The Jewish Calling

The Jewish Gospel

By Dan Baxley

There is a growing awareness and conflict between Jews and Christian Missionary works directed toward the Jewish community.  Bringing Jews to the Christian Christ is nothing new but with the new era of unlimited communications, like the internet, cell phones that are actually mini computers we have tools breaking into areas once forbidden, or at least limited. 

The once closed circles of the Orthodox and Ultra Orthodox Jew is being cracked by this rapid expansion of internet use and cell phone video and internet access.  To combat this intrusion into the Jewish communities by the Christian zealots wanting to save the Jew from Hell Fire (not something I believe) there is a backlash shaping up in a counter movement in the Jewish community as a defense against these Christians set out to convert the Jew.

Let me say, to all that will listen – only YaHshua can call or reveal our Heavenly Father, and it is only the Father that can call you to the Christ, the Messiah of the Scriptures.  Argue all you want but the true conversion of the mind into accepting YaHshua as Messiah is from above.  You may be the tool used but it is not by your words or force of argument that will change the heart of the unconverted. 

To call a devote Jew “unconverted” is an insult in itself, I admit, but it is not meant as an insult.  When a Jewish person comes to the knowledge and acceptance of YaHshua as Messiah the awakening is dramatic and to the other Israelites this person is assumed to have gone crazy – how else could it be explained?  Others, however, seeing their fellow Jew shift in thought and action concerning this Christian Messiah do begin to wonder and even marvel at how this could be.  Others, also, become angry and want to shout down anyone that would dare mention the name of the Christian Messiah in their denial.

Christian missions and Evangelicals can present all of the proof verses they want but to a knowledgeable Jew, well versed in the Scriptures, arguments can be presented dispelling the YaHshua as having fulfilled the, so called, proof verses.  The verses of Scripture used to prove YaHshua was and is who He claimed to be are only good and important to the believer, or the Jew being called. 

There are movements afoot, among the Jewish community, designed to fight against this intrusion by Christian workers wanting to save the Jew.  First the Jew of the Jewish religion does not see why he or she needs saving, after all, they are the people of the Book, not the Christians.  They look at the Christians and see a bunch of pagans preaching a Greek god that was once a Jew.  They are right in this as most Christians have forgotten YaHshua was born a Jew, and His disciples were all Jews, and the first converts after Pentecost (some 3,000 converted in one day) were all Jews.  Gentiles have taken over this Jewish based  religion preaching a Jewish Messiah, and taken on a whole new and different look.  The Roman influence and the process of changing anything Jewish into something else.  The Christians based their new religion into the old religion of the old world, of the pagan world and patterned the customs, traditions, and priesthood after the fashion of the Babylonian religion of the ancients.  Changing pagan names and customs into Christian names and connecting, or better yet, blending traditions with the Holy Bible.  It is this religion I think the devout Jew objects to, but there are some of the Messianic movement attempting to associate with this false Christian faith.  They, these Christians have merely traded on form of slavery for another, denying the freedom given them by the Holy Spirit.

So, why should the Jew listen to the Christian?  Some do, some young Jewish people are looking for the truth, they are searching the Word, but most are listening only to the Rabbi, which they should, but history of Jewish intelligence is not disputed and to witness a type of blind following is disturbing.  For those of us answering the call of our Lord it seems unreasonable the Jewish student of religion can so violently reject YaHshua, one of their own, and His teachings.  Yes, their friends and relatives think they are crazy, not because the friends and relatives have proven anything to actually deny the YaHshua as Messiah.  No, like many raised in Christian churches they have relinquished their lives to others, to those they think know more than they.  They give up their intellectual freedom becoming enslaved to a system and authority that is questionable. 

YaHshua Himself did not denigrate the office of the Pharisee but He did give a dyer warning, not to do as they do.  We all need to remember, the Pharisee, the Rabbi and the Scribe and Lawyers are but men, like you and me.  Put these men on a pedestal above yourself at your own peril.  Even Solomon said he could find but one man in his whole life that could be trusted.  This is not just a warning for your and me and anyone of any religion, Jewish or Christian or even Islam, but for those that would take on this office of overseeing the people of religion.  Those sitting in the seat of Moses should be very aware of their sitting on the edge of authority and of accountability for their attitudes, conduct, and what they teach. 

