Is it “Messianic” or “Hebrew Roots” or “Messianic Judaism” or “Jewish Roots”?
Good question! It is a question I get asked a lot because most people who want to get to know the Jewish Jesus and the Jewish root of our faith find TV shows and YouTube videos. When you do that, theology and practice can get messy because labels are not always clearly marked and these groups are not created equal.
I am going to stick to Messianic Judaism here because it is what we do at the Messianic Fellowship in Rapid City. As far as basic doctrines of salvation, God, Holy Spirit and the inerrancy of Scripture go, we are extremely similar to mainstream Christianity. We have some distinctives, however. Here are a couple:
- The Scripture needs to be interpreted in the culture and context in which it is written. In terms of the New Testament, that means we need to understand that parts of it were written to specific people with specific issues, that some of it was written to Jewish believers and some of it was written to Gentile believers, and there is quite a bit of conflict developing with the Romans. Galatians, Romans, James (for example) are written under very different circumstances.
- Understanding the Jewishness of Jesus / Yeshua, the apostles and the first 30 to 60 years of the early ecclesia / “church” is foundational for understanding scripture, faith and practice.
- We are made up of Gentile believers and Jewish believers (or at least people who have Jewish parents and grandparents).
- The covenants with Israel are still intact and the church has not replaced Israel.
- We recognize and celebrate Biblical holy days (holidays and feasts) because they are observed and celebrated in the New Testament.
- We are cognizant of the fact that the Mosaic Law was not done away with in the New Testament, rather the New Testament explains the Law. We are not legalists, however, because righteousness only comes through Jesus / Yeshua. You will not lose your salvation if you eat some leavened bread during Passover week or eat some bacon.
- The Sabbath is still the Sabbath (Shabbat) and it is God’s day. We meet to worship, fellowship and study on Saturday but folks can also get together any other day, too. Some folks come on Saturday and also go to church on Sunday. You can’t worship God too much!
I’ll develop these topics (and more) over the coming weeks.
Today, Jewish and Christian scholars and theologians are pouring over the New Testament to look restore the original Jewish perspective. The work is not wholly embraced by the Church because we wind up looking at the text in context and culture, which forces us to re-evaluate some of the Christian doctrines and traditions held near and dear.
The idea is not to tear down Christianity as we know it but to bring it back toward its Jewish root, its Jewish beginnings, its Jewish understanding. Doing so draws us closer to God and sheds light on obscure New Testament passages.
These ideas will be developed in the coming weeks, too.
In Messianic Judaism we do some Jewish things in our services because if Jesus is Jewish and the faith is built on a Jewish foundation, it is impossible to be completely divorced from Judaism. Our service has Jewish synagogue elements to it. Someone might wear a head covering, someone might not eat pork, we’ll face Jerusalem for the standing prayer and there will be some Hebrew.
Lunch on Shabbat is important. That’s where we get to know each other better as we fellowship around the table. The better we know each other, the better we can pray for each other.
Class time, whether it is Saturday afternoon or in Torah Club, is probably the most different if you are used to a church setting: there’s a lot of discussion! We learn best by asking questions and finding answers. We will get to the correct answer on critical issues and we will agree to disagree on non-critical issues. Our goal is to search for truth.
Finally, looking at the New Testament from a 1st Century Jewish perspective brings out things in the text that you may have never noticed before. The text comes alive as connections between the Old Testament and the New are made.