Many people are looking to explore Messianic Judaism. Are you? Ayts Chayim is a messianic congregation in Boca Raton led by Ira Brawer. However, you may be suprised to learn that Ayts Chayim is not a Jewish organization at all, but a Christian congregation! I will demonstrate this, using information from their site and other Christian sites. Each time, reference links will be provided, so that you may see the evidence with your own eyes.
The Rabbi Ayts Chayim is led by Ira Brawer, who advertises himslef as a "Messianic Rabbi." In his biography, he acknowledges that he left Judaism and was brought to Jesus through American Board of Missions to the Jews (which is a Christian ministry founded by a man who lied about being a rabbi...feel free to e-mail me for more on ABMJ). So, after this Brawer decided to attend Colorado Christian University. Just by the name of the University, we can be sure that Judaism was not the main focus of his studies. Here is the link to his biograph, the information on his college education is from the 12th line on the page:
Click Here This is how Colorado Christian University views itself: "As an institution of evangelical Christians, we believe that our faith in Christ is a living faith that bears visible fruit as, through God's grace and empowering, we gradually grow in likeness to Jesus." Again, this is not a school that a real Jewish rabbi attends, this is a school for practicing evangelical Christians. Here is the link to the quote:
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Christian Evangelists Welcome Ayts Chayim is very much active with various Christian evangelists, something a real Jewish group would never do. For instance, they are listed as a host church for the Boca Raton Revival for Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne of Revival Ministries International. Revival Ministries International is as Christian evangelical as you can possibly get. Hree is the link to the proof, you will notice that Ayts Chayim is the first listing in the "Boca Raton Host Churches" section at the top right-hand side of the page:
Click Here Ayts Chayim hosted Georgian Banov at their congregation. The Thomas family decided to put pictures of the event on their family webpage. Here is the link to the pictures:
Click Here Georgian Banov is a popular Christian performer. According to his web-site, Banov's history is as follows: "Georgian Banov was born in communist Bulgaria. As a teenager, he was a founding member of the first official rock 'n roll band in the country. He escaped the iron curtain and was mightily saved after coming to the United States. It was during the tale end of the Jesus Movement in 1974 that he had a powerful encounter with Christ in Southern California.
Soon after getting saved, he became a leader of a Contemporary Christian band called, Silverwind, in the1980's. He was also the co-writer and co-producer of famous children classics, such as Music Machine, and Bullfrogs and Butterflies, which sold over 3.5 million, copies worldwide and earned Grammy & Dove Awards.
Georgian and Winnie have been ordained ministers for over 20 years - since 1979. They have been in itinerant ministry traveling worldwide doing meetings from churches to stadium-size crusades in the United States Africa, East and West Europe, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.
They have been annual Conference speakers at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship for the last five years. Recently, they conducted nine months of meetings in St. Petersburg, Florida in a Church of God, where revival broke out in October 1999."
Banov is an ordained Christain minister looking to spread Christianity. A real Jewish congregation would never host them! Here is the link to Banov's history:
Click Here Ayts Chayim even advertised for the Banov's performance through the International Revival Network, another Chrstian evangelical group. Here is the link to the advertisement:
Click Here Not surprisingly, Ayts Chayim is consulting Charis Church Building, Inc., as the goal of Charis Church is: "Charis Church Builders, Inc. provides consulting, design, and construction project management for Christian congregations desiring to expand God�s Kingdom. Realistically, a real Jewish congregation would not consult this company for help. Here is the link to the Charis website, the quote is from the Overview section and at the bottom of the page Charis lists Ayts Chayim as their client-Ayts Chayim is the 15th listing:
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Overall, as a Christian congregation, Ayts Chayim has associated itself with other Christian evangelicals, not real Jewish organizations.
Christian Bibles If you look at the left-side of the Ayts Chayim webpage, you will notice that there is a drop-down menu where it says "On-Line Bibles." Interestingly, every single Bible and Biblically-related commentary it connects you to are Christian! Whether it be the King James Version, New International Version, the Darby Bible, etc., they are all Christian translations, not Jewish! A real Jewish group would never do this:
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Christian Links If you look at the right-side of the Ayts Chayim webpage, they have links to "Some of our Friends." Certainly, we can learn a great deal about an organization by the friends they keep. For instance, the first link is to Adonai Roi Congregation. The pastor of Adonai Roi is Avi, a man born Jewish who converted to Christianity and was trained at Christ For The Nations Institute, an evangelical Christian organization. Here is the link to the Adonai Roi web-site, you will see in the first paragraph about his education through Christ For The Nations:
Click Here So who is Christ For the Nations? Well, according to their President: "Christ For The Nations is an interdenominational missionary organization founded by my dad and mom, Gordon and Freda Lindsay. Our goal is to obey the Great Commission. We are endeavoring to do that in several ways.
With donations from our generous sponsors, we've helped build over 11,000 Native Churches."
Christ For The Nations is a Christian school that trains Christian leaders. Pastor Avi is a Christian leader looking to convert more people to Christian beliefs...and Ayts Chayim considers him a "friend!" Here is the link to the above quote:
Click Here Similarly, under Nicaragua they list Pastor Daniel Ortega Reyes. Pastor Reyes is a minister for Fore Christ, Inc., part of the Family Christian Network. Here is the link to his listing at Fore Christ, Inc.-he is under "Nicaragua":
Click Here True Jewish organizations do not advertise for Christian ministries on their webpage, like Ayts Chayim has chosen to do so.
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 An Answer from 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 Alternatively, you can call them at 1-800-4PROOF1 with general questions about missionary claims.
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. Messiah Page Messiah Truth Jews for Judaism Outreach Judaism Counter Missionary Reference Torah Atlanta Messianic Verses in Tanach Kosher Judaism Escape From Counterfeit Judaism Talking to Kids About Missionaries
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