Dr. Mitch Glaser

Shalom. I pray the Lord is blessing your life, family, and ministry so far in 2019! We are already enjoying the celebration of our 125th year of faithful ministry for the Lord among the Jewish people. I hope you will join our celebration by attending one of our 125th-anniversary conferences or events. You can see the entire list by visiting http://chosenpeople.com/125years.

Antisemitism: The Oldest Hatred

Allow me to open my heart to you. Like many others, I was badly shaken when, on the Sabbath day of October 27, 2018, the horrible murders of eleven Jewish people in Pittsburgh grabbed our attention and directed it to the growing problem of modern and murderous antisemitism. Antisemitism, called “the oldest hatred,” has been around for thousands of years. And today it seems to be intensifying.

Social commentators, both within and outside of the Jewish community, have many theories about this, but they leave out what I believe is the most critical reason of all. Antisemitism is the devil’s invention! When God called Abram to be the father of His chosen people (Genesis 12:1–3), Satan made the Jewish people the target of his fury. The evil one has tried to annihilate the Jewish people in every age and in endless ways to prevent God from using us as His instruments of redemption through the Jewish Messiah. We know the devil will not prevail, although that does not prevent him from continuing to try.

Sadly, one of his ugliest tactics has been to use the Church to promote the hatred of Jewish people.

Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

Of course, the picture is not entirely dark. We rejoice in the establishment of modern Israel as a sovereign nation and home for the Jewish people. The State of Israel rose out of the ashes of the Holocaust to provide the Jewish people with a safe haven and a bastion of protection against antisemitism.

Although God’s choice of the promised land is ancient and rooted in the Scriptures (Genesis 15:18–21), the vision for the modern State of Israel is the fruit of the Zionist movement founded in the late 19th century and led by the great Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl. Yet, this love for Zion is not new. It has been the cherished hope of both Jews and Christians for centuries because of the prophetic biblical teaching describing the return of the Jewish people to the land of promise found throughout the Old Testament (Ezekiel 36:22–34).

In fact, some of the earliest and greatest supporters of the Zionist movement were Christian Zionists who took the Bible literally. They fervently believed the Jewish people would return to the land of Israel.

Yet, today we see a rising tide of Christians who do not believe that the foundations of Zionism and the modern State of Israel established in 1948 are biblical. In light of the growing criticism of Israel among some Christians and the hierarchies of their churches, the question I want us to consider briefly is whether we believe anti-Zionism and, in particular, Christian anti-Zionism, is antisemitic in nature.

Can we equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism?

I would suggest the answer is sometimes yes, especially when those opposed to the State of Israel support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement1 and groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, which harass and persecute Israeli speakers on university campuses across America and around the globe.

The answer is also sometimes no! Some Christians simply do not interpret the Bible as teaching that the land of Israel ultimately belongs to the Jewish people. This is unfortunate, but should not necessarily be equated with antisemitism. However, when criticism of Israel specifically leads to hateful language and actions directed toward Israelis, and Jewish people in general, then I believe the line is crossed.

This is when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism!

Our Response to Anti-Zionism

Again, we ask the question, Is anti-Zionism antisemitic (especially the Christian version of anti-Zionism)? In order to answer this question, we must begin with a clear definition of biblical Zionism, which is sometimes misunderstood, especially by the Christian anti-Zionists who might be more influenced by culture than by what they read in the Bible.

Biblical Zionism holds that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people through an unconditional, irrevocable covenant made between Himself and our forefather, Abraham, as found in many chapters of Genesis (12, 15, 17, 22, 35).

The belief that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people is still well-accepted by the majority of Christians in the United States, as shown by a recent survey of evangelicals (sponsored by Chosen People Ministries and Joel Rosenberg and implemented by LifeWay Research), entitled Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel and the Peace Process.

The Survey reports that over 80 percent believe the Abrahamic Covenant continues, and over 80 percent also see the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 as the fulfillment of prophecy.2

Yet, according to Bob Smietana, who reported on the data discovered by this survey, negativity toward Israel and the hope of Zion seems to be influencing the younger generation of Christians.

Older American evangelicals love Israel—but many younger evangelicals simply don’t care, according to a new survey from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. Three-quarters (77 percent) of evangelicals 65 and older say they support the existence, security and prosperity of Israel. That drops to 58 percent among younger evangelicals, those 18 to 34. 3

Our younger generation was born years after the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel, and they do not have the same theological or emotional sympathies as those who were born closer to this time period. They did not grow up during the days when a much larger coalition of Arab nations tried to destroy Israel or when groups like the Palestinian Liberation Organization murdered Israeli athletes and began terrorist attacks within Israel. It is hard for some to understand why Israel has been so careful to protect the Jewish people within her borders.

This has been difficult for Israeli leaders. There is a mistaken understanding that followers of Jesus who believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people also support every decision that Israeli politicians make. This is false. All leaders are human and capable of mistakes. Israel is not a perfect country! They have made mistakes.

I am hoping that Bible believers will carefully study the Scriptures and conclude that at the heart of biblical Zionism is the understanding that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. It is a land to be shared among all her inhabitants since Israel was chosen to bless the nations of the world (Genesis 12:3, Isaiah 44:8). And it is a land and a people to be loved, prayed for (Psalm 122:6), and reached with the gospel message.

The negative spillover of anti-Zionism is impacting the view of many toward the Jewish people within and outside of Israel. When embraced, this critical attitude toward Israel can easily, and unfortunately, lead to antisemitism.

If Anyone Should Oppose All Forms of Antisemitism, It Should Be US!

