Category: Opinion

Hundreds of years ago, God the Father gave to Abraham—and his descendants—the land of Israel. He established an eternal and everlasting covenant with Abraham, promising that his seed, through Isaac and Jacob, would possess the land forever. Out of all the nations of the earth, He chose Zion to be His special people.

Yet Christians often wonder what their responsibility ought to be regarding Israel and the Jewish people. Some are indifferent toward or ignorant of the believer’s role in the nation’s history; others are opposed to lending their support because they don’t understand what such a commitment means.

Support of the nation of Israel does not mean a person endorses every political action of the government. Support of Israel means the support of biblical Zionism, and those who know the Bible know that it is not an option for the committed Christian.

Several years ago the Lord told Oral Roberts, “This is the hour Jewish people are being drawn to God.”

Proverbs 11:30 says, “He who wins souls is wise” (NKJV). Why? Because souls are the only thing we take to heaven. Earth is a war zone and the battle is for the souls of men. God’s order has always been to evangelize the Jew first. God started with Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.

Jesus followed this pattern as well. He said, “‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel'” (Matt. 15:24). The apostle Paul also spoke of the gospel’s being for the Jew first (see Rom. 1:16).

No matter how good your explanation is of the gospel, and no matter how well you know the Bible, if your Jewish neighbor doesn’t trust you, your witness will fail. But what makes a person trustworthy?

In my 35 years of talking to my people about the Messiah, I’ve found that the first step in gaining someone’s trust is honesty. This is especially true between Christians and Jews.

All Jewish people know that during the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition vast numbers of Jews were killed “in the name of Christ.” Even more so, many Nazis gassed Jews and went to church on Sunday. Many Jewish people have negative feelings about Christians, because of 2,000 years of anti-Semitism from those who named the name of Jesus.

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Even four weeks later, President Barak Obama’s Cairo speech is still reverberating in Washington, D.C. To his credit, the president used the speech to shatter an ugly myth when he confronted Holocaust denial.

But unfortunately, President Obama’s speech actually reinforced other dangerous myths about Israel’s history and the true obstacles to peace in the Middle East.

Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stepped up to set the record straight. And last week, two Democratic senators—Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey—added their voices to the chorus of correction. Taking on a popular president from your own party is never easy. It is therefore of great significance that these two Democrats felt the need to clarify that when it comes to the specifics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the president does not speak for the party.

The Messianic Action Committee (MAC) led the fight against two proposed laws meant to make Messianic Judaism illegal in Israel, and both of these proposals failed to become law in the land. Now, the MAC (under the name Action Committee for Messianic Judaism in Hebrew) has been officially recognized as an Israeli not-for-profit organization. This means that the government of Israel now officially recognizes Messianic Judaism!

This is really incredible news! Now, because Messianic Jews have stood their ground, Israelis will be faced with a decision. Is whatever type of Judaism they practice (or don’t practice) more true than our form of Judaism—Messianic Judaism?

Recently, several books have been published describing Messianic Judaism in a rather positive light. A new book, written by a rabbi and yet to be published, describes Messianic Judaism as a branch of Judaism. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw a sketch of a seven-branch menorah that included our brand of Judaism along with Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist.