For Jewish converts to Christianity the consequence of their embrace of Jesus-worship is being cut off from their people, both for the person who has fallen into the idolatry and for all their progeny as well. I can cite example after example of Jewish converts to Christianity in the last thousand years, infamous, famous and not so well known, who were lost to the Jewish people, just as it was warned by G-d in the Torah. They were totally assimilated into the people whose “god” they strayed after and were erased from Israel.
Secularly raised Jews who converted to Christianity are both victims and victimizers. They are not true apostates from Judaism (one must be a learned Jew to qualify, as some rabbis in Christian Europe did) but rather are victims because they are products of ignorance of Torah and Judaism. They were sold the proverbial “bill of goods” by the countless Christian outreaches to the Jewish people. Even those who later came to learn more about Judaism still see everything through the distorted lens of the New Testament and two thousand years of Christian dogma. They really need our love to draw them back into the fold, but never an acceptance of their decision or especially indifference to it. As it was said by someone – we must pull them in with one hand and push them away with another. I am a good example that all hope is not lost and that a return to the G-d of Israel and His people is possible. I’m not the only one either.
Jewish converts to Christianity (Messianic Jews) are also (well-meaning) victimizers, because being Christian Evangelicals in their essence they seek to spread their faith in a false idol to others, especially their Jewish families and other Jews. I have known many Jews who have converted their children and many of their relatives to Christianity. The dangers for a Jew are very real. Once converted, it’s really hard for a converted Jew to leave Christianity, mostly because of the intense psychological and spiritual pressures of having an allegiance to Jesus, fear of being damned to hell, fear of losing their Christian friends and family. They have cut themselves off from the Jewish world, often for many years, and tend to see the Jewish world, especially religious Jews, in a negative light inherited through the New Testament. While they need our help leaving idolatry, at the same time other Jews need help not to share in the fate of these converts by being caught up in the same ignorance they seek to spread. All Jews need to be educated, both in what Judaism is and what it is not. Again, I speak from experience – I really wish someone reached out to me sooner and taught me the truth about the sin I was committing, but hardly anyone did in all my years in Christianity/Messianic Movement.
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