The popular English-speaking Israeli news site, the Jerusalem Post, recently published an extremely positive profile on Jacob Damkani in an article entitled “One Israeli man’s mission to bring the Gospel back to Jewish people.”
Damkani, a well-known Messianic leader in Israel for over 30 years, recently released a movie, A New Spirit, about his life story.
Rather than focusing on the new movie release, the article presented some accurate and thought-provoking points by Damkani, such as the fact that Jesus did not come to establish a new religion, but rather to fulfil what the Jewish prophets spoke about – the Messiah. Rarely, if ever, have these views been presented in Israeli mainstream media.
“When we say ‘Christian’ we think of another religion. But the idea that Jesus came to establish a new religion is far from the truth,” Damkani said in the article. “Jesus never intended to bring a new religion, and the church has to understand that Jesus is the natural continuation of God’s promises made to Israel. Men made a new religion of it, and the Jews will not accept a new religion. That is the obstacle for the Jews. I didn’t become a Christian if that means following a new religion. If it means a follower of Messiah, then OK, I’m a Christian.”
The article further explains that Damkani’s mission is to also educate Christians about Israel as being a central part of God’s plan and to debunk what is commonly called “replacement theology” or the false belief that the gentile church has replaced Israel.
“The church has been blind to the place of Israel in the glorious final salvation and the kingdom to come on earth,” Damkani said. “Messiah didn’t come to replace Israel, he came to open the door, to reconcile all men to God, first to the Jews and then the Gentiles.”
“If Western Christians are to make inroads with Israeli Jews, Damkani said they must first acknowledge the part the church has played in alienating them,” the JPost reports.
The article ends on a powerful note with Damkani boldly describing what he calls “a double-edged sword” of his ministry in Tel Aviv.
“The task we have now is to open the eyes of the Jews to accept Jesus for who he is and to open the eyes of the Gentiles – the saints from the nations – to their calling to Israel,” he told the JPost.
Albeit the author of the article, Leslie Kriss, is a not a JPost staff writer and the article was originally published in DJournal in Mississippi, the fact that the JPost would choose to publish such a positive article about a Jewish believer in Yeshua is highly significant.