Can someone please explain the difference between Messianic Jews, Christians, & Jews?

Here you go: here is a statement made BY the founder of the biggest Messianic "jewish" group out there:

Abridged from: "Holy Terror" by Flo Conway and Jim Seigelman

In a document entitled "What Evangelical Christians Should Know About ‘MESSIANIC JEWS’, Martin Meyer, founder of ’jewsforjesus’, again reveals his goal:

‘We define ourselves as evangelical fundamentalists and we seek the cooperation of individuals and Christian bodies meeting this description…We believe in affiliation with a local church and being accountable to the church for service and discipline. We will uphold the local church wherever we can.

‘We consider ourselves an arm of the local church. We are primarily evangelists and we are always mindful that we should not usurp the authority of the local pastor. As we win and disciple (convert) Jewish people, we urge them to take their place in a local evangelical church or establish a congregation and call their own minister. Our duty is to aid the church at large and we work as an arm of that body to gather in the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.’

In the British NEW STATESMAN magazine, Martin Meyer said in a recent interview:

‘In the UK we are part of the Evangelical Alliance; the evangelical wing of the church. We will often be giving conferences at churches of various denominations, Baptist, Anglican, Pentecostal to name but a few.’

Let's be really clear: this is not a matter of subjective 'opinion'. The word 'Jewish' has an objective definition. Messianics are NOT Jewish.

Messianic "jew" = Christian

The Messianic movement was founded by evangelical Christians.

It is FUNDED by evangelical Churches.

Messianics worship Jesus, they pray to Jesus, they believe in 'hell' and in 'original sin'.

All of these ideas are in violation of Judaism.

TO THE ASKER:

You have been given INcorrect info by several people.

There is no such thing as a 'jew who accepts jesus'. A Jew who does this has *left* Judaism, and is now an Apostate, and their religion is CHRISTIANITY.

And it is not true that there is a division between 'mainstream jews' and 'messianics'.

99% of Messianics were *never* Jewish to START with.

Why should a Christian missionary group be included as 'jewish'???

Difference Between Jews And Christians

Jews Vs Christians

In most cases Messianic Jews are in reality Christians who were previously Jews. Some Jews take offense at the term Messianic Jew.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Can someone please explain the difference between Messianic Jews, Christians, & Jews?

I was brought up Jewish by my mother and father, as was my sister and brother. My dad became a born again Christian. My brother calls himself a Messianic Jew. What are the religious beliefs of all three religions and how do they differ? Thank you!!!

PS-I'm looking for facts, first and...

The main difference here is Jesus - In the Jewish religion a Messiah is part and parcel of the belief, coming down to earth at the end of days to raise the dead, but, it won't be Jesus Christ who is a non-entity in Judaism (despite the fact the he was Jewish). Jews follow the old testament and the Talmud and Mishna. Messianic Jews subscribe to most of the concepts of the Jewish religion with the addition of some commentaries on Christian scripture (ask your brother) and most importantly, hold that Jesus Christ (Yoshua) is the Messiah and savior. And Christians follow the old and new testaments and hold that Jesus is the Messiah and savior. Go to Wikipedia for the finer details. Messianic Jews consider themselves Jews, Jews mostly don't agree that they are.

I spent a few years in a Messianic congregation and of the Messianics I have known personally less than 1% had any valid claim to being Jewish. (either convert or born to a Jewish mother) Admittedly the area I live in does not have a large Jewish population and the number could be higher in other areas. The Messianics I have known have mixed Christian beliefs with Jewish traditions, often assigning new meanings to these traditions that can't be supported from any Jewish source. They take Christian doctrines and substitute Hebrew words thinking this makes these doctrines Jewish. I recently encountered the trinity relabeled as "Abba, Yeshua, and the Ruach HaKodesh" as if this made it somehow Jewish.

2. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is One. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our G-d He was, He is, and He will be.

3. I believe with perfect faith that G-d does not have a body. physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all.

5. I believe with perfect faith that it is only proper to pray to G-d. One may not pray to anyone or anything else.

For those who do not know this is from Rambam's 13 principles of faith. You cannot claim to be practicing Judaism and claim to believe in a "trinity" or claim that Jesus/Yeshua is somehow God, nor can you pray to anyone other than God and expect people to believe you are practicing Judaism. Most Messianics I have known see no problem with violating all three of these.

I do believe that it is possible for someone to believe Messiah has come and still be Jewish. Consider Chabad Lubavitch, they believed that their Rebbe was Messiah yet they continued to practice Judaism. They prayed to HaShem and worshiped HaShem. Maybe your brother falls into this catagory believing someone is Messiah yet still practicing Judaism but I do not believe you can practice Christianity and be Jewish and this is what Messianics seem to be doing.

Great question... it's my understanding that in the Jewish religion, they do not accept Jesus as the prophesied Messiah in the Old Testament. Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah. The only difference between Messianic Jews and Christians are some of the practices (I think). Messianic Judaism is considered to be another branch of Christianity because they have accepted Jesus as the Christ.

Again, this is my understanding and could very well be incorrect. I know that there's information on wikipedia.

messianic jewish beleif is very different from christian. They are not the same. I am not a jew but i am a messianic. We do not eat unclean animals we do not go to church on sunday we do not celebrate any pagan holidays such things as christmas and easter we celebrate gods holy days that he said.

we believe that the whole bible is true and every words is meant to be there. Yeshua was his name in hebrew it was not change to jesus from hebrew to english. If you translated Yeshua name to english you get Joshua. Jesus name comes from three translations.

You really need to study the bible and pagan holidays to understand this.

We have changed so much in the bible from mens traditions Yeshua didnt practice

and didnt want us to practice any pagan holidays.

The christians say well we do it in gods and jesus name so it makes it right.

If we take a pagan holiday like baal (Pagan god) birth dec 25 and we will make it Jesus birthday

its alright.

what i have read god does not like to mix his ways with pagans

but this is what we have done.

We Messianic also observe all ten commandments

we know you can only be saved through Yeshua

but did Yeshua follow the ten commandments so do we

did Yeshua keep Gods holy days so do we

If its not in your bible dont do it.

God bless

Ps do not trust any mans word study yourself in the bible

Get in the word and see what it says and do what it says

Paperback Writer really said it best.

I just want to clarify, because a lot of the answers you've gotten, while they may be partially correct, and quite a bit off base.

The main point about Jews is not that "they are still waiting for the Messiah." Yes, that is true. We do not accept Jesus as Messiah. He was not king of the Jews. We don't believe he is the son of God. We are still waiting for a Messiah (no, we don't know who he is yet) who will fulfill all the prophecies.

Jews believe that the Torah is of divine origin, and that the commandments are still relevant today and are for all Jews to follow. There is no concept of "original sin." People are born without sin, and but have the capacity to sin or to do good. Each person has the privilege of earning a place in heaven through their own deeds, and is responsible for his own deeds.

"Messianic Jews" is another name for a Christian missionary sect who try to convert Jews to Christianity. Most of them were never Jewish, and the ideology they espouse is most certainly not Jewish. Any Jew who accepts Jesus as the Messiah is considered an apostate, someone who converts away from Judaism.

Messianic Jews=Christians.

Christians=Christians.

Jews=Jews.