Recently, Jeremy Sharon and Sara Rubenstein, writing for the Jerusalem Post, reported on the European Jewish Congress held in November 2018. It was sponsored by the Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, who initiated the development of a Catalogue of Policies to Combat Antisemitism. The 32-year-old chancellor was quoted as saying,

“Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are getting blurred, but they are two sides of the same coin.”4

He recommended the following actions,

The recommendations, which it is hoped will be adopted by the EU and by national governments, include adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism; the appointment by EU countries of a special commissioner for combating antisemitism; a commitment of a percentage of GDP annually to fighting antisemitism; barring antisemites from political parties and public office; committing financial and other resources to guaranteeing security for Jewish communities in Europe; making Internet companies liable for antisemitic content on their platforms; and advising companies not to do business with countries or organizations that support antisemitism in any way.5

Kurz added,

Fighting antisemitism deserves much more than simple statements of good will—we need concrete policies and reinforced legislation.6

Oh, how I hope the Church will take the lead on encouraging the above!

How can we possibly reach Jewish people for Jesus without cultivating a love for all Jewish people, including Israelis, and to have a tender heart toward Zion? This is my prayer for you in this New Year, that God would give you the same heart as the Apostle Paul, who wrote in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

Opposing antisemitism may be a crucial first step in leading Jewish people to open their hearts to Jesus, the Messiah. I pray my people will see that true Christians love the Jewish people (Romans 11:11).

Praying for God’s best for you and your family in 2019,

Mitch

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1 https://www.influencewatch.org/movement/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions/.

2 https://allianceforthepeaceofjerusalem.com/lifeway-survey-full/.

3 “Support of Israel Wanes Among Younger Evangelicals,” LifeWay Research (blog), December 4, 2017, https://lifewayresearch.com/2017/12/04/support-of-israel-among-younger-evangelicals/.

4 https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Austrian-Kurz-We-cant-undo-history-but-we-can-do-justice-to-our-history-572444 noted on 12.30.18.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

Dear friend in the Messiah,

Shalom in the great name of Jesus our King!

Jewish people today are living in perilous times as antisemitism is on the rise around the globe. Believers in Jesus need to know what is going on and, beginning with prayer, help do something about it.

It is hard to believe that, after all the atrocities that took place under the Nazis seventy-five years ago, a virulent and vicious tide of antisemitism is rising, recently resulting in the death of eleven innocent Jewish people attending synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Each year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Holocaust research organization based in Los Angeles, releases the ten worst antisemitic incidents taking place worldwide. Remarkably and unfortunately, six out of ten of these occurrences in 2018 took place in the United States.

At the top of the list, of course, is the October 27, 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, described as “the deadliest anti-Semitic attack ever committed in the United States.”

According to the report, two additional incidents resulted from tensions created by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for the boycott of all Israeli products.

Even more frightening is the presence of anti-Israel movements on college campuses across the country. Students are regularly exposed to the antisemitic rhetoric of pro-Palestinian student groups at an unprecedented rate.

Antisemitism is Growing More Visible
Social media has become a new platform for antisemitism.

On October 28, 2018, the day after the Pittsburgh attack, an article in The New York Times discussed the social media site, Gab, where the synagogue shooter made antisemitic posts shortly before going on a rampage. According to the Times article, Gab is a site “that has become a haven for white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other extremists.”

Even radical Black Muslim leader, Louis Farrakhan, has taken to social media to promote his brand of antisemitism. Most recently, he sent a tweet that declared, “I’m not an antisemite. I’m an anti-termite.” While this has drawn criticism from many sources, Twitter has yet to impose any consequences on Farrakhan for this statement equating the Jewish people with insects.

What Can Christians Do to Make a Difference?
As believers in Jesus there is a lot we can do to share the love of the Messiah Jesus with the Jewish community in light of this rise in antisemitism:

• Pray: We need to pray for the Jewish people and the peace of Jerusalem. Prayer is critical at this time, and, as believers, we need to pray for the protection of Israel and the Jewish people.
• Act: If you see antisemitism in any form on your social media platforms, make sure you say something. I am not suggesting that you get into a heated debate with proponents of antisemitism. As one dear brother once told me, “We need to love what the devil hates and hate what the devil loves!” So, we cannot allow remarks to go unanswered!
• Be informed: Inviting Chosen People Ministries to visit your church and speak on a topic related to Israel, the Jewish festivals as fulfilled in Jesus, or the spiritual origins of antisemitism would be a great way to encourage your congregation.

However, one of the best ways to show that the gospel is friendly to the Jewish people is to introduce Jewish seekers to fellow Jews who already know the Messiah. There is nothing like a personal testimony to help someone understand the benefits, both eternal and temporal, of putting their faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

We have filmed and distributed almost one hundred beautiful video testimonies of Jewish people from every walk of life. Millions of people have viewed these stories online, many have responded positively, and some have come to faith in Jesus.

In Messiah,

Dr. Mitch Glaser

President, Chosen People Ministries

Shalom and Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that Your Mission to the Jewish People is entering its 125th year of faithful service to the Lord in bringing the gospel to the Jewish people. We were founded by Rabbi Leopold Cohn who came to the United States from Hungary in 1892, and who, through a series of incredible events, accepted Jesus as his Messiah.

Rabbi Cohn heard, believed, and was transformed by the gospel. He studied theology in Scotland and returned to the United States, establishing his new ministry in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which at the time was a very underdeveloped neighborhood mostly populated with eastern European Jewish immigrants. These Jewish immigrants fled persecution and suffering and yearned for the freedom and opportunity offered by the United States, which they knew as the “Golden Land.”

