We Are NOT "Jews for Jesus"!
Clarification for the FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) ...
How does "Messianic Judaism" differ from "Jews for Jesus"?
DISCLAIMER: This position paper is written by Rabbi Bruce Cohen of Congregation Beth El of Manahattan, a Messianic Jewish Synagogue. He is solely responsible for its content, and does not represent this paper as the offering of any organization other than his own synagogue.
The answer to that question is quite simple. It has two parts.
Firstly, "Jews for JesusTM" is the trademark name of an organization based in San Francisco, California. It is a Christian evangelical organization founded nearly twenty years ago by a Jewish-born Baptist minister named Moishe Rosen.
Asking a Jewish believer in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, "Are you a 'Jews for Jesus'"? is like asking someone in the photo-copying industry, "Are you a XeroxTM?"
"Jews for Jesus" is simply one organization's name. "Messianic Judaism is the nomenclature for an entire world-wide movement of Jewish people not represented by ANY one organization. There are dozens of organizations within its sphere.
Asking a Jewish believer in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, "Are you
a 'Jews for Jesus'"? is like asking someone in the photo-copying
industry, "Are you a XeroxTM?"
Secondly, "Jews for Jesus" primarily functions through literature and street-evangelism campaigns conducted either by visiting teams or permanent stations located throughout the United States and the world. Their staff is composed of workers they call "missionaries" in the classic Christian model of evangelism: missionaries do mission work in a mission field, seeking to convert their "target-population" to Christianity. Jews for Jesus functions this way, seeking to convert Jewish people to Christianity; 99% of the Jewish people whom they meet, they refer to Christian churches for the furtherance of their faith lives.
Messianic Judaism primarily functions as a synagogual movement of Jewish people who believe that faith in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth as the Messiah SHOULD NOT be expressed in a departure from synagogual Judaism, Jewish life, biblically-sound Jewish religious practice, or Jewish culture.(see Acts 21:18-25 and Jeremiah 31:35-37)
Messianic Jews express their faith in "Messianic synagogues," which are New Testament houses of Jewish worship, committed in varying degrees (according to their understanding of New Testament instruction), to the three pillars of Jewish life: (1) circumcision of sons, (2) observance of the Torah, and (3) the customs of our Jewish forefathers. (see Acts 21:18-25 and Jeremiah 31:35-37) Central to "Messianic Jewish" (as compared to "Hebrew Christian") expression is the existence of the synagogue, and the life-practices it allows.
A much more detailed position paper on this subject is available at Why Messianic Judaism? The paper there goes into real depth on this point of doctrine.
Thank you for caring enough to get an answer to this FAQ.
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Faith in Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth as the Messiah SHOULD NOT be expressed in a departure from synagogual Judaism. . .