Written by Sig Silber
Below is the slogan of Jews for Jesus, the largest Messianic Jewish Christian organization that proselytizes to Jews. I find it highly objectionable. In this article I will attempt to make the argument that it is not a helpful approach to making the World a better place. I will also try to explain why these organizations are so offensive to many Jews.
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This is a touchy subject.
But the Torah says that G-d (I am Jewish and not allowed to write the name of the Creator) spoke to the Jews and commanded them not to worship idols. Instructions were provided as to who could be a Messiah, namely a descendant of David and a human being – not a deity.
So, to someone who is Jewish, accepting Jesus Christ as the Messiah is a violation of that basic commandment. Of course, a person has a right to adopt any religion that appeals to them. But we have an increasing number of groups that are focused on converting Jews and their motives and tactics may not be pure.
Jews are not Pagans. So, it is not like bringing the concept of a single G-d to Pagans. In addition, the methods used to entice Jews into these so-called Messianic Jewish organizations have a striking resemblance to cults. Hitler wanted to eliminate the Jewish Race but was not very nice about it. The Messianic Jews want to eliminate the Jewish race and (superficially) are very nice about it. Some have raised the question as to their level of patience and if continually rebuffed will they continue to support the existence of Israel as a Jewish State.
Aside from the issue of kidnapping Jewish souls, there are two other major issues:
- There is pain and suffering caused to families and that is not specific to Jews but all families when a family member has been enticed into a cult and isolated from their family and
- There is the potential risk of war by encouraging the concept that we have entered Messianic Times. Is this any different than the Shia Group that encourages this? Unfortunately, I was not able to find the name of that group probably because that concept has become mainstreamed within Shia.
How pervasive is this movement?
Even Mike Pence was victimized:
Messianic Jews and Jews for Jesus, explained
Mike Pence brought a controversial Messianic rabbi onstage at a rally to pray for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims.
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Photo Source: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Mike Pence found himself the subject of controversy over his platforming of a Messianic Jewish rabbi. From the article:
Vice President Mike Pence commemorated the 11 victims of last Saturday’s Tree of Life synagogue shooting with a self-identified rabbi of a controversial Jewish movement that sees Jesus as the Messiah.
Monday night at a rally in Michigan, Pence brought out a religious leader, Loren Jacobs, to pray for the shooting victims. Jacobs self-identifies as a rabbi, but the movement to which he belongs – Messianic Judaism, which sees Jesus Christ as the promised Old Testament Messiah – is controversial in Jewish circles. The major Jewish traditions and the state of Israel itself treat Messianic Judaism as a form of evangelical Christianity rather than a historical Jewish tradition.
Jacobs did not name any of the Pittsburgh victims directly, nor did he recite the Kaddish, a traditional Jewish prayer for the dead. He did, however, ask God to bless four Republican candidates up for election in next week’s midterms in the state.
“I pray for them and for the Republican Party and its candidates so that they would honor you and your ways, that you might grant them victory in this election,” Jacobs said. During the rally, he also referred to “Jesus the Messiah,” an idea deeply at odds with the theology of the majority of mainstream Jewish traditions.
Pence’s decision to give Jacobs a platform, Jacobs’s highlighting of Republican Party candidates rather than the dead of the Pittsburgh shooting, and Jacobs’s controversial status within Judaism more broadly all made him a particularly incendiary figure.
In a statement, Halie Soifer, the executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, condemned the decision to have Jacobs speak, saying, “So-called Messianic Jews are not a part of the Jewish community, and espouse views considered deeply offensive.”
Jacobs’s stated views – and the political and theological stance of Messianic Jews more generally – put the group in a unique and often ambiguous position within the American religious landscape. A controversial movement – one variously decried by mainstream Judaism and some Christian groups alike – Messianic Judaism reflects a wider theological alliance between (mostly white) evangelicals and a very particular understanding of Israel and its role in the world and God’s plan.
The Messianic Jewish movement grew out of Christian evangelicalism
The Messianic Jewish movement as we know it today originated in the early 1970s, when Moishe Rosen, an ethnically Jewish man who later converted to Christianity and became a Baptist minister, founded the nonprofit organization Jews for Jesus. The organization claims a registry of about 200,000 “interested” parties, though there is no formal membership. It evangelizes the gospel message to ethnic Jews by stressing the similarities between Christianity and Judaism, and claiming that Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah could still maintain a close connection with their heritage.
