Will Israel Ever Accept Messianic Jews?

By
Howard
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4
4878

A couple of days ago the Jerusalem Post carried an interesting article on the plight of Jewish believers in Yeshua/Jesus:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Diaspora-Affairs-Will-Israel-ever-accept-Messianic-Jews-518129

This situation is nothing new, as the article makes clear.  Before my wife and I got married (and before we were believers in Jesus) , we went to speak with a progressive rabbi — liberal beyond Reform Judaism (I was raised Conservative).    She (who is not Jewish) asked him who is a Jew.  He said that anyone that wanted to be a Jew could be one.  She said that she didn’t believe that, but that a Jew is one who has the DNA:  someone might convert to the Jewish religion, but that did not make him/her a Jew.  The rabbi said that’s not so:  “anyone could be a Jew that wanted to be, as Ben-Gurion said”!  Then I asked about those Jews who believe in Jesus (such as the organization Jews For Jesus), and say that they are still Jews.  His face changed…..and hardened:  “You can not be a Jew and believe in Jesus Christ!”

I grew up thinking that a Jew who became a believer in Jesus was either not a Jew anymore, or, at the least, was a bad Jew.  My father and mother never reconciled with me still being Jewish after I became a believer.  I say that I was born Jew-ish and was born-again a Jew! 🙂  All this to say, I am not attempting to have Judaism accept me as a Jew.  Whenever any Messianic Jew has gone to the Israeli courts to try to prove that they are still Jews for the purpose of aliyah, they have always lost, and brought more difficulty on the others, making aliyah of Jewish believers more difficult.  But still, the Lord is bringing some over, including some with big names.  Judaism will not accept us; some Jews will.  Just like Islam will never accept Israel; but some Muslims might.
The particular story of this woman is really tragic, and only brings shame to our government and nation.  Our hope is in Yeshua/Jesus, also despised and rejected, and thrown out of the vineyard.  We, too, must go outside the camp where He is and bear His reproach.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks Howard for the explanation which clarifies the core issue with Yeshua and the Jewish mind….so, as I understand what you are saying is that Jews can be Jews so long as they don’t ascribe to a Messiah who is God in the flesh….but, they may ascribe to other Messiah’s, religions, atheism et al, which do not make the claim….am I understanding correctly?

  2. I do not understand the logic whereby one’s Jewishness is determined by others to be dependent on who one believes to be Messiah….after all, there are sects of Jews in various parts of the world including the USA, who have believed their head rabbi is likely the Messiah….and there are Jews who believe in Buddha, or other eastern religions, or maybe even atheist, but they are not stripped of the title. It is clear that believers in Yeshua as Messiah are singled out in particular, but there is a logical flaw in the thinking.
    I cannot remember where I read it, but it seems that there was a leading rabbi after the Bar Kochba revolt who declared that any Jewish person who believed in Yeshua in Messiah was expelled from being recognized as a Jew……
    Ultimately, this is the spirit of the antichrist according to 1st John

    • Well, Sam, it isn’t just that we believe that Yeshua/Jesus is the Messiah. That alone would make us like Jehovah’s Witnesses. That would not be too much different is that were all that Yeshua claimed to be, and that the Scriptures foretold that He would be.

      The Jewish people follow(ed) false messiahs, and none of them claim(ed) that they are the Son of God and that God was their personal Father. This is what brought the charge of blasphemy against Jesus, and what is still the core problem to the unbelieving Jewish mind (and, sadly, to some who also claim to be believers): that ‘that Man’ is God in the flesh, and all that that means. So, there is a logic to it, even if we now know that it is based on believing the lie rather than the truth. The battle is spiritual, not logical/carnal. And, yes, it is the spirit of the antichrist and false prophet, so we continue to pray and to preach the gospel to our people that they might repent and believe, calling on the name of the Lord for salvation.

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