Messianic Judaism: Is it Judaism or Christianity?

Answer 1

Messianic Judaism is seen, universally by Jews, as nothing more than Christian sects using deceitful means to convert Jews. EVERY Jewish denomination denounces these sects as Christians and nothing more. However, by Jewish law, once a Jew, always Jew- whether born or converted. Thus once a person is Jewish they are always judged by Jewish standards, and if they revert/convert to a different religion they are still considered Jewish by Jewish law. BUT, someone practising a religion other than Judaism is considered outside of the community, may not be a member of the community, receive any community honours, be a representative for the community, be buried in a Jewish cemetary, marry a Jew or be treated as a Jew for the purposes of the laws of mourning. However, since they never stop being a Jew- they merely have to repent, return to Judaism and go to mikveh in order to once again be a full member of the community.

The idea of jesus being the Messiah is completely wrong from the Jewish poont of view as he failed to do what the Messiah needs to do

1) The dead were not resurrected
2) The Jews did not beome priests to the other nations
3) There is no world peace
4) The temple is not standing
5) There is no temple service
6) There is no parah adumah or its ashes to render us tahor
7) The messiah is from the House of David. your house/tribe is inherited from your father. Your father is your BIOLOGICAL father- there is no adoption in Judaisim to another father- if God is the father of Jesus- then Jesus cannot be from the House of David as God is not frm the House of David.
8) Human sacrifice is completely forbidden in Judaism- remeber God stopping the sacrifice of Isaac? The idea of a human being sacrificed is the opposite of anything from Judaism!
9) You have to atone for yourself! An essential part of the atonement process is being repentant. Someone cannot be repentant for you- you have to do it for yourself. ONly communal sins can be forgiven communally- not individual, private sins!

And no- the messiah does NOT proclaim himself- he will be recognised by his deeds- not by his claims- in other words, through doing the above he will be recognised as the messiah. On top of that- mashiach is a HUMAN being, with HUMAN parents- the idea of an anthropomorphised God going around and impregnating young woman is completely alien to Judaism- though it fits very nicely into the pagan religions of the time which had their heroes being fathered by gods (ala Hercules and his daddy Zeus)


So, trying to incorporate a belief in Jesus into Judaism is impossible- and these so called "completed" Jews are nothing more than Christians.

Answer 2

While depending on how you twist the meaning, you may find some linguistic basis for the phrase "messianic Jew" the phrase "messianic Judaism" is a flawed phrase. If you use the definition that some have of "Jew" as a person who has genetic heritage to other Jews, then you can theoretically call them "messianic Jews". Judaism has always been used to describe a religion. Messianics practice christianity, NOT Judaism. So "messianic Judaism" is an oxymoron. It doesn't help their cause that they were started by, and still funded by, Southern Baptists.

Answer 3

I don't call myself a Messianic Jew or christian. I am a Messianic Believer. I try to honor Torah in my and my families lives. We keep the feast days as the Torah tells us to, with the exception of the sacrifices and the trips to Jerusalem since we don't have a priesthood to accept the offerings. I believe that Yahshua was a Jew and a Hebrew (you can be one and not the other). He was the living Torah, John 1:1-3. They didn't have the NT when that verse was stated. I believe that Yahshua lived a sinless life and that He gave His life so we may have life through Him. He was the perfect and acceptable lamb, otherwise He could not have fulfilled Passover. I believe that Yahshua kept all of the feast days that were commanded, after all, He gave them to Moses! Yahshua did not "fulfill" all of the commandments so that we do not have to "live by the law"! It would be impossible for Him to fulfill ALL of the commandments. He wasn't a woman or a farmer or a priest in the temple. He COULD fulfill the feast days though. When He died, He fulfilled Passover. When He was buried that fulfilled Unleaven Bread. When He rose from the grave that was First Fruits. At Shavuot (Pentecost) when He gave us the Ruach Ha Kodesh that fulfilled Shavuot. These are what Yahshua has fulfilled. I believe that Christianity has left the truth of Torah and made their own beliefs so that they can do as they wish and still feel like they are righteous. They have changed the identity of the Messiah to a greek thinking lawless christ! I don 't count myself asa christian any more for these very reasons! I believe that Judaism is also wrong. They do keep the feasts and the Sabbath and follow Torah very well, but they, to, have added traditions to their religion. Dic stated the the Rabbi's have more authority than Yahweh or Yahshua! This is as bad as the Pope saying that he represents God on Earth. When man, any man, states that his word is above Yahweh's, then there is a MAJOR problem! As a messianic believer, I feel that the congregation I attend lives by Torah and has the testimony of the Living Torah, Yahshua ha Mashiach. If it isn't in the scriptures then it isn't in our doctrines or beliefs! Many of Paul's writings were mistranslated and misquoted to make it sound like there is no longer any requirement to obey Torah. I have to agree that Paul is a complex writer and difficult to understand, but he was still a Jew and a believer in the Messiah. He didn't keep all of the traditions of men that kept people bound by the laws of men.

