Thursday, June 05, 2008

Messianic Jews

A close friend has decided to embrace faith and call himself a messianic Jew. The term as I understand it typically involves Jews accepting Jesus as the culmination of our prophecies. In his case he was already a Christian, so this means something entirely different.

When I think of messianic Jews I think of the late Zola Leavitt and his search for an aboriginal form of Christianity returned to its original basics. I don't think his message or ministry was aimed at existing Christians.

12 comments:

Rabbi Adam J. Bernay said...

As the rabbi of a Messianic congregation, let me strive to clarify: Messianics -- and there are also non-Jewish Messianics -- are those who believe in Yeshua (Jesus' actual Name -- "Jesus" is an Anglecization of a transliteration into Greek), but who, to one extent or another, all look at His statements in places like Matthew 5:13-20 and realize that He really DIDN'T come to abolish the Torah (wrongly translated "Law," really means "Instruction"), and that He really asks us to live according to His Instruction as revealed in writing at Mount Sinai. (If you doubt Yeshua was at Mount Sinai giving the Torah, check out the middle chapter in the giving of the Torah, Exodus 24.)

As I said, it's "to one extent or another." The Messianic community is not monolithic. Some observe less Torah (and think of it more as observing "Jewish tradition" or such) than others. I don't know what group your friend belongs to, and so can't speak to it specifically.

Ducky's here said...

2008 SAT Edition to Conform to New Kansas State Board of Education and Beamish Requirements.

PART A:
Science

1. A strain of bacteria, after repeated exposure to an antibiotic, develops a resistance to that antibiotic. This is an example of:
A. micro evolution
B. micro intelligent design
C. how the liberal media lies
D. why faith healing is better than secular medicine

2. Global temperatures have risen 1 degree F since 2004. This is due to:
A. the greenhouse effect
B. unsound science
C. the Clinton administration
D. gays

3. Scientific theories such as Evolution are:
A. ones which make predictions one can test against experimental data
B. They are only theories, not scientific at all! !
C. Used by eastern liberal eggheads to oppress God-fearing white people.
D. tricks of Satan

PART B:
Mathematics

1. Pi is:
A. the ratio of the circumference of a circle to ts diameter
B. three
C. I refuse to answer this question because some fruity liberal college professor probably made the whole thing up. Plus, we don't study this useless Pi stuff in Kansas schools.
D. Something Greek queers invented to make you homosexual against God's plan for you.

2. If dinosaurs first appeared 250 million years ago, and became extinct 185 million years later, how long ago did they become extinct?
A. 65 million years ago
B. There is no paleontological consensus that dinosaurs ever existed
C. 3500 years ago, during the Great Flood! , just as the Bible says!
D. However long ago it was that they turned gay and lost their moral values

3. If you make $50,000 a year, and the flat income tax rate is 10%, how much money do you pay the IRS each year?
A. $5,000
B. Too much.
C. The federal govt. has no right to tax me and waste it on welfare mothers who have too many illegitimate kids and on black helicopters, and to lie to us about the aliens from outer space that everyone knows are out there in that secret place in the desert!
D. The IRS is part of the gay Mafia, anyway.

PART C:
History

1. The US lost the Vietnam War because:
A. We ignored the history of Indochina and underestimated the determination of the enemy to free its country of all foreign outsiders.
B. liberals and the media wouldn't let Rambo do his job.
C. It was a tie, which means we actually won.
D. Clinton made everyone in the Army turn gay and get married.

2. Who led the American army during the Revolutionary War?
A. George Washington
B. George W. Bush
C. Ronald Reagan
D. Jesus

3. Who betrayed the American army during the Revolutionary War?
A. Benedict Arnold
B. Bill Clinton
C. Hillary Clinton
D. The gays trying to violate "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

PART D:
Literature

1. What is the greatest book ever written by an American?
A. The Great Gatsby
B. Moby Dick
C. Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force
D. The Bible

2. In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", Caesar is betrayed by:
A. Brutus
B. Clinton
C. the liberal media
D. the gays trying to get married in Rome

3. In 1609, Galileo looked through a telescope and saw four small bodies orbiting Jupiter. This showed:
A. that not all celestial bodies orbit the Earth, and that the Earth is not necessarily at the center of the Universe
B. there is no astronomical consensus that anything orbits Jupiter
C. Galileo was a biased liberal
D. God loves Christian Americans the most, which is why the Earth IS the center of the universe!-

Scoring is at the discretion of your local school board.

Ducky's here said...

Zola Leavitt? Which one is he? The one on the Benny Hinn show or the one who shows up with ultrasounds of fetuses showing them with faces like Shirley Temple and the Gerber baby?

The Merry Widow said...

ducky-The test was an obviously silly attempt to slam Christians, and Zola Levitt was a Messianic Jewish teacher, scholar, musician, songwritter(his "For The Queen" is beautiful), theologian and gentleman.

tmw

beakerkin said...

Rabbi

Thank you for enlightening me on this
subject. I find the attraction of non-Jews to this concept unusual. However, if one were an originalist
this would be closer to the intent of the original Church.

My understanding was as explained by Zola that Yeshua is the culmination of the Judaic prophecy. Acceptance of him as the savior allows non Jews to be part of the prophecy. There is essentially no
reason for a person who is already
a Christian to redefine themselves
unless they were originalists.

Ducky

TMW is 100% correct. Zola was a man of God who did not allow Marxist anti semites to pervert scripture.
The truth is progressive dispensatioalism is a Marxist assault on Christianity and the Jewish people.

