by Dr. Howard Morgan
Introduction to “Of Whom do the Prophets Speak”
A word to our Jewish friends:
This book is not about “converting Jews to Christianity.” This book is not about changing your religion, rejecting beloved traditions or altering any part of your cultural identity as a Jew. It does not teach that Jews must leave their Synagogues, join a Church and become “Christians.”
This book is built on the foundational understanding that revelatory encounters with God are at the heart of authentic Biblical “conversion.” This supernatural experience with the Lord God of Israel is what the Patriarchs, true Prophets, Godly priests, Righteous Kings, and “ordinary” people, both Jews, and those from every nation throughout the ages, have also experienced.
This “conversion” is fundamentally not a change of “religion” but a change of one’s relationship with God. It is a change of your spiritual reality. It is what the Hebrew word “Teshuva” – “Repentance” is all about. Teshuva means “turning” from and “turning” to. It is “turning” from spiritual darkness to light, from the guilt and negativity of sin to knowing the freedom of the forgiveness of those sins. It is “turning” from hopelessness to hope, from doubt to faith, from self-focused living to genuinely desiring to fulfill the will of God in all things. It is “turning” from life without God to life with God!
My motive for writing this book is twofold. First, it is to help people whose lives have been changed by their encounter with Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew) to make a presentation to you about why they believe that Jesus is, in fact, the Jewish Messiah. This life-changing encounter creates a God given zeal to share with others the “Good News” of all that “Salvation in Jesus” means. They have discovered the “new life” that is promised in the Scriptures and made available by faith in the Messiah. My second motive is a desire to share with you those prophecies that I believe point to Yeshua in the Jewish Bible and ask you to consider “Of Whom Do the Prophets Speak?” Do they speak of Jesus, or someone else? If so, who might that be? Who else fulfills the prophecies?
The message of believers to you is essentially this: Your Messiah changed our lives. When we repented of our sins and received Yeshua as our Savior, Lord, and Messiah, your God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob assured us that our sins were forgiven. We have entered His “Spiritual Kingdom” and into a personal relationship with Him.
I have no desire to “convert” you to the Gentile religion of “Christianity.” In fact, there are many Gentile believers in Jesus who understand the essential “Jewishness” of Jesus and the entire New Testament, or New Covenant Scriptures (terms I use inter-changeably). They understand that it is they, as Gentiles, who have actually “converted” to a “Jewish religion.” They have entered into a relationship with the God of Israel, study His Scriptures, and seek to live a life of faith and obedience to His commandments.
As Jews, my wife Janet and I were profoundly changed when we had supernatural encounters with the God of our Fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He revealed to us that Yeshua/Jesus is, in fact, our Messiah.
Our hope and prayer is that you would prayerfully and seriously consider what you read here and not simply dismiss it. Ask the God of Israel if Jesus is really the Jewish Messiah. After all, it is only what He says that really matters, and His answer can change your life!
A word to our Christian friends:
To those who desire to share their faith in Jesus with the Jewish people an understanding of Jewish history is of utmost importance.
Because the Jewish people suffered an almost 2,000-year history of “Christian” anti-Semitism and persecution, they developed a system of Scripture interpretation that eliminates Jesus from reasonable consideration as the Messiah. To see Jesus/Yeshua in the Hebrew Scriptures brings a Jewish person to a crisis of faith and religious/ cultural identity. That revelation challenges the entire system of Jewish theology. It threatens the very identity and foundation of the “Jewishness” which has enabled the Jewish people to survive against the hate-filled onslaughts of those who claimed to represent “Christianity,” as well as many other persecutors.
As you share the Gospel, you must understand that the Jewish people have their own way of interpreting the Scriptures in general, and Messianic Prophecy in particular. Some Jewish people and Rabbis will object to our understanding and interpretations of the Scriptures with accusations that we are “cherry-picking” verses that look like they apply to Jesus. Others will say that our Messianic interpretations are like “shooting an arrow and then drawing a bulls-eye around it.”
Why, we must then ask, are there so many verses that can be “cherry-picked” or “encircled?” No other religious leaders or false messiahs can claim to have their life and ministry pre-written as prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures. If they could, they would have certainly tried to use them as proof of the authenticity of their claims.
