Question:

When I share my faith ( usually before bible talk) I almost always come across at least one person a week that uses the excuse of being Jewish to not come out to the discussion. I want to be able to have a response for that because I find myself not having one because I don’t know where to go from there.

Answer:

If someone does not want to come, it is not your job to make them want to come. Jesus did not make people come.  Nevertheless, I have a couple of suggestions:

1. Tell them that Jesus was Jewish, that he was faithful to the Sabbath, to attendance at Synagogue, to observing the Passover, Yom Kippur and all the Jewish traditions.

2. Tell them that all the early Christians were Jews as well, including many of the Rabbis and that Christianity is very Judaism-friendly. (and possibly, if you want to open a big can of worms, that the later anti-Jewish attitudes of “Christians” would be totally rejected by Jesus, as everyone knows).

3. It would be nice if a lot of your Bible group discussions came from the Old Testament so that you could tell them you are studying from Ezekiel or Genesis or Psalms.

4. You might want to purchase and watch the debate we sponsored “Judaism, Christianity, Islam: Which is the True Legacy of Abraham?” It would help you to get some perspective on finding common ground between Judaism and Christianity. It is available at www.ipibooks.com

5. You might want to read the book “You Bring the Bagels, I’ll Bring the Gospel” by Barry Ruben (Amazon.com), which is a practical guide to answering your question.

I hope this will get you started.

John Oakes