THE PROBLEM OF MESSIANIC JUDAISM

PART 15

 

A TRAIL OF MESSIANIC ISSUES

 

The only apostolic writings the Spirit has left to Gentiles and Jews alike in this age contradict the Messianic position. Nevertheless, with one foot of faith in Yeshua and the other still sharing in Israel’s unbelief, Messianism does not like what the apostles have to plainly say.

Nevertheless, it is from their position of subjecting apostolic teaching to the framework of reconstructively interpreted prophecies rooted in a race-based vision of Yeshua that Messianic Judaists advance their positions (and air their grievances toward pure New Covenant believers) regarding the Law, Jewish heritage, and the modern State of Israel.

In this major section, we proceed to look one by one at some of the most common issues raised and problems created by Messianics through their unbelieving resistance to New Testament teaching.   

 

1. The Meaning of “Church”

Messianic Judaism promotes division in the body of Christ by promoting a racially separated definition and use of the word “church.”  Consistently, people of Messianic persuasion or under their influence refer to “the church” on one side and “Israel” (including themselves) on the other in a way that defines the church exclusively in terms of Gentile converts to Christ. (The same applies to the word “Christian” which Messianics often assign exclusively to Gentile-origined believers.)

But this is an erroneous use. The Christian church (Gk. “ecclesia” or “assembly”) is a transnational union of peoples from all origins recognizing no distinctions in origins. Its substance of unity is faith in Christ, and all its elect are the “Israel of God” (—really, the pre-revelation of Eternal Israel.)  In the church as apostolically defined, men lay down their cultural heritages to unite as the Eternal Israel of God. The church is not a “Gentile” entity.47

The Holy Spirit through Paul contends that Yeshua has only one agent in the earth described as “His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22)—one agent by which He accomplishes His will. That agent is the spiritual transnational church. By defining the church strictly in Gentile terms, Messianics put distance between themselves and God’s exclusive agent of earthly residence, even the one entity Yeshua Himself said He would build (Mt. 16:18).⁴⁸

Men however have corrupted the definition of the church from its inception, harnessing it to racial (and even political!) Gentile cultural expressions. Therefore we have “Roman” churches, “Greek” churches, “Chinese” churches, and of course now “Messianic” churches comprised mainly of converted Jews. It is logistically and linguistically understandable why churches take on such flavors in their infancy.

But the weakness in these racial denominations is that they contradict the essential trans-racial meaning of the church. Messianic Judaism not only contributes to this problem, but owes its life to perpetuating this divide. If Messianics were to lay down their heritage as Paul did, it would remove the basis for their distinction as a movement within the Body of Christ.

When as believers we co-identify ourselves on a national or cultural basis for our assembly, we end up perpetuating false racial division in the body of Christ. Depending on our immaturity, we may even identify ourselves more closely with those of natural ancestry who do not even believe in Christ than we do with those who believe Him but do not share our natural ancestry!

Sadly, many in the Messianic movement feel more closely connected to Jews and the State of Israel which don’t believe in Yeshua than they do to non-Jews who love Yeshua/Jesus throughout the world. Yet in the true spirit of the faith, a Messianic should feel more spiritual affinity with a Palestinian who believes in Christ than another Jew who does not.

 

NEXT – PART 16: THE REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY CONUNDRUM

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