For 125 years we have continued to follow the rabbi’s vision and the vision for the world held by Jesus Himself! He called us to make disciples by bringing the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles. But this vision is not only about winning people to the Lord but also about discipling them, baptizing them, and teaching those who believe so that they become mature in their faith and make other disciples.

A JANUARY TRADITION

Every January since the founding of the Mission, we have written articles to explain to our readers why we bring the gospel to the Jewish people. As the seventh leader of Chosen People Ministries, I continue to follow this tradition, especially as we begin this 125th year of our ministry. It is an honor to present to you the biblical basis for our ministry and the reasons we bring the gospel to the Jewish people.

EXPOSITION OF THE TEXT

Of course, our ministry is founded upon the Bible. The rationale for our service to the Lord and the Jewish people is unquestionably biblical. The foundational passage upon which our ministry is built is found in the book of Romans where the Apostle teaches the new believers in Rome that the first step in reaching the world with the gospel is to reach the Jewish people.

Paul writes in Romans 1:16:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16 is written in the present tense. Logically, if the gospel is still the power of God “for” salvation and is still for “everyone who believes,” then the gospel is still “to the Jew first.” The gospel is God’s power unleashed for the Jewish people and for all peoples of the earth, as the Apostle writes, “to everyone who believes.”

The Greek word used by Paul and translated as “first” is proton (πρῶτον).¹ This term implies a priority² rather than a sequential order of events.³

THE NEW TESTAMENT PAULINE PATTERN

Perhaps the best way to understand what the Apostle teaches in Romans 1:16 is to see his strategy worked out in his ministry, which is recorded in the Book of Acts. Wherever Paul went in his ministry among the Gentiles, he also tried to preach the gospel to the Jewish people living in that area (Acts 13:13-52; 14:1-5; 18:7-11; 19:8-10).

What the Apostle did in Iconium is a good example of his strategy:

In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided; and some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region; and there they continued to preach the gospel. (Acts 14:1-7)

He would regularly attempt to evangelize the Jewish people of a particular city before he spoke to the Gentiles. The salvation of the Jewish people was an ever-present concern for Paul, and his actions in the Book of Acts reveal the motivation behind his words in Romans 1:16.⁴

A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE TEXT

The word “first” suggests that the Jewish people are to be viewed as a priority in evangelism. The word is also used in Matthew 6:33 where the Lord Jesus reminds us to “seek first the kingdom of God….”The Kingdom of God should always be sought as a priority in our lives, even before we seek other things. In a similar way, reaching Jewish people with the gospel must be a priority concern for all who know the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

Reaching the Jewish people is a priority based upon God’s gracious choice of His call upon Abram in Genesis 12:1-3. It is also a priority based upon God’s prophetic plan for the future! Paul describes the future salvation of the Jewish people and the impact this will have on the rest of the world. I can only imagine that this is what he had in mind when he penned Romans 1:16.

Knowing the future plan of God, it is clear that the Church should somehow continue to prioritize Jewish evangelism, especially as we see the day of His second coming drawing near. Bringing the gospel to the Jewish people first should not be viewed as a priority of privilege but as a priority founded on the Lord’s strategy to heal a broken world.

The Lord chose the Jewish people to reach the Gentiles, but my people failed, so He sent His Son, the greatest Jewish person who ever lived, to complete the task. And now He calls upon Gentiles who believe the gospel to bring the message back to the original messengers!

TO THE JEW FIRST TODAY!

So how do we apply Romans 1:16 and the priority God gives to Jewish evangelism to our present day? He makes this clear in Romans 11, which I believe is a biblical mandate for Gentiles in the Body of Messiah to reach Jewish people for Jesus.

In fact, according to Paul’s statement in Romans 11:11, the Gentiles are supposed to cause Jewish people to become jealous of the Jewish Jesus who, by His Spirit, lives within them.

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.

We can prioritize reaching Jewish people because of God’s choice of Abraham’s seed according to the flesh and still reach the world as commanded by our Messiah prior to His ascension. It begins with you! Through your prayers, giving, and witnessing to your Jewish friends—and by making them jealous— the plan of God will go forth in power!

Thank you for your support and prayers. Together, let’s ask the Lord to make our 125th anniversary fruitful in His service. And please pray that the Lord will help us reach our goal of sharing Jesus with 125,000 Jewish people this year—either directly or by helping Gentile believers become equipped to tell their Jewish friends about Jesus through our missionaries, publications, Messianic centers, congregations, and online ministries.

Blessings in the great name of Jesus our Messiah,

Dr. Mitch Glaser

 

¹  Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature,  trans. and rev. W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, second rev. F. W. Gingrich and F. W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 726; Wilhelm Michaelis, “proton,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 6:869.

² So C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1975), 1:90 – 91; John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 28; Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 69; James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1 – 8, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, 1988), 40; Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 62.

³ See Ernst Käsemann, Commentary on Romans, trans. and ed. Geoffrey Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 23; William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse (Chicago: Moody, 1938), 22.

⁴  For a helpful discussion of this subject, see the essay by Wayne A. Brindle, “‘To The Jew First’: Rhetoric, Strategy, History, or Theology?” BSac 159 (2002): 221 – 33.

The New Testament, Christmas, and Hanukkah: Celebrating the Season

Shalom and happy holidays! I am sure you are looking forward to celebrating the two great holidays observed in December.

