What exactly is Messianic Judaism?

Question

I am interested in learning more about Messianic Judaism, as well as getting a couple other friends and family together to practice as a very tiny, informal, semi-private worship gathering of Messianic Gentile Believers. I have a lot of Messianic Jewish literature (ie, Complete Jewish Bible [Tanakh and New Testament], devotional aids about MJ subjects, a tallit and kippah, 5 general praise & worship music cds, and a small brass menorah). Also, I am learning some Modern Hebrew and striving to memorize the Hebrew Alphabet. I know some basic Messianic Terminology and a couple Yiddish terms for basic words, Biblical Figures, a few phrases, and places. I am a brand new Messianic Gentile believer who loves Israel & the Jewish People, who needs some more info about Messianic Judaism, so I can attract people who are interested in Messianic Judaism, who might be Jewish or even Gentile like myself.

Answer 1

Messianic Jews arnt Jews, they are really Christians trying to convert Jews to Christianity

Answer 2

Gevalt!
Yente and BillinNorthernCalifornia are too much.

Folks, wearing the trappings of Judaism will not make you a Jew. And calling yourself a Jew won't make you one either.
Despite Gentile nonsense to the contrary, there is *no* dispute among Jews today as to who is one of us and who isn't. If you embrace Jesus, or Yeshua, as the Moshiach, then by definition, you aren't. What part of that can't you understand? It's pretty clear to us Jews.
My young adult daughter is especially outraged by the modern trend among Christians who admire and adopt the trappings of Judaism, sling the lingo, and could outwardly "pass" for Jews while understanding nothing about the essence of Judaism. They misinterpret our ancient texts, then have the chutzpah to tell us *we* have read it wrong. She says, "Mom, for 2000 years, they've taken everything else from us, why can't they at least leave our religion alone?"

I think it's wonderful that such people find Judaism so compelling. It is! It's an ancient and enduring religion, rich and rewarding. And it was good enough for Jesus. All he tried to do was to put the kavannah back into some of the more empty formulaic modes of Jewish observance. So, if you admire Judaism so much, why not simply embrace it and become a Jew, a _real_ Jew?
If you want to be a Christian, gezunt, be one. If you want to pare away the pagan accretions to your religion and try to live more like an early Christian, that's also a noble endeavor, although difficult and requiring a lot of study.
But our ancient religion has continued to grow and evolve. For you to adopt the rituals and trappings of contemporary halacha, i.e. modern Diaspora Judaism (for example, speaking Yiddish is a mere thousand years old, if that, while wearing a Star of David as jewelry is a mere 100 years old...neither are mitzvot, sacred acts), and pretend you're doing what Jesus did? Good grief. You're either very misguided, or else you're starting a whole new religion. And, if you want to start a *new* religion, get your own rituals, texts and trappings, darn it, and leave ours alone!!
Or, as I said, just become a Jew, and be a good Jew. That's what Jesus was.


Okay, go for the thumbs-down! Sometimes the truth hurts.

