|
 Loren
Jacobs is the senior rabbi and founder of "Congregation
Shema Yisrael" (which means "Hear O
Israel"). Congregation Shema Yisrael is a
Messianic synagogue which was started in 1986
when Rabbi Loren and his wife Martha moved to
Michigan to proclaim the Good News about the Messiah
to the 78,000 Jewish people living in the metro
Detroit area.
Rabbi
Loren was raised in a Jewish home in the Chicago
area, and became a Messianic Jew in 1975. He graduated
from Moody Bible Institute's Jewish Studies program
in 1979 and received a Bachelor's degree in Biblical
Literature from Northeastern Bible College in
New Jersey in 1986. His wife Martha is a fifth
generation Messianic Jew, which is quite unusual.
They have two adult children.
RABBI
LOREN’S STORY
I’d
like to begin my story at the time of my great-grandparents,
most of whom lived near the city of Kiev, in the
Ukraine, around 1900. At that time, life was becoming
increasingly difficult for many of the Jewish
families in Russia and the Ukraine, including
my own. My family left the Ukraine, and came to
the United States during the first decade of the
20th century. In the generations since we left
Russia for America, my family never showed a deep
faith in God or His Word. Consequently, growing
up in the Chicago area in the 1960's, I was immersed
in a culturally Jewish, but otherwise secular
and materialistic worldview.
Few, if
any, of my Jewish friends, family, or teachers
at synagogue, believed in a God who could create
the universe in six days, intervene in human history,
or perform miracles. The idea of having a personal
relationship with God, like Abraham, Moses, and
David had, was unheard of. The Holy Scriptures
were regarded as good for teaching morals and
ethics, but not to be taken "literally."
Matters concerning the supernatural - such as
heaven and hell, angels, demons and the Messiah,
were not acknowledged.
We celebrated
the holidays as a part of our Jewish tradition,
but the living God played a very little role in
our day-to-day affairs. As I result, I sensed
that something was missing from the Judaism to
which I was exposed, and I began investigating
other philosophies and religions. I started by
reading some of the great Western philosophers
such as Plato and Aristotle. Then I began drifting
toward Eastern philosophy. I took up Transcendental
Meditation, repeating my “mantra”
over and over, every morning and evening, for
more than a year.
During
my first year at Northwestern University in Illinois,
I took a course on Medieval Philosophy. Little
did I know that the greatest minds during this
thousand-year period in Western Civilization spent
most of their intellectual labors attempting to
prove the existence of God! The philosophers reasoned,
"How else do we explain the evident order
and design in nature? Why else do we all have
an inward sense of right and wrong? And why, throughout
all cultures and societies, has there been an
intuitive awareness of God or gods?!" As
I studied their powerful and persuasive arguments,
I became convinced that God had to exist.
Shortly
after that, I began reading the Holy Scriptures
for the very first time. After attending a seminar
on Biblical prophecy, I read the entire New Testament
portion of the Scriptures within a week! Then
I began discovering prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures
which predicted the coming Messiah, the Anointed
Ruler and Savior sent by God. I was amazed to
discover that the prophets of Israel had told
us that a descendant of the tribe of Judah, from
the royal family of King David, would be born
in Bethlehem. According to these prophecies,
He would come before the Second Temple was destroyed
in 70 AD, accomplish miracles, then suffer, die,
rise from the dead, and yet fail to be recognized
by the majority of our people! Through the
Messiah, God would also establish a New Covenant
with the Jewish people (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).
To me, the evidence was overwhelming - Yeshua
was the promised Messiah of Israel who would reconcile
us to God.
In
coming to know the Messiah, I discovered a dimension
of Jewish spirituality that I never dreamed possible!
Messiah Yeshua enabled me to develop an intimate
personal connection with the God of Israel that
is still going strong twenty-five years later!
When I came to believe in Yeshua, I began rediscovering
my Jewish heritage. I transferred to Moody
Bible Institute, changed my major to Jewish studies,
worked with Jews for Jesus for eight years, and
was ordained as a Messianic Rabbi by the Union
of Messianic Jewish Congregations. I married Martha
Brickner, who is a fifth generation Messianic
Jew! Together, we have drawn closer to our Messiah,
our God, our Land, our Holy Scriptures, our people
and our heritage. God, in His mercy, has enabled
us to start Congregation Shema Yisrael, which
is about ten years old.
REBBITZIN
MARTHA’S STORY
One of
the arguments against the Messianic Jewish movement
is based on assimilation. It goes something like
this: “We Jewish people shouldn’t
believe in Yeshua because the second generation
of Messianic Jews assimilate into the dominant
Christian culture. They marry Christians and become
part of the Church. And if the second generation
doesn’t assimilate, then the third generation
will certainly be lost to the Jewish community.”
Frankly,
assimilation has been a problem for Jewish people
in general, as well as for those who have come
to know the Messiah, but I know that assimilation
is not inevitable, because I am a fifth generation
Messianic Jew! For more than 120 years, my
Jewish family have known that Yeshua is the Messiah,
and passed their Messianic Faith and Jewish identity
to the succeeding generations.