During Hanukkah, we focus on the rededication of the Temple during the days of the Maccabees, a family of Jewish warriors who saved the Jewish people from the Greek leader Antiochus Epiphanes. Christmas, of course, points us to the redemption of both Jews and Gentiles through the One who was born to be the Savior of the world.

We see similar patterns in both holidays, including themes of light, generosity, deliverance, and giving glory to God.

Hanukkah and Christmas:

The Connection?

I also see the connection between Hanukkah and Christmas in the ways that the stories complement one another. After all, if Antiochus Epiphanes had turned the Jewish people into idol-worshipping Greeks who tossed out the Bible and embraced Greek philosophies, then the Jewish people could very well have disappeared. If that had happened, why would anyone be looking for a Jewish Messiah? And who would understand the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures that paved a path through history, enabling Jewish people to identify the true Messiah?

All would have been lost if this small band of priestly zealots had not overthrown the Greeks.

Stated simply: Without Hanukkah, there would be no Christmas!

The Savior of the world did not enter earth’s atmosphere unannounced or pop onto the scene through some mystical vortex that would make any New Ager jealous! Rather, His birthplace, parents, tribe, and even the timing of His birth were predicted with extraordinary specificity, which allowed us to recognize Him as the Son of God and Messiah of the Jewish people.

Jesus was Jewish! He was born a Jew, both of His parents were Jewish, He lived a Jewish life, celebrated Jewish holidays such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and He lived a perfect life according to the Torah (Law). He grew up in the land given to the Jewish people, and when the moment came for the prophecy of His death to be fulfilled (Isaiah 53), He went to the cross without complaint, with love for His people who, for the most part, had rejected Him. He became the Savior and quintessential Passover lamb for all who, by faith, trusted in the blood of the Messiah, painted by grace on the doorposts of their hearts.

There literally would be no Christmas without Hanukkah, as there would be no Messiah without the Jewish people.

Early Faith Discoveries

I remember the first time I read the New Testament. I had previously thought this thin volume, compared to the Older Testament, was the fountainhead of antisemitism. I grew up believing that Jewish people were not supposed to read this book. Yet, one day I found a New Testament and began reading it. It struck me with the simplicity of its message and the love and kindness of Jesus. I quickly understood that He was Jewish, and I was fixated on His celebration of the Jewish holidays—as this is one of the ways we, as Jews, define ourselves. We celebrate Passover, not Easter, and Hanukkah, not Christmas. After I finished reading the Gospels for the first time, I came face to face with a Jewish book and a Jewish Messiah that was consistent with the Old Testament and that crushed my prejudices against the New Testament.

After reading “the book,” I knew I had to decide. Although as a Jewish person I was raised to reject Jesus, how could I do that after realizing that He fulfilled the prophecies predicted of the Messiah? I knew in the depth of my soul that if I did not believe in Jesus, I could never believe in anything! I was that convinced.

And so I accepted Jesus as my Messiah. For a moment, I feared I would wake up the next morning and find myself transformed into a Gentile, but the opposite was true. I never felt so Jewish in my entire life.

The New Testament is Kosher! 

I soon became convicted that Jesus is God in the flesh and that the Lord had called me to tell my fellow Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah and that the New Testament is kosher! 

There are two magnificent passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that each of us should reflect on during this holiday season:  Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 9:6-7. The first passage is a clear prophecy of the virgin birth! You can only imagine how surprised I was to discover this prediction of the incarnation and virgin birth in my Bible! The prophet Isaiah writes, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

I am well familiar with the traditional objections that challenge this prophecy finding fulfillment in Jesus. The principal objection I had as a Jewish person to this possibility had nothing to do with the passage, but, rather, with the fundamental belief that God could not become flesh. In fact, as a Jewish person, I believed that this was tantamount to idolatry. The second of the Ten Commandments tells us that we should not create graven images of God. I recognized graven images are made of wood or stone, but Jewish people generally assume that a manifestation of God in the flesh is an idol. Therefore, for Jews, believing that Jesus is God is idolatry.

The other arguments are minor compared to this. Scholars debate whether the Hebrew word for virgin means “young woman” or “virgin,” and the son mentioned is also traditionally believed to be one of Isaiah’s children. There are good answers to these objections, but the primary challenge is encouraging Jewish people to be open-minded to the possibility that the eternal God could take on humanity. For some reason, this made sense to me and I believed it. I became convinced that God could become flesh because of this passage.

I then jumped a couple of chapters and found this new insight strengthened by another passage in Isaiah:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from
then on and forever-more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.(Isaiah 9:6-7)

I view the son born of the virgin as the same child who is given this litany of spectacular names. I envision the names as characterizing the child and as windows into the character of this extraordinary individual. He is God in the flesh as depicted in the names.

Finally, it became clear to me that this child would become a king and reign on His father David’s throne for all eternity.
I asked myself the simple question, “Who lives for all eternity?” The answer, of course, is God Himself. At that point, as a new believer, I began to fully understand that Jesus was both the Messiah of Israel and Lord of the universe. He took on flesh to reveal the character of God to all mankind, identify with humanity, live a perfect life, and die as a worthy sacrifice for our sins.

Whew! What a journey through Scripture.

Jesus is God’s Hanukkah present wrapped in flesh!

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah and enjoy this special holiday edition of The Chosen People newsletter.

Your brother in the Messiah,

Mitch

I want to thank you for your generous prayers and support during 2018. I also want to share some of what God has used our global staff to achieve for His glory. We could not have done it without you! You are a vital part of our ministry team. 

