Stop asking Jewish believers when they 'converted'

Two days before writing this from sunny North Carolina, a well-meaning friend asked me, “so, when did you convert?” This question still makes me bristle. Perhaps it shouldn’t.

I answer him, of course, and took it as the well meaning question that it was intended to be, but that word “convert” is not a word that I, or any other Jewish believers in Jesus that I know, feel comfortable with.

Who gets to decide who a Jew is?

I read an interesting chapter of a book recently that asked the question, who gets to decide who a Jew is? What makes a person Jewish is more complex than you think.

For most people on the street, and for our government, if this census is anything to go by, a Jew is a person who follows the religion of Judaism. If that’s the case then “convert” away! But that is not the full story.

To be Jewish is also a statement of ethnicity and of cultural identity. To be a Jew is not just to follow a faith - in fact, the vast majority of Jews do not follow the religion of Judaism. To convert suggests not only following Jesus, but giving up a cultural and ethnic identity; one of them, we don’t want to give up and the other, we can’t.

There have been attempts by some missionaries to assimilate Jews and others into western culture, but most of us now agree that these attempts were wrong-headed. Because of the complexity of Jewish identity, however, Jews are often the exception to this. When you share your faith with a Jew, you are not asking her to give up her ethnicity or cultural heritage, in fact, you are asking someone to follow the most successful form of Jewish teaching in history!

Judaism is not untrue

This brings me on to the second point. Judaism is not untrue. Okay, it is not the fully-revealed story of God, and arguably the Rabbinic writings have done significant harm to the mainstream Jewish conception of God, but the writings, the Torah, the Nevi’im (prophets) and the Ketuvi’im (writings) are the Word of God.

When we tell Jewish people about Jesus, we are not asking them to give up or supplant their Jewish identity, but rather to go deeper with the God who chose them from the nations! Jesus is the full manifestation of the Jewish God here on earth. When sharing our faith with our Jewish friends this shift in mindset is crucial. We are inviting them into a deeper relationship with the God that they read of in their Scriptures.

Rethink your use of 'convert'

The word "convert" is loaded with assumptions that do not resonate for Jews and can turn Jews away. For many the word “convert” conjures up images of pogroms and inquisitions.

When I was asked when I “converted” I bristled because I didn’t. I was given a new heart, and a new spirit, but not one that required me to change who God had made me - I didn’t stop being Jewish in any sense! I am still ethnically Jewish, I am still culturally Jewish and I am still a religious Jew, who follows the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and that God came to earth as a Rabbi, who died for the sins of those who would follow Him.

Christians follow a Jewish Rabbi called Yeshua, they read and study Jewish texts, written by Jewish people (with the possible exception of Luke) to other Jewish people. This is what we are inviting Jews to when we evangelise - faith in the Jewish scriptures, faith in the Jewish God and faith in the Jewish Messiah.