CHARLES, on Hanuka 1997 you wrote to me,

Jake, as evidence that I'm not as fickle as I probably seem, I'm sharing with you below a recent exchange that I had with James Hugg, another Jewish e-mail friend:
"Regarding your Israeli Pen Pal, I'm afraid that I've kind of let that slip for the time being. I've been seeking the leading of the Lord in regard to what I should say to him, but haven't felt any direction yet..."

Yes, my dear James, this is because I need no direction, as Charles will confirm to you. You Jewish? Are you a renegade?

"...Please pray that I will be able to re-establish communication,and that the Lord will graciously open the spiritual eyes of this man.I think of him and his family often!"

My spiritual eyes are wide open, rest assured.

"...At Chanukah, write and tell him: "I think of you and your family often. I remember you frequently in my prayers."

Did you know, James and Charles, that the Christmas lights are derived from those of Chanukah, that is, of the Jewish Menorah? Because, if not for the triumph of Mathathyahu (Matthew) and sons (the Maccabeans), paganism would have reigned supreme, no Judaism remaining and --by extension-- no Christianity! Therefore, all Christians are supposed to remember all the Jews on Chanukah!

Well, this past Sunday was the first official day for our new Jewish Pastor. I say Jewish, his Father was Jewish, but his Mother wasn't. Doesn't that disqualify him according to present day halachaicstandards?

Yes, he would have to convert, as any other goy. Only Nazis would consider him Jewish. This halachaic precept derives from the time of the Cossack pogroms and rapes, when a Jewish woman would be rendered a mother of a goysh bastard. In this way, the mother became the determinant factor, giving birth to a Jewish son.

According to those standards, he has two strikes against him. Patrilineal descent is recognized only by the Reform stream. Both Orthodox and Conservative streams require formal conversion of anyone without a Jewish mother. For immigration purposes, Israel recognizes as Jewish anyone with a Jewish maternal grandmother (regardless of the mother's religious status, see following). Therefore, he has just the fact of not being born of a Jewish mother to make him a goy. Strike two: most authorities interpret Halacha to say that a Jew who accepts Jesus as Messiah is no longer a Jew. A minority opinion holds that after conversion to another religion, the person remains Jewish, but is classified as an apostate Jew and should be shunned by the Jewish community.

Opinions are of no import. The Orthodox in Israel rule; only their 'opinion' is relevant!

So much for human opinions. God considers our pastor Jewish on two counts:
(1) Patrilineal descent is Biblical.

Charles, forget it! Not God, but the Orthodox, rule!

(2) The most Jewish act any Jew can commit is to accept the Jewish Messiah as both Lord and Savior.

Did God Himself tell you this? Charles, be serious! That is the most goyish act!
About the Savior (the Messiah): a poor fellow in a Jewish shtetl in Russia was offered the job of sitting by the town gate and sound the trumpet as soon as he spied the arrival of the Messiah on his white donkey. The fellow accepted with alacrity, yet complained about the low wages. He was reassured by being told that the job was for life!

Keep watching, and patiently waiting! The time is very short!!! Amen and Maranatha, come quickly Lord Yeshua!

Are you so discontented with this world? What is Maranatha?

I'm back. So, my friend, as you can see, I certainly wanted to continue our communication, but frankly I just didn't know what to say. So, if you will please bear with me for a moment, I'm going to pour out my heart to you. Yeshua has made it possible for even me, a gentile, to have the sure hope of sharing in such an unimaginably wonderful future, for all eternity. And to top it off, as we say here in the USA, I wasn't seeking Him, but He sought and found me, a Gentile; sinful, thankless, and wholly unlovable! What grace, and what mercy!!

Do not berate yourself; you surely shine in some way understandable to God. Why not, considering that I also find you very likable?

I'm sure that my most cerebral Jewish friend James (a PhD in Nuclear Physics, from Stanford no less, and with a sense of humor to match!!) would be more than pleased to share with you how he too came to faith in Yeshua. Actually, you gentlemen with your medical backgrounds, academic achievements, and stellar intellects, not to mention sharing the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would probably have ever so much more in common with each other than with an uneducated goy like me!

Is he of a Jewish mother? Or does he just presume to be Jewish, from father?
What have you been doing? I am very busy with bridge playing. Was several days in Tiberias, taking the hot waters. Last night in Nazareth, in a music concert followed by a gourmet dinner at the Church and Hotel of Saint Gabriel. Nazareth is being remodeled for the millennia. Read a scientific study which permitted me to develop a scheme of survival as developed by organisms. What amazed me most of it is that aggressiveness has a double function! Thus, I have clarified previously that badness is the basis of progress, as demanded by evolution, and now I find that aggressiveness is doubly needed for survival! If you find the subject of interest, I'll delineate it for you. At any rate, this discovery elated me, as any discovery of Nature's secrets does to a researcher