If there is a such thing as Jews for Jesus...?

Question

are there any Christians for Mohammed?

Just a random 3AM thought...

thanks guys. i didn't know that it was just a term they used to still identify with their jewish ancestors. g'night.

Answer 1

Glad you asked. "Jews for Jesus" are ***not*** Jewish.

Most Jewish scholars agree that you cannot convert away from Judaism (there are a minority who say you can convert away). However, this by no means implies that a Jew who joins another religion has the same standing as a Jew who has remained Jewish. A Jew who practices another religion, whether it be Christianity (in any of its forms, including Messianic "Judaism"), Islam or anything else, is known as an "apostate." An apostate is someone who has removed themselves from the Jewish people by joining another faith. The apostate cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Nor can the apostate be counted for a minyan, the minimum of ten adult Jews (or adult Jewish men, depending on one's denomination) needed for saying certain prayers. For nearly all practical purposes, they have the same status in the Jewish community as non-Jews. The only differences is that they do not have to undergo a full conversion to rejoin the Jewish community, though there is a process known as "Teshuvah" that they must go through to come back to the Jewish community with full Jewish status.

So, once we delve into Jewish law we see that a Jew who joins another religion, though still Jewish, has ostensibly the status of a non-Jew and is no longer able to participate as a full member of the Jewish community. The apostate has the weakest of all grasps to their Jewish identity, they are Jewish by birth but otherwise have no position in the Jewish community.

This then brings us to a discussion on the difference between "doing Jewish" and "being Jewish." By "doing Jewish", I am referring to someone who is actually practicing Jewish beliefs and laws. By "being Jewish", I mean someone who has been born Jewish. Now, there are many people who are born Jewish but are not practicing Judaism. For instance, if a Jewish person murders a family, the Jewish person may be "born Jewish" but certainly was not "doing Jewish" as murder is a violation of the Ten Commandments.

Similarly, we can see examples of this in the Jewish Bible. The prime example of this would be the Jews who worshipped the Golden Calf at Mount Sinai. These individuals were unquestionably Jewish by their birth, thus we can argue that they were "being Jewish." However, were they "doing Jewish?" The Bible is quite clear that these individuals, though born Jewish, were not practicing Judaism. The worship of the Golden Calf, though it was a monotheistic form of worship, was clearly a violation of the Biblical law regarding the making of idols. Thus, they were not "doing Jewish." Similarly, in the Prophets we see countless reprimands of people who were undeniably Jewish by birth, but had entered into apostasy by worshipping gods such as Baal and Ashtoret. They were not "doing Jewish" but "doing pagan" and had violated the very underpinning of Judaism. That they were "being Jewish" by their birth was clearly not sufficient. One must also "do Jewish" in their actions.

Along the same lines, many of Jesus' original followers were unquestionably born Jewish. However, by adopting non-Jewish beliefs, such as thinking that Jesus was a god (a violation of several places in the Jewish Bible, Numbers 23:19 and Hoshea 11:9 provide a few examples of this), were no longer "doing Jewish." The same is true for individuals in the Messianic movement today. The Messianic movement was created by Christianity, and its beliefs and values reflect Christianity. By practicing Messianic "Judaism", the individual who was "born Jewish" is no longer "doing Jewish." They have removed themselves from the Jewish community by their practice and beliefs. Unfortunately, too few of these individuals have an understanding of the difference between "being Jewish" and "doing Jewish", mistakenly believing that they can both believe in Jesus and still have the same status in Jewish community as before. They not only have lost status, but also have lost the practice of Judaism. As has been pointed out in the Talmud, the emphasis for us is on the action, the "doing Jewish.



This is taken from the reference section of this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_for_Jesus
1. "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).
2. "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).
3. 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 2

When I was Christmas shopping I saw a family holding signs that read "Jews for Jesus, Why Not?" They were clean looking too not your crazy homeless sign holders. So I guess there is such a thing. I don't know about Christians for Mohamed, yet.

Answer 3

Most "Jews" for Jesus are actually Gentiles, not Jews. There have always been very few Jews in these organizations. Mostly they are full of Gentiles in Jewish drag, going around trying to act and sound like Jews as a deception to convert real Jews.

The Messianic "Jewish" movement was actually begun by Southern Baptist Gentiles as a way of deceptively bringing in real Jews to convert. They were not very successful for a long time. More recently they have been somewhat successful at fooling real Jews into believing their nonsense, Jews who are uneducated in Judaism, or the elderly (they have even been caught going to Jewish old folks homes and converting the old people there who couldn't even understand what was being said.)

Never take anything a Messianic "Jew" tells you about the Torah, about Jews, or about Judaism as anything legitimate whatsoever. They are frauds through and through, and their intent is to destroy Judaism.

Answer 4

No.

Judaism is both an ethnicity and a religion. Such that when a Jewish person (ethnicity) gets saved (Christian) they are called Messianic Jews.

Answer 5

Messianic Jews are "Jews for Jesus". Messianic Jews are Jews who have accepted Jesus as messiah and savior.

Answer 6

there are jews for jesus .they are basically people that were born into the jewish faith or converted and believe that jesus is the messiah

there are christian arabs that observe all the christian holidays and none of the muslim ones

Answer 7

Yup, many things are going on the world, but not many of them are preaching the truth.

I think it is way past your bedtime..... you are treading on dangerous ground trying to combine the words Christian and Mohammed.......Good night or good morning :-)

Answer 8

jews for jesus are called christians

Answer 9

No idea. but the concepts seem diametrically opposed.

curious....
....

Answer 10

yeah you