Can I be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time?

The short answer to this question is: ABSOLUTELY!

You were born Jewish therefore, you are always Jewish. Nothing and no one can take your Jewish identity from you.
Jesus was born Jewish, to a Jewish mother. He was born in Israel and had a Hebrew name - Yeshua = "The one who Saves". He lived His life 100% Jewish. He celebrated all the Jewish holidays, went to the synagogue, and taught to the Jewish people.

It should not be surprising that God sent Yeshua the Messiah to the Jews FIRST! As the Jews are God's chosen people, He offered them the way to salvation FIRST. Not to mention that His coming, His life, death and resurrection are all prophesied in amazing detail throughout the old testament.

All the 12 disciples of Yeshua were Jews and like Him, lived as Jews in all ways!

Yeshua died on the cross as a Jew. The Romans put a sign on His cross calling Him "The King of the Jews".

Yeshua was buried as a Jew and will come back to reign in Jerusalem.

There is nothing more natural for a Jew than to believe in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah. Yeshua is the fulfillment and completion of the Torah. He came to fulfill the Torah and to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

As a Jewish Believer in Yeshua I have found a renewed connection to my Jewish heritage, all the Jewish holidays receive an even deeper meaning and my love for Israel - my native country, has grown as well.

Knowing that Yeshua was Jewish and came to the Jews first is exciting and should be encouraging to any Jew out there. Our Messiah has come, and He will come again! He is our ONLY way to salvation and to a REAL relationship with God.

Being Jewish and believing in Yeshua is being "A COMPLETED JEW"!

"Completed Jew"? - does that make every other Jew incomplete?
Isn’t that more than a little presumptuous?

"Completed Jew" in the sense of "completed FAITH" - When a Jew comes to faith in the FULL story of GOD as it is writen in HIS word. "God’s Word" did not end with the "Old Testament" - The "New Testament" COMPLETES it! Since Jesus was Jewish and came to the Jewish people to be their Messiah - Believing in HIM "completes" the story for the Jews.

How can you say that Jesus is the ONLY way?

Yeshua (Jesus) is the one who said that HE is the ONLY way - No one else did! Some people wants everyone to agree that there are many paths to God and for them to respect that but the ones who don't agree with them are "disrespectful" - So who is really disrespectful here? Isn't it true that people like that are being disrespectful to Christianity as a whole by resenting the belief that Yeshua IS the ONLY way?

As for the question if there are many ways to God or only one way - Two things that contradicts each other CAN'T both be true. There is either ONE way or MANY ways to God - There is only one answer to this that is the ULTIMATE TRUTH. For a believer in Yeshua, the Bible is The Word of God - The Word of the creator and the designer of it all - The one who REALLY "runs the show" - If HE said there is ONE way to get to HIM (and HE did...) - I, as a believer, TRUST HIS WORD! Besides, where did the idea of MANY ways to God come from??? Could it be from our need to "control" our lives, control the universe, feel that we are in charge, we "run the show" ? Could it be from our ancient resistant to GOD's Word???

Ways to God? That implies God is somewhere else?

HE IS HERE, HE is EVERYWHERE but to FULLY know HIM, to FULLY be in HIS presence, to FULLY experience HIM, to SEE HIM - To have a REAL relationship with HIM - It can only happen on HIS terms NOT ours. In HIS way, NOT ours. Our ultimate purpose here on earth is TO KNOW HIM AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN, to worship HIM as the ONE TRUE God. - Ultimate, true inner peace can only be from GOD and WITH God.

"Jesus never referred to himself as the Jewish Messiah..."

Actually, in the New Testament you will find that Jesus DID say he was the Messiah. Here are a few quotes:

"The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." ( John 4:25-26)

"Jesus answered, "My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world." ( John 18:36)

"But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his garments, and said, "Why do we still need witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?" ( Mark 14:61-64)

"Pilate said to Him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." ( John 18:37)

"So the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness to me." ( John 10:24-25)(Christ = Messiah)

Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is IN you..."

The verse read: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is WITHIN you." or "AMONG you" (KJV) From Greek - The language it was written it is translated to: "is in the MIDST of you".

That was Yeshua's answer to the Pharisees when they asked Him when the Kingdom of God will come. The verses around it reads:
"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation":

"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

"And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it."

"And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them."

"For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day."

"But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation."

Luke 17:21-25

This is a great example of how the Bible or The Word of God can easily be miss-interpreted and miss-understood when not reading it exactly the way it is, in it's own context.

The less people try to interpret The WORD, and try to make it "fit" the point they are trying to make - the better it is. The Word of God is very simple in it's essence and was written for everyone to understand. The problem is - Our EGO gets in the way...

The Bible is the word of God? How can we know that? After all, it was written by men... isn't that makes it "their" words?

