Christians - Are Messianic Jews Christians or Jewish?

Thank you, we are Jews. My parents were Jews and though I didn't grow up in the Jewish faith, I returned to my Hebrew roots as an adult. I follow the Jewish Messiah and keep God's Moadim, not the Christian holidays.

There are also Messianic believers who are not of Jewish descent and they don't call themselves Jews, but they aren't Christians either because they don't keep Christian holidays, they keep God's Moadim (appointed times), which some Jews mistakenly think of as their own. God created His Moadim at creation, (Genesis 1:14) before He created mankind and before there were ever "Jews." His Moadim was meant for ALL who love Him and keep His commandments.

D1

A messianic Jew is a Jew that believes that Jesus is the Messiah. Christians and Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They are Jews.

The point of view of the anti Messianice Jews is best summed up by Mark JPAS when he said "it is acceptable to blend some degree of foreign spiritual elements with Judaism. The one exception is Christianity, which is perceived to be incompatible with any form of Jewishness. This is the double standard that is applied to Christianity even though Jesus is considered the Jewish Messiah in Christianity. Messianic Jews are looked at with even greater disdain.

Why? its a cover for there own deviations from Judaism. Some Jews need to maintain a connection to Jewish family because they have deviated so much from traditional Judaism that many Orthodox question their Jewishness. They need find some way to distract attention because of there deviation from the Torah. This is done by pointing their finger at others to direct attention away from their own actions. You can't give yourself a title and expect that it makes you something. This is the argument that has been used against Jews that decide that Jesus is the Messiah. We are told that the mere belief of a different nature of God immediately invalidated a Jews Jewishness. At the same time Jews that become atheists, pantheists or stop practicing any element of their religion we are told are still Jews.

They say that you can believe in anything but Jesus. Jews call conversion "joining the tribe". Things that would never fly in Orthodox or for that matter Messianic Judaism can be found in the Reform and Reconstructionist movements. A good example of this is a previous question asked here. The person asking worshiped the God Ferris but did not believe in him or the Jewish God. The focus of the question was" ...would you PERSONALLY feel comfortable welcoming me not just as a fellow congregant at your Synagogue, but as a member of the Tribe?" (so he was clearly asking about converting to Judaism).

The response was "Reform Judaism covers a wide swath of beliefs and practices and I am sure you will be wholly accepted. ... I personally would accept you whole heartily as a fellow Jew."

So some Jews will accept all kinds of deviations from the Torah but not belief in "Jesus". Let's not forget the Reform movement wanted to change the sabbath to Sunday to be more like Christianity.

Most Messianic Jews are Torah observant yet you can become an atheist, stop practicing their faith, become a Buddhist, join a Unitarian Church and still be a Jew in the eyes of Reform/Reconstructionist Jews. Most Orthodox when asked about other Jews will say they don't know what non Orthodox Jews are. The same applies to the other sects.

Speaking of sects Jews will tell you there are no sects but its not true. Rabbinical Jews follow an understanding of their faith that was established 1,900 years ago. They have their own canon of Scripture. There are also non Rabbinical Jews such as the Ethiopian Jews that follows the pattern of the Christian Old Testament and they have many additional books that they consider to be scripture. A group called the Karaites is the opposite of the Ethiopian and only believe in the 5 Books of Moses.

Rabbinical Jews call Karaites "a sect of Judaism". You can goggle it and see for yourself. Don't let anyone tell you that there are no sects in Judaism.

They say the the teachings of Jesus are very different from Judaism. They also claim that Jesus taught nothing new from the rabbis before him. Then they we tell you that there were no rabbis until a hundred years after the time of Jesus. Its all about winning the argument to them not about what's true.

The problem is not differences but similarities. You should know ALL the writers of the Christian Bible were Jews but one. Much of our Scriptures are shared. The vast majority of early believers in Jesus were Jews. So when you hear the exact opposite you need to keep that in mind. A Jew can believe in Jesus and still be a Jew.

Edit: those that make personal accusations should include links or shut up.

They aren't Jews because Jew's don't believe the messiah has come yet. They don't believe Jesus so believing in Jesus and saying your Jewish clearly contradicts one another.... It's sad that there are these Evangelist Christians that call themselves "Jews". Stop this practice now, your disgracing both Judaism and Christianity.

Some Jews accept Jesus as their Messiah and thus they become Messianic Jews. There is nothing wrong with Jews who accept their rightful Messiah. Although certain people have great disdain for them and their motives are highly questionable. Once a Jew, always a Jew is the standard train of thought.

Marcuss is "C."

He comes from an attitude of pure hatred and only God knows why.

@mucus, My mother & father were Jewish. So once I was born Jewish I became always Jewish. I do not practice Judaism but guess what? I'm still a Jew.

Only a very little man would ever compare me to your hero, Hitler.