The reason there are so many verses that can be applied as evidence of Jesus’ Messiahship is that they are fulfilled in Him. The truth is that all those verses, when connected, draw a very convincing picture that is seen clearly in the life and ministry of Yeshua. During His ministry, He often spoke of this, and after His resurrection, He “opened” the Scriptures to His disciples to explain how they spoke of Him.
Luke 24:25-27 “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
Luke 24:44-46 “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day,”
When sharing the Gospel with the Jewish people, you must be confident in the fact that the “Gospel itself is the Power of God unto Salvation” (Romans 1:16). The historical aberrant and counterfeit anti-Semitic “Church” never proclaimed the real life-giving Gospel of Salvation and Redemption to the Jewish people. The evil fruit of this Church is evidence that they never actually had it themselves.
What they did have, and what they did seek to violently force upon the Jewish people, was an aberrant “Christianized” religion that was a mixture of Greek Humanistic Philosophy, Roman “Emperor” style oppressive leadership, and Pagan beliefs. This “Church” was demonically inspired to violently demand that the Jews “convert” to their “religion” and renounce and reject anything and everything that made them “Jewish.”
But the Jewish people knew (and still know – even if they don’t believe it) that their God revealed Himself at Mt. Sinai when He made His Covenant with them and gave them His Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). I believe that at that moment God put an eternal identity as “Jews” deep within their DNA. Even if individuals don’t believe in God, or are not at all religious, because of the supernatural nature of that Covenant they have a deep inner identity that they are “Jews.” God has determined that the Jewish people are “chosen to be a people for His own possession” and that they are to be “a distinct people, not reckoned among the nations” (Deuteronomy 14:2; Numbers 23:9).
What would you have done (or would do today) in the face of persecution and death? Would you affirm your commitment to the covenantal promises of God in your own Holy Scriptures or would you “convert” to a foreign religion? Would you obey the “Sword of the Spirit” (the Word of God) or the Sword of Steel? Facing these tremendous pressures there were Jewish people who would not “convert,” even as others accepted that fate. The Rabbis built a theology to prove the erroneousness of the “Christianity” forced upon them and established as a fundamental principle[1] of Judaism a continual rejection of “Jesus” as a false Messiah.
However, the Scriptures remain true no matter how badly the Church has acted. The Hebrew Scriptures do proclaim the coming of the Messiah and how we can identify Him.
Understanding the Words “Missionaries” and “Conversion”
“Missionaries” and “Conversion” are two of the most powerfully negative words to the Jewish people. To them, a missionary is “someone who wants to convert us to Christianity and make us into Gentiles.” Some even refer to missionaries as “soul-stealers.” Conversion, or even considering Jesus as the Messiah, is believed to be an act of religious and spiritual “high treason.” A Jew who believes in Jesus is considered an apostate, a heretic, an idolater, and a “Meshumad” – a term that means a betrayer of his people. To “convert” is to reject your own “Jewishness,” i.e., your religion, history, traditions, and culture, as well as your family, friends and the entire Jewish nation. In short, you become a goy (a Gentile).
The Jewish people also see “conversion” as a betrayal of their ancestors because you are joining the religion that was not only their historical persecutors’ and murderers’, but the religion that was also responsible for the Holocaust, either directly by perpetrators who claimed to be “Christians” or indirectly by the Church’s acquiescence and silence.
To most Jews “conversion” is not an option. There is nothing about “Christianity” that is attractive, and its history toward the Jewish people is detestable. To the Christian, the Jewish person would say, “You have your religion; we have ours. You have your Bible; we have ours. You have your Pastors or Priests; we have our Rabbis. You have your Churches; we have our Synagogues. You have your holidays; we have ours. You have your beliefs; we have ours. Your religion is for the Gentiles; our religion is for the Jews. You have nothing we need or want, so please enjoy your religion and leave us alone.”
This kind of thinking reflects their understanding of “conversion” as changing religion, not one’s relationship with God Himself. It also reflects the deeply rooted sense of Jewish identity that is found even among the most secular, agnostic or even atheistic Jewish person who will say: “I was born a Jew, and I will die a Jew!” Whatever being a “Jew” means to them.
While there are many ways that Jews maintain their sense of identity and have varieties of opinions on just about every issue, Jewish people have universal agreement on these major issues:
✡ The survival of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel is paramount.
✡ There must never again be a Holocaust.
