We talk about Christian apathy and sinful neglect in the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews. And we give our reasons, such as: “It does not pay,” it is difficult to win a Jew, and we might better use that time, energy and money for the conversion of others where results have been more apparent.
From a purely materialistic viewpoint, these reasons would seem reasonable. So much supply, so much demand, so much profit; let us make a deal with the highest bidder. But God’s Word is no merchandise for sale to highest bidders; it has nothing to do with profit and loss. If it were a question of that, many of our mission enterprises and churches would have to close. We have no right to classify the Lord’s commands according to the dividends or profits they are likely to bring. Ours is only to obey them.
Difficulties Of Witness
We concede however, that there are certain difficulties in connection with preaching the Gospel to the Jews. There was a time when mission work among the natives of Africa, Asia, and the islands of the sea, was more productive than that among the Jews. To those natives, Christianity was the religion of the white man who, to them, was considered superior. It is no wonder that these people would flock around the missionaries who offered to heal their sick, educate their children, teach them crafts, and provide special care for converts.
Furthermore, for these people no special difficulties were involved in the accepting of a new religion. As a rule, converts were not persecuted by their people for apostasy; on the contrary, they were glad to become white people’s proteges. All a convert had to do to prove his new faith was to cover his nakedness with clothing, keep no more than one wife and attend church. In short, the native had little to lose and much to gain by accepting the white man’s religion.
It has been entirely different with the Jew. First of all, he has never considered himself inferior to any other people; he has never thought he had anything to learn from them. On the contrary, he has always been conscious of his superiority. He has considered himself the scion of kings, prophets and sages. His ancestors were people of high culture at a time when the ancestors of other peoples were still savages living in caves and woods. There were few Jews who could not read the Bible nor their prayer books in Hebrew. Even during the Middle Ages when darkness engulfed all of Europe, almost every Jew could read and write. Every Jewish community had a free religious public library and several private libraries. No Jewish community was without a school or the various social institutions for the care of the sick, the aged, the orphans, the poor and the homeless. Few Christian people in the Middle Ages could boast of having such benevolent institutions. And any missionary, therefore, had little to offer the Jew from a material point of view.
Also, while Christianity was to the native, terra incognita—“something neutral,” to the Jew it was something to be shunned. His wise forefathers had already condemned it as a kind of idolatry, and idolatry was very much a cardinal sin in Judaism. Moreover, every Jew considered Christianity as “enemy number one” to them, and much of Christian practice throughout the Middle Ages only affirmed and reaffirmed this in their own minds. A Jew could see no love in Christianity. The Catholic Church treated the Jew in disgraceful and horrible manner. He saw Christian nation fight Christian nation, even aligned with pagan nations. Nothing was there for him to love and admire in the Christianity that he knew then. The great historian Milman, in his History of the Jews, writes: “Every passion was in arms against them (the Jews). The monarchs were instigated by avarice; the nobility by the war-like spirit generated by chivalry; the clergy by bigotry; the people by all these concurrent motives. Each of the great changes which were gradually taking place in the state of the world seemed to darken the condition of this unhappy people, till the outward degradation worked inward upon their own minds” (Vol. II, p. 295). When we consider the humiliation and suffering which the Jews endured at the hands of professed Christians, we wonder that any Jew turned to the Christian religion.
Giving Up A Life
Another point concerning the conversion of the Jew might well be considered most important. In considering a Chinese, an Indonesian, a Zulu or an Arab, for instance, we note that when such a one changed his native religion and accepted Christianity, he remained as before—a Chinese, Indonesian, Zulu, Arab, giving up very little as a result of his profession. This was not so with the Jew. Judaism to the Jew was not only a religion to be professed and practiced occasionally; it was his very life. The observance of his religion began when he woke up in the morning and ended when he went to bed at night. His every action involved certain religious rites, beginning with the ceremony of washing his hands in the morning soon after opening his eyes, and ending with the prayer before retiring. Dietary and culinary laws were manifold. His marital life and periodic purification, and his prayers several times daily made up one long succession of rites and ceremonies, all of which involved a literal carrying out of the injunction in Deuteronomy 11:18–20: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates.” Jewish life and Jewish religion were practically synonymous.
We see, therefore, that for the Jew to become a Christian truly meant his being “born again.” Such a step meant to be separated forever from one’s parents, kinsmen and friends, and bear all that they would do, as a consequence of his profession, to make his life unbearable. He had now to begin a new life among strangers. And what is more, any sincere Jewish convert who felt the urge to go and preach the Gospel he loved to his own brethren, could expect a reception far from cordial; for to them he was now a traitor, one to be held in contempt. Such treatment could only serve as a warning to other Jews who contemplated such a step as conversion.
A Subconscious Dislike
We hesitate to say—and we hope we are wrong—that not the difficulties nor lack of results have kept some from giving the Gospel to the Jew, but possibly a bit of subconscious dislike for him.
The Christian church has expended vast sums of money to evangelize the Arabs, for example. It has built universities, colleges in many Arab centers, erected orphanages, hospitals and other charitable institutions. And what have been the results? All that is known is that some graduates of these schools have become fanatical nationalist agitators, preachers of the Pan Islam movement, and leaders in the expelling of all Christian influence and bringing in the Russian instead. Again, what has happened to the Christian schools, hospitals, and churches in China? Where are the results of the millions of dollars that have been spent? We see in such cases that the “results” have not always been taken into consideration in mission work. On the other hand, what has the Church done to win the Jew? The answer is, very little.
