The Jewish Jesus Revolution [Part 2]
When I was young I attended our temple’s children’s program (at a reformed synagogue). I became disillusioned after a few years.
I wondered if the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs were fairy tales. After all, they talked to God! I knew by definition that God must be alive right then and there since He is eternal. Why didn’t they tell me how to talk to God which I sincerely desired? When they didn’t (couldn’t) I stopped attending.
A few years later, we moved next door to a synagogue official. My father was a doctor who truly cared about human suffering. Though we weren’t “religious,” I thought my father’s life reflected something about God more clearly than this religious man’s did.
My maternal great great grandfather, Isidore Kalisch, had been one of the leaders in the Reform Judaism movement in the United States. These, and other experiences, precluded my looking into a more observant Judaism.
The social upheaval that permeated the country in the 60’s and 70’s affected me deeply (read Part 1 of this blog for more details). I was looking for answers. Wes Taber (Life in Messiah’s Global Ambassador) says there was an “iconoclastic spirit” at that time.
The constructs and experiences that were once adhered to and valued weren’t any longer. Perhaps one can say that like the time of the Judges, “…everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.”
Fritz Perls, a well-known psychologist of that era said, “You do your thing and I do my thing. And if by chance we meet its beautiful.” After all, who’s to say what’s right or wrong.
In the movie “Jesus Revolution,” one of the hippie leaders who had become a Christian said drug usage was simply a quest for God. Perhaps it was for some. For me and many others, it was a quest for answers that quickly devolved into just pleasure-seeking, and ultimately disillusionment.
The Beatles had gone to India. Eastern religious expression became de rigueur. This one was into yoga, someone else Transcendental Meditation, another Hare Krishna. There was a hodgepodge of beliefs to choose from.
Years later, a Jewish woman at my congregation in New York told me her relative was the head Buddhist for the state of New York. Sadly, for many of us who were from a Jewish background, we’d look anywhere BUT not to Jesus. I was an adherent of Taoism. Then I found out that my teacher’s teacher was a Methodist. What?! If Taoism was the answer, why was this person a Methodist? That was the end of Taoism for me. And like Taoism, drugs and other lifestyle choices all seemed to lead to a dead end. Again, the hippie Christian leader in the movie says, the hippies are sheep without a shepherd. Further, he states they are a desperate bunch who are searching for all the right things in all the wrong places.
Where was peace to be found? Who or what had answers to life?
Animosity and war that seemed to have no end confronted the United States daily. In those days, casualties were reported every night on the news: number dead, number wounded. Could this nation survive the anger that was dividing it? These were profound, frightening, and unanswered concerns.
I don’t think it is unfair or untrue to say these were desperate times. What affected the youth of the United States in general, also affected Jewish young people. In fact, many of the leaders in the anti-war movement were Jewish. Jerry Rubin, Mark Rudd, and Alan Ginsburg were some of the most well-known. Young Jewish people were also “turning on, tuning in and dropping out.”
In California the “free speech movement” had begun in the San Francisco area, “the hippie capital of the world.” Some wanted to find new ways to communicate the gospel. And did. Jewish hippies were coming to faith as God’s Spirit was working in hearts and lives – and in large numbers though it’s difficult to report accurate figures. During this time, the number of Messianic congregations began to grow, in the United States, in Israel, and elsewhere.
A pastor I knew used to say, “Spiritual maturity is when God just has to tap you on the shoulder, not hit you with a two-by-four.” I needed the two-by-four.
Looking for a job change one day, my car overheated. When I removed the radiator cap a geyser of boiling water hit me from the chest upward. I was burned to the point of needing a hospital. When that happened the thought came to me, I don’t want to go to hell. As a Jew, I had never thought about hell, let alone fearing I might end up there. I was burning. Thankfully, I had no lasting damage.
While recuperating, I decided to buy a Bible. I reasoned that I had looked everywhere else, but never read the New Testament. I began to fall in love with Jesus. And I was surprised to discover the New Testament was not antisemitic. Jesus was Jewish, as were His parents and followers. And it all took place in Israel!
But I had no instruction at this point. Nor was I ready to fully commit my life to Him. A lady had come to town who advertised herself as a “Western Guru.” I met with her imploring I wanted to get to know Jesus. Her answer: “Why go to number two when you can go to number one?” That sounded logical. She told me to get rid of everything that might be between me and God. I rid myself of all my possessions and set on a journey to find God.
At a Rescue Mission, while backpacking, I prayed with the director and Jesus became my Messiah. And at that moment, I had the understanding that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God I desired way back in Hebrew school, was alive and had His hand on my life.
I came to faith towards the end of the Jesus Revolution that had begun in the late 60s. The same attempts at finding meaning and answers common to the hippies were part of my struggle. The chaos, the drugs, the faith expressions that did not and could not satisfy, were all part of my experience.
On our website, In Search of Shalom there are stories of Jewish people who came to faith during these tumultuous times. Many of their stories mirror my own. God in His Mercy revealed His Son to us. We pray for a fresh movement of God’s Spirit on Jewish communities worldwide that will result in saving faith.
It’s happened before. Lord, please, may it happen again
Written by Marc, Life in Messiah staff
Will you join us in prayer for revival? Especially among His chosen people?
Check out more testimonies of Jewish people coming to faith: https://www.insearchofshalom.com/all/storiesofshalom