While Jews for Jesus is the most prominent outreach ministry for Messianic Jews (and today, Jews for Jesus is at times inaccurately used interchangeably with “Messianic Jews” more broadly), it is in fact one of many groups designed to be, as Mitch Glaser of Chosen People Ministries told the Forward back in 2016, “a bridge between the evangelical church and the Jewish community.”
By and large, Messianic Jewish organizations stress the Jewishness of Jesus and, through it, Christian identity. Messianic Jews are encouraged to retain Jewish traditions and holidays – Rosen’s New York Times obituary in 2010 notes that he celebrated the major Jewish holidays of Passover and Yom Kippur throughout his life, and married couples underneath the traditional Jewish chuppah, or canopy.
However, many Jews from mainstream traditions see in Jews for Jesus, and in Messianic Judaism more broadly, a dangerous theology that borders on anti-Semitism. While on their surface, Jews for Jesus and similar organizations are avowed opponents of anti-Semitism – and many, like Chosen People Ministries, openly decry the practice – the implicit theology of many of these groups ultimately places (non-Messianic) Jews in the position of “rejectors of Christ” who “need saving.” Judaism without Jesus is thus coded as wrong or incomplete.
Jacobs, for example, has spoken publicly many times about his Jewish upbringing and how he felt that it was “missing something” without Jesus.
This article was published by The Conversation following the Pence incident:
Why the history of messianic Judaism is so fraught and complicated (click here to read the full article)
The entire article is worth reading but I have quoted two very important parts:
When Loren Jacobs, member of the Shma Yisrael Congregation, offered a prayer for the victims of the Tree of Life congregation at a campaign rally attended by Mike Pence, it left many Jews feeling very upset. The vice president’s office later denied inviting Jacobs to the event.
Jacobs is a messianic Jew and part of a group called Jews for Jesus. Here is why their relationship with Jews is so fraught.
Messianic Jews
Messianic Jews consider themselves Jewish Christians. Specifically they believe, as do all Christians, that Jesus is the son of God, as well as the Messiah, and that he died in atonement for the sins of mankind.
There are approximately 175,000 to 250,000 messianic Jews in the U.S, and 350,000 worldwide. About 10,000 to 20,000 live in Israel. According to Dan Juster, a theologian who founded a major messianic Jewish congregation, there are currently about 300 congregations in the United States, and about half of the attendants are Gentiles, or ethnically non-Jewish.
Christianity’s redefinition of the nature and role of a Messiah is its most important point of departure from Judaism, and has accounted for much of the tension between Jews and Christians historically.
Jews do not share the Christian belief that Jesus was divine. This difference in belief is grounded in the Jewish assertion that there is only one God, who can never be human, even though God may reveal himself in multiple ways. Historically, this created an insurmountable theological barrier between Jews and Christians.
Conversion of Jews
Although Jewish Christians have technically been around since the death of Jesus, the more modern form of the movement has its roots in late 19th-century Europe, when anti-Semitic persecution was on the rise in Russia and large numbers of Jews immigrated to the United States.
The sole focus of some missions based in England and the U.S. was the conversion of the Jews to Christianity. One such mission, the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, writes scholar Patricia A. Power, met in Boston in 1816. Its objective, as she says, “was to encourage Gentiles to take the task of Jewish evangelism seriously.”
Jews for Jesus is an inheritor of this objective. It began, as Power explains, as a small group with dedicated followers and became “a multimillion dollar evangelistic machine that aggressively, and with savvy, marketed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah to an astonished and often hostile Jewish community.”
Jews for Jesus’s controversial founder, Moishe Rosen, who died in 2010, adopted some of the practices of the “Jesus People” movement – a religious movement of the 1960s that sought to return to the original life of early Christians – for the conversion of Jews. While appearing to reject anti-Semitism, he portrayed Judaism as an incomplete tradition practiced by people who misunderstand their own scriptures and needed to be saved through conversion to Christianity.
Even George W. Bush has been involved by donating to such organizations.
George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ (click here to read the full article.)