In the Middle Ages when the church was Roman Catholic, conversion was enforced upon everyone. Compulsion by severe cruelty, enticement and trickery was practiced to convert Jews. Children were violently snatched from parents and baptized into a church which was more pagan than Christian. Nevertheless, even in those “dark ages” there were comparatively large numbers of Jews who became converts, many of whom were of high standing and some of whom reached even high positions in the church. We know that some of these Jewish converts became forerunners of the Reformation.
With the Reformation, of course, came a better understanding of the Gospel and how to preach it to the Jew. Even though the people were not altogether weaned away from traditional prejudices, they worked to win the Jew, not by violence, but by patience and love.
A great change in the Gentile attitude toward the Jew came with the nineteenth century, a century of mighty movements, religious, cultural and political. People had begun to consider him as a fellow man, worthy of the rights of man, and entitled, as much as Christians, to the grace of God. There arose Jewish missions, especially in England; and the Gospel of love, presented in love, reached many Jewish hearts. It became a century of reapproachment between Jew and Christian. The “stiff-necked” Jew who might resist threats of violence, persecution and compulsion, could not resist love. And what was the consequence of loving-kindness toward the Jew?
According to conservative estimate, no less than 225,000 Jews were received into the Christian Church in the nineteenth century. And these converts were the highly intellectual and cultured Europeans. It has been rightly said that “Jewish converts must be weighed as well as counted.” Among them was a galaxy of famous men in all departments of life—political, economic, artistic, scientific and religious. If space permitted we could record here long lists of prominent scholars, scientists, distinguished diplomats, lawyers, artists (in music, painting, sculpture and poetry) and above all, eloquent preachers, eminent teachers, exponents of the Bible, Church historians and self-sacrificing missionaries.
Mighty currents of blessing flowed into Christendom from many of these converts. And these wholesome currents were not limited only to the nineteenth century. Before that time, and up until this very day, the contribution that Jewish converts have made to the glory of the Church has been inestimable. Jewish converts were proportionately larger than those of other peoples. And so the argument that Jewish mission work is a “fruitless” effort is a prejudice that has been based upon misconception and misleading reports.
Signs Of A New Day
Things have greatly changed today in regard to mission work among colored peoples. Many nationals are no more natives; they have become independent of the white man because they have lost respect for him. They have learned that the white man is often wicked and weak, and therefore are now caring little for his help or guidance, either in material or spiritual affairs. Many countries have even expelled and prohibited all mission work, and others are likely to do in the near future.
By way of contrast, the situation today is radically different with the Jews. There has been a marked stirring within the last decades of the “dry bones” of Israel; they are craving for rebirth, and for being revived with the breath of God. The “Zionist movement” has roused Jewish people to shake off the dust of exile and return to the land promised to their forefathers and to pristine glory.
Although some see in this only a political movement, it cannot be denied that it is cultural and spiritual as well. The ancient Hebrew language has been revived, many have begun to search the Scriptures, and many have rediscovered the glories of prophecy. This has made them think independently of tradition and rabbinic guidance. The movement has further led them to the New Testament—that book which the rabbis sealed with seven seals and anathematized the Jews who dared to read it. Old prejudices and bigotry have slowly but surely been yielding to unfettered thinking, so that the New Testament has penetrated into many Jewish homes and hearts.
Many have begun to realize that the “unholy” New Testament is the greatest book which the Jewish race has ever produced. And, of course, as they read it, the central figure of this book, Jesus of Nazareth, is radiating into their hearts a light and warmth that they have not known before. Instead of the puerile, scurrilous and vile tales which rabbis have fabricated about Jesus, Jewish scholars and writers are now publishing books (both history and fiction) which portray Jesus in truer light. The New Testament has become to the Jew “our book” and Jesus “our Jesus.” Although multitudes of them have not yet recognized his messiahship and deity, many are regarding him, as never before, the greatest prophet and noblest teacher that the Jewish people have ever produced. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Jewish interest in Christ and his teachings has been growing rapidly. Today, as never before, it is the sacred duty of the Christian Church to direct and guide this yearning for the truth into proper channels.
Whatever have been the excuses for neglecting the evangelization of the Jews in the past, there can be no excuse for neglect today. Indeed, there is now an unprecedented opportunity for evangelizing them.
Stage Settings
I notice when the Great Producer writes
A rainbow scene for life’s long, thrilling play,
He never topples Grandeur from the heights
By showing it upon a sunny day.
He knows where Beauty makes her fairest mark,
Where Hope means most to those whose hearts are bowed,
And so He hangs that vari-colored arc
Against the leaden backdrop of a cloud.
CLARENCE EDWIN FLYNN
Jacob Gartenhaus is Founder and President of the International Board of Jewish Missions, Inc. Born in Austria, he received education in the rabbinical schools of Europe. After his conversion to Christ, he was graduated from Moody Bible Institute and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. For 28 years he was superintendent of the Department of Jewish Evangelism under the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptists.