Answer 3

well, you've made a good start. & "billinnortherncalif" had a very good answer.
I'll only add what I think no one else has addressed:
It isn't exactly you, yourself, who will "attract people". It's G-d Himself. You focus on learning & obeying the truth; G-d will bring people into your life to help you learn & who can learn with you .
I recommend keeping shabbat (sabbath; shabbos) as a starting place. Everything else will start to fall into place after that.
You may have a ticklish time explaining who/what you are, since it is so rare & so easily misunderstood & misrepresented. Even the Jews themselves (physical descendants of Jacob) disagree on "who is Jewish". As a former Baptist, I still keep the position that "if it doesn't agree with scripture, I don't believe it". This is also common to most messianics. Thus, I agree with Moses: being a member of the house of Israel is a matter of the heart. "Circumsise your hearts", Moses told the people. And, if you notice, it was a "mixed multitude" (Hebrews + lots of other ethnic samplings) that left Egypt, but after Sinai they were ALL referred to as "the children of Israel", even those who were still obviously non-Hebrew in physical ancestry. Ruth, a Moabite, was accepted into the family of Israel; Elijah was from Tishbe, across the Jordan (Yarden )River, so he may have been non-Jewish (an unsettling thought). My point is: I only let G-d decide things for me.
So, why do so many people say "you can't be both" ? well,
...Many centuries ago, a commentator named Rashi had a few things to say. Many things weren't accepted by his Jewish contemporaries. However, one thing he said really made sense to them: "Whoever loves the parent, loves the child. So if Jesus was really the messiah, the Christians would be kind to us. But since they aren't, either he wasn't really Jewish, or he was Jewish but wasn't really the messiah." Sadly, the churchgoers (it sticks in my craw to call them christians) were uninformed about the Hebrew roots of "their" faith; they misunderstood several key passages about Torah & salvation; they were prejudiced by appearances; and they were afraid to be associated with the physically Jewish people -- afraid to be persecuted. So since Rashi, Jews have been told by their rabbis that "you can't be Jewish & believe in Jesus". This is understandable, but not accurate.
I live a Jewish lifestyle -- perhaps more accurately described as "Torah-observant" -- I keep the sabbath, the feasts, I eat kosher, wear a star of david necklace 24/7, donate to pro-Israel causes, etc. In my area of the country, any Jews are rare, so people will see my necklace &, unsure of its meaning, ask me "oh, are you Jewish?" I reply, "Moses says so. The neo-nazis and the christians say I am. God says I am. Some Jews don't think so, but in my heart I know the changes I've experienced, and so yes, I am Jewish. I'm messianic." Some believers will call someone who has verifiable Hebrew ancestry "Messianic Jewish", while calling gentile-bred God-fearers (like Cornelius) "messianic believers".
even more importantly, my friend, follow the leading of the Ruach haKodesh (holy spirit). PRAY about who will come to your study. Pray about what steps to take in your journey; not everyone immediately springs into life full-grown, some people take a while to display a total change of lifestyle. Expect a bit of confusion now & then. Obey the Torah -- ALL of it, "old" & "new" . -- whether it's popular or not. Yeshua was the only person who ever kept torah perfectly : copy him, as best you can.
And no, I repeat, NO, "Christian" is NOT the same as Messianic. A person who still lives & thinks like a Christian is a Christian Zionist: a true friend of Israel (in the Land or in the Diaspora). .. but not Jewish-in-heart yet.
One of the things I love about being messianic, is, the scriptures have come SO much more alive to me. It's as if I used to read them in Black & White, and now they're in color. I read a passage & I see messiah in it, where I never did before. (example: very brief: why did Jacob have to leave Cana'an to go get a wife? because he is a foreshadowing of Yeshua, who was ordered by the Father In Heaven to go to earth and obtain a wife [us believers].
Another example: also very brief: when the Ruach haKodesh first came to us at Sukkot, 3,000 people became believers after hearing Shimon Kefa's speech. Why 3,000 ? why not 300 or 259 or 3,012? because back in Exodus, in the incident of the golden calf, [ex. 32:28], 3,000 people died. Many centuries later, G-d restored to Israel the 3,000 people who had been lost. I'm not saying reincarnation happens, just saying G-d treasures his people & keeps track of every one, even the sparrows.)
I caution you against putting traditions of humans on the same level as traditions of G-d. If something is not a sin, & it leads you closer to G-d, or it helps you stay away from a sin, great; go for it. But if it's a burden hard to bear, re-examine your motives & methods: you might be binding yourself with a burden G-d never meant you to bear. Follow G-d.
May G-d give you peace, wisdom, joy, and perception; may you feel Him near you; may He always keep you securely on the path to Himself.
Shalom !

Answer 4

Very good, we also have a group of believer meet on Shabbat to have Torah studies, worship and praise Hashem.

Answer 5

YOU are a gentile, apparently a christian gentile. Not a Jew. Why isn't that good enough for you? That is what you should explore.

MESSIANICS are XTIANS who wish to either convert Jews who are unaware of their deceit, or who wish to authenticate themselves due to some inner sense of lacking by riding the tallit, so to say, of Judaism.

Why don't you check out what *Judaism* has to say about these baptists in Jews clothing?

JewsforJudaism.com
WhatJewsBelieve.org

Answer 6

Messianic Judaism? Sorry, I'm ignorant about this, but it certainly sounds like an oxymoron.

Answer 7

Seeing the answers that have gone before, I will answer this question in their context.

Messianic Judaism is simply the ultimate expression of the
belief that a Messiah has appeared on earth and begun the difficult work that will culminate in the final redemption, and that Messiah was and is Jewish. It's true that it's nothing different from Christianity-- *original* Christianity, that is.

Many Jewish people are understandably offended by it because it appears to be a mockery of Judaism. Understandably, because many who call themselves Messianic Jewish have not thought out the implications either.

What they both do not understand is what it is not:

1) It is not Jews for Jesus. J4J claims no affiliation to organizations called Messianic Jewish. It is strictly a specific organization for conversion of Jews to Christianity, "whole hog".

2) It is not, in fact, something done solely for the benefit of a Jewish audience, some organizations termed Messianic Jewish notwithstanding. Insofar as Messianic Judaism claims to give all authority to the Tanakh as well as to the writings of the apostles/shelakhim of Y'Shua, then it must necessarily adhere to its beliefs and practices not for the benefit of any human audience, but for the benefit of a Jewish Creator.

3) It is also not merely learning a few Yiddish terms, modern Hebrew and praise songs--but you didn't represent it as that, either. You frankly admitted that you were totally new to the whole concept, and by implication unfamiliar with anything Jewish to start with, and your enthusiasm to reach for whatever is near you that might be informative is no cause for shame. Those are as good of places to start as any, as long as you don't stop there, but continue to learn from the vast richness of the absorption in the holy Word in every aspect of life that has characterized and sustained the Jewish people.