The Merry Widow said...

Beaker-You are sooooo right! Marxism trying to co-opt what uased to be a stabilizing and healthy segment of American society. They have done an outstanding job!
Rabbi-The Christians I know, in our hunger and thirst to know HIM, turn to our older brothers to open the Older Testament and expound it's treasures and Truths.
We are richer for your presence among us!

tmw

Papa Frank said...

Given the circles I hang around it is a breath of fresh air to not have your post here marked by a condemnation of Messianics and a call to ostracize them. Thank you!

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

PART A:
Science

1. A strain of bacteria, after repeated exposure to an antibiotic, develops a resistance to that antibiotic. This is an example of:


Natural selection of a viable gene stock. The bacteria doesn't "change," it just doesn't die when its fellow bacteria does when exposed to the antibiotic and thusly lives to populate the next generation of bacteria with dominant antibiotic resistnace traits into a majority.

2. Global temperatures have risen 1 degree F since 2004. This is due to:

An increase in the number of thermometers in the desert.

3. Scientific theories such as Evolution are:

The umbrella that covers the largely untestable claims made by rival schools - Dawkinsian psychobabblers and Gouldian retreads of Goldschmidt's thoroughly discredited "hopeful monster" hypothesis.

PART B:
Mathematics

1. Pi is:


A wierd Aronofsky film

2. If dinosaurs first appeared 250 million years ago, and became extinct 185 million years later, how long ago did they become extinct?

Is this a trick question? I thought dinosaurs turned into birds? Now you're telling me they're extinct?

PART C:
History

1. The US lost the Vietnam War because:


The son of America's most ardent Hitler supporter had become President and from Berlin, John F. Kennedy shook his fist at the Soviet Union and said "I am a jelly doughnut" in German. Kennedy, already an ignorant dipshit in matters of foreign policy even by Democrat standards subsequently got himself shot by a pre-anti-war Castro loving leftist while dickering with the sucessful anti-communist policies of Eisenhower in southeast Asia, and Lyndon Brainless Johnson was sworn in as President. By the time Nixon was sworn in as President the situation was unsalvageable.

2. Who led the American army during the Revolutionary War?

George Washington commanded the Continental Army. The US Army was not formally created by Congress until 1784, after the war.

3. Who betrayed the American army during the Revolutionary War?

Benedict Arnold, after spending quite a large part of his considerable personal fortune to arm the Continental Army and being rebuffed by Congress for compensation.

PART D:
Literature

1. What is the greatest book ever written by an American?


It hasn't been written yet.

2. In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", Caesar is betrayed by:

The Roman Senate, including Brutus.

3. In 1609, Galileo looked through a telescope and saw four small bodies orbiting Jupiter. This showed:

That moons orbited Jupiter faster in 1609 than they do today. ;)

Z said...

Beamish..congratulations upon knowing that ICH BIN EIN BERLINER does exactly mean I AM A JELLY DONUT ... great answers!

Ducky, I have to admit,again, you're no dummy..just so mislead.

Rabbi, nice to hear from you. I hope you come back from time to time. Something always puzzles me about the Messianics I read and it's always the same thing, but I'll echo TMW's loving welcome and give that a rest. Again.

nanc said...

i proudly call zola one of my pastors still to this day and have missed him since he passed. we have supported his ministry for quite a few years and will continue until the Lord comes for His own.

Torah said...

TO THE RABBI: I have a recent blogpost regarding what you say you believe.

Anders Branderud said...

Adam,

My name is Anders Branderud, I am 23 years and I am from Sweden.

You haven't yet realized that the historical pro-Torah Ribi Yehoshua and the post-135 C.E. anti-Torah Christ are two different persons.

So who then was the historical Jesus?

The first century pro-Torah Ribi Yehoshua – the Messiah - said:

"Don't think that I came to uproot the Torah or the Neviim [prophets], but rather I came to reconcile them with the Oral Law of emet (truth). Should the heavens and ha-aretz (the land, particularly referring to Israel) exchange places, still, not even one ' (yod) nor one ` (qeren) of the Oral Law of Mosheh shall so much as exchange places; until it shall become that it is all being fully ratified and performed non-selectively. For whoever deletes one Oral Law from the Torah, or shall teach others such, by those in the Realm of the heavens he shall be called "deleted." Both he who preserves and he who teaches them shall be called Ribi in the Realm of the heavens. For I tell you that unless your Tzedaqah (righteousness) is over and above that of the Sophrim and of the [probably 'Herodian'] Rabbinic-Perushim (corrupted to "Pharisees"), there is no way you will enter into the Realm of the heavens! “
Netzarim Reconstruction of Hebrew Matityahu 5:17-20.

For words that you don’t understand; se www.netzarim.co.il ; the link to Glossaries at the first page.

Ribi Yehoshua warned for false prophets who don’t produce good fruit = defined as don’t practise the commandments in Torah according to Halakhah (oral Torah). See Devarim (Deuteronomy) 13:1-6.

If you don’t follow Ribi Yehoshuas Torah-teachings, than you don’t follow Ribi Yehoshua.
So you need to start follow the historical Ribi Yehoshua – the Messiah – by practising Torah!!

Finding the historical Jew, who was a Pharisee Ribi and following him brings you into Torah, which gives you a rich and meaningful life here on earth and great rewards in life after death (“heaven”)!

From Anders Branderud
Geir Toshav, Netzarim in Ra’anana in Israel (www.netzarim.co.il) who are followers of Ribi Yehoshua – the Messiah – in Orthodox Judaism