 Exploring Beth Yeshua HaMashiach
Thank you for entering my page! Right now, you are probably searching to find out more about Jewish beliefs in Jesus. Perhaps, you are questioning your faith, and are looking at different options. Many people are attracted to Messianic Judaism. Or, a bit curious about what the different congregations may hold for them. Beth Yeshua HaMashiach is a Messianic Jewish congregation in Houston, Texas. They present themselves as Jewish, but in truth, they are a fully Christian church. The following web-page will demonstrate this fact, using information from their site and other non-Jewish websites. All information is referenced, so you can see the evidence for your own eyes. Leadership and the Home Church Beth Yeshua is officially part of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here is the link to their listing in the Southern Baptist ChurchSearch:
Click Here Beth Yeshua is also identified as a Southern Baptist Convention church in a PBS interview. This link will bring you to the transcript of the interview; Beth Yeshua is identified as part of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 8th paragraph:
Click Here Beth Yeshua is currently led by Jim Pratt and Kathy Elowitz. Kathy Elowitz is officially a minister of the Southern Baptist Convention; here is the link to the proof:
Click Here Kathy Elowitz' husband, Gus Elowitz is the recently deceased leader of Beth Yeshua HaMashiach. He worked for the Southern Baptist Convention, perhaps the group that is most active at trying to convert the Jewish people. His life was the perfect study of how the Messianic movement is part of Christianity. In fact, you will find his name all over the Southern Baptist Convention's web-site. Here is a link to Gus Elowitz in the "MinisterSearch" of the South Baptist Convention web-site:
Click Here Gus Elowitz is clearly referred to as a Southern Baptist pastor by the Southern Baptist Covention's web-site. Here is a quote on their site regarding sponsoring churches, specifically trying to convert Jews and Arabs. "While peace between Arabs and Jews eludes world leaders, two Southern Baptist pastors, one a messianic Jew, the other a native of Jordan, say the answers can be found in Jesus Christ.
During a Feb. 22 national conference on starting new churches, each pastor committed his congregation to sponsor a new church that will focus primarily on reaching the other's people. Messianic Rabbi Gus Elowitz of the Beth Yeshua congregation in Houston says his commitment has nothing to do with middle eastern politics....
The commitment ceremony, held during the Home Mission Board's national conference for church planting leaders, was designed to serve as a model for other churches according to Russell Begaye.
"We wanted other believers to be enthused, encouraged and challenged to start a church among people they may not understand..."
Here is the link to the proof, the quotes come from the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th paragraph: Click Here At the June 1998 annual convention meeting, Elowitz proposed a motion. Actually, the motion was a procedural issue, and had nothing to do with Messianic Judaism. The motion was "6) require that all resolutions proposed by messengers to annual meetings be presented for floor votes -- Gustave Elowitz, Beth Yeshua Ha Mashiach, Houston."
The very fact that Elowitz was able to pass a motion at the Southern Baptist Convention's meeting is clear evidence that Beth Yeshua is a Southern Baptist Church. Here is the link to the proof. Elowitz's motion is under "Eight other motions were also referred to the Executive Committee: " about half-way down the page: Click Here Actually, Gus Elowitz was a major leader in the Southern Baptist movement. He was the Vice-President of the North American Messianic Association, the Messianic branch of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here is the link to the proof of this: Click Here Moreover, he was the contact person for Southern Baptist interested in planting "Messianic" congregations. Here is some quotes from the site: "There is an urgent need to evangelize and disciple new Jewish believers and brethren that are new to messianic lifestyle, as part of the overall Southern Baptist "great commission" thrust. As Southern Baptists, we must intensify our efforts in establishing Southern Baptist theologically based Messianic/Jewish Synagogues for a ministry to the Jewish communities of America. Light Up The Nation is an opportune time to do this......There are secondary messages that are important to the Jewish people. But, remember a steady diet of (Jewish Roots) any of these issues will stunt the growth of the Messianic synagogue...For information on planting Messianic synagogues contact Rabbi Gus Elowitz ..."