They're Christians

Messianic Jews are Jews that have accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah,and who keep the Jewish traditions. Christians are not Jews neither Jews are Christians. As a Christian I think Messianic Jews have all the right to keep their identity as Jews.

I think that they are Jews.

Using Jewish sources we have the following from two different respondents:

"”As Ei•sâu′ was born of the same mother as Ya•a•qov′ , yet was an Arab, Ei•sâu′ is proof that simply being born of a Jewish mother or having Jewish DNA isn't sufficient to make one a Jew. Rejection of Tor•âh′ excludes even one born of a Jewish mother from Yi•sәr•â•eil′ and being a Jew.” (quote: www.netzarim.co.il)"

and...

"It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do....a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox.*** http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm%22

This is not limited to just one subject:

"Rejection of one mitzwah (directive or military-style order) is according to formal logic equivalent to rejection of all of Torah, since Torah is a whole.

The number of mitzwot “Messianic Jews” reject are different, but they reject the mitzwah of subordination to a beit-din (this does not include pseudo-batei din). The followers of Ribi Yehoshua ha-Mashiakh has always subordinated to beit din ha-Netzarim (see the website above).

The logical conclusion of the above paragraphs is easy to deduce."

and...

"some Jews will accept all kinds of deviations from the Torah but not belief in "Jesus". Let's not forget the Reform movement wanted to change the sabbath to Sunday to be more like Christianity."

Pilate ashed "what is truth?" Jesus answered it in his own way. The Jews here on Yahoo have answered in there own way too.

They are both, Christian and jewish.

I am a Messianic Jew (born from a Jewish mother) and though your question does not apply to me I have a friend that is a Christian and he thinks I’m Jewish. Most Christian that I have run into have been accepting of me. Some never heard of me and try to convert me or something. Its mostly Orthodox Jews that think were all Christians trying to convert them.

let's see what Judaism 101 has to say:

***It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do....a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox.*** http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm

This means for Rabbinic Judaism, after you spend 1 to 3 years memorizing everything the Rabbi makes you memorize to prove you really want to be Jewish, once you become a Rabbinic Jew ***It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do.***

It is easy to see how different Rabbinic Judaism describes themselves from the Jews recorded in scriptures. But Rabbinic Jews follow Zakkai, father of Rabbinic Judaism who left mainstream Judaism when he faked his death to get past the Jewish guard...not the Roman guard.

Please note that Israel's army objects to Zakkai's teaching of being a pacifist and celebrating Passover as Gentile servants. If Zakkai was alive today, he would object to Israel's army being inducted at Massada for all the reasons Israel's generals chose to honor Massada by being the place of induction.

There were 120 Jews in the upper room on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem praying to the God of Israel when the spirit of God came upon them like the prophets as foretold by Joel 2.

All believers trace their lineage by conversion to this 120.

All believers receive the gift of the Spirit of God about the time of their conversions. So it is the Spirit of God that seals the conversion.

Please note there wasn't a Christian among them. The word Christian didn't exist before Acts 11 and Pentecost took place in Acts 2. So there is no way this is a Christian movement.

People are free to state that the Christian movement happened before the Messianic movement and they are free to be wrong.

If you don't want to get specific by using the term Messianic, Jew is the right description.

How this helps

It depends on the situation. Today I believe that Messianic Jews should be referred to as Christians. But let's explore the issue.

1. When Constantine was in power, he executed and hunted down people that he said were Jews. But here's the issue. Many of these "Jews" believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But they refused to observe Easter and incorporate Pagan customs into their beliefs. So they were hunted. Up to 500 A.D. there were "Jews" hiding from the Roman empire and/or other Christian nations. But many of these Jews believed that Jesus was the Messiah. If they were Christians, why did the Roman empire hunt them? If you didn't observe Easter, Sunday worship, and observed Passover and the Festival of Booths (Tabernacles), you were executed as a Jew. So Messianic Jews would be considered Jews by Constantine and the Roman empire.

2. Messianic Jews are a scattered bunch. Sometimes even Jews mistaken Messianic Jews for the standard Jew. But some sects are quite disorganized ( I won't name churches). Some are sects consisting of Christians who adopted Jewish customs. Some are Jewish sects adopting Christian customs. I used to work at a world reknowned resort. We had religious groups from all over the world stay at our hotel. There were tons of different Messianic Jew churches, some quite similar, some not.

3. I'm someone who calls himself Christian by definition, but I don't know what I am. I'm NOT a Messianic Jew however. I do observe Jewish customs and follow Jesus. The apostles and Jesus observed Passover and other mosaic observances. The apostles continued to do so after Jesus. So in a way, the apostles could be called Messianic Jews. But they never called themselves that. Matter of fact, they didn't come up with the word "Christian" either. They considered themselves Jews and thought nothing of it at first.