Who Is Fooling Who?

A response to an anti-missionary flyer

The anti-missionary pamphlet quoted consistently in red below was circulated in response to a fairly recent effort made in the Twin Cities to present the case that Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah. This flyer, entitled, "Don't Be Fooled by the 'Messianic' or 'Jews for Jesus' Movement," is published by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The pamphlet does not specifically address such efforts as the "Behold Your God" campaign of the official Jews for Jesus organization, or individual ministries like Good News For Israel. It is an attempt to "educate" the Jewish community about Messianic Judaism, in order to prevent them from accepting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

The anti-missionary flyer distorts and misrepresents the truth about Messianic Jewish believers. Our response to the authors' claims are in black type. We will demonstrate that the worship style and faith of Jewish believers in Yeshua/Jesus are truly legitimate.

The anti-missionary flyer says:

The conversion of the Jewish people has been, and continues to be, the focus and fulfillment of the spiritual needs of millions of people.

For centuries, attempts have been made to convert Jews to Christianity. In the past, these efforts have resulted in The Crusades of the 11th-13th Centuries, the Talmud Trials of the 13th-15th Centuries, the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th Century, and the Pogroms of Eastern Europe and Russia of the 18th-19th Centuries. culminating in Hitler's Final Solution of World War II. The Jewish community has always resisted attempts at forcible conversion.

Conversion-from sin

Conversion of others is not a legitimate focus of faith. Becoming conformed to the moral character of God is. Sharing that journey with others may indeed be an expression of one's faith but not it's fulfillment.

What is conversion? If Jesus is Jewish, and indeed is the Jewish Messiah promised to the Jewish people in the Jewish Scriptures, then why would someone need to convert from being Jewish to accept him? The fact is, all people need conversion: not from a specific cultural heritage, not from being Jewish, Hispanic, Native American, or Scandinavian-but from being sinners. And a person does not have the power to convert another; it's something people must decide for themselves with the help of God.

Not only that, but New Testament "conversion" from sin-which may be better termed repentance-is not a concept invented by the Christian Church. T'shuvah, the act of turning from sin and turning to God, is an old message delivered faithfully for hundreds of years by Israel's prophets. God has not changed: today, He still requires repentance from every person.

It is true that "Christians" have persecuted the Jewish people and shed Jewish blood in the name of Christ. These great evils were committed by ungodly men - often in collaboration with corrupt governments. Such evil deeds and hatred have horribly profaned and disgraced the message of Jesus. There can be no excuse for these reprehensible acts of history.

However, it is more than absurd to insinuate that Hitler's intention was to convert Jews to Christianity. It is disingenuous to associate Hitler's tyranny of annihilation, or even the aims of anti-Semitic churches and governments, with the Jewish and non-Jewish believers today that understand that God loves and chose the children of Israel for His purposes. The attempt to connect the Holocaust and historically forced conversions to today's Jewish believers in Jesus or to Messianic Jewish outreach is entirely unreasonable.

However, those seeking to convert Jews to Christianity have changed their tactics in the last few decades of the 20th into the 21st Century. Rather than force Jews to live as Christians, the Hebrew-Christian movement, also known as "Messianic Judaism" or "Jews for Jesus," has created a religious setting that supposedly allows-and even encourages-Jews to retain their Jewish identities while at the same time embracing the ministry and divinity of Jesus. In reality, they have redefined Jewish custom and practice, and joined them to the devout beliefs of the Christian Fundamentalists, corrupting and insulting true Jewish belief.

These tactics can be subtle and insidious. It can be very difficult even for the modern Jew to recognize them as corrupting influences on Jewish life. But what about those Jews who struggle with their own Jewishness? These tactics can be devastatingly seductive.

A Jewish Identity

A question often asked is, "how can Jewish people retain their Jewish identity and yet believe in Jesus?" In the first century, the question was the opposite: "how can one believe in the Jewish Messiah without being Jewish?" The answer of course, is that God's plan for the Jewish people and the Messiah all along was to be a light to the nations (Gentiles).