✡ “Christianity” is for the Gentiles.
✡ Jesus is not our Messiah, and He is not divine.
If the Jewish people accuse you of wanting to “convert” them, you must be very clear in explaining your motives. Tell them that you are motivated by the redemptive Love of God that has changed your life. Explain that it is the Jewish Scriptures that teach that the Jewish Messiah is the sin-bearer for Jew and Gentile alike and that faith in the Jewish Messiah doesn’t diminish one’s Jewishness but enhances it because it opens the door to a personal relationship with the God of Israel. Share how the Lord has inspired you to share the life-changing message of God’s offer of Salvation and Redemption in the Jewish Messiah.
If they say that Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah, you can tell him that God promised the Messiah to only one people, the Jews, and there is no such thing as a “Gentile Messiah.” Then you might ask if they know what the Hebrew Prophets said about the Messiah. This might open a door for you to share some Messianic prophecies with them. You might also mention that we can consider Abraham the first “missionary” because he was called to bring the message of the “One True God” to the world.
Explain that you understand all the negative things attached to the word “conversion” and that you are not talking about any of them. In fact, we are not talking about religion at all. All religions are human attempts to reach God through various kinds of self-effort. Rabbis often talk about prayer, studying the Torah and Talmud (Rabbinic commentaries), doing good works, keeping the Sabbath and eating only kosher food, as ways to “merit” God’s favor and blessings. You can share the New Covenant teaching that no one can ever be “good enough” or “do enough good works” to “merit” or “earn” salvation. Explain that salvation and eternal life is the “free gift of God’s grace” to all who turn from their sins and receive Yeshua as Lord and Savior (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8).
Explain that “conversion” refers to the Hebrew word “Teshuvah,” which can also be translated, “Repentance” or “Turning.” Make clear that real Biblical conversion is a supernaturally inspired trans-formation of heart that changes someone’s personal relationship with God and has nothing to do with changing religions or rejecting one’s heritage, culture or people. This supernatural work of God imparts a desire to repent of their sins, turn away from a self-focused lifestyle and creates an aspiration to live a life of faithful obedience to God’s will.
Becoming a Jewish believer in Jesus does not mean giving up anything about one’s “Jewishness.” Rather, the believer enters a personal relationship with God, gains the sure knowledge of the forgiveness of their sins, and has the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the very first message the Jewish Apostle Peter preached to the Jewish people gathered at the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he told the crowd to “Turn from sin (repent), return to God, and each of you be immersed (baptized) on the authority of Yeshua the Messiah (in the name of Jesus Christ) for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit)!” (Acts 2:38).
Real Biblical conversion brings us into a wonderful life-changing personal relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that produces an abundant life of peace, purpose, meaning, and joy. Explain that it’s not what they give up; it’s what they gain! This might be a great place to share what God has done in your own life.
Psalm 51:10-13 and Ezekiel 36:24-28 express what Biblical conversion is most poignantly:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be turned (converted) to you.”
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all the countries, and return you to your own soil. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit inside you;
I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit inside you and cause you to live by My laws, respect My rulings and obey them.
You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors. You will be My people, and I will be your God.”
Just Be a Witness
The Bible says that we ought to be able to make a “defense of the hope that is within us” (1 Peter 3:15). As “able ministers of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:6) we should be able to explain why we believe that the Messianic prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures identify Yeshua as the Messiah. Even as we share the Scriptures, we must always be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Remember that Yeshua said that no one would be able to believe in Him unless God revealed to them that He was the Messiah.
“Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17).
“No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44)
“He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.” (John 6:65)
May the Lord make us all people of wisdom and power as we share the Messiah with God’s “Chosen People” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).
If your witness about Jesus encounters resistance or rejection, don’t be troubled by it. Your job is not to convince anyone of the truth of the Gospel. Only the Holy Spirit can bring revelation about who Jesus really is. You have not been called to be a “soul-winner,” because only God can “win souls”!
When Proverbs 11:30 speaks of the “wise winning (or literally “taking”) souls,” it means a wise life is lived to help others in their spiritual journey. The picture I see is taking someone by the hand and escorting them toward God.
