Messianic Judaism as a proper name refers to a group of various religious movements, self-identified as Jewish, but being predominantly evangelical Christian in beliefs. Typical of the movement are the Jews for Jesus, whose aim is to educate Evangelicals concerning the Jewish origins of their Christian faith, and to convert Jews to mainstream evangelical christianity. Even though many Messianic Jews are ethnically Jewish, they are not considered part of the Jewish community by any mainstream Judaic nor any other Jewish religious groups.
This is colloquial terminology, as many, diverse religious groups have messianic beliefs which are not compatible with what has come to be commonly referred to as Messianic Judaism. Most notably, Rabbinic Judaism, including all the modern Jewish denominations, have a variety of beliefs about a future messianic era. Some Jewish groups whose beliefs stress the messianic aspects are known in the literature as "messianic Jews", but that is not the topic of this article. For messianic beliefs within traditional Judaism, see the entries on Jewish eschatology and Jewish Messiah.
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2 Religious practices and customs 3 Critics of this movement 4 Parallels to Baal teshuva 5 External links |
Messianic Judaism seeks to combine elements of Jewish worship and culture with the belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the messiah. This movement, comprising various groups, consists of approximately 200 congregations in the United States.
Adherents regard themselves as being Jewish; most Jews regard them as having ceased to be Jewish at the point where they adopted Christian beliefs.
In order to make Jews feel comfortable in worshipping Jesus, they use some or all of the following terminology.
Some messianic Jewish groups are Evangelical para-church organizations that are designed to outreach to the Jewish community with a goal of converting Jews to Christianity. One of the most conspicuous of these is Jews for Jesus.
All mainstream denominations of Judaism hold that these people are not practicing Judaism, but are rather practicing Protestant Christianity: messianic Judaism is condemned as heretical and not Judaism by Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Judaism.
A few within Humanistic Judaism, a small group of atheist and agnostic Jews, hold that messianic Judaism is a viable approach to Judaism, and believe such groups should be considered forms of Judaism. Examples of humanistic Jews who hold this view include Sherwin Wine and Judith Seid. One can also find a small number of religiously liberal Jews who are accepting of messianic Judaism: Reconstructionist Rabbi Carol Harris-Shapiro wrote in her book Messianic Judaism that it could be considered an authentic branch of Judaism. Reform Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, author of Voices of Messianic Judaism: Confronting Critical Issues Facing a Maturing Movement, also regards it as a valid form of Judaism. However, their work failed to win any acceptance among their denominations, or among the wider Jewish community, and sparked a controversy as to whether the authors themselves had gone too far.
Some Christian groups disagree with "messianic Jewish" groups because they feel that these groups are guilty of false advertising. In 1977, the Board of Governors of the Long Island Council of Churches (New York) accused "Jews for Jesus" of "engaging in subterfuge and dishonesty," and of "mixing religious symbols in ways that distort their essential meaning." "Jews for Jesus" filed a suit in a State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the 600-member Council. The Rev. Jack Alford, the executive director of the Council, said the suit "proves the point we were making about their tactics." He added: "The mentality of 'Jews for Jesus' is the kind of mentality that has been spawn in some fascist and communist countries." Eventually, the lawsuit was rejected by the court. (The New York Times, July 2, 1977)
The Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (1997) has dealt with this issue. This inter-faith group was made up of Protestant Christian, Catholic Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders. They released a consensus statement on this issue saying:
Orthodox Jews are conscious of the fact that they are competing with the Messianic movement for the same audience. Specific organizations, such as Jews for Judaism and Outreach Judaism, are devoted to getting Jews out of Messianic churches, with limited success. The fascination with Hinduism and Buddhism, and a willingness to join these movements, by previously secular young Israelis and American Jews is seen as part of the same phenomenon. What all share in common here is the fact that a "market" exists for all these efforts, which in turn is indicative of a strong receptiveness to religious and spiritual notions, and a willingness to "buy into" an alternate religious experience and a radical new way of life, leaving many secular Jews mystified by the success of religion-based outreach and recruitment.
Organization and beliefs
Religious practices and customs
The theology of these groups, as reflected in their statements of faith, is solidly within the ambit of Evangelical Protestant Christianity. They believe in the inerrancy of the New Testament, salvation by grace from Jesus through faith alone, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity). Many of these groups are funded and supported by Evangelical churches.Critics of this movement
However this statement is not widely agreed with, especially within Evangelical Christian churches.
Parallels to Baal teshuva
These efforts to convert Jews to Christianity, and the receptiveness of some Jews to it in the past few decades, are a parallel phenomenon, although in an obviously different context, to the Baal teshuva movement that has witnessed a vigorous outreach effort by Jewish Orthodox institutions to reach out to Jews alienated from, or ignorant about, the Jewish faith.External links
Some messianic essays to see the contrast with Messianic essays
See also: Judeo-Christian -- Comparing and contrasting Judaism and Christianity