. As long as he supports Israel and is philo Semitic more power to him. We can’t be too picky about our friends these days can we?
“Fine people on both sides”….
Defend and excuse him again.
If Jews were as committed to Torah as Jeffress is to Christian beliefs, we would have been out of galus a long time ago.
Doesn’t bother my even the slightest what a goy says about holt Jews.
What a stupid article. All evangelical Christians who support Israel say that you must blieve in JC to enter heaven. It is no different than we believing that we are the Chosen People. Most religions believe that they are special. This is a non-story being propagated by some desperate do-gooders looking for a cause.
a guest at a Chanukah party? we have a hell of a putz for president. impeach now !!!
ANONYMOUSE , the POTUS SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THIS OUT , but your the pts bc you could also be fooled in life. only A PTS’s CANT SEE ALL THE GOOD THIS MAN DID WHICH HASENT BEEN ACCOMPLISED IN DECADES right a groiser pts biss du un a dummer mel
This insane xtian triumphalism is a root cause of pogroms, the catholic inquisition, cossack attacks and the Churban. Ignore such drek at your eternal peril ‘Rabbi Eden’. And rasha trumpf has this schmutz over the WH for Chanukah. What a sicko.
This idea is mainstream chrisianity whoever wrote the chrisian gospel of John around 1,900 years ago, long after the chrisian messiah supposedly died. Certainly since the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 c.e. The Roman Trinitarian chrisians murdered all of the earlier monotheistic chrisians. It’s the job of the Jewish people as per RaMbaM to teach them that there is a huge problem with codified chrisianity, which is trinitarian, not monotheistic. That God said to around 3 million Jews at Mt. Sinai that mankind should not have any other gods “al panaye,” “on My face.” Meaning, non-Jews, in order to receive revelations of higher levels of God, or Godliness, in the world to come are to keep the 7 Laws of Noah. This includes believing in God as just being God, with no image of Him as having more than His image, which is unknowable. We believe it possible for a non-Jew to be jeopardizing altogether any share in everlasting life if they believe that their human messiah is also part of a trinity that IS God, God-forbid. At best, a non-Jew who believes this, it would seem, would not be able to experience the same level of everlasting Godliness after techias hameisim, the revival of the dead, as she or he would if they believe in the One God of the Jewish people. We certainly do not have to show hatred toward people who are misinformed. Especially when they think they’re sharing something they believe to be beneficial. We just have to explain to them that there is not one chrisian concept in TaNaCh. That not only is there nothing at all to gain from chrisianity over Judaism, but that it’s less advantageous in every way. For example, every chrisian believes that their messiah took away all of the sins of all of mankind, which is anathema to Judaism. They use as an example a man in court a judge says has to spend 10 years in jail or pay $100,000. The man tells the judge that he’s really very sorry for what he did, but he doesn’t have anything near that amount of money to give the court. Someone in the courtroom tells the judge that he’ll pay the $100,000. This is how chrisianity looks at what Yeshu did. He paid for the sins of everyone. Judaism responds by saying that the judge looks at the man in custody and says that he looks very sorry for what he did, so he can go home. There is nothing in chrisianity that is an improvement on Judaism. There is a lot that is not at all what God ever wanted from humanity. Chrisianity is filled with paganism. It is completely unrecognizable to its founders who were all murdered by the beginning of the 4th century by the Trinitarian Roman pagans. See Let’s Get Biblical: by Rabbi Tovia Singer. And, watch his over 500 youtube videos for the most comprehensive look at why Judaism doesn’t accept the chrisian messiah and much, much more. Btw, this idea in the chrisian bible is another of the many contradictions. Thsdeir messiah also is quoted as saying that he has not come but for the lost sheep of the children of Israel. That would mean that he did nothing to benefit any non-Jew, let alone get one into heaven.
The point about Farakkhan is a good one. He and others like him believe Jews are monkeys, blood suckers , raw hate and whatnot. Jeffers actually supports Trump on the Israeli issueand has never demeaned them as subhuman. As noted and implied here, we Jews believe in tenets that non-Jews would consider discriminatory against them in nature.
Christianity no longer advocates forced conversion or murder of “heretics”.
He believes that anybody Jew or Gentile who doesn’t accept Jesus goes to hell.
He has a right to believe it just as we believe that certain aveiros bring to Gehennam. The Vatican has also softened its stance on this issue though he’s a fundamentalist Protestant The Christian bakery owner who refused to bake for a gay wedding also has that right. That doesn’t mean that they hate gays, but they follow the Bible , just as we follow the Torah. He’s no anti-Semite . Unfortunately, secular Jews attack another’s religion while simultaneously attacking their own Torah and disbelieving in its divinity. Except for the Kabbalistic tikun olam , for some odd reason.
What’s the tumult? Don’t Jews believe that a Jewish apostate to Christianity goes to Heck?