Or, what it is:

1) It is the expression of the faith of believers in the Messiah upheld by Christianity who nevertheless see that much of Christianity is, though often full of good qualities, also prone to highly diseased distortions, repeatedly throughout history, and that these distortions, these parodies of the original belief in Messiah, arise mainly from the removal of the Jewish nature of the original faith.

2) It is the recognition that belief in the man Y'Shua recorded in the apostolic writings as the promised Messiah was established entirely by Jews based upon their understanding of Jewish Scripture, explicitly referenced from beginning to end.

3) The third thing that puts the "Jewish" in "Messianic Jewish" is that the sources that Y'Shua and his followers used exclusively for the bases of their statements of faith were not only the Jewish Scriptures but also the ongoing Jewish Oral Tradition. Yes, certain traditions were famously spoken out against, but those were teachings of certain sects that fell by the wayside in mainstream Judaism as well. This is the connection for Messianic Jews to continue to look to the Jewish teaching, all the way to the present, for the expounding of the Torah, because the Torah always has been and always will be the sacred trust of the Jews. This continues what Y'Shua began himself when he said, "Whatever the Pharisees say, that observe and do, for they sit in Moshe's seat..."

He was speaking of course about halachah, and it is indeed astonishing to see the continued parallels in Jewish halachah and New Testament teaching, especially regarding leniency based on level of understanding, how the latter are made so much clearer and alive, in fact, by the former.


4) Therefore, Messianic Judaism is the original form of what came to be called Christianity. If someone believes that the tenets of Christianity are blasphemous, why on earth would they call on someone to be proud to be Christian? I know why. Prevention of bloodshed. Fear that someone dabbling too much in both faiths might reach a point where responsibility for what they know or think they know is greater than they can safely bear. Again, understandable, but we just cannot continue and continue to skirt the issue that no matter how encrusted with pagan tradition it became, the essence of the Gospel continues to proclaim itself as arising completely from within Judaism, no matter how much we all might want to. For starters, the more closely that essence is examined, the more evident it is that it calls its followers to be utterly harmless and peaceable, so there need be no such fears in that direction.

So if Y'Shua was the promised Jewish Messiah, why did he allow his movement to become so corrupted?
An object lesson on this: Messiah said that the sign given to his generation would be the sign of Jonah, who was 3 days & 3 nights in the belly of a fish. It is evident that what he underwent there made the population of Nineveh listen to him because they worshipped a fish-god. Was he participating in their idolatry? No. A situation *symbolic* of their beliefs was, to his grave and profound humiliation, *imposed* on him, yet proved to them the supernaturally-specific nature of his message to them.

Likewise, Messiah underwent 3 days and 3 nights in which many things having significance to pagan beliefs who worshipped the elements were *imposed* on him to his utter shame and humiliation, but nevertheless this proved his supernaturally-specific message to all those surrounding peoples.

The Church that rose later, though, erred by, as the apostle points out, "glorying in their shame"--not recognizing the depths of humiliation their Messiah endured by allowing these signs of perverse, materialistic worship to be piled upon him in order to prove once and for all Who was the only one worthy of all worship, that in his kindness in allowing this, the ignorance of all would be enlightened--deepening their awe and appreciation of his sacrifice, and at the same time their aversion to those very trappings--they instead took it all as a cue to glorify the things that shamed him for the sake of personal advancement, selling him all over again for silver in far worse fashion than he had been the first time.

To me, this whole lesson was foreshadowed by the Replica Altar in the book of Joshua. The Israelites across the Jordan, fearful that their descendants would lose their connection to the Jews/the rest of Israel, built a replica of the Altar in their territory. This aroused the consternation of all the rest of Israel, who fearful of the punishment for not obeying the command to only sacrifice on one altar, were ready to slaughter that whole tribe for its perceived sin.
But the tribe assured them it was only a replica and monument to remind them of their roots and allegiance to the Creator whose true Altar lay across the river, that it would never be used for sacrifice, and the prophet and leader of Israel was satisfied--and indeed they never did use it that way.

Likewise, one day may Messiah be revealed to be the Saviour like no other, and that it was not the flesh in which He appeared that was to be worshipped, but that the Spirit that completely, uniquely animated that flesh and at the same time indwells and implants eternal life within us, *is* what is to be worshipped, having no physical form and thus causing no violation, being completely One.

So this brings to mind a simpler definition of Messianic Judaism:

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It is Christianity seeking to cleanse itself of its errors by re-learning its Jewish origin.
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The links below are to reference points I made above, not necessarily to be representative of Messianic Judaism or my beliefs about it.

Answer 8

it's one of a billion variantions on mythological idol worship that people have invented over time when they were born with IQ's too low to understand logic and reason.

Answer 9

Messianic
should have scared you off at the very outset

I mean

they Crucified their Messiah

and now they expect God to throw down one more lifeline
according to the messianic cults

I trow not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

Just to be clear: "Messianic Jews" are ***not*** Jewish. Period. They're a bunch of Christians masquerading as somehow still 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).