Some think that Jews stop being Jewish if they believe in Jesus, as if faith in the Messiah somehow cancels Jewish identity, but that’s not right. There are plenty of Jewish people in Israel coming to faith and becoming even more Jewish than they were before!
Jewish people believe all kinds of things and remain Jewish: there are Orthodox Jews and secular Jews, those who are into New Age and “Bhu-Jews” who practice Buddhism. There are skeptics, agnostics and even atheists who say they don’t believe in anything at all. Why would believing that Yeshua, from the tribe of Judah and the line of David, is the Messiah disqualify someone from their God-given Jewish identity?
If our gender remains the same after finding faith, why on earth would we suddenly switch category from Jewish to Gentile or vice versa? There is no difference when it comes to our status before God — we are all equal in His sight, with equal access, but we remain male or female, and we also keep the ethnicity we were born with. If you’re part of the tribe then that’s that.
Believing in the Jewish Messiah is one of the most Jewish things a son of Israel can do.
You wouldn’t believe what is happening in Israel…
The people of Israel have a unique part to play in God’s purposes as becomes clear especially in Romans 9-11, where we are told “All Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25). It’s a truth repeated throughout the whole Bible, and a prophetic certainty we wait for expectantly. Faith in the Messiah doesn’t detract from the promised destiny of Israel but rather fulfills it!
The exciting news is that we are starting to see the beginnings of this prophecy coming to pass in our days.
“Something’s happening within the religious community today that hasn’t been happening really since, I would say, almost since the first century,” Jeff Morgan reported. “We see a lot of Orthodox Jews not necessarily leaving Orthodoxy, but accepting Jesus as their Messiah while still staying Jewish.”
Jeff, a Jewish health and fitness influencer who came to faith together with his wife and children in 2019 partly due to the videos of ONE FOR ISRAEL. Today he has his own ministry called Highway 53 and has been going out on the streets of Israel with Dr. Golan Broshi from the ONE FOR ISRAEL Bible college. He recently told CBN some of the things they are hearing and seeing:
I’m in Jerusalem, and I’m interviewing people, and this gentleman pulls me aside, and he says, “Can I talk to you?”
“I need to tell you that your videos and other ministries have had a massive impact on my life and I’ve become a follower of Jesus. But don’t take my picture. Don’t put me on video, because I still live in the Jewish community.
I just wanted to let you know that a buzz is going on right now in the Orthodox community.”
“I was blown away. And that’s not the first time I heard that… that right there made my entire day,” said Jeff.
We have also been hearing similar reports of groups of Orthodox Jewish people studying John’s gospel, of synagogues speaking well about the teaching of Yeshua and encouraging others to read the New Testament. It’s hard to know just how far it goes, but the fact that our YouTube channel in Hebrew is one of the most popular in Israel, with way more than a million subscribers, is an indication that many more are interested that it might seem on the surface.
Yes, you can believe in Jesus and stay Jewish!
Jeff and his family were secular Jews living in America but he got increasingly lost going deeper and deeper into New Age spirituality. His story back to the Father is wonderful, and we’re delighted that our videos had a significant part to play, especially for his Israeli born wife, Yael:
“One of the biggest things that my wife was having trouble with was, how can she be Jewish and believe in Jesus? Because everything that she’d heard of at that time was, Jesus is not for the Jews. And so she was wrestling with that, and she came upon videos from ONE FOR ISRAEL… testimony videos of Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus,” Jeff explained.
“These guys put out the most amazing testimonial videos… of Jews finding their Jewish identity in Jesus Christ, who we call in Hebrew, Yeshua. This channel, ONE FOR ISRAEL, I have to give them shout out because the work they do is absolutely amazing… I can be Jewish AND believe in Jesus! I can do this!”
In his own testimony which he later recorded with ONE FOR ISRAEL, Jeff recalled,
“We felt life. For the first time, we felt life, and it was at that moment that my wife and I got on our knees, and we gave our lives to Jesus, Yeshua. And I knew that Jesus was the only one.”
But it didn’t stop there — not only did Jeff and Yael decide to follow Yeshua as Lord, but their entire family followed suit!
The Morgan family moved to Israel and Jeff studied at our Bible college as he found his feet in the faith. Today He goes on the street, taking the good news that saved his own life, and shares the truth about Jesus with his fellow Israelis.
“I’m on the streets all the time. And I’m, you know, a secular Jew with a very Jewish upbringing, but when the Orthodox Jew goes out on the streets and shares the same message, imagine what’s going to happen!” he exclaimed, adding categorically: “Yes we stay Jewish.”
