All God's Children   

   You may be surprised, as we are, to learn that one-third of adult, religious Jews in America are Christians.

   After two thousand years, the label "Christian" has taken on a variety of shades. It was never God's term for us anyway, though early believers adopted it. 

   Calling someone a "Jewish Christian" doesn't quite satisfy, either. 

   We think Jewish survival itself (a relatively few people scattered over the globe, before 1948, and centuries of organized persecution), is thanks to God and his promises of old. Jewish followers of Christ have survived as well.

   A Pew survey from five years ago came again to light, with surprising details.

   About one-third of U.S. Jewish adults said they are conservative or Orthodox. Another third are liberals, most of whom are not certain that God exists, and the remaining third believe Jesus is their Messiah. The latter may number 1.7 million. 

   Of those, 3 of 4 feel certain that God exists. (There are large numbers of gentile Christians who are not sure God exists. One of the "shades.")

   "Jewish Christians" are spread among many denominations and theologies, not easily counted. A minority call themselves "Messianic Jews," and some practices continue, such as Saturday service.

   Marvin Olasky of WORLD magazine attended a service in Houston, where the sermon was Christ-centered, and readings were from both the Old and New "Covenant." They refer to Jesus as Yeshua, his name in Hebrew, and speak of Rauch Ha-Kodesh, Hebrew for the Holy Spirit.

   The pastor, who graduated from Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary, claims relations between his church and Jewish leaders has improved. In 2015, a group of Orthodox rabbis published a statement, "Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations."

      Jimmy