At nine years old, I was playing with my neighbors in their back yard and their mother called me over and read to me the following passage from the book of Isaiah:

ISA007:014 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

She said that Immanuel was referring to Jesus and that because my family and I did not believe in Jesus, we were going to burn in Hell. Although this was my first such experience, it was certainly not my last. When my children were young and they were playing with their Christian friends, it made me realize what a horrific thing this woman did to me. I would have never even entertained the thought of telling any of these children that Jesus was not God and that they and their families were going to burn in Hell for practicing idolatry.

Whenever Christians would try to convert me to Christianity (witness to me), I would never know how to answer them and would say that I would have to ask my rabbi, "Why do we believe the way we believe?". As an adult, I attempted to ask a rabbi some questions about Jesus and he avoided the question. He had no desire to discuss the subject. I guess by the age of forty, I realized that the only way to get my questions answered was to read the Bible myself. After I finished reading the Bible, I was convinced that the Christian theology did not make any sense. Two Christian friends of mine begged me to read the Christian Bible, hoping I would see the light. So I then read the Christian Bible and to their dismay it appeared to me that the same God could not have been responsible for both Bibles. I always recommend to people that they first read the Bible like a novel, to get a sense of God. Then go back and read anything you can get your hands on that teaches what many of our learned rabbis and theologians have to say.

Many people refer to the Jewish Bible as the "Old Testament" and the Christian Bible as the "New Testament". These expressions offend me, because I do not believe that God made a new covenant with a different group of people. I believe that the covenant God made with the children of Israel (Jacob's descendants), through Moses, is still in effect. Therefore I will be using the terms Jewish Bible and Christian Bible. I feel that all Jews should get into the habit of doing the same. Since many Christians only read from the King James version of both Bibles and in order to use the same version for both Bibles, I have decided to use this version. This way it can not be said that I compared apples to oranges.

I will be pointing out all of the differences that I found when reading both the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Just as there are many differences in the way Jews believe, there are also many differences in the way Christians believe. This book will not be addressing these differences. So when I say something about the way a Jew believes, I am not attempting to speak for all Jews. The same is true when I speak about Christianity. I know that all Jews and Christians do not believe the same way -- this will not happen until the Messiah comes.

It appears that Christians must study their Bible much more than the Jewish Bible. People seem to believe that Jesus was the first person to say and do many things. As you will see, many of his actions and statements can be found in the Jewish Bible and have just been recycled.

This book represents the culmination of the journey that I have taken, to try to understand what God expects of us. It is true that the trip enabled me to become an empowered Jew, having complete confidence in my own beliefs. I hope you will be able to see why, for two thousand years, other informed Jews have not been able to accept the Christian theology. Please remember though, this is my point of view and I am not speaking for all Jews or even for my family and friends. People have asked, "What gives you the right to think you know how to interpret the Bible?". I believe we all have that God given right. There is not a human, past or present, who has more of a right than we do, to interpret scriptures in order to understand what God expects from us. In fact, I think we all have the responsibility to God and to ourselves to take our own journey, to read both Bibles and to come up with our own conclusions. These are simply mine. Too often we rely on our religious leaders, both past and present, to tell us what to believe. I think they can be helpful, but in order to find the truth for yourself you need to do your own thinking. This piece of work should only be considered an additional tool in helping you form your own opinions.

While writing this book, phrases from two songs kept entering my mind. The first one was, "Oh Lord Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". Being misunderstood concerns me, because this is not a book about hate. Actually it is a book about love, love of God and love of Judaism. At the beginning, I mentioned a neighbor who told me at nine that my family and I would burn in Hell for not believing in Jesus. What I did not tell you is that I spent half of my life at another neighbor's house, where I was treated like their child and spent every Christmas morning with them. They never told me once that I was going to burn in Hell.

The other song was "My Turn". All of my life people have tried to convert me to Christianity. They have read Bible verses to me, attempting to prove that Jesus was the Messiah described in the Jewish Bible. Well this is "my turn" and my response to Christianity.

The Christian Bible states:

JOH003:036 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Christian theology firmly believes that if you do not believe in Jesus you are going to "burn in Hell". The purpose of this book is to prove that this is a crazy notion that man made up and contradicts what God says in the Jewish Bible.