The
Second Generation
My story
begins with Julius Finestein. Julius was born
into a Chassidic family in 1859 and grew up in
Zhitomir, Russia. He became a Messianic Jew around
1881. He married my great-grandmother Esther,
his second cousin, who was also from a Chassidic
family. Shortly after their marriage, Esther also
became a Messianic Jew. Together, Julius and Esther
brought the Good News of the Messiah to the Jewish
people in Odessa and Constantinople. They saw
much opposition and persecution, but they also
helped many other Jewish people come to know Israel’s
Messiah. They had two sons who later carried on
the work of bringing the truth to our people -
Isaac and Daniel Finestone. Julius died in 1898,
and Esther married Wolfe Kendal, another Messianic
Jew. They had two children, my great-aunt Emma
(who is 98 years old), and my grandfather Fred.
Esther
and Wolfe moved to London, where Esther worked
with a Jewish ministry for seven years. From London,
the family moved to Toronto. In Toronto, Esther
served with several Jewish ministries from 1910
to 1927.
The
First Generation
Although
Julius and Esther were the first to believe in
Messiah Yeshua, Esther’s mother Pearl, my
great-great grandmother, also welcomed Yeshua
into her life in her later years, and became a
Messianic Jew herself. That makes her the first
generation of Messianic Jews in our family lineage.
The
Third Generation
Isaac
Finestone communicated the Message about the Messiah
in Toronto, Ottawa and New Jersey.
Daniel
Finestone started a Messianic Jewish group in
Philadelphia that continues to this day.
Fred Kendal,
my grandfather, moved to the United States and
started Israel’s Remnant, which
was active in Detroit and Boston. It later merged
with Friends of Israel.
Emma Kendal
married Arthur Glass, and they became the first
couple sent out by the Messianic Jewish Alliance
of America. They brought the Good News about
the Messiah to the Jewish people of Buenos Aires.
They moved to Detroit, and in the 1950s served
as the spiritual leaders of the First Hebrew
Christian Church.
The
Fourth Generation
My uncle
Daniel and aunt Beverly Kendal have brought the
truth about Israel’s Messiah to the Spanish
speaking peoples in Guatemala, Mexico and the
United States. My uncle Harold and aunt Grace
Brickner are leading a Messianic Congregation
in the Detroit area. My parents, Avi and Leah
Brickner, have brought the Message of the Messiah
to the Jewish communities of Detroit, Boston,
San Francisco and Jerusalem.
The
Fifth Generation
Howard
and Ann Burgoyne are leading a church in Washington.
Stephen and Deborah Galiley are leading a Messianic
Synagogue in New York. Susan and Irving Salzman
are bringing the Messiah to the Jewish community
in Montreal. My brother, David Brickner, is the
director of Jews for Jesus, which has
a worldwide impact. Ted and Priscilla Clark, and
Scott and Ruth Yingling, are bringing the Messiah
to the peoples of Mexico. James and Terri Wilson
are teaching the Holy Scriptures in Arkansas.
I have
only mentioned those members of the family that
have gone into full-time ministry. There are many
others in my family who have served the God of
Israel and the wonderful Messiah whom He sent
to save us, in various other capacities.
Growing
up Messianic
My parents
took great pride in their Jewish heritage and
wanted their children to embrace their Jewish
roots as well. When the children were old enough
to sit still at the table, each dinner ended with
a reading from the Bible. As each of us learned
to read, each evening we were allowed to take
turns reading aloud from the Holy Scriptures.
Then each night, as my parents tucked us in bed,
we would end each day with a story from the Bible,
and with prayer.
My growing
knowledge and understanding of my heritage was
a Jewishness based on the Holy Scriptures. My
parents taught me that the God of Israel should
come first in my life. He was the One I should
seek to please above all else. This was the kind
of Jewish woman they wanted me to be. The holidays
were an especially fun time for me, as well as
a time of learning. In addition to the historical
significance of each celebration, my father would
teach us how each holiday pointed us to the Messiah.
For example, at Passover, we celebrated not only
God's salvation of our people out of Egypt, but
the greater salvation made possible through Messiah,
our Passover Lamb, who died on Passover so that
God could pass over the sins of the world. Through
these celebrations, I was able to understand the
most important facet of my Jewishness - the need
for a personal relationship with God. My godly
parents challenged me to desire that relationship
above all else in life.
However,
being born in a Messianic Jewish home does not
automatically make one a Messianic Jew! I had
to decide for myself whether or not I was going
to follow God and the wonderful Messiah whom He
sent. I wasn’t satisfied to simply accept
everything my parents taught me, especially during
my teenage years. While I respected my parents
and their faith, I decided I needed to do some
searching on my own. I began to seek, and was
able to find, the God who cared enough to send
the Messiah to bring us back into a close relationship
with Himself. I was fifteen years old when I made
my own personal commitment to follow the God of
Israel.
When I
made that commitment, I had the assurance that
my need for atonement was met, and my own personal
relationship with God had begun. Suddenly, the
Bible became alive, as I realized that it was
much more than a bunch of facts - it was more
like a love-letter from God to me, as well as
my guide and way of life! I also understood that
my Jewish identity was not an accident of birth,
but a gift from God to be embraced, and a purpose
to be fulfilled. I wanted to identify with my
Jewish people, the way my parents had wanted me
to all along.
