Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Old Age: Life Changes after 50 Book

An excellent, concise and encouraging guide to Jewish evangelism

You Bring the Bagels, I'll Bring the Gospel is a beginner's guide to Jewish evangelism that leaves no stone unturned. It helps Christians deal with some of the biggest challenges and deepest wounds in the history of ministry to Jews. At the same time, it helps you see that Christians can in fact learn much about their own faith from the Jewishness of Yeshua himself and the New Testament, or B'rit Chadashah. To aid in this, Rubin cites the Complete Jewish Bible in most of his verse references, a translation geared towards showing the Jewish culture and language often missed in English translations.

The first step to effectively witness to Jews as a Gentile, says Rubin, we must first establish credibility. This is done by learning about the Jewish faith, history and culture. We must truly be interested in the people to whom we are trying to witness. Second, we must get to know our audience. Rubin reminds his readers that just as every attender in any given church can be plotted on a diverse spectrum of beliefs, so also can Jews. Though there are four general groups (Orthodox [also Ultra-orthodox], Reformed, Conservative and Reconstructionist), Jews do not necessarily ascribe to all the beliefs and practices of the group to whom they belong. Generally speaking, Jews are united by their religion'centered around study of the Torah and the Talmud'and their culture. To be able to empathize and communicate effectively means doing a deep study of both. Attend a Shabbat service, celebrate a Jewish holiday like Passover or Purim, accept your Jewish friends invitation to his wedding or his sons Bar Mitzvah'be interested, but most importantly, be a friend. Though many may live among and look like your fellow Americans, they often have very different traditions and cultural experiences, sometimes involving persecution.

In the final section of the book, Rubin deals with various barriers Jews have to belief in Yeshua. To start, he deals with handling questions. Inquisitive and natural debaters, Jews ask keen questions. In this section, Rubin equips his audience in how to handle four types of questions that they might be faced with. This chapter is useful not only for Jewish evangelism, but evangelism in general. For each type of question'challenge, trap, false and test'Rubin shows how Yeshua himself effectively handled these in the New Testament.

The final chapters of the book deal with some of the historical, theological and personal barriers to the Gospel Jews often have. Christians must acknowledge the centuries of anti-Semitism that scares our histories and be willing to admit their inability to explain events such as the Holocaust or the Spanish Inquisition. They must also be willing to confront their Jewish friend's belief that since he is chosen, he is therefore not in need of substitutionary atonement. They must also be willing to help their Jewish friend see that following the Messiah Yeshua does not mean losing one's Jewish identity, though it may mean they get ostracized by their family. Dealing with these issues doesn't always require answers. It does require friendship.

The overall tone of Rubin's book is one of earnest encouragement. As a Messianic Jew himself, Rubin longs to see his people come to faith in their promised Messiah, and he wants to include fellow Christians in this effort. Thanks to the work of people like him, the number of Jewish believers in Jesus has been growing steadily worldwide for decades. Christians today must join in this effort to reach what is still largely a lost people group. As with any other group from another culture with whom we live, we must recognize our mission, one which once belonged to Jews and now belongs to all believers in the Messiah: to be a light to the nations.