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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Hananya Naftali: A Missionary By Any Other Name (Judean Rose) (update)




The other day a friend posted a Hananya Naftali video on her Facebook page. Knowing she'd never knowingly post anything from a Messianic Christian missionary, I sent her a message telling her my suspicions about Naftali. But I didn't want to be spreading false rumors, so I decided to check with my new friend Shannon Nuszen to make sure I was being accurate.

Why Shannon? Because Shannon, once upon a time, was an evangelical missionary. Now she is 100% Orthodox Jewish, and living in Gush Etzion, not far from where I live. A board member of JewishIsrael, Shannon's about page says she "has spent her entire life studying and analyzing Christian scriptural arguments."

The page continues: "Shannon was immersed into the field of religious apologetics as a child by her father, a former 'Assemblies of God' minister. Traveling as an evangelist with her father, she learned the inner workings of the evangelical movement, and was exposed to the behind the scenes manipulation and many money making stage-show tactics. In the year 2000, Shannon engrossed herself into studying the Christian messianic movement, and was affiliated with some of the most deceptive missionary organizations that have unfortunately penetrated the Jewish world. Her background and history provide Shannon with an intimate knowledge of the Christian missionary agenda and the dangers it poses to the Jewish communities in Israel and the Diaspora."


Yup. Shannon was definitely the one to ask. And so I asked her, "Shannon, have you heard of Hananya Naftali? I'm fairly certain he's an undercover Christian missionary."

Shannon corrected me: "He's not undercover. He flat out admits as much," she said.

Oh, wow! I thanked her and rushed to tell my friend. She said, "Oy vey!" and hastened to remove the video from her Facebook page.

She sent me a report she'd written on Hananya Naftali and a video he created that leaves no doubt about his intentions. Featuring this clip on the JewishIsrael site led to Hananya Naftali reporting the organization for copyright violation to YouTube. Happily, Shannon and JewishIsrael won.

The original clip had a banner splashed across the screen which said: "IDF VS Christians."



Here's the description accompanying the clip: "Messianic Israeli YouTuber Hananya Naftali explores opposition and attitudes to jesus among his Jewish comrades in the IDF, and seeks the best way to share jesus with fellow soldiers."

I was really irked that I'd had suspicions about the guy for two years now and here people are still treating him as though he were a legit Jewish Israeli Zionist. People are still sharing his darned videos. They have no clue.

Why are they sharing his stuff? Because Hananya Naftali masquerades as a loyal Zionist Christian serving in the IDF. Which he is not. He's a missionary serving in the IDF, poisoning the minds of the Israeli youth stuck in tanks with the guy.

His fake out clips and blogs are all over the place. Like this one, that doesn't mention Jesus at all.



Sneaky. Which is what people have to do to trick you into joining their cults.

But his stuff is everywhere. While researching the topic to gather info for this column, in fact, I found a blog of Naftali's on the website of a pro-Israel foundation where I myself have blogged from time to time. I have a relationship with the founder of the organization so I asked her if she knew that Hananya Naftali is a missionary. She wrote back to thank me. She knew. She thought she'd removed every trace of his work from the website but had apparently missed that one.

Hananya Naftali: Raising Awareness

Raising awareness of this issue seems crucial

 Shannon said, "I tell every leader dealing with missionaries who say 'they're ok,' it should be a concern that their fundamental belief that Jews must be converted to Christianity (and by that, I mean accept Jesus as messiah—because they play with words on this subject). Any Christian who states they do not believe in proselytizing, should be required to publicly state that and vow not to do it. Seems simple, but the Christian generally will not do it, and if they do, they will quickly apologize, retract, and explain to their Christian supporters that they did not mean it."

Israel Today, a website geared to Christian missionaries didn't mince words in explaining that IDF vs. Christians video: "Naftali repeatedly uses the word 'Christian' for what most of our readers might consider a 'Messianic Jew,' but the fact is that the words are interchangeable linguistically, especially to a Hebrew-speaking audience.

"One solid point made by Naftali is that in Israel it is often best to be a witness first in deed, and only then in word. Most Jews have already been told about Jesus, but very few have actually seen his love demonstrated in the actions of the Church."

Um, yeah. We were too busy burying our dead. Like during the Crusades. Not to mention the pogroms.

The Church is, historically, the gift that keeps on giving it to the Jews.

Beware of Hananya Naftali. Tell everyone you know. See a clip of his on social media? Put a link to this blog piece in the comments.


He's as much a threat to our people as Arab terror.
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