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Our God
is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our Scriptures (both
Testaments) are the Jewish Scriptures, our Messiah is the Jewish
Messiah and the spiritual blessings we enjoy were promised to them
(Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:25-27 cf. Ephesians
2:11-22).
We must
point out that Jesus is the fulfilment of all that their prophets
foretold: Christianity is Jewish.
The Main
Point
It is not
enough to persuade a Jewish person to assent to the truth that Jesus
is the Messiah. Jewish people need to see first of all that they
fail to keep God's Law. It is not sufficient for them to do their
best; God requires absolute and unswerving obedience to his law
(Deuteronomy 27:26 28:1,58,59). Jewish people tend to think that God
will overlook their failures or forgive them on the basis of their
mitzvot (good deeds) and that so long as they sincerely repent of
sin they have forgiveness. We must show that God requires the
shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin (Leviticus 17:11; cf.
16:15-17,27,30).
Ask
questions
Never fall
into the trap of stereotyping Jewish thinking or beliefs. A good way
of starting any discussion is to ask leading questions about what
your Jewish friends or acquaintances believe: Do they attend
synagogue? What happens at Passover? Why don't they eat lamb at
Passover? Why don't they offer sacrifices today? How do they find
forgiveness since the destruction of the temple? Do they believe in
the coming of Messiah? How will they recognise him when he
comes?
Going
further
An abundance of
literature is available for helping Christians to witness to members
of cults and other religions but for many years little has been
produced to help Christians witness to Jews. Paul Morris, a
missionary with Christian Witness to Israel, has written "Telling
Jews About Jesus" in which he shares the lessons he has learned over
many years. Please contact us to order a
copy.
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