What was he thinking? From the Article:
At last year’s event, members of the MJBI’s [Editor’s Note: Messianic Jewish Bible Institute now operating as the Gateway Center for Israel https://centerforisrael.com/] board of directors explained the organization’s mission of converting Jews to an audience of hundreds who were seated on a professional football field, wearing formal clothes, and eating pork barbecue. Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, a leading Messianic Jew and televangelist who chairs MJBI’s board of directors, maintained that “our numbers are growing and growing,” because “the Bible predicted that the day would come when the blindness would come off the eyes of the people it all began with.” He was referring to Jews. The Bible, Bernis continued, “tells us that the day will come when all of Israel will be saved.” The MJBI, Bernis said, “is one of the ministries that God has raised up to bring that to pass.” Other featured speakers last year included David Barton, the religious right’s discredited “historian,” who this week used Beck’s radio show to announce that he won’t challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in next year’s Republican Senate primary.
So there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what is a Jew? And what is Israel other than the refuge of Jews? Are Jews and Israel part of a Christian Board Game? Not all Christians think so.
The Catholic Church itself is on record as not supporting the activities of these organizations.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said on Thursday in a major document drawing the Church further away from the strained relations of the past. (Here is the link.)
The new document from the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews stressed recent Vatican teachings that the two religions were intertwined and that God had never annulled his covenant with the Jewish people.
“The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelization (spreading Christianity) to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views,” it said.
But this article reflects a position at a particular point in time. It is not etched in stone and the Catholic Church is only one part of Christianity. And of course, there were two Inquisitions, one in Spain and a subsequent one in Mexico, which resulted in the death and conversion of many Jews. But these were clearly forced conversions although there are many rumors and books on the less than 100% success rate of those conversions. But that is a different topic for a different day.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter. YouTube provides a good description of how these groups work. It is long but explains the problem. I urge you to watch the presentation in full.
Key quote from the presentation which is the basis for these movements to convert Jews into Christians.
Jesus will not return until the Jewish People accept him.
That may be the most frightening part of this: the idea that Jews must accept Christ for Christian fringe groups to have their Apocalpyse. I do not think that Israel is looking forward to the Apocalpyse. Probably most of the World is not looking forward to that. So these groups can be considered antisocial and terrorist organizations.
We will come back to that later. But what we see is something very different than one group concluding that their way is the better way. Here we have a calculated effort to have Jews advance the idea that we are in the End Times. That is very different than the proposition that one religion will be a better fit for the individual than some other religion.
Let us go into more detail into the methods which were explained quite well in the video provided above. But a large part of the approach is to reinterpret to Jewish Scriptures and make the conversion appear to not be a conversion but rather a more enlightened view of Judaism. Part of that approach has to do with vocabulary. The below is from a guide used by one of the organizations.
It is a guide to using Messianic terminology to make Messianic Judaism seem familiar to potential converts:
A study in contextualizationLanguage can both help and hinder us in cross-cultural communication. The following material is written in Messianic Jewish terminology and style. It shows us the challenges we “Christians” face in cross-cultural communication with Jews. This material is based on Return of the Remnant: The Rebirth of Messianic Judaism by Michael Schiffman. 1992, Messianic Jewish Publishers. Used by permission. Available through Messianic Jewish Resources: www.messianicjewish.net. Messianic terminology is used to express biblically-based faith in the Messiah because such terminology was how the New Covenant faith was expressed in its earliest stages. Messianic believers like talking about their faith in the Messiah in a manner consistent with Jewish heritage and culture. Belief in the Messiah is consistent with being Jewish. He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. Using Messianic terminology stimulates faith in Messiah to children, friends and family in a manner consistent with Jewish heritage. Messianic terms communicate biblical truth without the negative baggage of historical anti-Semitism. Terms to use Yeshua Yeshua is the Messiah’s name. Yeshua is a Hebrew word which has the root meaning salvation. “You shall call His name Yeshua [salvation],” a heavenly messenger said to Joseph, “because He shall save His people from their sins.” Messiah Messiah is used instead of Christ.Messiah is derived from the Hebrew word Mashiach (which means “anointed one”). Christ is the