Jason Sobel was a hard-working young Jewish man living in New York City who thought he knew the intricacies of his faith. But as he now admits, that wasn't the case. At the time, Sobel was working in a large recording studio in the Big Apple, surrounded by rock stars and rappers.
“I looked at their lives and said to myself, 'There has to be more to them than this,'” Sobel told Crosswalk Headlines. “And I began a spiritual journey. I went to synagogue and studied with my traditional rabbi. And I began studying martial arts and Eastern philosophy.”
Eventually he found Christianity. Or, as he says: Jesus found him.
“One day I was meditating and had this crazy spiritual experience. My soul started leaving my body. The next thing I remember is being in heaven, standing before this king,” Sobel said.
Sobel remembers a “wonderful light.”
“I felt the power of God pulsing through every part of my body. And I didn't know anything, but I knew that was Jesus… sitting there on that throne, and he told me I was called to serve him. The next thing I knew, I was back in my body, shaking under the power of heaven, running around, saying, 'I'm called to serve him.' My mother said, 'You're called to serve who? We're Jews, for heaven's sake.'”
The next step in his conversion was the testimony of a Messianic Jewish friend.
“He said, 'Jason, can you tell the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?' I said, 'Sure.'”
His friend read him a passage: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
“He asked, 'Is this the old or the new?' I said it's obviously about Jesus [so] it must be the New Testament,” said Sobel. “He said, 'No, that's Isaiah 53 – the Jewish prophet spoke 700 years before [Jesus] walked the earth. He invited me to this Messianic church where Jews worship Jesus in a Jewish way. I went. At the end of the service, they were playing the piano and praying. I thought I needed all the help I could get, so I prayed. He said, 'The first time you say this prayer, raise your hands.' I raised my hand. He said, 'When you raise your hand, will you please stand up? You've just been born again.'”
Sobel didn't want to get up, but eventually he did. He also received the first New Testament he had ever seen.
“I took it home, read it, and realized He was the One Moses and the prophets were talking about,” Sobel told Crosswalk Headlines.
Sobel received his rabbinical ordination from the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations in 2005. As a Messianic Jew, he has written several books on the Jewish background of Christianity, including 2023 Signs and Mysteries of the MessiahHe hosts a TBN series of the same name.
“Every important event in Jesus' life occurred on a biblical holiday,” Sobel said. “… He celebrated these holidays with his disciples.”
“We do what Jesus did,” he added. “All biblical holidays point to him.”
Photo credit: ©Facebook/Rabbi Jason Sobel
Michael Foust has been covering the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
