Jewish and Gentile Disciples

Today we do find more and more people who wonder where they belong or who are not happy at the place or in the community they are from childhood.

Images in the daily press

Perhaps by the continuing troubles and several conflicts between different groups people are doubting about the honesty and/or credibility of one group against the other. We also find third generation kids being torn between the different cultures or culture differences.

Jews, Muslims, Christians and non-religious people every day in the news her about the problems in Israel and on their television screen can see how Israeli soldiers kill innocent children. What we can see and hear in the daily press breeds ill blood by many. By some it fires their blood and gets them to react heavily against certain groups of people, like Jews or Muslims. We can see that many people do not see the difference between individuals their actions, or certain fundamentalist groups and the general common folks of a religion or country.

Messianic Judaism

The last decade we have seen a growing amount of internet websites and blogs which have co-opted the terminology of Messianic Judaism but used it to mask some form of Jewishly-flavored Christianity or worse Christendom.

Mostly from the United States of America we see many evangelisers spreading their trinitarian views with a touch of “Jewish whipped cream”. They think by adding some Jewish flavour they can lure Jews in their trinitarian belief and get their god Jesus accepted.

Big problem with those trinitarian “Messianics” (like they call themselves) is that they blur the vision and get non-trinitarian Christians and Messianics in discredit.

Many may wonder how they should call themselves. Others look down at them and say they can not be what they claim. As such we find Jews who have found Jeshua as the way to God, him being the Messiah, but then the Jews saying to them they cannot be Jew because they have no Jewish faith. Though than we could say to those Jews who find that those Jews who accepted Jeshua as their Messiah and believe he is the son of man and son of God, that they have the same Abrahamic Faith as their rebbe Jeshua. But than there are also Jews who claim Jeshua is not an accepted Jewish rabbi.

Other Jews are confused by those groups who call themselves Messianic Jews but worship a Trinity. There we can totally accept that those Jews have the full right to complain and to call such groups non Jewish.

Messianic or Christian

A Messianic Gentile who writes a great deal about how a disciple of Jesus can look through a “Jewish lens” and who tries to get a better perspective on life and the God who made us all, writes that he found himself

wondering about the current state of Messianic Judaism (or whatever you want to call it) and whether or not it is growing, shrinking, or just holding steady. That is, how is MJ “trending” in terms of population? {How is Messianic Judaism “Trending?”)

It’s the sort of question we and him love to dig into but haven’t the faintest idea where to go to find valid numbers. for that reason we would love to hear some reactions from readers all over the world. It would be nice to get to know how people look at this developing trend of upcoming Sabbatarians, Sabbatical Christians, Messianic Jews (trinitarian and non-trinitairan) and to hear which position those groups want to take in and how people react against them.

The published author, editor, and technical write James Pyles who also has a passion for theology, strength training, and is breaking into fiction writing, particularly science fiction, currently working on his first full-length novel, knows there are probably individual Messianic organizations that likely keep track of their numbers, but he can’t think of any one central repository that could tell him if Messianic Judaism is gaining or losing ground.

He and his wife originally attended a church in their community when they both first came to faith. He writes

(prior to that time, we were both secular and non-religious). We also entered into a period where we attended a Messianic congregation together but, long story short, she continued to investigate her Judaism and became affiliated with the Reform, and later, the Chabad synagogues, while I left, re-entered, and then many years later, left the Messianic movement. {Who am I}

Currently Pyles self-identifies as a Christian but does not attend any particular house of worship, though he does study from a number of Jewish sources

as I believe the voice of Jesus is a Jewish voice and that he is speaking to us all. I also maintain a number of contacts, both in my community and on the web, with Jewish and Gentile believers. {Who am I}

To look through a “Jewish lens”

Too many people do forget that Jesus Christ, whose real name is Jeshua ben Joseph (the son of Joseph and Miriam or Mary, like most English speaking people and Catholics know them) was a devout Jew, being brought up in an Essenes family.

Pyles also writes a great deal about how a disciple of this Nazarene man, Jesus, can look through a “Jewish lens” and get a better perspective on life and the God who made us all. Those who say they are a follower of Jesus, be them Jeshuaists, Christians or Jews, should follow this Jewish master teacher his teachings and as such would be immersed in the Jewish teaching of him, and by this get some Jewish flavour.

Interfaith marriages

Today more people of interfaith marriages want to find a place where they can belong.

Robin Green writes

I am a non Jew married to a Jewish husband. We too left the religious system of churchianity, and now worship at a Messianic Jewish Synagogue. Very traditional, with the liturgy, etc.

We are slowly learning to obey Torah, and I am finally beginning to understand the Scriptures, by looking at it from an Hebraic view, instead of a Hellenized view.