I pursued
a career in nursing. Becoming a Registered Nurse
was certainly fulfilling, but my growing urge
to learn more about my heritage influenced me
to enroll in Moody Bible Institute’s Jewish
and Modern Israel Studies program. With my nursing
career established, and with a nice amount of
Jewish education under my belt, one might think
my parents would be happy. But they also wanted
a different kind of nachas - the kind you find
under a wedding canopy! Their wishes for a good
husband for me were fulfilled when I met Loren.
Like myself, he believed in Yeshua, had a love
for his Jewish people and a great appreciation
for his heritage. One year later we were married
under the chuppah, and for the past twenty-two
years we have given our lives to tell our Jewish
people about the Messiah.
Must
Messianic Jews assimilate? Even though it may
be difficult to maintain a Messianic Jewish identity,
and transmit it to the next generation, my 120-year-long
story and I are living proof that the answer to
this question is "No!"
RABBI
LOREN’S CHALLENGE
Like me,
there are many Jewish people dissatisfied with
the Judaism to which they have been exposed. They
sense that something is missing, and are longing
for a deeper sense of spirituality. Perhaps you
are searching for something more. I know that
Messiah Yeshua is the answer to your spiritual
need. Yeshua is the key that removes the barriers
to peace, joy, a personal relationship with God,
and eternal life.
Believing
in Messiah Yeshua doesn't mean departing from
our Jewish heritage. Rather, faith in Yeshua is
the fulfillment of true Biblical Judaism! Many
people don't know that the first followers of
Yeshua were Messianic Jews, that the New Testament
was written by Messianic Jews, or that there were
Messianic synagogues in Israel until 500-700 AD.
In the past twenty-five years there has been a
rebirth of Messianic Judaism, and today there
are over 400 Messianic Synagogues in the U.S.
and another 100 in Israel!
Why do
I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah? Because
God clearly communicated to the prophets of Israel
what the first and second comings of the Messiah
would be like. Scattered throughout the pages
of the Jewish Bible are ancient predictions about
the Messiah. Let me quote just one messianic prophecy
found in the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah
who lived around 700 BC. This prophecy describes
the sufferings and rejection that the Messiah
would endure from His own people to reconcile
us to the God from whom we have been estranged:
He
was despised and forsaken by men, a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief; and like one from
whom men hide their face, He was despised and
we did not esteem Him. But He was pierced through
for our transgressions, He was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment for our well-being
fell upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Remember that this amazing prophecy was written
700 years before Yeshua came!
I believe
this one incredible prophecy (and there are many
more like it) is talking about Yeshua, and the
sufferings that He endured to make full and final
atonement for us, and to bring us into an intimate,
personal relationship with the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. He is the One who the Jewish
prophets foretold would come; first to atone for
sin and end our alienation from God; then He would
come a second time to fulfill God's plan to bring
peace to the entire world.
If
you are not a Messianic Jew, or a true Christian,
and you want to know more, I have five suggestions
for you:
First,
pray: ask the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
to reveal Himself to you. Pray that He would help
you to know if the New Testament is true, and
if Yeshua really is the Messiah. Pray that He
would give you the courage to follow the truth,
no matter what it costs. You might want to pray
this prayer: “God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, please reveal Yourself to me in a deeper
way than I have ever known You before. Please
show me whether or not the New Testament is true,
and if Yeshua really is the Messiah. Please give
me the courage to follow Him if He is the Messiah,
no matter what the cost. Amen.”
Second,
I suggest that you do what I did twenty-five years
ago - get a copy of the Bible and simply begin
reading it. It is the truest and most powerful
book ever written. The simple act of reading this
book can be a powerful spiritual experience, and
often authenticates to the reader the incredible
truth of what it says.
Third,
you can also contact us for More Than A Carpenter
by Josh McDowell. Josh McDowell was a skeptic
who was convinced that anyone who believed in
the Bible was out of their mind. After intensive
research he realized that the Bible is 100% reliable
and faith in it is intellectually feasible. More
Than A Carpenter is the result of his research.
It examines the Bible's claims about itself, about
God, the Messiah, and the resurrection. If
you live in the United States, we will send this
fascinating 128-page book to you for only one
dollar. [If you are already a believer in
Messiah Yeshua, and want More Than A Carpenter,
I ask that you send in five dollars to cover the
cost].
Fourth,
I'd like to invite you to visit our synagogue,
Congregation Shema Yisrael. Services are held
Saturday mornings at 10:30 a.m. at the facilities
of Bloomfield Hills Baptist Church, 3600 Telegraph
Road, which is a quarter of a mile north of Long
Lake Road. We have a Shabbat School program for
the children, and a nursery that is available
for infants and toddlers.
Fifth,
I have found that many people often want to meet
with me to talk further about Messiah Yeshua and
Messianic Judaism. If you live in the Metro Detroit
area, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss
these all important matters. I hope to hear from
you! |
