 Let's take a look at the missionaries motives and tactics. I'll begin with a quote from Jews for Jesus. Quote, we exist to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide. End quote. Who are the missionaries that we will encounter? They may be a schoolmate, co-worker or a neighbor who wants to share the good news of Christianity. Most often, they are just ordinary people in ordinary situations and not paid professional missionaries. Regardless of how sincere or well-intentioned these people may appear, their message spells tragedy for a Jew. As the Jewish people confronted Christianity over the last 2,000 years, we have been consistent in our rejection of the claims that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. So why are the missionaries still trying to convert the Jewish people? What are their motivations? Autruism saving us from damnation. According to Christianity, anyone who does not believe in Jesus is condemned to an eternity of burning in hell. From a spirit of love, many believing Christians want to save us from this perceived faith. Judaism, however, disagrees with their views of hell and the need to be saved through faith in Jesus. The Great Commission. Missionaries feel that they have an obligation to witness to us, and this comes directly from the New Testament. Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission to go into the entire world and spread the gospel. And what's more, the message should first be preached to the Jew and only then to the Gentile. It's as it says in the New Testament Book of Romans, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and then to the Greek or the Gentile. Book of Romans chapter 1 verse 16. The second coming. According to Christianity, Jesus is going to come back a second time as the Messiah to establish God's kingdom on earth to many. This second coming is contingent upon the Jews accepting him as their savior. As it says in the Book of Luke, assuredly I say unto you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Luke chapter 13 verse 35. This verse is understood to mean that since Jesus was speaking to the Jews, they must accept him before he comes again. Therefore, there is a special urgency among the missionaries to convert as many Jews as possible. There are also a variety of emotional issues that motivate Christian believers in their missionary efforts. Every Jew faithful to Judaism is a reminder to Christians that maybe their God and their beliefs are false. Because the Jews, God's chosen people, have always rejected them. Having the Jews convert would alleviate this anxiety. Some Christians envy the status of the Jews and want to be God's chosen people. To accomplish this, they have formulated replacement theology where the Jews are superseded by the Christians in God's eyes. The conversion of the Jewish people helps validate this view. Many of the Jews who become Christian missionaries are driven by bad experiences within Judaism and their families and therefore resent their Jewishness. They want acceptance among non-Jews and are zealous in abandoning many of the bonds to their Jewish heritage. Many are intermarried. Why do we Jews have this missionary problem? A sad truth facing the Jewish community today is the alienation of too many of our people. The lack of a Jewish education or a negative experience within Jewish life has caused them to become distanced from the vitality and the spirituality found in Judaism and in identifying with the Jewish people. Some have experienced Jewish life as merely emphasizing material success or supporting only secular causes. For them, their exposure to Judaism failed to transmit the love, spirituality and sense of family that they required. Which Jews are most vulnerable? Jews who convert to other religions are often extremely vulnerable as a result of experiencing a period of transition or crisis in their lives. Who are these people? College students who are away from home and are now exploring their spirituality or transplants? People who move to a new city, leave their Jewish connections behind and are now looking for new friends? Russian immigrants who for whom being identified as a Jew was often a liability and are now consumed with succeeding in America? Often the Jewish community has not reached out to them as consistently as the Christians have. Then there's the elderly who are living alone and need companionship. Interfaith families with Jewish spouses and children are influenced by their Christian spouses and relatives as well. Among us, these are the Jewishly alienated, the spiritual seekers, the Jews of all ages often with low self-esteem who are going through times of trauma and seeking guidance and love. Missionaries are taking advantage of their vulnerability with much zeal and success. They offer these Jews the love and acceptance they seek, along with Christian beliefs. How do they do it? By deceptively cloaking everything in a Jewish façade. The Jewish community must do a better job promoting the love and vitality found in their own religion and thereby prevent Jews from being lured by open armed missionaries. In Psalm 19, King David wrote, The Torah of God is complete. We have a complete religion and we must tell our fellow Jews and children that everything they seek can be found in Judaism. There's no need to look elsewhere. What's the missionary cells pitch? It has been said in the media that more Jews have embraced Christianity in the last 20 years than in the last 20 centuries. What has changed? In the past, missionaries pushed Jews to abandon Judaism for Christianity. Today, they realize that most Jews are uncomfortable with the idea of abandoning their Jewishness to become a Christian. So now, missionaries have adopted a whole new approach in reaching those vulnerable Jews. Now they tell them they do not have to convert. They say a Jew can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish. Jewish law confirms that there is nothing a Jew can do to lose his or her Jewish status. The missionaries insist that if you were born a Jew, you will die a Jew, so you are not abandoning who you are. They emphasize that Jesus and his disciples were Jews, so believing in him must be a Jewish thing to do. This is truly a baseless claim. A Jewish mass murder is still Jewish, but that does not mean he is doing what God wants. Just because someone is Jewish doesn't mean that everything he or she does is automatically consistent with the teachings of Judaism. The missionaries will also say, become a completed Jew, or a fulfilled Jew, or a messianic Jew. Missionaries assert you are not abandoning anything by embracing Christianity. You are only completing the Judaism of your ancestors. You are fulfilling your spiritual destiny as a Jew. Judaism believes in the idea of a Messiah. Where's yours? Accept Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and become a messianic Jew. This approach is also deceptive. Shortly, we will see how radically different Christianity is from Judaism and how it veers away from Judaism on virtually all major theological issues. The result of accepting such a faith is to cut oneself off from the Torah's teachings and Jewish people. Is this a completed Jew? In the early 1970s, missionary groups developed a Jewish-like version of Christianity called messianic Judaism, which camouflages Christianity as a form of Judaism. The missionaries have been so successful in marketing this mirage that an entire movement has emerged from it. Books, audio-video materials, seminars, and internet websites have been created to educate missionaries on the many ways they can witness or share their faith to the Jewish friends in this new improved manner. Here are some guidelines missionaries use when speaking to Jews. They include, start out by only quoting from the Old Testament and try to establish the scriptural authority and Jewishness of Jesus. They'll say certain words and images raise a red flag and are very uncomfortable for Jews because of their historical associations with Christianity. Therefore, use these euphemistic alternatives. For instance, they'll say, Don't say Jesus Christ. Do say Yeshua the Messiah or Yeshua the Messiah. Don't say New Testament, but instead say New Covenant or Brita Chadasha. Don't say convert to Christianity, but say become a fulfilled Jew, completed Jew, or a messianic Jew. Don't call yourself a Christian, but refer to yourself and others like you as Bible believers. Don't say baptism, but call it the Jewish mikva service. Lastly, don't call a Jewish church by those words. Refer to it as a messianic synagogue. There are messianic synagogues with names such as Beth Hallel, Adas Yeshua, Eitzchain. These synagogues display only Jewish symbols with no crosses or other blatantly Christian symbols. Services are led by a rabbi wearing a kippah, a skull cap, and a prayer shawl, a talit, who adds a Jewish stick to provide a Jewish feel. Jewish holidays and Shabbat are seemingly celebrated, but always with an eventual connection to Jesus. The annual Passover Seder is a major event. The messianic Haggadah explains that the three matzahs represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and describes how Yeshua, Jesus, is the real Passover land. A major theme of this video is uncovering the missionary's deceptions. We will now examine the integrity of their arguments and their use of Jewish sources. How truthful are the missionaries? We will soon discover the answer in the next session.