Is there a difference between "Messianic Judaism" and Christianity as far as overall beliefs? If so, what?

Question

Also, what are some of the common traditions and rituals that separate the two? Thanks!

Answer 1

I think the only real difference is they still observe the Jewish traditions. I think they also understand a lot more than we do about how Jesus fulfilled [ not changed ] what God had set up through Moses and the OT. I have been doing some reading on this and Just what was fulfilled at the time of Crucifixion as relating to not just the death and resurrection but how it tied into the feasts and holidays being celebrated at the time is amazing.

Answer 2

There are big differences between Messianic Judaism and Christianity. The biggest is that Christians do not beleive in the older portion of their bible. They do not want anything to do with Jewish Roots. Messianics Beleive That Yahshua (Yeshua, Yehoshua, Jesus) how ever you want to pronounce his name, is the promised messiah. Only in Judaism are we expecting a messiah to come, no other religion is. Messianics also beleive that Yahshua never changed anything in the Torah. Which is true, it was others later that changed the ways of Torah. Paul did not change anything, he is only misunderstood. His teachings are very Halachic, but attack the man made commandments that were made to control people and how they worship the almighty. Messianics keep kosher, keep the new moon, the sabbaths and all the biblical feasts. They stay away from christmas and easter as they come from pagan sources and since Jesus is Jewish, he would never have done so him self. What you have to do is go back to the foundation of our faith. Remember Jews are only one tribe of Israel. Messianics also beleive that Jews do not need to be converted, only christians need converting in that sense. I would stay away from anything associated with "Jews for Jesus" and "Jews for Judaism" as both these organizations mislead people on both sides. Messianic Judaism did not start by the baptist churches, that is like saying the Orthodox started the Reform movement to try to imitate the christians. After all the Reform Jews started out with Sunday as their sabbath. Just a little history. You really need to study the Torah, especialy Deuteronomy as that is where most of Yahshua's teachings come from. The truth of the matter is, the Messiah was prophesied to come durring the second temple era. Well the second temple was destroyed, so if he is not the Messiah then there wont be one. Moshe said that when he came his life would mirror his. Also the story of Joseph is that his brothers rejected him, they sold him to the gentiles, twenty years later, the brothers need grain and they go to Egypt to get grain because of this world wide fammine. They do not recognize Joseph because he resembles the Egyptians. But finally after the second trip he reveals him self. The Gentiles seem to own exclusive rights to Jesus. But his name was not Jesus, just like Joseph's name was not (Genesis 41:45) Zaphenath-Paneah, the name that Pharaoh gave him. The christians have dressed him up to resemble them, just as Joseph looked to be Egyptian, but in time he will reveal to his brothers his true identity. My people look for someone. The Lubivitchers (most) believe that Rebbe Schneerson is the Messiah, the Breslav Chasids still believe that Rabbi Nachman is the Messiah. I am sorry to say it, but my fellow Rabbi's in the Orthodox do not even study the Messianic passages, and in some yeshivahs it is forbidden to discuss. All they study is the Talmud, which has great teaching, but is not the written Torah, and does not supercede the written Torah. There are plenty of Messianic sites, but not all are true. What you have to do is again study the Torah and live by those words. You do not need the gospels to tell you about who the messiah is. If you study hebrew, you will see that the very first word of the Torah "B'reishit" tells you the whole story of creation to the messianic kingdom to come. By taking the letters just in that word alone and not adding a letter, you may take away, but not add to it, lies the whole story. But first study the Torah, get a good Chumash, I prefer the Artscroll Stone edition, but also the soncino Penteteuch by Rabbi Hirsch. Here are some websites that might help you in your quest for truth.
lionlamb.net
wisdomintorah.com
ffoz.org
Shalom, and may you find the truth that you seek!

Answer 3

I believe that a Messianic Jew is one that Believes Jesus is the Mesiah.
To answer the second part of this......I think the separation for Christianity and Messianic Judaism is that the Messianic observe all the Jewish holidays ... I think they also celebrate the Christian holidays as well. Their foundation is that of Judaism

Answer 4

"Messianic Jew" are ***not*** Jewish.

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 5

It is sad to see our Jewish friends are so against we Christians. Our belief actually came from a Jew by the name of Jesus Christ. He came to the lost sheep of Israel to save them from the error that they had fallen into as recorded by their own prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the rest of them. These prophets declared to Israel that they had fallen into error and that there was one coming to correct that error and bring them back into the true worship of God. This is what Jesus is about and we Christians are here with open arms to accept all the Jews who would like to follow after God as he ordained since the beginning of time. The Jew follows a strickedly guided formula of worship, laws and traditions that they are too blind to see are error. The Christian who follows after Jesus passionately follows the laws of God in this way; Loving God with everything they have, own, and are about and loving all men as we ourselves would want to be loved. This fullfills all the law.

Answer 6

"Messianic Judaism" it isn't Jewish at all. It was begun by fundamentalist right-wing Baptists as a deceptive means to trap and convert Jews who were uneducated about the Jewish prophecies and conditions concerning the real Messiah.

They've spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on this campaign specifically targeting Jews. They got rid of all Christian symbolism in their churches so it wouldnt scare Jews away, they started dressing in Jewish drag, prayer shawls, yarmulkes, etc. and dressing up their churches to look like synagogues, they changed the name Jesus to "yeshua ha moshiach", and run around telling Jews that they can still be Jews and believe in "yeshua".

For the first few decades of this fake Jewish movement there were very, very few Jews in it. Those who were Jews in it were not allowed to sit on any of the boards of directors or management positions.

For about the past ten years or so these "messianic" Christians have been extremely aggressive, going on to college campuses to find young uneducated (in Judaism) Jews, and even going into Jewish old folks homes where the elderlys were being deceived into accepting their "love bombs", many times not even able to understand these fake Jews or what they were saying.

In response, Judaism, particularly the Lubavitchers have organised a huge outreach program all over the world, to try to bring Jews back and educate them so they do not fall into the idolatry of Christianity. It's been very successful.

These "messianic Jewish" fundamentalist Baptist groups are a sham. Kind of like slimy used car salesmen, only it's more serious than that because they are in the business of stealing Jewish souls.

In other words, to answer your question, the Messianic "jewish" movement and Christianity differ not at all in their foundational doctrines, since the movement was founded by, and created by fundamentalist Christians. What differs is the outer dress and the trying to "act Jewish" by using Hebrew, Jewish clothing etc.

If you would like to find out what the REAL messiah is all about according to the Torah that God gave on Mt. Sinai, please visit the following Jewish links. You'll know more than 99% of Christians about the real Messiah, circumstances of his birth, what he does, when he does it, who is involved, etc.


http://www.aish.com/spirituality/philoso...

http://www.messiahtruth.com/response.htm...

http://ohr.edu/ask/ask00j.htm

http://shamash.org/lists/scj-faq/HTML/fa...

http://www.beingjewish.com/toshuv/whynot...

http://www.askmoses.com/article.html?h=1...

http://www.jewsforjudaism.com

Answer 7

No, I think they are identical as far as beliefs. However Messianic Jews like to keep their Jewish traditions such as Passover. I don't know the rest of the traditions though.

Answer 8

messianic is not judaism. messianic is an idolatry like christianity.

Answer 9

I think that it is an interpretation of Jews might believe in if they were to convert to Christianity.

Answer 10

Messianic Jews accept Jesus as their messiah but retain their identity as Jewish people. So they may go to temple instead of church, or keep kosher. Or not.