‘Falling in love with the Lord’: From Atheist to Jewish Christian — Mark Meckler’s spiritual journey

In the latest installment of “Crossroads: Where Faith and Culture Meet,” Mark Meckler described what led him as a secular Jew to find faith in Christ. Growing up in a Jewish home in Los Angeles, Mark was raised in what he called a “very Jewish but not religious” environment. His family occasionally celebrated the High Holidays, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover, but “didn’t understand any of the religious implications of that stuff. There was no God in our household.”

Mark acknowledges that from an early age he was trained in Judeo-Christian values, although his family would not have necessarily attributed their morality to the Bible. Rather, their beliefs had simply been passed down from generation to generation with little to no understanding of where they had originally come from.

However, when he went to college, he was quickly swayed by the more aggressively secular world: “I had no religious bulwark against that stuff,” he recounted. Under the tutelage of his professors, he absorbed the belief that Christianity was responsible for various societal ills, a perspective he carried with him for years.

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Later, when Mark met his wife, Patty, he began noticing “her own personal relationship with the Lord” blossom. Although her life challenged the notions about Christianity he had encountered in the classroom, he was still convinced “it wasn’t for me.”

Ultimately, over many years spent seeking and even exploring other religions (although he hesitated to consider Christianity, influenced by his anti-Christian college education), Mark came to a point where he realized that nothing in life had provided a satisfactory explanation for the purpose of his existence. From that point, God gradually began crossing his path with men who exemplified godliness and mentored him in the faith, including Michael Farris, Tim Dunn, and James Dobson, whose humility and Christlikeness attracted him to Christ.

A major breakthrough came for Mark when he realized, through reading the words of Paul, that faith in Christ was the fulfillment of his Jewish heritage, not, as he previously believed, an irreconcilable contradiction.

“You’re supposed to be a Christian if you’re a Jew,” Mark’s mentor Tim Dunn told him. “God promised the Jewish people a Messiah; the Messiah has come. It’s the completion… of the promise. So, it’s not just that you can; this is what God intended for you personally.”

It wasn’t long before this revelation led Mark, leaning unashamedly into his Jewish lineage, to place faith in Jesus Christ: “If you’ll have me, Lord, I’m yours,” he prayed. “You’re my Lord and Savior. You’re the Creator of the Universe. I’m sinful and insignificant. And whatever you’ll have of me, I give myself to you.”

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Mark described what came next as transformational: “I felt like I had fallen in love for the first time in my life…. I’ve never lost that…. I see the Lord in everything.” Importantly, he also emphasized, “I never lost the sense of being Jewish,” either. “In fact, I am much more Jewish today because I’m a Christian in my heart than I ever was.”

In light of the recent war in Israel, Mark Meckler believes that his background as a Jew, former atheist, and now a follower of Christ gives him a unique perspective on how people of faith should respond to the war. To hear Mark’s entire faith story and his biblical take on the war, watch the full episode of “Crossroads” below.