Our Staff 

Our staff, of course, is at the heart of all that we do for the Lord in reaching Jewish people with the gospel. Whether that is in the United States, Israel, Paris, or Russia–our staff, both missionaries and administrators, are our most precious assets. Our dedicated missionaries share the gospel day in and day out – heart to heart, person to person, and home to home. Our administrative workers diligently produce the published materials we use in sharing the gospel and care for all of the logistical concerns of ministry – connecting us with churches, making sure that our finances are in order, maintaining our properties, and so much more.  

I want you to know how much we love our staff and are committed to treating them generously. 

I am hoping you will help me show His love and care for our staff by providing an extra financial bonus during the holidays. Some of our missionaries are also under-supported and need extra help to receive their full compensation. Would it not be a phenomenal surprise to some of our missionaries if, by God’s grace, we have enough money to make up for the funds they were unable to raise throughout the course of the year? 

Together we can make a huge difference in the lives of our staff families! 

It is because of our staff that we maintain missionary operations in sixteen countries outside the United States, and twenty-plus cities within North America.  Your Mission to the Jewish People is now represented in communities amounting to 98% of the Jewish population across the globe. In fact, if you really want to understand our strategy, just follow the Jewish population numbers that we provided and you will see that we and our workers follow the Jewish population.  

I am sure it does not surprise you to learn that our largest staff outside of the United States is located in Israel! 

Here is a quick overview of what God is doing through our various ministries. 

Centers 

We establish Messianic outreach centers around the world – a base of operations in the midst of a large Jewish community. It is from these centers that missionaries go out to reach Jewish people for the gospel in their communities. We also invite Jewish people to attend Bible studies, fellowship meetings, evangelistic lectures, and discipleship programs held at our centers. We have two major centers in New York City, one center that we own in Israel and another that we rent in the heart of a very-unreached Tel Aviv suburb. We also have centers in Chicago, Florida, Buenos Aires, London, and Toronto, and we plan to continue to establish centers that we either own or rent in the midst of major Jewish population centers as the Lord allows. 

Congregations 

We also continue to plant messianic congregations – I like to describe these congregations as churches in a minor key! Of course, they are much more than this! We want the Jewish people we reach to have a comfortable, culturally sensitive place to worship and grow in the faith. One of the greatest objections Jewish people have to the gospel is that when a Jewish person accepts Jesus they are often no longer considered Jewish. This is why it is so important for Jewish believers to gather each week and to also celebrate the Jewish holidays as fulfilled in Jesus.  We are committed to establishing evangelistic communities in Jewish areas.  

We maintain Messianic congregations everywhere, from greater Los Angeles to New York City, Washington DC, London, Israel, Paris, Toronto, and many other cities. 

Digital Evangelism 

We constantly use the web and social media to reach Jewish people with the gospel. For the last six years we have been working together with some very talented young people to produce evangelistic testimonies of Messianic Jews.  

We now have almost ninety testimonies of Jewish believers in Jesus from every walk of life.  

You can go to www.Ifoundshalom.com and watch these testimonies. And when you do…you will join literally millions of people who have viewed these testimonies and received a profound and penetrating witness for Jesus. Now Christians sharing the Lord with Jewish friends are able to send them a link to an appropriate testimony of someone with a similar background. We also maintain the www.Isaiah53.com website which is reaching thousands upon thousands of Jewish people with the truth of this great Old Testament chapter which predicts the death and resurrection of Jesus in great detail.  

So many folks are responding in the United States, Israel, and other countries to the message of Jesus that we are overwhelmed with “follow up” and now, in partnership with those who have a similar vision, are producing an online video-based discipleship series based on the Sermon on the Mount.  

There’s no doubt that the digital universe is the new Mars Hill of the 21st century! 

Campus Work 

We are very excited about reaching out to university campuses. We are about to begin a new ministry this fall because of the generosity of a Christian foundation. We are looking for four qualified Jewish or Gentile young men who will live in the same apartment adjacent to New York University – the university with the largest Jewish student body in the United States… thousands of Jewish students who need the gospel. Throughout the year, we maintain a witness on campuses around the country and minister through book tables, equipping Christians on campus and sharing the gospel student to student! But, we feel know we need to dig deeper into the major Jewish campuses and reach Jewish people in a new way.  

If you know of a young person who is in a gap year either between finishing college or graduate school and would like to take a year and be part of this ministry to Jewish students, then please let us know.  

Israel 

It is said that the Jews are like everybody else– only more so! This is so very true of the Jewish people as God especially chose the Jewish people to be His bridge of redemption to a broken and sinful world (Genesis 12:1-3). God still has His all-powerful hand upon the Jewish people and you can see this in the ways that certain prophecies are fulfilled before our very eyes. Almost fifty percent of the world’s Jewish people have now returned to the land of Israel. Beginning in Ezekiel 36:22, the prophet predicts that the Jewish people will return to Israel in the last days in unbelief, and it would be in Israel that God would pour His Spirit upon the Jewish people and they would become spiritually alive. Today, there are almost 7,000,000 Jewish people living in Israel, the Hebrew language is revived as a common tongue, and more! The next step in God’s plan is for the Jewish people to come alive spiritually. And believe me, we are already beginning to see this!  

There are now more congregations and more believers in Israel than since the first century. Your Mission to the Jewish People continues to share the gospel with elderly Russian Jews and Holocaust survivors, and conducts children’s camps each year with hundreds of Jewish children, the majority of whom are not yet believers.  

We see many Jewish people come to faith in Jesus in Israel today!  

