About The Author

Rabbi Felix Halpern was born in Holland and immigrated to the United States as a young boy where he came to the knowledge of his Messiah in his twenties.  The Bible reveals that it was not until Moses was in his mid-forties that he saw the affliction of his fellow Israelites (Exodus 2:11); it was also not until his mid-forties that Rabbi Halpern encountered the spiritual state of his own people in a life altering way.

Prior to full- time ministry, Rabbi Halpern established a successful career in the precious metals and diamond industry located in the heart of the International Diamond Center of New York City. Having spent more than two decades in this industry, working with the Orthodox and Hassidic Jewish communities, he knows well the heart of the Jewish people.  In obedience to the Lord, he left a very lucrative and successful career in the diamond and gold business and put into liquidation their savings and retirement monies to follow the direction of the Lord, and to live by faith.

God’s testimony of sufficiency and provision has become a powerful testimony to many today.  Rabbi Halpern now ministers throughout the body of Yeshua on the Jewish roots of New Covenant Faith, teaching with a strong emphasis on the election of Israel and theunique role of the church in the end-times.  Currently, he serves as President of the National Jewish Fellowship, as well as on the International Board of Ethnicity for the Assemblies of God.  He also serves on advisory board for the Joseph Project an international aid organization, and served on the board of Lost Lamb Evangelistic Association.

Rabbi Halpern’s Descendents and The Holocaust

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, established by Steven Spielberg, taped a story for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum library, which included the testimony of Rabbi Halpern’s father Burt Halpern and grandfather Rabbi Felix Halpern, who was an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi of a synagogue in Germany.

The film also shares his father’s story—one of survival as an Orthodox Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Germany through the heroic efforts of the Dutch underground to save him. The film is a poignant picture and testimony to the millions of Jews whose lives were forever altered, and subsequent generations that were blighted from history.  Rabbi Halpern’s maternal side claims a heritage of resistance against the Nazis. This was chronicled in a book authored by his mother, Susan Stroomenbergh-Halpern, entitled Memoirs of the War Years: The Netherlands, 1940– 1945: A Christian Perspective. It is the story of a Dutch family’s valiant efforts in launching a resistance movement against the Nazis on behalf of the Jewish people.

Those efforts were recognized on December 22, 1997 at the Righteous Among the Nations Ceremony held at the Israeli Embassy in New York by Consul General Colette Avital. Medals and documents were given to memorialize the sacrifices of Rabbi Halpern’s mother and maternal grandparents.

A MESSIANIC PERSPECTIVE:  “JOHN, ELIJAH & THE KINGDOM”

In this study, we cast light on John the Baptist (Yochanan) and his relationship to Elijah and the Kingdom that was breaking onto the earth upon his coming.  Hellenistic thinking has long obscured John, as well as the Messianic day that was dawning on the nation of Israel, the hour of Judaism’s fulfillment.

Over 35 years of knowing my Messiah, Bible College and years of hearing sermons and sitting under many teachers. John is rarely given increased attention or becomes the topic of preaching. Certainly, it can be due to the deserved attention of his cousin Yeshua.  But more likely, it comes from the systematic sanitizing of Jewish-ness from the New Testament.

We will take John out of the Roman citadel if you will, also the traditional Christian view, in order to find a deeply Jewish man who knew the hour that had dawned on his people Israel.  John did not come merely to baptize gentiles into Christianity, nor was he the innovator of baptism, or the herald of Christianity; and he was not Catholic as some presume. John was with the L-rd in Glory long before the start of the New Testament Church, the Church as we know it and see it, was not even conceptualized in John’s mind.

John’s baptism through immersion was a Jewish practice called mikvah (Hebrew for Baptism). Where John was influenced in its particular administration, scholars are unsure.  He may have been a member of the Essenes in the Qumran community at some point.  The Essenes practiced immersion individually and daily, these were “Mikvah Practitioners” called tovelei shaharit or “dawn bathers”.  Other Jewish groups also observed immersion to ensure their readiness for the coming of the Messiah.  Even today, Mikvah is administered in the Jewish faith to anyone undergoing ritual bath, women following menstruation, childbirth, men seeking to achieve ritual purity, gentiles converting to Judaism.

The point is, baptism through immersion was a common practice, and for this reason John is not questioned about the practice; only in “whose name are you baptizing.”  One can see this in Paul’s writings to the Corinthians:   “Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized
anyone else”.  I Corinthians 1:13–16 (NIV).

His Birth and Coming

When John began his public life, no prophet had been heard from for four hundred years, Malachi being the last.  He came forth at the end of the Old Covenant period when the new Covenant period was about to be begin.  His father Zechariah, was from the priestly line of Abia or Abijah (1 Chronicles 24:10), his mother Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Aaron (Luke 1:5). Luke reveals, that John’s father when filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied not only of their long awaited Messiah, but also his son John (1:67-59).

To view John correctly, one must see him through 2000 years of Jewish history that was reaching its climactic point.  As a woman in labor; the time was bursting with Messianic expectation.  Rav Shaul says; “But when the time had fully come, G-d sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the laws, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4-50).

In John’s day, the Jewish people had slipped into a state of hopelessness and turning against G-d; Malachi writes; “you have said harsh things against me, “says the L-rd.” And during this time of silence there were false Messiah’s as Judah Macabee who left the people vanquished of all hope. But silence does not indicate inactivity; Alexander the Great came into power and reigned from 356-323 BC. From him, the Greek culture gave rise to an international language, Greek, for the Gospel to be proclaimed to the nations.  Greek culture permeated the arts, architecture, literature, and the sciences. Torah scrolls were translated into Greek.

This article is excerpted from the forthcoming book Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins Jew & Gentile: “Two Destinies that are Forever Linked” by Rabbi Felix Halpern Due out in Spring 2010.  To continue reading click here to see the entire article in pdf format.