Friday, January 28, 2011
Messianic Judaism
For those of you that scratched your heads when you read in my About Me section that I was a Messianic Jew, this is for you. Just as a reminder this is my opinion and view on what I believe to be Messianic Judaism if you disagree or want to clarify I encourage you to do some research. The purpose of Messianic Judaism is to restore the Jewish that the Bible has seemed to have lost in the past 2000 years. Also to call the Jewish people back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since I attended a Christian high school and have been confronted on what I believe and why I believe it I have come up with a pretty concise response. There are many Christians in the world, particularly new Christians, that Jesus was a Christian or a gentile. Well to rectify that misconception Jesus was as Jewish as Matzah on Passover at a Bar Mitzvah party. Now there is a lot of debate and skepticism on the law which we as Messianic Jews adhere to. The one with he biggest controversy or so I believe is eating Kosher. Now I have yet to decide what my stance is on following all of the 613 commands that God decrees through out the Torah (first five books of the Bible) however I have formulated a rough idea. Paul says many times that it is by faith not works but that dos not mean that works should be disregarded. I think that when it comes to following the commands of the Bible it is partially a case by case basis. In Romans Paul mentions the weak faith brother and the strong faith brother both have faith but live different lives. What I think is more important than determining what laws you should and shouldn't follow is knowing the history of Christ. The matter of the law is based mostly on peoples interpretations of many texts that are used repeatedly. The history and genealogical past that Christ comes from is far more important. My Dad explained his transition from Christianity to Messianic Judaism as such, "when I was a Christian it was like watching television in black and white, you could get the point but it wasn't complete. With Messianic Judaism it is like watching in color." Understanding the history that Christ came from and in fact lived out is essential in fully understanding his life and the story that God was telling through out the whole Bible and even today. One example of the understanding that comes from this knowledge is the "random" passages that Christ would quote from the Old Testament. Christ would attend service at the Synagogue every week and those passages were from the Torah portion from that week. In Judaism there is a Torah cycle which goes through the 5 books every year and there are specific readings for each week. Another example is the Last supper which was in fact a Passover Sedar. You can more fully understand the meaning of Christ being the sacrificial Lamb if you understand the connection to the first Passover when Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. So personally I don't care if you eat bacon or not but what I do care about is that if you are a believer in Christ that you understand everything he is and represents.
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