Answer 4

messianic jews will say they are jewish, of course. they spout the racist ideology, reminiscent of nazi europe, that judaism is genetic - a race, not a religion.

the nazis believed this devoutly, of course, which is why not only jews were sent to the camps, but any christian who even had a jewish grandparent was sent to the camps alongside them. because the nazis believed that judaism was a race, they believed that no matter how religious and devoted a christian was to their beliefs, if they had even one jewish ancestor then that made them a jew, despite their christian religion.

this inherent racism is the foundation stone of messianic judaism. they are christian by faith and religion, yet they say that since their parents were jews, therefore they are jewish in every way that counts. well unfortunately for them, the jews are not a race and being genetically jewish is NOT what counts. judaism is a religion, and if you are a believing christian (i.e. if you believe that jesus was the messiah, that he was G-d, that he died to save you from your sins) then quite simply you are not practicing anything remotely similar to judaism, because those beliefs are nothing less than repulsive to jews, since OUR religion states that jesus was NOT the messiah, that NO HUMAN is or can ever be G-d, and that NO person can atone for the sins of another.

Answer 5

According to Orthodox Judaism , a Jew is Jew irrespective of what he believes, a born Jew who believes in Buddha is a Jew an Atheist Jew is also a Jew a born Jew who is Messianic is also a Jew no matter what he believes he is a descendant of the tribe of Israel .

However, they are all apostates who strayed from Judaism they loose their rights under Jewish law i.e. No Jewish burial, marriage, they are not counted in a minyan etc.. BUT if they repent and come back to Judaism they do not have to convert to Judaism! Why? Because they are Jews who strayed form the flock and now have come back home.

No Rabbi or institution can strip away the status of Jew no matter what you practice. Messianic Jews are in error and are no different to Buddhist Jews or worse Atheist Jews. They are all of the stock of Israel, they may not act Jewish nor practice Judaism coz Messianicm is not Judaism but they will be always Jews.

In Israel they serve in the IDF and die for Israel as Jews, yes apostate Jews but Jews nonthaless, just like the Atheist IDF soldier who is a Jew will die for his people and yes he is an apostate Jew but a Jew nonetheless.

The acid test is when a Messianic Jew returns to the true faith is he asked to convert? Any Rabbi will tell you NO , why coz he is a Jew anyway just returning home.


And may HaSHem bring them all back home, where we will accept them as a father accepts a lost son when he is back.

Answer 6

Messianic Judaism is Christianity in disguise.
Many people, Christians and some Jews as well, erroneously believe that just as one can be Black and Christian, just as one can be Oriental and Christian, one can also be Jewish and Christian. It is not true. The Jews are not a race. There is no genetic code passed from either mother or father to the child that makes that child a Jew. Even if all, or some, of the genetic code in a child could be proved to be of Jewish Origin, that would not make the child a Jew. Jewish law determines who is a Jew, and Jewish law is quite clear. If a person's mother is a Jew, and that person has not converted to another faith, then that person will be considered fully Jewish, so long as that person wishes to identify solely as a Jew. Although one cannot convert to become a member of a race, for example one cannot convert to become an Oriental or an African-American, one who converts to Judaism does, indeed, become fully a Jew. Similarly, if one converts from Judaism to another faith, one is no longer a Jew.

Answer 7

While there are no doubt some Messianic Jews *now* who actually ARE Jewish, Messianic Judaism started among Christians, at roughly the same time and for largely the same reasons as the Kingdom Theology movement: a belief that the Jewish feasts had not been and should not be abolished, and that keeping them would lead to revelatory participation in the sole "unfufilled" (by Jesus' ministry) one: the Feast of Tabernacles.