People who misunderstand this and think of themselves as a “soul-winner,” make the mistake of believing it is their responsibility to “convince” someone to believe. They set themselves up for unnecessary disappointment and frustration. We are not the “soul-winner.” God has not called you, anointed you, or made you to be a “soul winner.” That is His job. Your job is simply to be a witness of your faith in Jesus, to testify of what He has done in your life and share what the Scriptures proclaim. This is what the Lord has called and anointed you to do.
If people reject your testimony, that is simply none of your business. In a court of law, the witness is not upset if the jury doesn’t believe him. He is not upset if the attorneys, the judge, or the spectators don’t believe him. He simply says, “Believe it or not, that’s what happened, that’s what I witnessed. If you don’t want to believe me, that’s your choice, but I know what I know.” This should be your attitude as you share your faith with Jewish people. Show them the Love of God and move on to the next person who may be open to your testimony.
The blind man who was healed by the Lord Jesus in John chapter 9 was not troubled by the furor that his healing caused. He was healed! He could see! That was the only thing that mattered. He said in effect to his interrogators, “You’ve got problems with Jesus? Go to Him; I was blind, now I can see! Have you theological problems with Jesus being the Messiah? Go straighten them out with Him. All I can tell you is that He healed me! This may be a problem for you, but it is not a problem for me! Hallelujah, I can SEE!”
This story is a powerful lesson for us. What this man exemplified should be our attitude toward everyone we witness to. If someone has a problem with your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your testimony of what He has done in your life, that is their problem, not yours. You go on your way rejoicing! Don’t lose any sleep because someone is upset with you. Don’t be bothered because of other people’s responses to your witness. Just smile, love them and pray for them! Who knows how the Lord can use your witness sometime in the future? Perhaps He will use it to convict them of their sins and bring them to faith.
It is very important that you properly respond to their resistance and rejection. Do not let any negative thoughts and feelings fill your soul. Those negative thoughts and the negative feelings they create (like bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness), are open doors for demonic lies that will only exacerbate those thoughts and feelings (2 Corinthians 2:11). “Guard your heart,” says Proverbs 4:23, because “out of it springs forth the issues of life.” You only want love, and all the wonderfully positive things love produces, like peace and joy, to spring forth both into and out of your life! Amen!
Allow me to share a personal story. When I first became a believer, I shared the story of my encounter with the Lord with my friends. One of the gals was particularly hostile in her response to me. A few years later I got a phone call from her. She was inquiring about my faith. At first, I thought it was a prank. Then she said to me, “You’re the only true believer I have ever met,” and started asking me sincere questions. I had the privilege of “leading” her to the Lord, and she was baptized soon after that.
Why Do You Want to Go to Heaven?
When we pastored a congregation in Brooklyn, New York, we had weekly summer street evangelistic outreaches. Occasionally a Jewish person would engage us in conversation, and some were very adamant that they were going to Heaven. As I heard them say this, something was stirred in my spirit, so I started seeking the Lord about it. He said to me, “Why don’t you ask them why they want to go to Heaven? What do they expect to find there? Ask them if they love to worship God now? Do they love to pray? Do they love to study God’s Word? Do they love to talk about God and learn about God now? If they don’t love those things now, why do they want to go to Heaven?” I remember thinking, wow what a good answer! I knew it had not come from me!
I prayed that during our next outreach another Jewish person would tell me that they were going to Heaven. God answered My prayer when a group of Jewish people stopped to talk to us at our literature table. One of the women, again, very adamantly and confidently said that she was going to Heaven. I said, “Oh, that’s great,” but why do you want to go there?” They all looked at me very quizzically because no one had ever asked them that. I said, “What do you think you will find in Heaven?” Do you love to worship God now? Do you love to talk to God now? Do you love to talk about God? That’s what is going on in Heaven right now. Heaven is filled with people who love to express their love for God by singing to Him, listening to Him, and talking with each other about Him.” Are you sure you want to go to Heaven? Are you sure you’re going to like it? If you don’t like doing those things now, what makes you think you’re going to like it then?” They all looked at me stone-faced and slowly walked away. I knew I had given them something to think about.
People like to think they are going to Heaven. That’s fine; they can think whatever they like. But asking them these kinds of questions will prove to be very enlightening. I have heard Jewish people tell me after I asked these questions, “Well I guess I will go to hell where all My friends are.” These questions cause people to realize that they do not like doing the kinds of things they will be “forced” to do in Heaven. Heaven certainly would not be Heaven for them.