In the first century, there were several different factions of Judaism. The believers, often called Nazarenes, were one of those sects. The first Christians considered themselves nothing more than Jews who found the Messiah. The notion that one had to relinquish their Jewishness in order to follow Jesus would have seemed completely ridiculous.

In fact, the belief that one must renounce Judaism to accept Christianity was the great lie of the Inquisition. It was the corrupt church's way of exterminating those who publicly confessed belief in Jesus, yet still practiced Judaism. On the contrary, everything about believing in Jesus is Jewish, in the truest and most Biblical sense of the word.

Many Jewish people who believe in Jesus say the same thing: they are more Jewish than ever. Some will tell you that before accepting Jesus, they didn't know if there was a God, and thought the Torah was simply stories written by men, yet somehow they were still considered Jewish. They may only have attended synagogue on the holidays because they had to, and cared little about observing Shabbat, but they were Jewish. They may have been atheists, Buddhists, humanists, or occultists, but they were still Jewish. They may have cared little about Israel, but no one questioned their Jewishness. But when they began to love God with all their heart, soul, and might, when they started studying the Scriptures diligently, when they celebrated and cherished the Shabbat and holidays, and when they became fervently Zionist and perhaps even made aliyah, their Jewishness is often considered corrupted because of their belief in the Messiah.

Who is a Jew? Many Orthodox Jews take issue with the claim that by taking on a certain belief or practice, a person can stop being Jewish. The reason can be found in the Talmud, b. Sanhedrin 44a:

"Even if [Israel] sins, he is still Israel."

Because of this, they may refer to Messianic Jews as "apostate Jews," but they are Jews nonetheless. They sometimes say the same about nonobservant Jews or members of other Jewish sects.

What makes a person Jewish? Belief in the God of Israel? Observance of the 613 commandments? These requirements would already eliminate many people who are traditionally considered Jewish. Is being Jewish simply not believing in Jesus? Or is a person Jewish because their mother is Jewish?

Since Jesus came, there have always been some Jewish people that have believed in him, beginning with his very own family, friends, and disciples. Today there are literally hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who have put faith in him.

Who are Hebrew-Christians?

There is no such thing as a "Hebrew-Christian" or a "Jew for Jesus." Those calling themselves such may be sincere but by definition they are deceitful. These undeclared converts from Judaism to Christianity are perhaps the only people in the world who take on another faith's beliefs yet deny that they have converted to that faith. A Jew who comes to believe in the divine nature of Jesus is therefore a Christian, regardless of how he or she calls him or herself.

There are more than 600 Christian missions that specifically target Jewish people. They spend over $200 million a year in these efforts. These efforts have intensified in this age of "millennial madness." For example, one of the largest Conservative Evangelical Christian branches, the Southern Baptists, announced that it is God's will that all Jews be converted.

WHAT DO THEY BELIEVE?

Every Hebrew-Christian holds the following beliefs which are common to the Christian Community

• Every human is sinful and separate from God.
• Jesus was the Messiah promised to the prophets of Ancient Israel, and he died for each individual's sins.
• The only way to be accepted by God is through the confession of sins, and the acceptance of the belief that Jesus dies for the individual-requiring the belief in the divine nature of Jesus.
• Failure to find God's acceptance results in eternal separation from God and punishment in Hell.
• It is the responsibility of every Christian to spread this message and to actively encourage conversion.
• Jesus will return in a second coming to usher in the final messianic age.

Missionaries

Not every Messianic Jewish organization is a missionary organization, as anti-missionaries would like people to believe. Many are just Bible studies, congregations, and fellowship groups.