In sum, the Southern Baptists need to evangelize Jews, talking too much about Judaism will hurt the message, and talk to Gus Elowitz for more information. Again, it is clear that Elowitz and Beth Yeshua are a missionaries to the Jewish people from the Southern Baptist Convention Here is the link to the proof. The quotes come from the 1st paragraph, the 3rd to the final paragraph and the final paragraph: Click Here Jim Pratt took over as the leader of Beth Yeshua after Gus Elowitz died. He announced his new position on Bibleforums Christian Message Boards and Forums, a decidedly non-Jewish website: Click Here Now, I have had the chance to interact with Jim Pratt on a couple of occasions, as he stood across the street from the Houston Jewish Community Center trying to get new converts. There are a few things you realize quickly when speaking with Pratt. First, he does not know Hebrew. He even spelled "Yeshua" wrong in Hebrew on his Bible cover. For an example of this, here is a video of him pretending to speak Hebrew. I, and everyone I know who speaks Hebrew were dying of laughter listening to his incredibly bad job at faking Hebrew: Click Here Second, he does not know the Bible. Listening to him confuse the sin sacrifice and peace sacrifice was simply sad. Third, he also has no problem with dishonesty to all people such as when he was caught lying to the police. Here is an article on this topic:Click Here Incidentally, Beth Yeshua is also quoted in the Southern Baptist Convention's magazine, "OnMission.com." Nine paragraphs from the bottom of the page you can find a member of Beth Yeshua being quoted in an article on trying to convert Jews.Click Here The Schedule There is even more evidence that they are a Christian group in their Weekly Schedule. Sunday their activity is "L-rd's Day Evangelism" as per their online schedule:
Click Here What is L-rd's Day? The answer to this question is the answer as to why Christian's celebrate Sunday as their Sabbath instead of Saturday. The reason has to do with the story of Jesus' supposed rising from the dead. Here is an article from the Catholic site "New Advent" that explains the concept, in an essay on how Sunday became the Christian day of worship:
Click Here As for Beth Yeshua, L-rd's Day Evangelism involves putting up a banner across the street from the Houston Jewish Community Center, handing out tracts on the sidewalk and trespassing on the JCC property to place tracts in the JCC facility. Statement of Faith If you go to the Beth Yeshua HaMashiach's Statement of Faith, you will find that it is almost identical to the statement of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention! They believe in the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost), Jesus being a virgin, and other typical Christian beliefs. If you compare their beliefs to Christian groups, they are identical! So let's do the comparison. The first link is to the Beth Yeshua web-site, the second is to the "Baptist Faith and Message" from the Southern Baptist Convention. You will notice that Beth Yeshua's statement is a shortened version of Southern Baptist beliefs:
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And Click Here When you look at both statements of faith, you will see that they attempt to use the Jewish Bible to prove their points. Unfortunately, both groups absolutely mis-represent and mis-translate the Bible. If you scroll down to my "Great Sites, Priceless Information" section, particularly to Messiah Truth, Outreach Judaism, Jews for Judaism and to An Answer from Rabbi Stuart Federow in my section "Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus", they address the verses that Beth Yeshua and the Southern Baptists use and how they are making huge errors. Also, in my original essays I review some of Messianic Jewish prophecy and how it is clearly wrong (This same advice holds for their "Messiah Prophecies" section-for instance, they attempt to use Micah 5:1 as a prophecy proving Jesus in their sub-section "Birth of the Messiah." I demonstrate how they are mis-representing the verse in my essay "Jesus of Bethlehem", which you can find if you go to the top of this page, click "HOME" then "Essays"). Christian Listing Beth Yeshua has listed an upcoming event in the Houston magazine, "Christian Events". They are on page 12 at the bottom, second column under "Sat-Nov. 3": Click Here Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus There are many reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus, and the links below are some of the better explanations on this topic. Of course, if you have questions that are not covered on the links, you can always e-mail me with your questions. An Answer from Rabbi Stuart Federow Click Here
An Answer from Rabbi Shraga Simmons Click Here Ask the Rabbi from Ohr Somayach Click Here Rabbi Tovia Singer Click Here Countermissionary Counseling There are a number of groups that provide Countermissionary Counseling. Here are links to a few of them:
Jews for Judaism
Torah Atlanta
Outreach Judaism
Torah Life and Living Great Sites, Priceless Information
Here are a number of great sites that counter missionaries and explain the differences in belief between Judaism and Christianity, including addressing the Biblical verses that missionaries try to use against the Jews and explaining why the missionaries are incorrect. For the most in-depth analysis of verse by verse questions, go to Messiah Truth (sections on Counter-Missionary: Multi-media training [this can be read without being "multi-media"], Knowing Your Orchard and Judaism's Answer), Jews for Judaism (in their Reference Section (please note that the Isaiah topics tend to be under "Suffering Servant" part of the "Proof Text" section) and the Q & A section of Outreach Judaism. Outreach Judaism Messiah Page Messiah Truth Jews for Judaism Torah Atlanta Counter Missionary Reference Kosher Judaism Escape From Counterfeit Judaism Talking to Kids About Missionaries
Contact Me I am more than happy to answer any questions regarding why Jews do not believe in Jesus or on Jewish beliefs in general. Feel free to e-mail me. There is no such thing as a "stupid question".
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