Other Countries 

God is not only working in Israel, but in many other countries with large numbers of Jewish people. For example, for the first time since World War II, we have established a Messianic congregation in the heart of the Jewish sector in Paris. France itself has more than 700,000 Jewish people! In Argentina, we have two beautiful centers and one of them is home to a dynamic and growing Messianic congregation.  

God is doing great things in the Ukraine. Many younger Jewish people left the Ukraine but there are still hundreds of thousands living in this very difficult place.  The Ukraine is replete with both economic challenges and ongoing antisemitism. We now have a coordinated effort among almost twenty Messianic congregations, helping them with training their leaders, doing relief work among elderly Jewish people who are unable to move to Israel, and more.  

We baptized dozens of Ukrainian Jewish people in 2018. 

There are also some ministries that have developed that we had not planned on! For example, tens of thousands of Jewish young adults, after their service in the Israeli army, travel to New Zealand to “sow their wild oats.” Unlike the former Israeli soldiers who travel to India, where we also serve, those who tour New Zealand are more seriously searching for spiritual truth. Our New Zealand team purchased a youth hostel in the heart of the major tourist area on the South Island of New Zealand, and almost 2,000 young Israelis stay there each year. Through barbecues, hummus nights, and Sabbath dinners we are able to share the gospel gently and sensitively with these young Israelis.  

Many of them return to Israel and are now in contact with our Israeli staff members with whom they are able to continue the relationships built in New Zealand. Already a number of them have come to faith in Jesus. 

Children’s Camps 

God has given us a great burden for reaching children – especially from mixed marriages between Jews and Gentiles. Each year, we see dozens of these young ones coming to faith in Jesus. I believe the future is bright because the Lord is working so wonderfully among these kids. 

Training Programs 

Our training programs are fruitful for both young believers and for those who are very serious about ministry. Each year we conduct a mentoring retreat in Israel and have been doing this for more than a dozen years. We are in the midst of training fifteen to twenty couples who are serving the Lord in the Holy Land, but are in great need of additional training.  

We are also conducting training conferences for Russian Jewish leaders, and in September 2019 we will have our fifth conference to be held in Kraków, Poland with more than one hundred fifty Russian-speaking Jewish congregational leaders who are desperate for more biblical and practical ministry training. 

We also continue our primary training program called the Charles Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies in Brooklyn.  

This is a partnership between Chosen People Ministries and Biola University/Talbot School of Theology. We offer a fully-accredited seminary degree designed to equip believers for ministry among the Jewish people. We have had twenty graduates, and there are almost twenty students currently enrolled in this great training program. We are so grateful for the partnership with Biola as the classes are offered at an incredibly reduced price so that, at the end of the training program, these new missionaries and future congregational leaders are able to begin their ministries without debt.  

If you know of anyone who would like this kind of training, in the heart of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn at our Feinberg Center, please let us know. We are always open to whomever God is leading to be part of this program. 

Short–Term Missions 

We conduct a number of short-term mission outreach programs throughout the year. We offer two programs in Israel, and usually one in New York City each summer. This summer, during our two-week Shalom New York outreach, we hope to have 125 participants for each week, in celebration of our 125th year as a ministry. We also send short-term outreach teams to reach Israelis in New Zealand and India, and we are now working on gathering a team to go to Nepal. We hand out tracts on the streets, conduct surveys among religious Jews, do puppeteering in parks, music outreaches, health fairs on the very Russian Brighton Beach boardwalk in Brooklyn, and offer evangelistic training along the way through talks given by some of our most experienced staff members. We pray and worship the Lord together and learn more about how to reach Jewish people with the gospel. It is our hope that those who participate will bring what they learn back to their local communities to reach their Jewish neighbors. 

Focus on the Haredim 

The old-style Orthodox Jews as well as the Hassidic Jews are very similar in their theology and culture. As a result, we put these two groups together and refer to them as Haredim, which is a word that means reverence or fear. There are approximately 300,000 of these very precious folks in New York City, and many hundreds of thousands in Israel, with others located around the globe. According to recent and respectable surveys of the Jewish people, one day within the next few decades the Haredim might become the largest segment of the Jewish community. They are not secularizing at the same rate as most other Jewish groups.  

Lately, we are seeing a few Haredim coming to know Jesus, and some of us believe that more are coming.  God is at work! We are planning a training conference on this topic in Brooklyn for January 2019. If you are interested in attending, please let me know. 

Our 125th Anniversary 

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that we will begin our 125th year as a ministry among Jewish people on January 1, 2019. Chosen People Ministries began when Leopold Cohn, a Hungarian rabbi, came to faith in Jesus on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1892 through the witness of a twenty-one-year-old Presbyterian missionary to the Jewish people who was preaching the gospel to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe at a mission church on the Lower East Side.  We continue to embrace Rabbi Cohn’s vision for reaching the Jewish people with the gospel!  

There is so much to learn about the history of Chosen People Ministries and I hope that you will allow us to send you the autobiography of Leopold Cohn, entitled To An Ancient People.  

Yet the story is just beginning, as we draw closer to that future glorious day when “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25ff). We are headed towards a Romans 11 future. The Lord will remember His promise to His ancient people and turn their hearts to Jesus…at least all who are alive at this future time.   

But there is so much to do today, as God has prepared a remnant of Jewish people who, like me, will respond positively to the gospel, if we will simply tell them about the Lord (Romans 1:16, 11:11)! 

Joyfully in Jesus, 

Mitch 

Shalom in His grace,

I know you would agree with me that God is faithful! The hymn writer had it right when he wrote, “Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not…great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me.”

Faithfulness is not something God does: Faithfulness is an essential part of His character—it is His nature!

