To the Jew First | 5
A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE HOLIDAYS
I became a believer in Jesus in 1970, a few days before
Thanksgiving. Within a month, I was faced with my first major
challenge as a Jewish follower of Jesus. My new Christian friends
invited me to join them in celebrating Christmas. Their invitation
produced one of the toughest hurdles I had to overcome in my
new walk with the Lord because I had been raised to believe that
the idea of God becoming man was so very “un-Jewish!”
Many things have changed since then, and now I have come to
appreciate Christmas as a Jewish believer in Jesus in profound
new ways. There are many theological subjects and aspects of
Christmas that make it unique to Jewish eyes, therefore this
booklet is divided by topics for the sake of clarity. We will cover
historical connections between Christians and the Jewish people,
the incarnation, the virgin birth, and of course the place Hanukkah
has in the discussion.
One of the things that is most difficult for Jewish people to
understand is the idea of the incarnation—that Jesus is both fully
man and fully God. So how did I come to believe that Jesus is
God in the flesh?
THE INCARNATION AND VIRGIN BIRTH—TRUTH OR HERESY?
I was raised in a traditional Jewish home. I was trained for
my Bar Mitzvah at a modern Orthodox synagogue. My family
celebrated all of the Jewish holidays and lifecycle events. We
participated in the Jewish community and in its religious life, as
the neighborhood where I grew up in New York City was almost
entirely Jewish.
Additionally, we internally embraced the ill feelings most Jewish
people feel toward “Christianity.” Most of the negative ideas
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