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Can A Jew Be An Atheist?

T

Tonight

Member
I read something on the Internet the other day that surprised me. I did not know a Jew could be an atheist. I was taught that all Jews were saved because of their special place in God's heart and simply believing in God was enough. Now, I'm curious.

Does a Jew need to accept Christ to be saved?
 
Believing in God is not enough. Note what James 2:19 says:
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
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What is enough is faith, and the works which automatically accomapny that faith, as described in James 2:14-17:
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
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Belief is one step. Faith is the actual step that gets you saved, but works accompany faith, becasue faith withoud deeds is dead.

A Jew is like anyone else - they need fatih just like anyone else. The old covenant about God and Israel (Jews) had ended, and we are in a new covenant. Christ can to seek and to save everybody.
 
Tonight said:
I read something on the Internet the other day that surprised me. I did not know a Jew could be an atheist. I was taught that all Jews were saved because of their special place in God's heart and simply believing in God was enough. Now, I'm curious.

Does a Jew need to accept Christ to be saved?
Click to expand...
not all Jews will be saved - yes, they need to accept Christ in order to be saved.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
 
Can a Jew be an atheist? Yes! Jesus was and is Deity, scriptures may be multiplied on the issue. For example, Jn.8:24 where He says if we believe not that He is we shall die in our sins. What shall we call one who does not believe in Him?

God bless
 
Jews believe in God. So that makes them not an athiest. However, they would not believe in the trinity (the spirit and Jesus) parts of the Godhead, so that's where it gets a little tricky.

In addition to what Caroline said, read Hebrews. This deals with the Jewish faith versus the Christian faith.
 
Tonight said:
I read something on the Internet the other day that surprised me. I did not know a Jew could be an atheist. I was taught that all Jews were saved because of their special place in God's heart and simply believing in God was enough. Now, I'm curious.

Does a Jew need to accept Christ to be saved?
Click to expand...


Absolutely, a Jew needs to accept Jesus Christ in order to be saved. We all need to.
 
Nick said:
Jews believe in God. So that makes them not an athiest. However, they would not believe in the trinity (the spirit and Jesus) parts of the Godhead, so that's where it gets a little tricky.

In addition to what Caroline said, read Hebrews. This deals with the Jewish faith versus the Christian faith.
Click to expand...
being of hebrew descent myself. not all jews are jews in practice. i know of fellow hebrew soldier in my unit named (last name) malach that is an athiest.

most jews in america are liberal and dont believe in the god of the bible. even like the orthodox ones do.
my dad was raised in the temple , but i wasnt. my grandma still attends though not all the time. my grandpa harry(deceased) used to teach hebrew and could read it and write it.

they were very liberal and pro democrat, this is typical of the most of the jews in america. i have meet very few consertive jews. :shame
 
Hi Jasoncran

On a trip to Israel our guide was an orthodox Jew and mayor of the town in which he lived. He said about the same thing as you.

God bless,
 
when you say a jew to me, its the nationality not the religion. i would rather best be called of hebrew descent as that is more acurate. a gentile can become a jew in some temples.
 
duval said:
How much disbelief in the "Godhead" does it take to make one an atheist?
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The answer to the OP (and the quoted post here) can only really be answered properly if a few things are first discussed and then concluded upon:
1) what is meant by atheism in this context; and
2) what is mean by Jew in this context

See that's my point - Atheism is a disbolief in God. No Godhead is mentioned. Now a Muslim believes in God, but not the 'Christian God' (or Godhead). So they don't believe in the Godhead / Trinity, but they do believe in a God. This means that they are not an atheist. So when we're talking atheists, I automatically assume that an atheist disbolieves in the existance of a God / supernatural being(s).

Now comes the question which was inspired by a post by Jason - are we here referring to a Jew by descent, or a Jew as in a practising Jew? It kind of reminds me of the "big 'C'" and "little 'c'" Christian - the one that calls themselves a Christian becasue they grew up in a family with "Christian values" who went to church on Easter and Christimas and they just cruise along, as opposed to the actual Christian - the Christian of faith.

When the question was posed in the OP, I automatically though Jews of religious belief, rather than Jewish from descent.

If the question means Jewish from descent, then I would answer that - like anyone else in this position - they certainly can be an atheist. However, if the question means Jewish in religious terms, then I would suggest that a devout orthadox Jew who believes in the Old Testament cannot possibly be an atheist.

We can tie the arguement in the above paragraph to Christians. Drawing of the illustration of "big 'C'" and "little 'c'" Christians from earlier on in this post, we see that the little c Christian is one of descent (but not as gene-wise as the Jew) and does not really have faith, but rather more of a tolerance. Therefore the little C Christian can very much be an atheist. But contrast this to the big C Christian, who are men of faith. They cannot possibly be atheists.

So I make the same arguements between the different types of Jews and Christians, and how they relate to atheism.
 
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