Hanukkah an 'Evangelism Opportunity'

Each holiday season Ric Worshill looks forward to the celebration that provides him with a natural opportunity to tell his friends and family that Jesus is the light of the world.

But it's not Christmas.

As a Messianic Jew (a Jew who follows Jesus as the Messiah), Worshill celebrates Hanukkah annually for eight days to commemorate the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after the Jewish people won independence from foreign rulers some 150 years before the birth of Christ -- during the period between the Old and New Testaments. According to Jewish tradition, the military victory and subsequent rededication were accompanied by a one-day supply of ceremonial oil miraculously providing light for eight days in the temple lampstand -- which reminds Worshill and other Messianic believers that Jesus is the light of the world.

Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, which is Dec. 16 this year. In other years Hanukkah can begin anywhere from late November to late December.

Hanukkah "is a great evangelism opportunity," Worshill, president of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, told Baptist Press. "I use it quite often. Some of the verses I use for evangelism are about light."

Among those verses are the account of God creating light in Genesis, Old Testament references to God as light and Jesus' claim to be the light of the world in John 8. Using these and other passages, Worshill explains that Jesus is the divine Savior of humanity. At least six Jewish people have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior at Hanukkah through Worshill's witness, he said. Read more

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Six Things You Might Not Know about Hanukkah [Video]

Photo: Baptist Press