Can I believe in Jesus and still be Jewish?
Can a leopard lose its spots? According to Jewish law, even an “apostate” Jew is still Jewish. There are Jews who are orthodox, conservative, or reformed. There are reconstructionists and humanist Jews. There are Jews who are atheists, agnostics and even Buddists (they are called Jew/Bu’s!).
When we believe in Yeshua (Jesus, we call him by his Hebrew name which means salvation) we don’t stop being Jewish, any more than an Irishman or a Chinese person would stop being Irish or Chinese because they came to believe in Jesus. In fact, most messianic Jews would say that when they came to believe that Yeshua is the messiah they felt “more Jewish” than ever.
He himself is a Jew, and all his first followers were Jews. They never stopped being Jews. The fact that they followed Yeshua, was indeed controversial, as it is today, but there was never a thought that they were no longer Jewish. Messianic Jews are Jews who believe that Yeshua is the promised Messiah and live as Jews, observing Shabbat, the Holy Days, Passover, the other festivals, and the historical traditions of our people.
