Dr. Brian J. Crawford received a call to proclaim the gospel among Jewish people after a stranger on a Tel Aviv beach shut him down and told him to go learn what the rabbis actually say about Isaiah 53. Twenty years later, he's the Director of Digital Evangelism for Chosen People Ministries and the author of The Scandal of a Divine Messiah.

In this conversation — part one of two — Brian shares his journey from structural engineering in Southern California to full-time missionary work in the heart of Orthodox Brooklyn. We discuss what the Talmud actually is (and isn’t), why almost every Protestant denomination once had a Jewish missions wing, how liberalism killed Jewish evangelism in the 20th century, and why Orthodox Jews in America remain one of the most unreached people groups on earth.

Brian also explains what Messianic Judaism is, why Jewish believers in Jesus have historically been orphaned by both the church and the synagogue, and what it really costs a Jew to follow Christ.

Next week in part two, we get into Brian’s book and the philosophical traditions — Maimonides and Kabbalah — that have walled Jews off from considering Jesus for centuries.

In this episode

• How a challenge from a stranger launched a 20-year mission

• What the Talmud is and why most Christians misunderstand it

• The lost history of Jewish sub-denominations in Protestant churches

• How 20th century liberalism abandoned Jewish evangelism

• What Messianic Judaism is and why it exists

• Why becoming a Christian historically meant dying as a Jew

• The forced renunciation oaths imposed on Jewish converts

• Luther’s antisemitism vs. Puritan philosemitism

• Why Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn are an unreached people group

• The difference between Jewish missions and messianic congregations