SID: So Ron Cantor, Jewish college student after fun, into drugs, which, you know, all the college kids are into, has an encounter where electricity goes through his body. He knows that Jesus is the Messiah and he goes back to campus, and the first thing he does is tell everyone alive that Jesus is the Messiah. Ron, what would you tell a Jewish person that’s watching us right this moment the best reason why Jesus is the Messiah or what they should do?
RON: Well I would say, think for yourself. You know, one of the first things Jewish people do when they are intrigued with the person of Jesus is they go to their rabbi, who then looks up to see what the sages and the scholars thought before him. But rarely does someone actually think for themselves. What I did, is I went to the Bible and began to read it for myself. You see, I discovered that Yeshua actually was involuntarily put into a witness protection program so that the Jewish people of the world would not understand that this man Jesus, who over a billion Gentiles follow, not only was he Jewish, all of his followers were Jewish. In fact, here’s an incredible effect, Sid. When I got born again in 1983, the first thing I said to myself was, I guess I’m no longer Jewish. Now that I believe Jesus, just through osmosis, growing up in the synagogue, we were made to understand that you could not mix Jesus and Judaism. But as I began to read the New Covenant, they’re all Jewish. The entire early congregation were all Jews. On the day of Shavuot, when the Holy Spirit fell on Jerusalem, Peter, who’s actual name was Kefa, which means rock, he stood up and preached to thousands upon thousands of Jews. We know that at least 3000 Jewish men that day became a believer, believers. They were immersed in water. We know that many years later when Paul visits Jerusalem, Jacob, which is actual the name of James. Nobody ever called him James. Great name for a butler or chauffer, but not for the brother of a Jewish Israeli Messiah. His name was Jacob.
SID: My Bible says James. How come?
RON: Well that’s because it’s a mistranslation. Most Bibles in other languages actually properly call him Jacob. That was his name. The actual Greek for James and Jacob are very close. And when the King James folks were authorized to translate the Bible, they substituted Ichamus for Ichabus. And it—
SID: Okay. It’s Ichabot to me. But go ahead.
RON: But a story about James, Peter, Paul, Mary, that is not a Jewish story. But when this guy named Paul, a lot of people were taught that his name was Paul. Then he got born again and he changed it from Saul to Paul to get rid of his horrible Hebrew and then take on a wonderful Christian name. Of course, there were no Christian names at that time. Paul was just a Latin typical Roman name. But he didn’t change his name. The Bible says, “Saul, who was also called Paul.” He had two names, just like I do, just like you do. As Jews, we grow up outside of Israel with a name. My name is Ron, which is what people in most countries of the world, but I also have a Hebrew name, Chaim, which means “life”, by the way. Paul had two names. But this guy Paul comes into Jerusalem, meets Jacob, the brother of Yeshua.
SID: This is beginning to sound so Jewish. How did something so Jewish become, we can’t be Jewish and believe in him. It makes no sense to me.
RON: Well the way it happened, let me just finish up real quick. He comes and he finds Jacob. Jacob says, “Paul, look how many tens of thousands of Jews right here in Jerusalem have believed and are zealous for the Torah.” There was a Jewish revival in Jerusalem in the greater, what we call the greater Tel Aviv area today in Galilee. Here’s a funny thing. I said earlier, in 1983, that I thought I was no longer Jewish until I began to read the Bible. But in the New Covenant, the big controversy wasn’t can a Jew believe in Jesus and still be Jewish. It was can a Gentile believe in Jesus without first becoming Jewish. There were many evangelists telling Gentiles who wanted to come into the Kingdom, great, you can come in, but you have to be circumcised and become Jewish. They had a big council in Acts, Chapter 15 to decide, not that a Jew is still a Jew. Of course, Peter and Paul, and Jacob, of course they were still Jews. They had to decide, do Gentiles have to first become Jewish.
SID: How did this whole thing get turned upside down, and frankly, what, I see the difference it makes to Jewish people. If we find out that Jesus is one of ours, Yeshua, he’s a nice son of a Jewish carpenter, you know. That I understand. But what difference would it make for a Gentile that is a believer in Jesus to know these things?
RON: Because if you love Yeshua, you want to know who he is. You want to know everything. I got married 25 years ago and I’m still discovering wonderful insights about my wife. How much more Yeshua, the author of the New Covenant, if you view him as a blond haired, blue eyes Gentile from Finland, you’re missing out on some of the most special features of the Jewish Messiah. He came in response to the prophecies of the Jewish prophets, not to start a new religion, but to bring salvation to the world through his blood. He was the Passover lamb, not the Easter meal.
SID: Speaking of the feasts, did Yeshua observe all of these feasts? Did all the Jewish believers observe these feasts?
RON: Absolutely. They were Jews. They, what is again, going back to Acts 2:1, Jacob says to Paul, he says, “Look how many of these tens of thousands of Jews have believed and they are zealous for the Torah.” Now when they celebrated the Passover it had incredible meaning that it didn’t have before. Now they could see Yeshua, the Passover lamb. When they celebrated the Fall feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, they could dream of the day when Yeshua would come back, like it says in Zechariah 14: “His feet will come to the Mount of Olives to fight for Israel and to establish his kingdom on Earth.” Of course, they celebrated the feasts. That was the example of Yeshua. We find Yeshua in John, chapter, 7, going to Jerusalem. Why? To celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
SID: So let me ask you this question. If a Gentile Christian loves Jesus with all of their heart and hates the Jewish people, because let’s say they say the Jews killed Jesus, did the Jews kill Jesus?
RON: Yeah. And so did the Gentiles.
SID: Well wait a second. If you have the Jews and Gentiles together, guess who you got? The whole world. We’ll be right back. Don’t go away.