English equivalent of the Greek word christos, (which means “anointed one”). Jumping back over the Greek word to the use of the original Hebrew term is a way of emphasizing that the Messiah is for Jewish people and not exclusively for Gentiles. A second reason for using this term is that — as with the name Jesus — thousands and thousands (perhaps millions) of Jewish people have been persecuted and killed by those claiming to act on behalf of Christ. To Jewish people, the word Christ is not simply a non-Jewish word out of the Greek language. “Christ” is a word that carries anti-Jewish connotations. Believer Instead of “Christian,” messianic Jews use “believer.” To Jewish people, Christian evokes memeories of people who have bullied and hated and persecuted Jews for two millennia. While it can be argued that the word Christian is a biblical one, it is actually used only three times in the New Covenant Scriptures (Acts 1 1:26; 26:28; I Peter 4:16). An earlier term used for Yeshua‘s followers is “believer.” Believer can be used for those in Messianic circles as well as for those in traditional churches who believe in Yeshua and truly seek to follow Him. By using the word believer, focus is placed on a person’s commitment to follow the Lord without the distractcion of the negative baggage of those who used the label Christians but who did not walk as He walked. Messianic Messianic refers to believers involved in Messianic congregations, Jewish or Gentile. Messianic Jews are those in Messianic congregations who are of Jewish descent. Messianic refers to that expression of the biblical faith which articulates itself in a Jewish manner. Congregation Messianic congregations are not called churches. Jewish people often associate churches with anti-Semitism. In the past, and in some places today, anti-Semitism has come from those who profess to be believers, both from clergy and laity. Ecclesia refers to people and not to buildings. The term congregation has the same reference point. A synonym in the New Covenant for ecclesia is “synagogue” as it is used in James 2:1-6. There, it points to a meeting of believers. For this reason, the term congregation, or even synagogue, is the most appropriate one to describe organized gatherings of Messianic believers. Covenant This is a reference to testament in the sense of agreement or contract. Instead of saying Old Testament and New Testament, Messianic believers refer to the two halves of the Bible as Older Covenant, or Tenach (its Hebrew name) and Newer Covenant, or Brit Chadasha (Hebrew for New Covenant). Tradition Jewish cultural and religious practices, whether in their original forms or adapted to reflect Messianic beliefs. Liturgy Jewish liturgical elements in both Hebrew and/or English which may be part of a Messianic worship service. In addition to the above terms, some Messianic believers substitute “-” for “o” in God and Lord, writing them as G-d and L-rd. This is a sign of respect in Jewish culture, just as many Gentile believers capitalize “G” in G-d and “L” in L-rd, even though there are no such capitalizations in the original texts of the Old and New Covenants. |
Words and phrases to avoid The following terms evoke historic anti-semitic images rather than reflecting a Jewish cultural expression. Therefore, most Messianic Jews do not use them. Christian Christian was first used to describe non-Jewish believers in Antioch (as recorded to the book of Acts). Although the word Christian is used only three times in the New Testament, it eventually wound up being the commonly used title for Gentile believers. After the disappearance of ancient Messianic Judaism, Christian emerged as the primary title for members of believing congregations. Over the centuries, the term also became associated with those who hate Jewish people and who have rejected everything Jewish. Since Christian was (1) never directly used of Jewish believers in scripture, and (2) carries a negative historical reminder of anti-Semitism, the term Messianic is used instead. This word identifies Jewish believers as followers of the Messiah without the negative overtones which “Christian” has accumulated. [ See Believer ] Conversion To most Jewish people, conversion means turning away from being Jewish in order to become a Gentile (see above). Biblically, of course, conversion refers to repentance (i.e., turning to God). To communicate this same idea, in Messianic circles a person is said to have become a believer, or has become Messianic. Baptism Messianic Jews speak of believer’s immersion. That’s because baptism evokes memories of the forced conversions and baptisms perpetrated against Jewish people by anti-Semites. Horrible things, including forced baptisms, were done in the name of Jesus. Baptism is a symbol of joining a Christian — that is, non-Jewish — church. So, when Messianic Jews talk about the immersion of believers, they call it Messianic Mikvah, an act with origins in ancient Jewish practice. Calling it Mikvah keeps the ritual from being linked to acts of anti-Semitism or other negative issues associated with the Christian Church. Saying Mikvah rather than baptism emphasizes the true Jewish roots of the faith and keeps this sacred act from being identified with people who have profaned the name of the Messiah by deeds contrary to His teaching. Cross To Jewish people, a cross calls up memories of persecution inflicted on them by people invoking Jesus’ name and brandishing crosses. Jewish believers prefer to focus on the real meaning of the cross. Thus, they call the place where the Messiah was sacrificed as the altar or execution stake.