Yes, The Bible was physically written by men, but it wasn't their words they wrote, but the words that GOD TOLD THEM to write. God chose specific people to speak His word to the rest of us throughout the generations. Moses was the first one. The Bible is more than "just a book" - It was NEVER proved to be wrong - And many have tried.

Do you know of any other book that prophecies events in the future, and those events actually happen??? There are many, many events like this in the Bible that I can't go into in this forum. There are many archaeological finds, PROVING the stories in the Bible to be true. - Do your homework.

It's easy to question and have doubts but once you give some room for FAITH - Miracles Happen!

Is God's grace reserved for some special individuals or freely given to all? The idea of "salvation" makes no sense to me...

Yes, God's grace is for every one - It's a FREE gift - But what about those who don't "take it" or accept it? I AM only talking from my OWN experience and my OWN understanding - Aren't we all???

What good is a $1,000,000,000 check if you don't cash it? My point is, God has given us a free gift but it will do us no good if we don't "cash" it (-:

"Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." ( John 18:37) - Who is "of the truth" and how can every one hear the same truth?

God created us to be a community, to live as a community, to be fed (spiritually) by one another, to help each other grow spiritually, to help each other KNOW HIM. We can't have a good relationship with God when our personal, earthly relationships are not working and in the same way, we can't have a great relationships with people without having a good relationship with God. We NEED each other and we NEED HIM at the same time. We CAN'T do it on our own.

Different things "work" for different people. That's why we have so many religions, ways, Gurus etc. But are they ALL right??? Are they ALL teaching THE Truth? The main question to ask is "What is TRUTH" - Is truth a relative thing or is it absolute? How do we know that we are on the "true" path???

"Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." ( John 18:37) - Jesus was on trial before Pilate. In that setting, he declared his divine purpose to Pilate by saying, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice" (John 18:37).

It is clear that Jesus believed truth could be known, that it was uniform for the whole world, and that it will never change at all. Since he had already declared himself to be the truth (John 14:6), and since as God he cannot change (Malachi 3:6), truth necessarily must also be unchanging. He said he came to testify to the truth and that CERTAIN people will respond to it.

If Jesus declared himself to be GOD - that's it? Isn't God lives in all names and forms in the world? Isn't the essence more important than the form?

It is ALL about the essence NOT the form. The essence is GOD - The Creator and designer of this universe. The ONE and ONLY true GOD - The unchanging, always true God, always present, always knowing, always loving GOD. The one and only God who actually KNOW what we need, know what is best for us. Not a "Men Made" God, but the unmade God, the uncreated God, ever lasting and always there GOD. The GOD that was here before the beginning and the one that will be here forever. The GOD that is actually ABLE to deliver me and SAVE me from my "humanness"

Trust in HIM and trust and believe that HE didn't just "throw" us humans here on this earth to figure it out on our own. HE gave us HIS Word - The Bible (Old & New Testaments), where all teachings of love, peace, compassion etc., moral teachings and all POSITIVE kind of teaching as we know them through many great teachers and gurus and saints throughout the time, ORIGINATED from - ALL these teachings that do us good, that help us grow spiritually, originated in GOD and are found in HIS WORD - The Bible. Any teachings that contradicts the Bible is a false teaching. Since GOD is true, than the Bible is true (absolute truth).

It's about the essence of HIS WORD - That's what it's all comes down to. When you read the Bible you will find ALL the answers you need - It's all right there laid out for you in the beautiful way of GOD.

We have so many misinterpretations of HIS WORD and people are repeatedly trying to interpret HIS Word so it will "fit" their needs. Instead we should surrender to it - to HIS WORD, to HIS will for us. Only by surrendering, we create a space for HIS Word to work in us and for HIM to help us with our humanness.

God created us to know HIM and to have a relationship with HIM. It's not about "religion" but it's about a RELATIONSHIP and just like marriage, it requires getting to know each other. As for GOD, HE already knows us better than we will ever know our selves. HE knew you before you were even born... We are the ones who need to do the "work" to get to know HIM. The best way to get to know God is to read HIS WORD - HIS stories, HIS history, HIS ways which HE made available to us through the Bible, to communicate with HIM (Pray), to become aware of HIS presence and works in our lives and to TRUST HIM - Alway.

God created us in HIS OWN image - We NEED HIM to understand our place & purpose in this world. We NEED HIS WORD to help us understand HIM. We can not truly understand on our own, we can not "do it" on our own. WE are NOT in control here but HE IS.

Don't waist any time with false teachings, with "hitting around the bush" - Get the ORIGINAL - The SOURCE - GOD and HIS WORD.

"Oneness" can be found only in HIM and only THROUGH HIM.

What is faith?

"Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by it our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. By this he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through this. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not experience death, and he was not to be found because God took him away. For prior to his transformation he was approved, having pleased God. Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him." Hebrews 11: 1-6

What about people who has spiritual experiences and realizations through other ways like Buddhism for example? What about those who feel they connect to God through other ways - Not through Jesus?

READ the New Testament!