I have “assimilated” into the Torah observant lifestyle quite easily and happily. This is in NO way a smear on Christianity (true Biblical Christianity). Nor do I feel better than “Christians”. I am simply happy where I am with my my husband. As long as Jesus/Yeshua is the LORD of our lives, we are all ONE, in Messiah.

Luckily she looks at Christianity as the group which exist of the true Biblical doctrine followers and not of the human doctrine followers of Christendom.

Helping each other

Having a Jewish partner always helps to find a better understanding of the Hebrew texts, if the partner knows Hebrew, but in our region we also do find several Jews who were brought up in a non Hebrew environment, so they too lack sufficient Hebrew language knowledge.

For anybody to be able to look through the scriptures with the lens of Jewish perspective must be eye opening. Therefore it is important that people help each other and give consult on those aspects they have spend more time in study. The amount of material is namely to huge to tackle all oneself in a few years.

Several Messianic groups

We are also aware of the great amount of Messianic groups as well as Jewish groups. Many of them presenting different focusses and some being closer to one or the other pure Jewish group, but some also dangerously leaning closer to binitarian and/or trinitarian Christian groups. But on the road we may also find groups which are considered by some to be cults, like the group of Michael Rood and the group of Jim Staley, of Passion for Truth Ministries, who seem to us very misleading television pastors of the trinitarian movement. The Messianic groups on the site of trinity doctrines seem to be in the majority.

We have under the Messianics also the Hebrew Roots movement, the Abrahamic Faith Church and the restored Church of God, Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith and could call the Nazarenes, Nazarene Friends also to be acquainted with them.

It must be said, having a growing amount of Messianic groups opens the way to more people becoming confronted with Jeshua. The Messianic movement has been used mightily by the Elohim to see many Jewish people come to saving faith in Messiah Jeshua (Christ Jesus). On the other hand we also see that it has also helped many evangelical Christians appreciate their Hebraic and Jewish Roots and the Torah. The Messianic movement definitely stands against the common, yet errant thought in much of modern Christian theology, that the Torat Moshe or Mosaic Law was exclusively for the era prior to the Messiah, and has now been nullified with his arrival.

By the growing amount of blogs presenting the thoughts of followers of Jeshua, people get to see more articles on how Jeshua himself as a Jew followed God’s Will and Instructions. Though we notice this being a very difficult part for many people to come to see and understand how Jesus put his own will aside to do the Will of God and demands we should do likewise.

Doing the Will of God

The many Messianic groups want to make it clear that we as human beings should try to do the Will of God. In most communities there is made work of showing what God wants of humankind. In most Messianic communities people also try to follow the rules God has given mankind to organise their meetings and their spiritual growth.

Having all over the world many Messianic groups which organise themselves in different ways should not frighten us nor have the world to think they can not be God’s instrument.

Depending where you live you might find nearly none or a number of Messianic congregations which are quite close to following an Orthodox Jewish level of Torah keeping, others which shun a great deal of Jewish tradition and custom, and then others which stand somewhere in the middle.

Unity and conformity

If there is anything that all congregations or fellowships have in common, it is that there is a panoply of different interpretations and applications of commandments. The order of the Shabbat service could be very different from one assembly to another, the way kosher is kept is probably not going to be the same, and the way people dress and groom themselves will certainly not be uniform. But that should not hold you back.

Because all people are different and are residing in different cultures people may find a wide selection of views present within today’s Messianic Judaism, regarding non-Jewish Believers and their relationship to Torah practices like remembering Shabbat or the appointed times. Some leaders are very welcoming of non-Jewish Believers being Torah observant, others are not so welcoming, some are indifferent, and some are hostile.

When we do know that it is God Who calls the people, we should leave it to God to decide who is coming to Him and who is coming to our gatherings. As People of God we should always remember that all people are creatures from God and should receive our full respect. To all creatures of God we should have a welcoming and receiving attitude.

Having open doors to all human beings should not mean we should deviate or go away from the Will of God. The Elohim’s mitzvoth should always come in the first place. All those coming into our prayer houses, ecclesiae or synagogues should come to see that the Torah is our Guidebook. Variations of how we do things people should come to see that not every day is the same as well that we are liberated by Christ of certain chains and have the liberty to organise us like we want, but always in accordance to the rules and regulations of Scriptures. If we come together at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. on the Sabbath/Saturday or have service at 7 p.m. on Friday does not matter or should not have any one thinking it would be a group not belonging to the Messianics.

How the service is build should also to be each community its liberty and as in our community may differ from one day to the other. There can be much discussions about that, certain groups wanting to see a duplicate of certain Jewish synagogue services. But they should know the Messianic Movement should not be the continuation of the Old World but should be the commencement of the New World, liberated by the second Adam, Jeshua (Christ Jesus) the Messiah.

