Author name: Melva Lea Beacham

Are you aware that your Christian faith was built on a Jewish foundation? Think about it: Jews wrote the entire revelation of Scripture—both Old and New Testaments—except perhaps for the books of Luke and Acts. The Old Testament prophets all were Jewish. The apostles all were Jewish. And Jesus was not born a Christian—nor did He later convert. He was born a Jew and grew up to become a Jewish rabbi.

On Pentecost, it was Jewish men and women who first received Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah and who were endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. They went out to tell the things they had seen and heard, and when they were dispersed through persecution, they became witnesses to the gentiles.

I was privileged to sit beside him on a flight home from Israel last year—that is, with the obligatory empty seat separating us. Jewish tradition holds that a rabbi is forbidden to sit next to a woman. I asked him his name. He smiled and answered, “Gavriel.” What a passionate young rabbi he was! We …

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