It is important to realize that true belief in Jesus is not a personal preference for spiritual fulfillment. It is the conviction that the God of the Bible really is Who He says He is, that His Word is true, and that His commands are to be followed. It is foundational that God created us to have a relationship with Him, and because of our sin, the only way to achieve such a relationship is through the atonement that we believe Jesus provides. The Bible makes it clear that it is God's will that everyone enter into this relationship, including Jewish people. In fact, to purposefully or doctrinally exclude Jewish people from any part of the fulfillment of God's covenant promises is a severely anti-Semitic act.

Beliefs of Messianic Jews

Though every individual Jewish believer and Messianic Jewish congregation is different, Messianic Jews make no effort to hide the fact that they hold to many of the same foundational beliefs as most of the Christian community. These principles can be demonstrated in the Hebrew Scriptures and are confirmed by the words of Jesus and the books of the New Covenant.

The question is, what is different about Messianic Jewish congregations, as opposed to mainstream Christian churches? Here are a few points of belief that are common among many Messianic Jewish congregations:

• Since Jesus is the Messiah promised to Ancient Israel, to believe in him is Jewish. There is no reason someone should deny his or her Jewishness to accept Jesus.
• God has not abandoned or broken His covenant with His chosen Jewish people.
• The Tanach (Old Testament) is a relevant and vital part of the Scriptures, and the Torah has not been abolished.
• The Biblical calendar and holidays are meaningful and valuable for people to observe today. This includes Shabbat on the seventh day as dictated by the Scriptures.
• The New Testament is a Jewish book, and it is best understood in the appropriate cultural context: first century Judaism.

Messianic Jewish congregations do not disguise the truth about their belief in Jesus. From the music to the teaching to the building's interior décor it is typically very plain that Jesus is being honored.

DON'T BE FOOLED

One of the key elements of this movement is its deliberate misrepresentation of facts, of images, that is designed to lull a visitor to sleep-to a feeling of welcome comfort-as they are surrounded by an atmosphere that is extremely familiar and comforting to them.

If you enter a Hebrew-Christian religious establishment, the traditional symbols of Christianity will be totally absent. A cross is not visible, the name of Jesus will not even be mentioned; only the Hebrew equivalent, Yeshua. The congregational leader will call himself a "rabbi." Kiddush will be chanted, Kaddish will be recited, and Shabbat candles are lit.

Christmas and Easter are not celebrated. Instead, the Hebrew-Christians have co-opted Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, and Pesach. They misuse the sacred themes of Judaism to support their claim that Jesus is the fulfillment of Jewish Life. And finally, and perhaps most harmfully, they have co-opted the name of the Jewish people by calling themselves "Messianic Jews" and referring to their religious centers as "synagogues."

Some examples of the Hebrew-Christian misappropriation of Jewish ideas and symbols are:

• "Why do we break a matzah on Passover? Because Jesus body was broken."
• "Why do we divide the middle matzah into two parts and hide some of it until the end of the seder? Because Jesus face was hidden from us."
• "Why do we eat the afikomen at the end? Because of the transformation of wine and bread into the blood and body of Jesus and he will come to us again."

Hebrew-Christians have created pseudo-Jewish structure designed to make Jews more comfortable-creating "synagogues," youth movements, religious schools, day care centers and "Yeshivot." They use "ketubot" (Jewish wedding certificates), certificates of "miqveh" (Jewish ritual baths) instead of Christian Baptismal certificates. Several Hebrew-Christian divinity schools ordain that they call "rabbis" and "cantors."

The sacred ideas of Judaism are being misrepresented to Jews who are in search of community and identity. These people are being caught in this effective web of deceit. This "crusade" for Jewish souls affects teens and young adults, seniors, children and adults with special needs, and Russian Jews.

They win because we let them win. They fill voids that we create. We must fill in the voids by strengthening our commitment to the Jewish community through outreach education and development of Jewish values.

