Post by Mark on Jul 11, 2009 7:08:29 GMT -8
Hybrid Religion
When people hear of the term "Messianic Judaism" and come to understand what that term generally means, it is often interpreted as a hybrid religion: combining elements of traditional Judaism with basic concepts of traditional Christianity.
This is an unfortunate oversimplification, though somewhat true in a modern understanding of these religious perspectives. When we look honestly into the New Testament Scriptures (the defining documents of the Christian faith), we find that all of the writers and most of the subject matter of the text is Jewish. In fact, whenever Paul (writer of more than half the New Testament) had the opportunity to introduce himself, he consistently characterized himself and his position in faith as "a Jew".
I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
(Acts 22:3 KJV)
Our Messiah, Yeshua, made absolutely clear that what He came to share was a Jewish faith.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
(John 4:22 KJV)
Yet, modern Christianity has absolutely rejected any relevance to the Jewishness of the faith described in their New Testament Scriptures. What traditional Christians and Jews describe as a blending of two contrary religions, the Messianic perspective sees as a return to the original intent of the biblical authors.
At the same time, traditional Christianity may have done some blending of it’s own. It is commonly understood that, in the process of making converts in a number of pagan societies, Christianity adopted and redefined many pagan customs so as to make the Christian faith more palatable. The "Christianizing" was, in many cases, not as successful as the incorporation of pagan thinking: such is why the Christian holiday "Easter" even carries the name of a pagan goddess. Halloween, while originally given a Christian title "All Hallows Eve" bears no association to the Christian faith at all. Traditional Christian church structure and teaching follows the process of Greek philosophy and thought (Hellenization) which is directly opposed to the teachings of Paul:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
(Ephesians 4:17-19 KJV)
The original "Christians" were Jewish and understood their faith to be totally consistent with the doctrines of Jewish religion. How interesting these beliefs have been so twisted seeing that the Jerusalem Counsel of Acts 15 was a question of determining whether or not gentiles were to be allowed in the congregation of believers in Yeshua as Messiah. Now, it is exclusively defined as a gentile faith.
This process came in stages, beginning with the anti-Semitic teachings of such "Christian Fathers" as Justin Martyr, with the support of anti-Jewish laws by the Roman emperor of the day. Jewish teaching and practice came under severe oppression and many gentiles, retaining the idea of a "Savior" who could redeem them from their own sin, forsook the context within which the biblical texts were given and established a new religion.
This was not only bolstered by Constantine in Niece; but the Nicene Creed and doctrines purposefully used language to alienate the Jew: the doctrine of Trinity (as written in the Creed) accommodates a polytheistic relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Less known is a mandate that no one in the Christian Church was allowed to have a Hebrew name and hold the position of Bishop in the Church.
Since the Bible (the Jewish Bible) was retained as Inspired Canon, it was natural that Jewish people would see the relationship and accept Yeshua as the Messiah, even though the dominant Christian position had become utterly gentile. The Jewish response in the 12th Century, under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi), was to redefine key Messianic texts in the Hebrew Tanakh (the Old Testament) to dismiss the claim that Yeshua could be the Messiah. Added to the blatant inconsistencies between Anti-Nicene Christian teachings and Jewish thought, it was easy to drive a wedge creating two distinct religious thoughts.
Messianic Judaism is an attempt to look past the 1900 years of human agenda and try to understand the teachings of Messiah Yeshua and His original followers (including Paul) within the Jewish context they were given. Faith in Messiah Yeshua is a Jewish faith or else it is not the faith that He and His followers communicated- they were Jewish. Everything else is hybrid- the justification of human ideas supported by religious understandings accumulated throughout the ages.
When people hear of the term "Messianic Judaism" and come to understand what that term generally means, it is often interpreted as a hybrid religion: combining elements of traditional Judaism with basic concepts of traditional Christianity.
This is an unfortunate oversimplification, though somewhat true in a modern understanding of these religious perspectives. When we look honestly into the New Testament Scriptures (the defining documents of the Christian faith), we find that all of the writers and most of the subject matter of the text is Jewish. In fact, whenever Paul (writer of more than half the New Testament) had the opportunity to introduce himself, he consistently characterized himself and his position in faith as "a Jew".
I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
(Acts 22:3 KJV)
Our Messiah, Yeshua, made absolutely clear that what He came to share was a Jewish faith.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
(John 4:22 KJV)
Yet, modern Christianity has absolutely rejected any relevance to the Jewishness of the faith described in their New Testament Scriptures. What traditional Christians and Jews describe as a blending of two contrary religions, the Messianic perspective sees as a return to the original intent of the biblical authors.
At the same time, traditional Christianity may have done some blending of it’s own. It is commonly understood that, in the process of making converts in a number of pagan societies, Christianity adopted and redefined many pagan customs so as to make the Christian faith more palatable. The "Christianizing" was, in many cases, not as successful as the incorporation of pagan thinking: such is why the Christian holiday "Easter" even carries the name of a pagan goddess. Halloween, while originally given a Christian title "All Hallows Eve" bears no association to the Christian faith at all. Traditional Christian church structure and teaching follows the process of Greek philosophy and thought (Hellenization) which is directly opposed to the teachings of Paul:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
(Ephesians 4:17-19 KJV)
The original "Christians" were Jewish and understood their faith to be totally consistent with the doctrines of Jewish religion. How interesting these beliefs have been so twisted seeing that the Jerusalem Counsel of Acts 15 was a question of determining whether or not gentiles were to be allowed in the congregation of believers in Yeshua as Messiah. Now, it is exclusively defined as a gentile faith.
This process came in stages, beginning with the anti-Semitic teachings of such "Christian Fathers" as Justin Martyr, with the support of anti-Jewish laws by the Roman emperor of the day. Jewish teaching and practice came under severe oppression and many gentiles, retaining the idea of a "Savior" who could redeem them from their own sin, forsook the context within which the biblical texts were given and established a new religion.
This was not only bolstered by Constantine in Niece; but the Nicene Creed and doctrines purposefully used language to alienate the Jew: the doctrine of Trinity (as written in the Creed) accommodates a polytheistic relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Less known is a mandate that no one in the Christian Church was allowed to have a Hebrew name and hold the position of Bishop in the Church.
Since the Bible (the Jewish Bible) was retained as Inspired Canon, it was natural that Jewish people would see the relationship and accept Yeshua as the Messiah, even though the dominant Christian position had become utterly gentile. The Jewish response in the 12th Century, under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi), was to redefine key Messianic texts in the Hebrew Tanakh (the Old Testament) to dismiss the claim that Yeshua could be the Messiah. Added to the blatant inconsistencies between Anti-Nicene Christian teachings and Jewish thought, it was easy to drive a wedge creating two distinct religious thoughts.
Messianic Judaism is an attempt to look past the 1900 years of human agenda and try to understand the teachings of Messiah Yeshua and His original followers (including Paul) within the Jewish context they were given. Faith in Messiah Yeshua is a Jewish faith or else it is not the faith that He and His followers communicated- they were Jewish. Everything else is hybrid- the justification of human ideas supported by religious understandings accumulated throughout the ages.
as the bulk of non-messianic Jews do? I read somewhere (unfortunately I can't remember where) a list comparing things that Yeshua taught that are similar or the same in the Talmud.
