You Take Jesus, I'll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries

Rating:
Summary: Are you smart enough? ;)
Review: Bottom line, the facts of History do not back up the Ego of the Author. More time should have been spent viewing the opinions held, by way of the events held within. Is it not a Jewish tradition to..."Question what you believe"? This Author obviously hasn't.

Rating:
Summary: So very succulent! So very scholarly!
Review: Finally a book that speaks for "Judaism on its own terms" in response to Christianity. My desire to obtain a "pure" Jewish perspecive regarding Biblical scripture application has been greatly nurtured. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
Review: I find this work rather disturbing in that it would seem, at least according to the author, that the majority of Judaism holds Christianity in contempt and responsible for certain atrocities in history.

As one reviewer stated, "Although the Spanish Inquisition, crusades and the Holocaust are horrible reminders of Christian iniquity towards the Jewish people..." This clearly shows me that he is citing rhetoric rather that honest-to-goodness historical facts and it also hurts in the fact, if true, that all Jews would actually believe such things about the Holocaust.

Although Hitler was born and raised a Roman Catholic, he abandoned that faith very early in his life. He described himself as "a total pagan." He furthermore said that the kaiser had failed because he was a Protestant. He said, "But I will succeed because I know about this Roman Catholic thing, and I know how to control it."

In fact, Hitler had plans to destroy Christianity, which he considered the illegitimate offspring of Judaism. Once he extirpated the Jews, whom he described as "human bacteria," he would kill Christians, which he had already begun to do.

Perhaps I shouldn't be too alarmed in this. After all, Christianity has many misinformed and ignorant authors as well, such as those who deny the Holocaust ever happened.

I, for one, am a Christian Zionist and will always support Israel.

Rating:
Summary: Before considering Christianity, read this book!
Review: Levine's book is very short and has a simple message. Its main task is to assist any 'lost' Jews that may be considering 'the other side' i.e. Christianity. The tone of the book is set early on, Levine isn't too concerned about whether he offends the proponents of Christianity. He is quite blunt with regards to some of the points that he makes, however he assures the reader that he is not out to attack Christianity but instead is out to combat the menace of Missionary Christianity (specifically 'Jews for Jesus').

Levine divides his book into three main parts. The first deals with the verses that Christian Missionaries use in an attempt to convert unsuspecting Jews to the 'truth' of the Christian Messiah. The author analyses each pertininent verse adding personal comments and referring to other Jewish scriptural and non-scriptural sources. Some of his comments are speculative at best, for example his treatment of Josephus' writings about Jesus. He believes that the two 'lonely passages' that discuss him were interpolations (as suggested by one of his sources), and hence claims that there is no true evidence of Jesus' great ministry. Other comments he makes are more solid and are backed up by logic and evidence from scripture itself.

The second section is different from the first, in that it is pro-active in dealing with the missionary problem. It prepares the reader with some ammunition in the form of questions, that the missionary may have a few problems answering regarding Christianity. Some points he brings up include the difficulties of the trinity, faith versus works: why do we need the latter at all?, unfulfilled prophecies and the list goes on.

His final section is a collection of letters wherby he has a discussion with an actual Christian Missionary. This is an interesting approach to show the tactics used by missionaries to win converts. It is a lengthy correspondance that becomes heated at times, however it shows how pointless it is to argue with someone that has discarded logic, reason and critical thinking for blind faith.

Overall this book is a useful introduction to the very weak and unsubstantiated arguments offered by Christian Missionaries to convert unprepared Jews. Although most of his arguments are convincing, he sometimes goes to extremes with his constant reminders about early Christianity and its treatment of the Jews. Although the Spanish Inquisition, crusades and the Holocaust are horrible reminders of Christian iniquity towards the Jewish people, I believe it is possible to logically defeat Christian dogma without constantly appealing to past indiscretions. If you are looking for a good starting point into the arguments regarding Christianity, this is it. However, if you are looking for more substance check out some other books such as Aryeh Kaplan's _Real Messiah_, _The Jesus Puzzle_ by Earl Doherty and _The Jesus Mysteries_ by Timothy Freke.

Rating:
Summary: Just what I was looking for!
Review: Many books on religion are so hard to read, but this book was right to the point and very clear. The part in which the author explained the similarities between Christianity and mid-Eastern early pagan rituals was very interesting, as were the many examples of how Christian missionaries read Biblical verses out of context. I used to feel that Christianity had some logic behind their theology, but after reading You Take Jesus, I can understand why the early Jews, and many contemporary Jews, rejected Jesus as the Son of God. Well written, well thought out book.

Rating:
Summary: insightful, but a bit petty
Review: Mr. Levine's book is two things: 1.) informative and compelling, and 2.) petty and immature. Shame, too. His questions to missionaries are good questions, and his support of the jewish position is great, but his inability to separate his personal emotion from the discussion seems to weaken his credibility. Instead of reading like a scholarly dissertation on the validity of the classical jewish position, it appears more like his personal opinion. Also, he footnotes his personal opinions frequently, as if he's trying to convince the reader that the christian viewpoint is foolish or stupid, rather than conveying the rich and logical validity of judaism. In short, Levine's book is good, but it would have been great had he not stooped to name-calling and accusation.

Rating:
Summary: Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
Review: To the person who claims that the Christians were entirely blameless in the Holocaust: you are the ignorant one, not us. While Hitler did abandon Roman Catholicism, I hope you don't think Pope Pius XII ever did.

The Pope remained silent even while Nazi atrocities were in full swing. He consistently refused--despite repeated requests--to make public statements condemning the Nazi atrocities against the Jews. He even reassured Petain, when asked in 1941 if the Vatican would object to anti-Jewish laws in France, that the "Jewish statutes" were not in conflict with Catholic teachings. He also told representatives of the Third Reich that their attitude toward the Jews was a matter of "Germany's internal policy." He did not sanction a protest by Catholic bishops against anti-semitism. Nor did he intervene in the process by which Catholic clergy collaborated in racial certification to identify Jews. The list goes on and on ...

Before you say it's ignorant to cite the Christian indifference to and Christian involvement in the Holocaust, I recommend you read "Hitler's Pope" by John Cornwell and "Hitler's Willing Executioners" (the vast majority of whom considered themselves good Christians, by the way) by Daniel J. Goldhagen.