A Jewish Worship Style

But that Jewish believers would choose to worship in a Jewish style should not surprise anyone. In reality, many Jewish people who accept Jesus experience a reawakening of their Jewish identity. It would not make sense for Messianic Jews to renounce use of the Jewish symbols of the Bible and the imagery that reflects their heritage. Especially in contrast to the non-Biblical imagery found in many churches, which are often heavily influenced by the paganism of ancient Rome.

Why Yeshua and not Jesus? The name "Jesus Christ" evokes mental imagery of a non-Jewish religious figure, the blue-eyed halo-adorned child of nativity scenes, the founder of the Catholic Church, and the inspiration behind the atrocities of Church history. This is not the Jesus that Messianic believers hail as Messiah. Yeshua is the name his family and friends would have used; a name that directly translates to "Salvation." This is the real Messiah, the Jewish redeemer promised to the prophets of Israel.

Not all Messianic Jewish congregations refer to their leader as "rabbi." Some prefer the terms "pastor" or "congregational leader." Those that do use the term often qualify it, saying "Messianic rabbi" so as not to mislead or confuse people. Jesus himself was referred to as "rabbi."

Some traditional prayers and readings are Scriptural or date back to before Jesus' time, such as the Shema, which Jesus quoted when asked about the greatest commandment. More modern Rabbinical prayers are often recited because they are not contradictory to Messianic belief. In fact, many of prayers and rituals are intensely meaningful, and Jewish believers adhere to them out of loyalty to their heritage.

Christmas and Easter, which do not appear in the New Testament, are often not observed by Messianic believers because of their many pagan influences. Plus, there is no reason to believe that early believers observed them. The Biblical holidays, however, are celebrated for many reasons. First of all, God commands them. Secondly, they are designed to illustrate for us important lessons about God, life, and the history of God's people. Third, they were observed by ancient Israel, Jesus himself, and his early followers. And finally, the holidays are a part of Jewish culture and tradition that is not inconsistent with belief in Jesus.

Jesus himself and the writers of the New Testament claimed that he is the fulfillment of Jewish life. If Jesus' messianic claims are true, then it is perfectly appropriate that the themes of Judaism be employed by believers in worship. Also, to follow the Jewish Messiah would not mean stripping away one's Jewish identity, but actually enhancing it.

Many Messianic Jewish congregations refer to their worship center as a "Messianic synagogue." The term "Messianic" is used to clearly communicate that the synagogue is not traditional Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform. The term "synagogue" is used to distinguish the group from a traditional church. Also, the word "synagogue" (which simply means "place of assembly" in Greek) is used in the New Testament to describe a place of meeting for believers in Jesus.

The "examples of misappropriation" of symbols given by the flyer are deliberately distorted and oversimplified. Though it implies that it is quoting a some sort of Messianic Jewish haggadah, the supposed explanations are poorly represented, and in fact reflect Catholic theology (which would be inconsistent with the beliefs of any Messianic Jewish synagogue).

But to derive messianic significance from the Paschal ceremony is not a new idea invented by "Hebrew Christians." Jesus compared himself to the Passover lamb during the "Last Supper," which in fact was a seder. Paul said, "Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed." The early believers observed Pesach and considered the associated rituals symbolic of Jesus, just as Messianic congregations do today.

Every Messianic Jewish synagogue is different, but it is certainly true that some Messianic synagogues have youth movements, religious schools (yeshivot), and day care centers. These are essential parts of religious life for churches as well as synagogues. Congregations of any religion or ethnicity will do their best to make themselves "comfortable." As Messianic Jews don't believe they have joined some new, foreign religion, there is no reason to adopt "Christianese" terminology for Jewish rituals, people, or items.

The truth of the Messiah is for everyone, Jew and Gentile, young and old. It is the same truth spoke of by the prophets of long ago: that the Messiah would come to die, to cleanse our sin, allowing us to have a relationship with the Almighty. No amount of education, community, or values can fill the void that exists in each of us; it is the longing within every individual to commune with our Creator. And the only way to accomplish this is through Yeshua, His promised Messiah.