Yesterday was a significant and difficult day in the Israeli courts.
For two millennia, the Jewish people have often felt manipulated by many Christians, sometimes through force, sometimes through deceit, to convert to Christianity. Whether by physical coercion (e.g., inquisitions) or theological trickery (e.g., forced medieval debates), the goal has often been the same: to pressure or deceive Jews into accepting Jesus as their Messiah.
And that, I believe, is what truly lies behind the “Orthodox Jews vs. ONE FOR ISRAEL (and Eitan Bar)” court case that’s been going on for several years now.
This trial is about far more than evangelism tactics—it’s about trust, honesty, and the future of Jewish-Christian relations in Israel.
As I understand it, there are two primary accusations against ONE FOR ISRAEL (and me):
- That OFI(/we) deliberately targeted minors in their evangelistic effort. To be clear, I do not believe this accusation was well-supported by the prosecution, nor do I believe it is true. (Consequently, I expect this entire case to be dismissed.)
- That OFI’s staff, and much of the Messianic movement, are fundamentally misrepresenting themselves—professing (in Hebrew) Judaism as both their ethnicity and religion (they even argued that yesterday in court) and denying being Christians, while their actual theology is firmly rooted in fundamentalist Protestant Evangelicalism and while they do present themselves as Christians to their English audience.
In my view, the prosecution’s questioning, evidence, and the judge’s comments clearly exposed this and proved the second accusation as the trial’s true climax. In addition, the defense (OFI) claimed — for reasons beyond my understanding, because it isn’t even illegal — that they do not engage in evangelism or proselytizing at all, a false claim that was easily proven as such by the Jewish lawyers.
The prosecution demonstrated how, in Hebrew, the ministry and the movement often proselytize online, presenting themselves to Israelis as “Jewish” and “practicing Judaism,” while in English, they market themselves to Evangelicals as Christians in order to raise financial support.
It’s two faces. Two stories. Two audiences. And it’s deceitful.
In fact, the Israeli Supreme Court already ruled back in 1989 that “Messianic Judaism” is legally recognized as a form of Protestant Christianity—not Judaism.
Thus, Messianic Judaism is viewed as a movement within the Protestant denomination, not within Judaism.
During my testimony, I pleaded with ONE FOR ISRAEL:
Stop pretending.
Stop claiming to be religiously Jewish when your messianic theology is Baptist, Calvinist, Pentecostal, and Augustinian—utterly foreign to Jewish thought.
Stop pretending to be part of Judaism when your Bible College’s theological textbooks in Hebrew are predominantly Calvinistic.
Let’s be honest:
- The resources (both financially and intellectually) of most Messianic ministries and congregations in Israel come almost exclusively from Fundamental Evangelical Christians. And that’s fine, but don’t pretend otherwise.
- Worse, many of the Messianic pastors are not ethnically Jewish; they are Gentile Protestants who moved to Israel, started “Messianic Jewish” congregations, and some of them even changed their names to sound more Jewish.
I know this firsthand.
A good example is the pastor of one of Israel’s largest Messianic Jewish congregations, who was also my first theology professor and is also the leader of the Messianic National Evangelism Committee. Since moving to Israel, he has been using a Jewish-sounding name, while his real name (and the one still used in some English publications) is his native non-Jewish American name.
Imagine how shocked and deceived I felt when I first realized he wasn’t even Jewish but a Calvinist gentile. For decades, he has been indoctrinating Messianic Israelis with Calvinism (presented to us all as “Messianic Jewish theology”) at the one and only Messianic Bible college in Israel—the same college now under trial.
Can you see how wrong and deceitful this feels to the Jewish people?
Or has Uncle Sam’s donations blurred everyone’s vision?
That pastor-professor isn’t the only one.
In fact, according to Caspari Center’s recently published research, only about half of Israeli Messianic Jews are actually Jews by blood, and about 60% don’t even speak Hebrew (Israel’s official language!!).
As a theologian myself, I have researched this extensively, deconstructing the Calvinistic beliefs I was myself indoctrinated with at the College, particularly over the past three years.
And the reality is this:
The Messianic theological frameworks—systematic doctrines about atonement, salvation, sin, hell, and God’s nature—did not come from the Jewish prophets, the Jewish sages, or even Rabbi Yeshua Himself.