Here is a small example that is really becoming a big deal.  I have read and now heard a warning and attitude of disgust expressed by family members and others close to a Jew that has converted to YaHshua (Yeshua) as Messiah.  It is the expression that it is the Christians that were responsible for the Holocaust.  This is becoming more and more a feeling being passed around as an accusation against anyone that would dare join the Christian view of YaHshua as Messiah.  It is not the Christians that murdered millions of Jews in the death camps of Germany under the authority of Hitler.  Hitler was not a Christian convert and his henchmen were not either. 

If we are going to go back into the historical past we do see those claiming to be Christians tormenting the Jew and the Muslim as well as many others in a forced baptism on penalty of death.  These are pagan impostures having seized the EarthlyKingdom by force and going after the people of the Living God.  These past actions are not those of followers of YaHshua but of the evil on in attempts to destroy the chosen people of Israel.  When the Jewish religion suffers so do the Followers of YaHshua.  In Satan’s every effort to destroy the Jews many thousands and millions of true Christians and followers of YaHshua have been swept up also to suffer the same fate as the Jews.

While it is recorded 6 million lost their lives in the death camps of Nazi (not Christian) Germany there were an additional 12 million that is over looked.  Of this 12 million 6 million were avowed Christians and the remaining 6 million were a mixture of racial misfits (according the Nazi standards).  Yes, many millions of Jews were selected out as a single race of people to be exterminated.  Those Christians that lost their lives were not chosen for their race but for standing up against the Nazi threat.   Many Christians of the European pagan influence did go along with the vision of the Nazi party, only to regret it later.  But let’s not forget, one of the, if not the biggest protector of the Jewish Race is the United States of America and this nation is recognized as a Christian Nation.  There is, of course, many within its boarders trying to change this but for now the dominate religion of the USA is that of the Christian faith where the largest number of Jews live today.

This Idea, this false claim that it was the Christians trying to rid the world of the Jews is a lie.  Where would such an accusation come from, and accusation used against those coming to YaHshua as Messiah?  It is an extreme effort to make the believer in YaHshua to feel doubly guilty. 

The two Witnesses of Revelation 11 are going to one day stand up and be recognized and it is my firm belief these two, working under the Spirit of EliYaH will be Jews themselves.  It is my belief that it will be at that time many of the Jewish religion will witness the proof of YaHshua in the prophetic word as it happens and will indivisibly give glory and sing praise to Him. 

It is nothing unusual, as some suppose, for leaders in the Jewish religion to believe in YaHshua as Messiah.

(Act 15:5)  Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."

Here we see mentioned believers from the party of the Pharisees.  The argument was taking place concerning the Gentile converts, whether they should conduct themselves as the Jews, under the Laws of Moses.  It was a matter of customs and traditions.  We must not forget the first converts to YaHshua as Messiah were all Jews.  They did not abandon the Jewish religion, but did accept YaHshua as Messiah.  The question was divided into two positions, that the Gentiles should, in effect, convert to Judaism or not.  It was decided that they would not, that accepting YaHshua was enough, save a couple of rules concerning the drinking and eating of blood, a favorite the pagan way, and to be morally pure.  No other obligation was placed on the Gentile coming to the Messiah.  This, I am sure, caused many a Jew, in the faith, to be jealous, but this was the way it was and is. 

The Christians of today have bound themselves to the pagan way in their customs and many of their traditions -- this is a sad thing, indeed.  The true Christian and follower of YaHshua is not bound to the Old Covenant but to a New Covenant of freedom that is to last until the coming of the Kingdom to be established by YaHshua as King of Kings. 

I would challenge any Jew, of any of the numerous Jewish orders, to explain ZecharYah 14 to me or anyone else.  This is not from the Christian writings, as they like to call the New Testament.  No, this is from the Hebrew Scriptures, which the believer in YaHshua also hold dear and holy.  To my knowledge not one Christian, of the many different flavors, rejects the Hebrew Scriptures, written by Jews as was the New Testament – written by Jews and is an account of a Jewish man raised from the dead.

(Zec 12:9)  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

(Zec 12:10)  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. JPS

(Zec 12:10)  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. KJV

The future of the Jewish people and of the nation Israel is something the nations will marvel at.  The Messianic Jews are not the enemy but the friend of those our Creator calls the “apple of His eye”.  It is inevitable the people of Israel and all Jews to survive what is to come will praise YaHshua as King.  After all, most of the Jewish religion is still looking for the coming of a Savior, of a Messiah, and He is coming.

Peace, you servant, Dan