After contributing to the miraculous healing of a man assumed permanently disabled, Peter proclaims his faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, saying –
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Recently, Ann Coulter raised a stir claiming that Christians are “completed Jews”. The Jewish talk show host on whose program she made the comment was greatly offended, as were many who have since responded.
When I heard of this, my mind went back to a person who once used this phrase, “completed Jew” years ago. Corrie ten Boom was a devout Christian living in Amsterdam during the time of the Nazi uprising. She and her family became actively involved in the resistance movement, harboring countless Jewish refuges, saving them from certain death.
For their efforts, 4 of Corrie’s family died at the hands of the Nazis. Corrie herself was placed in a concentration camp but was liberated before being “exterminated”.
While Corrie ten Boom believed that salvation was only to be found in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this did not prevent her from treating her Jewish brothers and sisters with tremendous respect, valuing their lives even above her own.
Today, there is a tree planted in the “Garden of Righteousness” within the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem in memory of her.
Our faith in Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, should not cause us to look down on those of other faiths, but to, like Corrie ten Boom, show them the sacrificial love that Christ has shown us.
Good story! Yeah, I heard about Ann Coulter’s Comments and personally was pleased that she said it. Reason: it’s the truth, from The Word. Obviously, that’s the issue. Jews only “prescribe” by the Pentateuch, leaving out the New Testament, which as Paul Harvey would say is, “the rest of the story.”
Actually, brother Kurt, Ann Coulter’s offensive words are not “the truth.” Even as a Christian I was offended that she maintained that her position was “the” Christian position when it is not–it represents one strand of a type of Christianity, and, in my opinion, not a biblical one. If your concern is not to “leave out the New Testament”, then re-focus attention on Romans, chapters 9 - 11. Paul says nothing about is being completed Jews, a truly monstrous description. What he says is that Israels’ rejection has been the means by which Christians have been “adopted” into the family–a family which is still in tact, because “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” Rom. 11:29. The imagery Paul uses here is not that the Jews are now out and Christians are in, but that Christians have been adopted or “grafted” in to God’s elected people, who will remain God’s chosen people. Rather that fret about the salvation of the Jewish people, we would do well to remember Paul’s admonition here that “it is not you that support the root (Israel), but the root that supports you,” and also be thankful that God is a God of grace, and when God makes a promise, as God did to the Jewish people, that promise can be trusted in life and in death.
The Pistol fires back: Point well made. Faithful Christians do differ on this view. My main point was to show that the person making the statement makes a major difference in how the message is conveyed and received. It’s one thing for Corrie ten Boom, who risked her life to save Jews, to talk about “completed Jews” and quite another for Ann Coulter, in the comfort of a television studio, to do the same.
I remember many years ago reading ‘The Hiding Place’ and other books by Corrie Ten Boom. What a great lady for Christ.
I remember laughing and crying, the emotions the book brought out made me want to know more about World War 2 and the atrocities wrought by man.
Thank you for bringing back memories of Corrie and her great example of love and forgiveness.
could you be any sicker and still stay out of jail?
The Pistol fires back: I’m not sure what your question has to do with this post. I will say, however, that I’ve been pretty sick for some time and, as yet, have not landed in prison. But, you never know.