Are We Christian?

This past week, as I vacationed with my in-laws, my mother-in-law told me, “Judah, we love having you as a son-in-law. You’re such a a good Christian guy…”

And a distant in-law, a hard-line Catholic, rhetorically asked me, “You’ve read Paul haven’t you? And you still believe in those traditions?!” [cue sad trombone]

I just chuckled to myself.

This same Catholic then mentioned how the Pope is steadfast in his belief that the Jews must be converted to Catholicism. (Oiy!)

Last week’s post on the Church and the Jews has got me torn to bits by this question, honestly. Those early pioneers of Messianic Judaism were Hebrew Christians who saw themselves as part of the Church, unapologetically Christian.

JudeoXian writes,

Though they [the early Hebrew Christian pioneers] have long passed on, their lifestyle challenges us to face the questions, “What is our relationship to Christianity? Are we a part of it? Are we a reform movement within it? Or are we another religion altogether?” We face anew the question of ecclesiology, the doctrine of the Church.

The question remains: are Messianics …Christians?

Messianics are unique: we’re straddling a divide between 2 religions that have, historically, hated each other to the point of persecution: Judaism persecuted the early believers in Messiah to the point of death, and once the religion of Christianity took off and became the majority, it returned the favor without hesitancy, persecuting to death the Jews of the Middle Ages.

This straddling between 2 religions causes us to endure much trouble and angst; we’re continually pulled from both sides to become authentic: either Real Jews© or Real Christians®. Not that half-assed Messianic nonsense.

Anti-Yeshua organizations like Jews for Judaism will unceasingly say, “See! Those Messianics are just Christians in disguise. They’re not real Jews. They’re deceptive Christians trying to baptize Jews into Christianity, ultimately causing them to lose their identity as Jews.”

Such anti-missionary (anti-Yeshua, anti-Messiah?) organizations want you to believe that if we Messianics are successful, and yet more Jews believe in Yeshua as Messiah, the Jewish people will cease to exist; Jews will be swallowed up and assimilated into the Church, intermarrying and becoming Torahless gentiles within a generation or two.

In fact, as I write this, JewsForJudaism is expanding its ventures, following Messianic folks on Twitter, sending us messages about how the New Testament is full of errors, how the Church is really a big bad evil wolf, how the Church has misappropriated prophecies like Isaiah 53 and Daniel, how Jesus cannot possibly be the Messiah, and so on.

They are doing everything in their power to squelch us Messianics. Either paint us as Christians or convert us to mainstream Judaism, is their goal. They’ve succeeded to some extent, but still we press on toward the goal of Messiah whose called us his own.

 

Why We’re Uncomfortable with Christianity and the Church

 

Perhaps for this reason, because we do not want to be seen as Christians-in-disguise -- we do not wish to be tools of the evangelizing arm of Mother Church -- it is very uncomfortable for us, as Messianics, to say, “Yes, we are Christians.”

Another reason is that many of us have reviewed the Church’s rejection and eventual persecution of Israel. We believe this to be in error. We have reviewed the writings of the early Church fathers who spoke ill of the Jews and the very Law by which Messiah lived, causing Ignatius of Antioch to say,

Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, and things in which the Jews boast. "Old things are passed away: all things have become new." For if we live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace.

Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God.

It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity.

It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end. For where there is Christianity there cannot be Judaism.

We believe this anti-Semitic, hateful doctrine to be in error. I would go as far as to say that doctrine is thoroughly anti-Messiah.

We reviewed the Church’s clean break with Judaism in the 4th century, officially cutting itself off from the very Passover that Messiah and the disciples celebrated, fully distinguishing itself from the Judaism of Messiah and the disciples:

When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for what could be more beautiful and more desirable than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of festivals, to follow the customs (the calculation) of the Jews who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded.

We ought not therefore to have anything in common with the Jew, for the Saviour has shown us another way; our worship following a more legitimate and more convenient course (the order of the days of the week: And consequently in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jew.

How, then, could we follow these Jews (in celebrating Passover) who are most certainly blinded by error?

It is your duty not to tarnish your soul by communication with such wicked people, the Jews. You should consider not only that the number of churches in these provinces make a majority, but also that it is right to demand what our reason approves, and that we should have nothing in common with the Jews.

The above statement was issued from Nicaean Council. This is the council that issued decrees that are, to this day, considered central and core theologies of the Church, both Protestant and Catholic. This thinly-veiled contempt for Jews and God’s Torah we find truly astonishing and shameful. Needless to say, we find this core theology of the Church to be in error.

The final major reason, and perhaps the most foundational reason we are uncomfortable with being labeled “Christian” is that it suggests a fundamental shift we’re not prepared to make: that Jesus came to start a new religion separate from Judaism. We find this also to be in error.