It is in Christ we should show unity. In the way the talmidim constructed their gatherings we can find examples how to construct our gatherings. Like an ecclesia was build up in the first century we also can build up our ecclesia.

As a religious community we should show the world we do not want to be of the world but of Christ. Nothing should hold us back to show our faith in the Nazarene master teacher and to emphasise the common faith and salvation that we all possess in Israel’s Messiah as being the most important thing. Having our eyes directed at Jeshua shall make sure we will have far less divisions and suspicions among the  members, and we will be able to have a positive impact on the world around our community — than a religious community which primarily emphasizes differences among God’s people, where rivalry and mistrust will too frequently manifest.

for many people it might be difficult to be under some one or to co-operate with some one. Some may be ego-trippers or pepole who do find they should have the lead. Several people have certain pro- and contra- feelings or are bounded to political parties or political ideologies. This make it that in certain groups we may find certain personal politics being the priority. While it is difficult at times not to get engulfed in the politics of our broad Messianic faith community, we must strive as best as we can to remain above them. God has given warnings not to be of the world. By letting ourselves being carried away by such internal politics we fall in the trap of the adversary.

We have to act like mature believers whose loyalty is, first of all, to the Scriptures and the legitimate mission of God, and not a particular sub-movement or clique.

Joining hands

Today lots of people are more interested in the entertainment value of a community. We can see the growing success of the Pentecostal church at the same time the main churches, like the Catholic church having nearly nobody attending their services. (According to the latest enquête (Pew research of May 2018) only 10% of the Belgian population would go once or a few times per year to a church service.

We do not have to aim to attract those who left the ordinary church, getting in our services by presenting roadshows or musical events.

For us it must be clear that recognizing the God of Israel and showing respect to His sent one should be our object of worship-service. We should not be afraid to spend most of the time of our service to the Bible, the infallible Word of God.

We also should show the world that there are more people than us, spread all over the world, who accept Jeshua as the sent one from God and him being the Messiah.

That international existence we should dare to show to others and therefore we can only hope that the Messianic Groups shall grow in unity and that more and more those groups shall show their connection with others.

For that reason we would like to invite all believers in Jeshua, who want to follow up the tasks given by this son of man and son of God, to let us and the world know that they too are willing to be part of the Body of Christ, united in spirit and worshipping also the God of Jesus, who is the God of Abraham and Who is a Singular Spirit Being and not a man of flesh and blood.

Please let us not hide our communities, but let us share our thoughts and connection.

Looking forward to get to know you better, wherever in the world you might be, sharing the same hope as us for a better world, having our eyes directed at the King of kings, who paved the way to God and to the small gate of the coming Kingdom of God.

Secret to effective Jewish outreach

 

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Preceding

Products of European and American Jewish assimilation

Jews and Christians against Messianics and Jeshuaists

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Additional reading

1. Religions and Mainliners
2. As there is a lot of division in Christendom there is too in Judaism
3. Daring to speak in multicultural environment
4. Jeshua-ists and Messianics
5. Today’s thought “Ability to circumcise your heart” (May 13)
6. Place for a fifth and sixth house in Christendom
7. The Sabbatean Prophets
8. The modern Messianic Jewish movement
9. Being in isolation #1 Baptists making an important choice
10. Believing in God part of being American for Discriminating Americans who feel discrimiated
11. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
12. Women, conservative evangelicals and their counter-offensive

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Related

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3. The Error of Messianic Judaism
4. Messianic Jew mess
5. Messianic Truth or Error?- 2
6. Messianic Jewish/Roman Catholic Dialogue
7. Are Messianic Jews dangerous?
8. The Sabbath day of the restored Church of God
9. Notzrim
10. Differences between Hebrew, Jew and Israelite
11. Rabbinical court rules against Jewish marriage rites for Messianic Jew
12. The Church & The Old Testament Law
13. Re-blogged: Why Yeshua’s Wanderer — Yeshua’s Wanderer
14. Hebrew Roots Has Bewitched You
15. The enemies within: a glimpse at popular false doctrines in Christendom
16. Notes for Hebrew Roots Movement for your Visitation Bible
17. cosmic evolution vs. adam & eve (7): choosing the lucky religion
18. Gods, plural. Atheists, take note.
19. Galatians 3:28
20. Unity of the Faith
21. Unity, Liberty, and Charity
22. Why the Church Needs to Be One…
23. One in the Spirit, One in the Lord
24. A Prayer for Unity & Harmony In The Body of Christ
25. The Gathering
26. The Same … United … One Purpose