Messianic Judaism?

Messianic Judaism is a religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is referred to as Yeshua by its adherents, that claims to have at least 47,000 followers and 280 congregations worldwide as of 2006.[1] [2] Like Christians, and unlike adherents of mainstream Judaism, Messianic Jews believe Jesus to be the Messiah. While Messianic Judaism identifies itself as a branch of Judaism rather than a branch of Christianity,[3] this classification is rejected by all major Jewish denominations (Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism), as well as national Jewish organizations, [4] the State of Israel [5] and others.Disputes to the usage of identifiers often given to or by adherents of Messianic Judaism are varied, and even within the movement self-identification with one term or another can contradict each other.

Adherents to the movement are called Messianic believers or Messianics for short. (dubious assertion—see talk page) The term Messianic has various meanings outside of Messianic Judaism. For more information, please see Messianic.

In Messianic Judaism, a Messianic believer is usually a self-appointed term and almost always describes someone who has accepted the essential salvific doctrines of Christianity. (dubious assertion—see talk page)

While Messianics are often identified as Christians, Messianics themselves would dispute the application of such a term, because Messianic Judaism was coined by its followers as a term to help to clarify, in fact, the separation of their important religious practices (which they view as biblically-derived), apart from those of Christians and most of their important religious practices (which they view as pagan-derived). It is a term that has been adopted by the vast majority of Messianic believers in order to clarify their faith and religious practices apart from those of the Christian church which, in their view, erroneously separated itself from the Jewish roots of Early Christianity, even before the official break at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.Some [citation needed] make distinction between Messianic Jews (who had been born of a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism before changing their faith to Messianic Judaism) and Messianic Gentiles.

In recent years, the term "Messianic Gentile" has been heaviliy criticized by both Jewish and non-Jewish Messianics and it is now received negatively by some non-Jewish believers. Essentially, to be "gentile" is to be "apart or separated from God or God's people." The term "Messianic Gentile," then, is semantically contradictory and derogatory towards Messianics who are non-Jewish.

There is also debate about whether the beliefs and customs of such individuals should even be considered "Jewish." Some hold that non-Jewish Messianics comprise a brand of Messianism distinct from Messianic Judaism. The fringe group Messianic Israel Alliance, as well as other pseudo-Messianic groups, identify these non-Jewish Messianics as "Spiritual Ephraim," i.e., the engrafted and restored House of Israel (after the verses in Genesis 41:50-52: "Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, 'It is because God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's household.' The second son he named Ephraim and said, 'It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.'").

Mainstream Messianic groups, however, simply refer to them as Messianics, non-Jewish Messianics or Messianic Gerim (Righteous Non-Jews). Some of these non-Jewish Messianics refer to their faith/religion as Isarlaism, the Northern counterpart to Messianic Judaism. These "Isarlaeans" consider themselves to be grafted into the Northern House of Israel on account of their Torah observance and worship of the God of Jacob, in the same way that a gentile can become Jewish via conversion.

Other groups, like First Fruits of Zion, adhere to a One-Law or Grafted-In theology, which maintains that Messianic Gentiles and Messianic Jews share the same covenant that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob), not by being born Jew, or by proselytic conversion, but by faith alone in Jesus as the Messiah. As such, the distinctions between Jew and Gentile are looked on as only temporary, yet still legitimate distinctions, based on the land promise to the physical descendents of Israel -- a promise that will be eventually extended to the believing Gentiles in the Messianic Kingdom (Ezekiel 47:22), thus removing the final difference between Jew and Gentile forever.

I am not a Messianic Jew but my understanding of what it means is as follows:

Messianics Jews are usually Jewish people who believe and accept Jesus,The Christ, as the Messiah of Torah prophecies.

Mesanic Jews are also gentiles who observe The Law ( the Comandents found in the Torah; the "Ten Commandents" more notably the rules regarding the Sabbath and Dietary Laws [ eating Kosher etc]) while recognising Christ as the Saviour of man.

They obeserve all the Jewish holidays and worship in a synagogue.

In addition to that some conduct worship with the aid of a Rabbi although Pastor or leaders do exisit in some Messanic Jewish synagogues.

Worship is often carried out in Hebrew and traditional Jewish songs & dance maybe be used in praise and worship segments .

An important thing to note is that a Messanic Jew considers himself Jewish not Christian although the wired world my consider him to be a Christian.

Hopefully this was of some help to you. You can check the following site for more information or try seaching on www.answers.com

http://www.shuvah.com/shuvah_multimedia.html

A Messianic Jew is someone who believes that Jesus was the savior.

So basically, they believe everything the Christians believe, but additionally, they claim to know what Judaism is about, which of course they don't....

Not a Messianic Jew, but here's a website that explains their belief system: http://www.religioustolerance.org/mess_jud.htm

"Messianic Jews" are Evangelical Christians who either deliberately or in ignorance, wear a deception of Judaism.

they claim to be jewish, yet believe in Jesus, to put it simply. ... which is of course, absurd.

to clarify... "Messianic Jews" and "Jews for Jesus" are EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS. these people are *NOT* Jewish.

these people believe in christianity, and use deception to convert people who are religiously and spiritually isolated, to get them to convert, by convincing them they aren't really leaving their religion, when in fact they are.

their existance is probably the single most offensive evangelical christian practice possible, and its offensive to both jews and christians.

Jesus was *NOT* the messiah of Judaism, and to believe so is idolotry and simply un-jewish.

be very cautious of people who claim that title...

messianic judaism is a christian movement founded by christians and funded by christian organizations, primarily protestant ones.

their goal is impersonate jews, and hunt down real jews in order to convince them that they can convert to christianity and accept jesus, but still remain jewish by practicing jewish laws and holidays. they build "synagogues" and use use jewish symbols to make it look more legitimate, but inside the synagogues they preach jesus and the christian religion.

they are pretty much the modern nazis. their goal is no different from the goal of the nazis - to wipe out judaism from the face of the planet.

They're christians.

check out

http://www.jewsforjesus.com/