Those religious Jews who did become followers of Jesus always had the tendency to stray . If you study their lives, you’ll see that most of them threw out their traditional values and beliefs before they ever considered nonsense like Christianity.
Who told you that? How many of these people have you interviewed? Are you aware that many of the religious Jews who put their faith in Jesus were absolutely shocked to learn that he was the Messiah? They were living traditional lifestyles and were very much against anything Christian, but they couldn’t resist the truth of the Scriptures, in spite of the consequences of believing. As for those religious Jews who did begin to question their traditions before believing in Jesus, there is nothing illogical about this. They found problems with their spiritual foundations and sought the truth elsewhere.
There have been plenty of religious Jews who were happy with their traditions and beliefs before they came to the inescapable conclusion that Jesus is the Messiah, deciding to follow him no matter what their teachers, peers, or family said.
As for those Jews who did, in fact, question their traditions before hearing the good news about Jesus the Messiah, I’d like to ask you something: What’s wrong with questioning one’s traditions? Not all traditions are true. Not all beliefs are trustworthy. Not all holy books are holy. Why shouldn’t an honest student think through the things he is taught? Is the traditional Jewish faith so fragile that it cannot withstand scrutiny?
Must an ultra-Orthodox Jewish teenager be kept in an environment so secluded that he is not allowed to think for himself? Is there something his teachers have been hiding from him, or will his faith stand the test? Is the appeal of the New Testament so strong and the power of the Talmud so weak?
It’s one thing to educate our children according to our convictions and seek to keep them from sinful, polluting influences. It’s another thing for Orthodox parents to tell their children that if they read the New Testament, they will have no place in the world to come! 50
Many of the traditional Jews who left some of their traditions would never have been exposed to the gospel message if they had continued to live a cloistered, yeshiva lifestyle. It was their honest, inquisitive minds and their searching questions—questions that often went unanswered by their traditional teachers—that helped lead them to a true knowledge of God and the Messiah. Keeping people from honest inquiry is never healthy.
In 1987, I invited a leading anti-missionary from Monsey, New York, to come to Maryland for a public debate. This rabbi was well known through his cable TV show and newspaper columns, and he had claimed that no Messianic Jew would ever debate him. It was in response to his claim that I offered to debate him publicly in the Baltimore area, guaranteeing that he would have at least three hundred Messianic Jews in the audience. I also told him that on the next day he could address a class of my top college and graduate students.
He would be allowed to speak to them without rebuttal from me. All I asked was that he make the debate known to the Orthodox community as well, so they could hear both sides. In spite of all his rhetoric, he refused the offer, claiming that it would take the traditional Jews away from Torah study, also adding that he was afraid they might be influenced.
I was completely willing for the local Messianic Jewish community to hear this very strong, highly educated rabbi do his best to convince them that Yeshua was not the Messiah. I knew the truth was on our side and we had solid answers for every question he would raise. Yet he was afraid I might plant a seed of doubt in his constituency’s minds about their own faith.
To this day, our ministry (called ICN Ministries, standing for Israel, the Church, and the Nations) actively distributes unedited audio and video copies of debates we have had with leading rabbis and anti-missionaries, encouraging people to hear both sides of the issues. 51 We have nothing to fear. We do not believe in brainwashing (contrary to what some uninformed person may have told you), nor do we need to rely on heavy-handed peer pressure. We are confident that if a Jewish person earnestly and honestly seeks God and his truth, he will find them. Is the open pursuit of truth a virtue or vice?
It was disclosed recently that Muslim children in certain strict schools in Pakistan were kept chained, ostensibly to shelter them from evil, outside influences. The practice was so harsh that it even offended some local Muslim leaders. Now what if some of those children grew up with religious questions, and when they had the opportunity, they began to seek answers to those questions?
What if they ultimately saw that the Koran was not, in fact, divine truth, and instead they began to read the Scriptures? Would this be wrong? Wouldn’t their spiritual struggle and religious odyssey be for their ultimate good?
Are you a Reform or Conservative Jew? If so, do you realize that the only reason such branches of Judaism even exist is because several generations ago some traditional Jews began to question aspects of what they were taught, eventually becoming the leaders of a new expression of Judaism? (The same could be said of Hasidic Judaism; see 1.13.) Stop for a moment and think. It can only do you good.
50 See m. Sanhedrin 10:1 and b. Sanhedrin 100a for a potential basis for this view; cf. further Schiffman, Who Was a Jew?, 62–64.
51 See further, 2.12.
Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 1: General and historical objections. (50). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.