Dates are cited with the initials C.E. for “Common Era” or B.C.E. for “Before the Common Era.” Jewish people prefer these neutral phrases instead of B.C. and A.D. initial meaning “Before Christ” and “In the year of our Lord.” |
So the potential converts are essentially in a virtual reality situation where they attend services in what appears to be a Jewish Synagogue and the dress as if they are Jews and they celebrate Jewish Holidays in a way that may appear to be the way Jews celebrate these holidays but with much different interpretation. It would take a book to explain all of this. Perhaps I should have included additional Utubes. But the wine at Passover is not the blood of Christ and the Matzah is not the body of Christ. And the reason for the Seder has nothing to do with Christ but with the Exodus from Egypt.
Some quotes from Jewish Voice Ministries International might clarify:
Each of these aspects of Passover bears New Covenant meaning and parallel. Messianic Jews remember at Passover what Yeshua did for us through His death and resurrection that gave us freedom from a captivity to sin that is even more powerful than that of the Hebrews to Pharaoh.
- Slavery to Sin – We were slaves to sin, unable to please God or meet His standard of righteousness. We could not have fellowship with Him because of our sin.
- Ministry of Miracles – Yeshua did countless miracles during His ministry on earth. They testify that Yeshua has both the power and authority to defeat sin and deliver us from its reign over us.
- Sacrifice – Yeshua’s blood was brought into the heavenly Holy of Holies to make atonement for our sin once and for all. His death offered us His redemption. Through His shed blood, we have redemption from our sin. His life, given for us, brings us out of death and into life in Him.
- Freed to New Life – Given life in Messiah, we are set free from the bondage to sin and freed to walk in newness of life and fellowship with God (Romans 6:4). “If God had not brought us out, we would still be slaves.”
There is no similarity here to the Passover service that Jews find in the Haggadah. G-d is responsible for the Exodus from Egypt not Christ. G-d chose to free the Jews from their servitude in Egypt. Moses was a key player. Those who left Egypt were not without sin. G-d did not die in order to free the Jews from bondage in Egypt. The journey to Israel involved many years and included the delivery of the Ten Commandments to the Jewish People. G-d spoke to all those there. There was no intermediary.
During the Seder, the second piece of unleavened bread is taken out of the matzah tosh and broken in two. Messianic Jews, as well as Gentile Believers, remember when Yeshua, the Son of God, broke bread declaring it His body given for us (Luke 22:14-23).
The largest piece of the broken matzah is called the Afikomen, and it gets hidden somewhere in the house for the children to search for later. The child who finds it brings it to the leader of the Seder, who then “redeems” it for a prize. This redemption reminds Messianic Jews that Yeshua has redeemed us and given us the gift of eternal life.
Further symbolism of the Afikomen is revealed by it being taken away for a time during the Seder and later reunited with the Passover table. This speaks to Messianic Jews of how Yeshua has gone away from us for a time here on earth with the promise to return (John 14:3). Yeshua will return for us one day, and we will know our final redemption. Until then, we lift Him up and celebrate Him as our Passover Lamb, the Messiah sent to deliver us from sin.
That is a major distortion of the Passover story. It is certainly a case of cultural appropriation but it goes way beyond that.
Judaism is a very difficult religion. Not all interactions with Judaism are pleasant for Jews. I remember being repelled by my instructors have numbers tattooed on their arms and I could not handle it.
Judaism is not always friendly. It is atavistic. One can see why some may seek something different.
So seek out and convert Jews if you want. But do not do so by deception. Do not pretend that Christ is part of the Jewish religion. I do not want to be inflammatory, but to Jews the worship of Christ is idolatry. We believe in one G-d not a Trinity (which was a later invention possibly by the Romans). Our Messiah will be a real person, a descendent of King David, and not a divinity. Jews may have it wrong but do they not have the right to their beliefs?
We do not need an Apocalypse. These Christian organizations that feel that converting Jews through deception will advance their goals need to find some other way to amuse themselves.
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