The State of the Messianic Movement: Jewish Christianity’s Goals

This is part III of a series of posts on the state and future of the Messianic movement.

• Part I: Intro
• Part II: Jewish Christianity
• Part III: Jewish Christianity’s Goals (you’re reading it!)

Our purpose? Figure out how things are in the Messianic movement, look at where we’re struggling, and find a way to move forward towards greater faithfulness and maturity. Join me as I look at Jewish Christianity, Messianic Judaism, and Hebrew Roots, and see where we can move forward on each front.

Last week we looked at the biggest group of the Messianic movement: Jewish Christianity. We defined it as Jewish people in the Christian Church, holding classic Christian doctrines on Torah and Israel.

What are the goals of Jewish Christianity?

• Save Jews by conversion to Christianity
• Get Jews into Bible-believing churches
• Make Jesus’ messiahship an unavoidable issue in the Jewish world

These goals are often carried out evangelical outreach and missions.

Best demonstrating these goals is the last words of Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus:

I hope I can count on you to show love and respect for the Jewish people, but Jewishness never saved anybody. In Judaism today, there is no salvation because Christ has no place within Judaism.

On Jewish evangelism and missionary work, Rosen wrote,

We stand on the edge of a breakthrough in Jewish evangelism.  Just a little more. Just another push. Just another soul - and we will have reached critical mass.

And on getting Jews into Churches, Rosen argues,

I would also encourage you to be faithful to those Bible-teaching, Bible-preaching churches that give spiritual food.  More than ever, the church needs faithful members who can be an example to the young people coming in…stay where you’re planted.”

Put simply, Jewish Christianity’s focus is bringing Jews into the Church, and Jews for Jesus and its goals demonstrates this precisely.

In the next post, we’ll look at some criticisms of Jewish Christianity. What do people outside of the movement think? What do people in Messianic Judaism, or Hebrew Roots, think about Jewish Christianity? Is there truth to any of the criticisms?

We’ll see how we can move forward in Jewish Christianity, and how God can use this part of the Messianic movement for His greater purposes.