Yosef's Place: Musing – What is meant by the term ‘Messianic Judaism’?

Hebraic Musing – What is meant by the term ‘Messianic Judaism’? ¹
July 3, 2012

Many in the ‘Messianic’ movement have been asked this question. My observations tell me that ‘Messianic’ and/or ‘Hebrew Roots’ fellowships face the challenge of defining themselves, especially to the satisfaction of existing and potential congregants.

In the foreword of my “Hebraic Insights” book, I share the challenge -- “My leadership role with a Messianic fellowship resulted in finding ourselves in a bridge position in our faith walk. Jews traditionally have difficulty with Christians, and sometimes even more so with Messianics. Many traditional Christian fellowships are not comfortable with Jewish teachings and especially their emphasis on the Old Testament. Some Christians even think that the Old Testament no longer applies. So we find ourselves on the bridge between the two. Frankly, I encourage both Jews and Christians to join us on the bridge.”

Let’s look at a few of the issues encountered on the bridge between Hebrew Christians and Messianic Jews:

1. Hebrew Christians could be a reference to traditional Christian believers who have become interested in the culture of Biblical times, beauty of the Hebrew language, richness of Torah teachings, exuberant Hebraic music, the role of Israel in eschatology, etc. – or any combination of these interests.

2. Legalistic Hebraic Christians could be a term to describe those who go a step beyond the above and start applying the legalistic aspects of the Torah and Midrash to their lives. For example wearing a Tallit or a Kippah because they feel required to obey Torah; instead of wearing it because Father God suggested it. Another example of legal vs. voluntary compliance would be in the reasons for compliance to a kosher diet.

3. Charismatic Messianics defines many ‘Messianic’ congregations. They are well-grounded Christians celebrating and enjoying lively music and fellowship and diligently searching for their Hebraic roots.

4. Jewish and Christian Messianics celebrating together in a congregation about 50/50 Jewish and Gentile would be the rarest of the congregations because of the many dynamics and diverse backgrounds involved.

5. Messianic Jews, sometimes referred to as “Completed Jews”, comfortably enjoy their Jewish traditions, feasts, Sabbaths, diets, customs, etc. while giving full recognition to Yeshua HaMashiach as their Messiah.

These five categorizations are gross oversimplifications because in reality the pressures of people’s contradictory belief systems become divisive as these congregations try to define themselves. For instance, many Christians feel a Jew should get saved and join their church – Baptist, A of G, or whichever, and ‘convert’ from Jew to Christian. That group tends to have difficulty acknowledging that Jesus was a Torah obedient Jew who spoke Hebrew and/or Aramaic, not KJV English. Sorry, but why ask the Jew to drop their beautiful heritage? And once on the ‘bridge’ one begins to find out how many steps/issues are involved in crossing the bridge -- Legalism vs. guidelines; observance vs. respect for the Torah; dealing with 613 OT commandments and agreement as to which are still applicable; pressures and queries from your traditional Christian friends; and on and on. Exploring new topics and being challenged to re-think and accept changes in our doctrinal and denominational thinking is admittedly unsettling. But ‘the truth shall set you free’.

Welcome to the bridge. BTW – Where are you on the bridge?

Yosef a.k.a. Joe Brusherd

Author “Hebraic Insights – messages exploring the Hebrew Roots of Christian faith”

Author “Biblical Marriage” (published June 2012)