We celebrated Israel’s 70th anniversary this year (2018), and next year, beginning in January 2019, we are going to celebrate the 125th year of Chosen People Ministries (which means we are much older than the modern State of Israel!). There have been trials and challenges along the way for Israel and for us, but we are both here today because God is eternally faithful.

The prophet Jeremiah assured the Jewish people that, although they would go through hard seasons and at times come close to destruction, God would preserve them for all time!

“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is His name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever’”
(Jeremiah 31:35-36).

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the verse that inspired the hymn writer to pen the majestic hymn mentioned above.

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

The prophet Jeremiah, who was disheartened to witness his beloved city of Jerusalem destroyed by the Babylonians, most likely wrote the book of Lamentations. Life can be hard, and most of us know what it is like to be disappointed by the circumstances of life. Some of us have experienced the destruction and dismantling of our lives—just like what happened to Jerusalem. However, Jerusalem endured because of the faithfulness and promises of God! You and I are still here as well, and that is why we can smile and praise God for His everlasting faithfulness.

The timeless text of Lamentations 3 teaches us that God is faithful by nature. That means that God cannot make a promise that He cannot keep. God cannot break His word and cannot be unfaithful.

The Hebrew Terms Describing God’s Faithfulness

There are three wonderful terms that are used in the Hebrew Bible to describe the faithfulness of God. One is the Hebrew word “chesed” (loving-kindness), which refers to God’s unending loyalty to the people He chose. According to Jewish tradition, the Lord went from place to place, and people to people, offering the commandments. They all declined for a variety of reasons. But when He came to the Jewish people, they said, “Yes—sounds good for a variety of reasons!” Most of them are quite humorous! However, we know that this was not the biblical story. When God wanted to bless the world, He created a miracle in Sarah’s womb, and a child (Isaac) that should not have been born, emerged.

The Jewish people are not simply the chosen people. The Jewish people are God’s especially-created people, created to be His bridge of redemption to a dark and broken world!

The next word is “rachamim” (compassion), which draws attention to God’s tender mercies. The word has the same root as the word for womb and implies a nurturing or motherly feeling. God’s compassion will never cease because it is His nature and covenant commitment to the Jewish people. He is loyal and never breaks a covenant. He is tender and compassionate, and finally Jeremiah says, “For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The Hebrew word “emunah,” translated faithfulness, literally means “firmness” or “steadiness” or even “steadfastness.” Moses describes the character of God over and over again in the book of Exodus, and he mentions His faithfulness. In Deuteronomy 32:4, the Lawgiver sings, “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness (emunah) and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.” Moses is an accomplished lyricist and expresses his understanding of God’s unending faithfulness in a glorious song of praise!

We see that God is faithful in bringing the Jewish people back to the land of Israel after 2,000 years of exile. In Ezekiel 36:24 we read, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.” The return of the Jewish people, and the establishment of the State of Israel seventy years ago, are further signs of God’s covenant faithfulness to His chosen people. God is faithful because He cannot be anything but—He is steadfast and firm in His commitments to the Jewish people and to each of us! And He will also keep His promise to turn the hearts of the Jewish people to Jesus the Messiah.

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved…” (Romans 11:25-26).

As sure as the Jewish people are back in the land, as sure as Yeshua died and rose from the grave, that’s how certain I am that one day the promise of Romans 11:25-26 will be fulfilled because God is both a promise maker and promise keeper!

I am looking forward to the many events we have planned to celebrate our 125th year of ministry. We are blessed with a great history because He is faithful. What began as a small seed is now in seventeen countries and dozens of cities in North America, with more than one hundred staff members making the gospel known to the Jew first and also to the Gentile! We have a lot to celebrate!

Blessings, and I hope to see you involved with our 125th year activities as we celebrate God’s faithfulness to us and to His chosen people!

Your brother in the Messiah,

Mitch

Shalom in the great name of Jesus! Happy almost-Thanksgiving!

I am looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving later this month. I know it is not a biblical holiday like Passover or the Day of Atonement, but it does help us focus on developing an attitude of thankfulness to the Lord for all His blessings! In fact, Thanksgiving is a lot like the Feast of Tabernacles.

As Moses wrote, “Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days” (Leviticus 23:40).

There are many, including me, who believe that the early Puritans viewed themselves as the “true Israelites,” America as the Promised Land, and thought they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles (which is a fall holiday).

So…I suppose we can view Thanksgiving as a Jewish holiday!

I believe the Lord wants us to learn how to be thankful, and to teach and model this “attitude of gratitude” to our children and grandchildren.

THANKFUL FOR OUR STAFF

As the Apostle Paul wrote so beautifully,

“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints” (Colossians 1:3-4).

I am most grateful to the Lord for our staff. 

I am inspired and encouraged by them, and I admire their dedication and sacrifice for our ministry among the Jewish people. They experience considerable rejection and opposition and yet, with hearts of love, they still bring the gospel daily to Jewish people who are not yet believers.

Thank you once again for your continued faithfulness to the Lord and to the Jewish people. Also, please don’t forget to pray for our under-supported missionaries.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you” (Philippians 1:3).

With a thankful heart,

The topic of this month’s newsletter is the fault line that separates Judaism and Christianity and creates a Grand Canyon-sized chasm between Jewish people and Jesus. Must this be? The highly sensitive and difficult question we will address is whether or not the message of Jesus that is conveyed through the Gospels is intrinsically antisemitic. This is a question that most Christians would never even think to ask. But every Jewish person knows that this assumption is one of the primary underlying reasons for the rejection of Christianity by Jewish people. Allow me to explain further.