It’s a difficult thing, I think, for Christians to concede: Jesus practiced Judaism. The religion of Israel has become known as Judaism, and Jesus practiced all the things 1st century Judaism entails: earnestly loving God, living one’s life around God’s Temple at Jerusalem, celebrating the Feasts, eating kosher, refraining from idols and unclean things, keeping God’s sabbath, reciting the Shema, keeping the commandments, for example – the gospels record Jesus doing all these things! And not once is there an example of Jesus breaking any of the Torah commandments which Judaism is built around.

That Jesus practiced Judaism is something we Messianics remain convinced of, and if proven true, we feel vindicated and confident in our belief that conversion to a new religion called Christianity is not what Jesus intended. In no unclear terms we assert: converting Jews to Christianity and making them as pork-eating gentiles is not the proper mode of faith in Yeshua and indeed threatens Jewish identity just as the anti-missionary groups suggest.

 

So the Church has made errors. Aren’t you still Christian?

 

Vine of David, a Messianic publishing organization aimed at Yeshua apologetics, has this to say on the matter:

Movements like ours have called themselves by many names. In fact, we often get caught up in titles as we try to decide how to define ourselves. Titles serve not only to communicate with whom we identify, but also from whom we wish to distinguish ourselves. New titles crop up any time people feel the need to cut themselves off from others.

It is of no benefit to get hung up on labels and titles, but we have chosen to use the term "Messianic Judaism." Our point is not to exclude or criticize people who chose to identify differently, but we, like many others, feel that "Messianic Judaism" is a fitting description of our organization.

By identifying our perspective and lifestyle as an expression of Judaism, we intend to communicate a sense of continuity between ourselves and the historical people, culture, nation, community, life, and system of worship found in the Torah. That people group—the group to whom Yeshua the Messiah himself belonged—is the Jewish people. His system of worship was Judaism, and he did not intend to abrogate that system or exchange it for another. Instead, his message was one of national and personal repentance within the framework of Judaism. Yeshua and his earliest followers did not see themselves outside of Judaism, but a part of it.

Historical Christianity, in general, has sought to define itself against Judaism, making a clean break with the people and religious system of Israel. We feel that this was a regrettable mistake. By using the term "Judaism," we intend to put our faith and observance back into its proper historical context.

In pointing out the Church’s errors, we do not meant to condemn or point the finger at Christians that love Jesus and serve the Lord. We do not mean to insult the thing you love so dearly.

Rather, we wish to correct the mistake of abandoning Judaism and all the pain and persecution that decision has caused the Jewish people.

But are we Christian? It’s a question I’m still battling over.

On one hand, I reject the Church’s narrow evangelical mode of “convert the Jews to [insert flavor here] Christianity at all costs, Jewish identity and Torah-observance be damned”. I reject that, I think it’s wrong, I think Jesus never intended for such a thing, I think it threatens Jewish identity, I think it leads to lawlessness.

I reject the Church’s shameful anti-Jewish theologies and historical persecution of Jews and vilification of Judaism; it’s a permanent stain on the Church that Jews will not forget. These doctrines have led to all kinds of evil theology, which leads to physical persecution that has been a shameful example of Messiah.

And oh, how I desire for the anti-missionary organizations to be proved wrong! How I desire that Jews can believe in Yeshua and remain Jewish! It would seem one must distance himself from the Church for that to be true.

And oh, how I wish the Jewish world at large would view Messianic Judaism as a legitimate form of Judaism! It’s this desperate, unheard need for legitimacy, combined with the encouraging of the anti-missionary groups, that has led some Messianics to abandon Yeshua. This desired legitimacy, something we may never see from Judaism, requires a separation from the Church that for so long has persecuted God’s chosen people.

On the other hand, I feel quite at home and feel brotherhood with those Christians that earnestly love Messiah. I recognize the good they have done; there are innumerable righteous gentiles functioning in the Christian Church. We recognize people within the Church, such as Corrie Ten Boom, that have, in the true form of Messiah’s example, saved Jews at risk of their own lives, and have loved the Jewish people and sacrificed even their own families for God’s people. But this kind of heroics always gets attention; it’s the millions of Christians today that unconditionally love Jews and are ardent Zionists; it’s these that deserve a spotlight.

Finally, I’m impressed and encouraged by the early Hebrew Christian pioneers. They were so unapologetically bold for Yeshua as Messiah, that I must question whether our anti-Church stance has caused us to shrink back our zeal for Yeshua. Could it be that we have spent too much of our zeal in rebellion against the Church when it could be redirected toward a zealousness for Messiah and God’s Law?

At the very least, I feel like Christians are our brothers. At the same time, I cannot with honest heart say, “I’m a Christian”.

I am thus divided. Maybe such is the life of a Messianic.

What do you think, fine blog readers?