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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week released a document titled Reflections on Covenant and Mission, which said Christians should not evangelize Jews. "[The] evangelizing task no longer includes the wish to absorb the Jewish faith into Christianity and so end the distinctive witness of Jews to God in human history," the bishops said. " Thus, while the Catholic Church regards the saving act of Christ as central to the process of human salvation for all, it also acknowledges that Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God."

Newspapers quickly pointed out that this statement goes far beyond earlier Catholic statements on whether Christians should seek the conversion of Jews to Christianity—and that it's at odds with the theology and evangelistic commitments of most evangelicals.

But what do evangelicals really believe about the Jews? Does God's covenant with the Jews still hold? Should evangelicals give Jews more emphasis in evangelism strategies? Should the Holocaust make us rethink the way Christians relate to Judaism?

These questions were discussed at a 1989 meeting in Willowbank, Bermuda, of evangelical theologians from around the world. The document that came out of that meeting—since widely accepted by evangelicals worldwide—brought national media attention because of its stances that Jews still need Jesus, and Christians should still tell them about their need for him.

The following is Christianity Today's report following the controversy over the Willowbank Declaration. It appeared in our October 8, 1990 issue.

Does the Holocaust change the context for Christian evangelization of the Jews?

When thousands of evangelical pastors, theologians, teachers, and other Christian leaders gathered at Lausanne II in Manila last year, the outcome was a significant theological declaration, the Manila Manifesto. Lausanne II's highly professional press office issued daily releases about developments during the ten days of meetings.

Just months before, a small group of 15 evangelical scholars met in Willowbank, Bermuda, under the sponsorship of the World Evangelical Fellowship, to draft a two-page, theological document on the appropriateness of Christians evangelizing Jews. The gathering did not enjoy the services of a full-time press office.

Guess which group got more press coverage?

Journalists, after all, love a fight. The Manila Manifesto looked like a lot of gray prose, and religious prose at that. There is no story in theology.

However, when Rabbi A. James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee deplored the "Willowbank Declaration on the Christian Gospel and the Jewish People" as nothing less than "a blueprint for spiritual genocide," religion reporters all across the country knew that they would not have to cover parish bake sales that week.

Why did the Willowbank Declaration receive such a heated response? Why did Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the Holy Land Fellowship of Christians and Jews lament that the document sets Christian thinking on Judaism back 20 years?

A look at the theological trends that prompted the Willowbank Declaration provides the answer. Such trends were summarized in the declaration's preamble:

Some church leaders have retreated from embracing the task of evangelizing Jews as a responsibility of Christian mission. Rather, a new theology is being embraced which holds that God's covenant with Israel through Abraham establishes all Jews in God's favor for all times, and so makes faith in Jesus Christ for salvation needless so far as they are concerned.

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August (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46