Answer 8

It depends entirely upon whom you ask!

If you ask a Jew who doesn't believe Jesus is the Messiah, usually the answer is that Messianic Jews don't exist and that these are really Gentile Christians pretending to be Jews. Some would also concede a few of these were born Jews, but can no longer be considered Jews due to their apostacy.

If you ask a Messianic Jew, however, they will affirm their Jewish roots -- i.e. that they were born Jews; and tell you that they still consider themselves Jews. Think of it this way: most people consider the Jews to pre-exist the Mosaic Covenant. In other words, these early Jews were people descended directly from Abraham, through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob (Israel). The fact that they entered into a Covenant with God didn't change that, did it?

Messianic Jews have entered into the New Covenant promised to the Jews at Jeremiah 31:31-34. The fact that they've entered (and that the Covenant was later opened up to Gentiles) doesn't change or end their Jewishness any more than the Mosaic Covenant began or changed the Jewishness of their ancestors.

For this reason, Messianic Jews are STILL Jews. Due to past Gentile persecution, most don't like being called "Christians." (Which is understandable.) But a Messianic Jew may correctly be called BOTH terms; however, a Gentile convert to Christianity can only be called a Christian (notice -- it's GENTILES who convert, NOT Jews, since it's their promise to begin with!). Recently, there have been quite a number of Gentile Christians who refer to themselves as Messianic Jews. To me, this is both unnecessary and dishonest.

Answer 9

They are Christians, not Jews, and it **cannot** be defined by those individuals. That's like saying someone who's a native-born Canadian can define themselves as native-born American. Sorry, not possible. Only Jews have the right to define who they are. Here are some appropriate quotes that say it better than I can:

This is taken from the reference section of this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_for_Jesus

1. “"We believe that Jewishness is a birthright. It is inherited from our parents. Our people are not of one culture; we have diverse cultural expressions (Ashkenazi/Sephardi, Georgian/Russian, Ethiopian, Persian, etc.). Our people are not of one religion. While Judaism might be the traditional religion for many Jewish people, Jews are still considered Jewish even though they might be atheists or even if they embrace other beliefs. Those who say that Jews who believe in Jesus are errant Jews or misguided Jews are entitled to their opinions. But they are not entitled to negate our Jewishness. We are Jews by birth and that cannot change."
2. "There is virtual unanimity across all denominations [of Judaism] that Jews for Jesus are not Jewish." (Kaplan, Dana Evan. The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism, Cambridge University Press, Aug 15, 2005, pp. 139-140).
3. "For most American Jews, it is acceptable to blend some degree of foreign spiritual elements with Judaism. The one exception is Christianity, which is perceived to be incompatible with any form of Jewishness. Jews for Jesus and other Messianic Jewish groups are thus seen as antithetical to Judaism and are completely rejected by the majority of Jews". (Kaplan, Dana Evan. The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism, Cambridge University Press, Aug 15, 2005, p. 9).
4. Jewish groups:
o "To make the record clear, Jews for Jesus is a Christian missionary organization – period." Jews for Jesus: Jewish or Christian? You Decide, Jews for Judaism website, retrieved September 11, 2006.
o "Messianic Jewish organizations, such as Jews for Jesus, often refer to their faith as fulfilled Judaism, in that they believe Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies. Although Messianic Judaism claims to be Jewish, and many adherents observe Jewish holidays, most Jews regard Messianic Judaism as deceptive at best, fraudulent at worst. They charge that Messianic Judaism is actually Christianity presenting itself as Judaism." (Balmer, Randall. Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, Baylor University Press, Nov 2004, p. 448).

Answer 10

Like most religious titles, it is defined by the individual it applies to. Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and even Moonies classify themselves as Christians even though many of the more "mainstream" body of Christianity would not refer to some of these groups as such. The fact that we have countless variations of "Christianity", many who claim very adamantly that the other variations are completely wrong and in some cases damned to hell, is a clear sign that the label is pretty much defined by he/she who chooses to wear it. If the Messianic Jew feels he/she is Christian than what harm does it do. IMO it makes more since that the would consider themselves Jewish since Jesus never actually started a new religion. A compromise would simply be to place all Christianity where it arguably,belongs, as a sect of Judaism