They came largely from antisemitic theologians of the Roman and Reformation eras.
And wearing a Star of David on your chest or changing your name won’t change that.
So let’s be clear: This trial is NOT about “Jewish persecution of Messianic Jews.”
Not even close.
Yet it is being presented to you that way.
It is used that way—to raise even more money from naïve evangelicals.
But it will fuel much more antisemitism based on a false narrative and will only further push Yeshua away from Israelis.
In truth, this trial is about Jewish people finally exposing what Messianic Judaism largely is:
Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity wearing a Jewish mask.
There are, of course, some exceptions—but overall, the Jewish accusation is not wrong.
Sadly, it’s being downplayed to look like a persecution and used for the sake of fundraising. A clear case of victim complex.
You cannot persuade the Jewish people that Yeshua is the Messiah through disguise, theological sleight of hand, or manipulation.
You will not win their trust by pretending that your faith is Judaism when it clearly is not.
The trial was emotionally charged for me at times. I hadn’t slept well for days (you’ll know why soon). And I sometimes felt I couldn’t keep calm.
I found myself caught between a rock and a hard place because I want the people of Israel to know about Yeshua, but not by pushing the medieval Jesus on them through deceit and manipulation.
And so, without having my own legal representation, I stood by myself in a courtroom filled with hostility from both sides: Two Jewish counselors on one side of the room, and six men representing ONE FOR ISRAEL on the other side of the room, both hoping I’d side with their narrative.
My spirit was broken—not out of bitterness—but because I understand:
OFI loves the people of Israel and believes in Jesus, but they have a huge blind spot that causes them to walk in darkness.
Thus, I could not give false testimony to support the very ministry I once birthed. I could not lie to support ONE FOR ISRAEL’s narrative—that this is nothing but a case of Jewish persecution against Messianic Jews.
Nor was I willing to give in to the pressure from OFI’s lawyers, who manipulatively “warned” me just days before that if I did not side with their narrative, the trial could “go the wrong way” and I could face up to six months in prison. That’s why I didn’t sleep for days.
But I was not coerced. I didn’t choose any side. I just spoke the truth—even if it meant I would somehow end up in prison or be bullied by ONE FOR ISRAEL’s legal team.
Because, as a Jewish believer in Yeshua who has reexamined Western Christian theology (for instance) and has been involved in Jewish ministry and evangelism for twenty years, I had to say this with both sorrow and clarity:
Stop.
Stop pretending.
Stop manipulating.
Stop damaging the name of Yeshua in Israel.
Stop telling Jews that your religion is not Christianity but Judaism when it clearly is not—and telling Christians, who subsidize you, that it is Christianity.
This is not the way to evangelize the Jewish people. This is not the path Yeshua would have taken.
You only further prove your untrustworthiness to them and increase their skepticism of Yeshua himself. You only give them more reasons to reject Yeshua.
I understand OFI loves Israel and believes in Jesus, but love must be accompanied by truth.
Therefore, please:
Either reexamine your Augustinian-Calvinist-Lutheran theology and return to the first-century beliefs found in the Gospels and the Book of Acts,
or
Repent of your deceptive tactics, because they do more harm than good in the Jewish mind.
I cannot overstate the significance of this trial—not just for ONE FOR ISRAEL’s Baptist-Calvinist Bible College, not just for the Messianic movement in Israel, but for the credibility of the Christian witness in Israel for generations to come.
This is a call for reformation in how we present Yeshua and what gospel we preach to the Jewish people.
The Jewish people are sharp, discerning, and the people of the Book.
Give them the credit they deserve.
Don’t manipulate.
They see right through it.
I have nothing to gain from this—only enemies to make and more bullying to endure. But the truth must be proclaimed from the rooftops.
This is not written out of bitterness or revenge.
I still believe the message of Yeshua is for all people—including my people.
But if we want the Jewish people to truly hear, we must speak plainly, without disguise.
And if we truly love the Jewish people, we must be willing to lay down our pride, our systems, our financial support, our man-made doctrines, and even our movements—for the sake of Christ.
I want to thank everyone who prayed and offered emotional and spiritual support.
Please, feel more than free to share and allow the truth to sound.