Jewish historian Solomon Grayzel wrote, “The history of Judaism and Christianity is written in blood and punctuated in violence.” It is understandable why Jewish believers are reluctant to become involved with the church. From childhood, we are taught that Christians (the people in churches!) are the enemies of the Jewish people. The church was supposedly the institution responsible for persecuting our ancestors. Many of us find it painful to step inside a local church, whatever the denomination. How can we enjoy the company of those who inspired the murder and destruction of our people? Am I exaggerating? Perhaps, but if you were brought up in a Jewish home like mine, my words should at least ring with familiarity, if not authenticity.

Is there any truth to the accusation that Christians persecuted Jews? Of course there is! And I will not qualify that statement by placing quotation marks around the word Christian. If I say that all those who mistreated Jews were Christians in name only, I am arrogantly dismissing early church leaders such as Origen, Tertullian, and Augustine, not to mention Reformers such as John Wycliffe and Martin Luther. Painful as I find it, I do not have the authority to write these individuals out of history, much as I might like to.

To deny the past would be foolish. To forgive these men posthumously would be presumptuous because they never asked for forgiveness. Yet, to think that they characterize what God intended the church to be would be foolish and useless.[i]

I still remember when I was first considering the message of Jesus. I was only 19 years old, living far away from home, where I had been raised in what I call a non-practicing Orthodox Jewish home. This might sound a bit odd, but many Jewish people are raised in one of the various denominations of Judaism—Orthodox, Conservative or Reform—and are not especially religious. But, for what it’s worth, when I practiced Judaism I did so as a modern Orthodox Jew. Truthfully, at this time in my life, it was more a case of Orthodox Judaism being the Judaism I preferred not to practice. I was far from God, although I was open to all sorts of religious and spiritual ideas – except Christianity!

Because I knew virtually nothing about the tenets of Christian faith, my major objections to the message of Jesus were not theological or biblical. They stemmed from the deeply ingrained cultural and historical memory I referred to earlier. I was raised in New York City and lived in a very Jewish community. I knew some Christians at school, mostly ethnic Catholics who didn’t seem to like Jewish people! At least that was my impression. In fact, everything I knew about Christianity was negative towards the Jews. I also believed that those who perpetrated the Holocaust were Christians and I knew that my grandparents had moved to the United States to get away from the Christians that were persecuting them in Russia.

So, you might ask, what was it that brought me over the line to faith in Jesus? How did I reconcile who I was as a Jew with belief that He was the Messiah?

Briefly, there were three reasons why I ultimately became a follower of Jesus. First of all, I met Gentile Christians who loved the Jewish people. They might not have known much about Judaism, but they showed God’s love to all. They especially enjoyed meeting Jewish people, as they were avid Bible students and understood the importance of the Jewish people and Israel in the plan of God.

Also, I began reading the story and words of Jesus in the Gospels because of my encounters with these Gentile Christians, who eventually helped two of my best friends come to faith in Yeshua. In what seemed like a miracle to me, I found a New Testament in a phone booth in the middle of a campground in the Redwood Forest…a long story! As I began reading the New Testament, I immediately felt a deeply emotional conflict. On one hand, I felt so guilty reading this book, which I thought was the inspiration for millennia of antisemitism. Yet, on the other hand, I was unmistakably drawn to the compelling words of Jesus. On top of that, my close reading led me to the surprising conclusion that the Gospels were not antisemitic as I had thought. In fact, they seemed so Jewish!

However, what really put me over the line was the person of Jesus Himself. I just fell in love with Him. He was strong, bold, courageous, truthful, and so deeply spiritual. His words grabbed hold of my heart in ways that I cannot even explain. It became obvious to me that He was the Messiah and the fulfillment of all that my Jewish people hoped for through the centuries. I found myself asking how Jesus could possibly have inspired hatred of the Jewish people when He was so clearly Jewish, with a great love for His people. And I confess, this is a dark mystery I do not fully understand to this day. As He said at a moment of intense rejection by the Jewish leaders of His day, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37).

And so I was left staring at the chasm between myself as a Jewish person, feeling the burden of thousands of years of intransigence towards Jesus, while at the same time wanting to embrace Jesus as my Messiah. Without, I hope, sounding trite, for me the bridge was actually Jesus Himself. He reflected the depths of spirituality I was longing for but could not quite find within the Judaism in which I was raised. I did not want to reject Judaism or who I was as a Jew, but I desperately wanted to know God intimately and personally. Jesus became my Messiah, Redeemer, and my Bridge to my heavenly Father. I finally understood what He meant when He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me”(John 14:6).

Coming to faith in Jesus as my Messiah was the most difficult and most profoundly wonderful decision I ever made in my life. I now follow Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah and join arms with any others who do the same, although I try to be clear-sighted about the failings of people and institutions. There remains much to lament on that score.

I hope that you enjoy the rest of this newsletter as we look at some difficult New Testament passages that have been interpreted in an antisemitic way throughout the years. We are going to try and help you know to how to handle these texts and understand them within a first-century Jewish context—which is the key to unlocking their meaning. I also asked my friend Dennis to share his story, and I hope you enjoy it. It is my prayer that you will reflect upon what you read and ask God to show you if Jesus is indeed the Jewish Messiah for all.

Mitch Glaser

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[i] Direct quote from the following article written by Dr. Mitch Glaser. https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/havurah/havurah-mm88-02/the-egg-and-miriam-or-a-post-easter-assessment/