About Us

Messianic Judaism Defined

Another essay gave a very general and historical explanation of Messianic Judaism. But knowing that Messianic Judaism is a move of God to restore the ancient Nazarite sect of Judaism is not always specific enough to identify who is part of this movement.

Today there are many different religious organizations that either have Jewish followers of Yeshua among their members, or teach the Jewish roots of Christianity. Are all of these part of Messianic Judaism?

To answer that question, let us consider a few formal definitions of Messianic Judaism and then compare these to draw some conclusions.

This essay will also serve as an introduction to the two largest organizations of Messianic Jews.

Shema's Definition

Congregation Shema Yisrael of Rochester, NY, developed the following definition of Messianic Judaism:

Messianic Judaism is a restoration movement of congregations made up of Jews and Gentiles who worship Yeshua, Israel's Messiah, in the context of Jewish lifestyle and identity.

Consider each part of this claim.

First off, it is a restoration movement. God is restoring something that was once divinely created, by a "move of God" in which people can participate.

Anti-Semitism grew in the early church quite rapidly (Ignatius taught against Shabbat-worship in about 70 A.D., and about forty years later Justin Martyr popularized the doctrine that God had rejected Israel and the gentile church assumed all of Israel's benefits and blessings) and in 325 C.E., at the Council of Nicea, the splitting off of Christianity was finalized as Jewish practices became grounds for excommunication. Much later, in 1967, the Six Day Way saw Jerusalem again under Jewish control. The "Age of Gentiles" mentioned in Luke 21:24 was complete, and God began to restore the Jewishness of his Kingdom.

As a movement, Messianic Judaism has no denominational structure. There is no common bureaucracy or hierarchy, or required doctrinal unity. Each congregation is founded by God alone. (There are two organizations, the MJAA and UMJC, which ordain "Messianic Rabbis" for the sake of accountability. These organizations have also established some non-negotiable doctrine for their approved use of the term "Messianic Judaism/Jewish". But they do not orchestrate or lead the growth or practices of congregations.)

Next, Messianic Judaism is a congregational movement. This is a major distinction between it and groups such as Jews for Jesus that have similar theology but lack a congregational focus.

Third, Messianic Jewish congregations are made up of Jews and Gentiles. This is even true in Israel. It seems to be part of God's plans.

Fourth, we worship Yeshua, Israel's Messiah. Our focus on Yeshua is why we are "messianic". Our worship is in the spirit of Romans 12:1 -- offering ourselves wholly to God.

And finally, we have a context of Jewish lifestyle and identity. What we do and how we look matters as much as our theology. Our Jewish lifestyle and identity includes the commandments God gave the Jewish people "for all time" and "for all generations", discussed in the essay about Messianic Judaism historically.

The MJAA's Definition

The Messianic Jewish Allianance of America (MJAA) is the oldest organization of Messianic Jews (it was founded in 1915 as the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America). As an organization, it has two potentially confusing idiosyncrasies.

First, as an organization its membership is only individuals. An associated organization, the IAMCS, is where congregations are members. People sometimes will say "that's a MJAA congregation" and they are understood even if speaking imprecisely.

Second, the MJAA restricts its membership to people of Jewish lineage. Gentile believers attending an IAMCS congregation may only have "honored associate membership". This policy may seem divisive, but was adopted to prevent history from repeating itself: the leadership of the MJAA was worried that the organization's vision and policies might some day be "hijacked" by Gentiles just as happened to Yeshua's followers in second century. Since there are already so many organizations led by Gentile followers of Yeshua, it is actually not divisive to make sure one organization retains Jewish leadership.

However, this MJAA membership policy had a second consequence as its leadership delevoped their definition of Messianic Judaism.

Messianic Judaism is a Biblically-based movement of people who, as committed Jews, believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah of Israel of whom the Jewish Law and Prophets spoke.
-The MJAA website

According to this defintion, only "Jews" (by which they and we mean people of Jewish lineage, not Replacement Theology stuff) can be Messianic Jews. In an IAMCS congregation, the official term for a Gentile believer is "Messianic Gentile". This again can be divisive when people take this vocabulary about membership of a movement and try to force upon it unintended theology.

The UMJC's Definition

The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC) is the other large organization of Messianic Jews. It split off from the MJAA in 1979 to focus on helping its congregations participate in their local Jewish communities.

The UMJC is an organization whose members are congregations (like the IAMCS). However, individuals contribute and participate, so people sometimes will say "I belong to the UMJC" and they are understood even if speaking imprecisely.

The UMJC sidesteps the problems with the MJAA's definition of Messianic Judaism by only defining Messianic Judaism in terms of congregations.

Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish congregations and congregation-like groupings committed to Yeshua the Messiah that embrace the covenantal responsibility of Jewish life and identity rooted in Torah, expressed in tradition, renewed and applied in the context of the New Covenant.
-The UMJC website

The expanded version (link is a PDF File) of their definition of Messianic Judaism says a Messianic Jewish group must "be fully part of the Jewish people" and "serve as an authentic and effective representative of the Jewish people within the body of Messiah". This implies that a Messianic Jewish group be a group primarily of people of Jewish lineage, without explicitly saying so.

The Messianic Jewish Vision

All three of these definitions mention the movement while neglecting to mention the vision behind the movement. This vision was eloquently stated by Congregation Shema Yisrael as an understanding of:

God's continued faithfulness to Israel and the Jewish people, and His plan to use the Jewish people to be a light to all the nations.
God's only plan for salvation from sin and iniquity through a commitment to Yeshua HaMashiach
The value of Messianic Jewish congregations as a prophetic witness both to the Jewish community and to Gentile Christians.
The harmony between being Jewish and believing in Yeshua, and the continuity of the Jewish scriptures and the writings of the New Covenant.
The end-time spiritual revival of the Jewish people.

Although neither the MJAA nor the UMJC have such a nice statement of the Messianic Jewish vision, looking elsewhere on their webistes confirms that both organizations certainly agree with this explanation of it.

One aspect of the Messianic Jewish vision needs clarification. The phrase "end-time spiritual revival" calls Messianic Judaism to be a renewal movement within the Jewish people. Its purpose is to bring the descendants of Jacob to fullness in their special relationship with God: that through the love and power of Yeshua's covenant they can best live and proclaim their heritage of God's teachings of the Mosaic covenant.

As a renewal movement within Judaism, Messianic Judaism is not outsiders calling Jews to switch to a new creed; it is insiders helping Jews understand how God wants to relate to them through a Jewish messiah. The sought-after Jewish revival is for the Jewish community, not just individual Jews. The renewal is about a people being brought to intimacy with God more than it is about the promised eschatological implications of bringing Messiah's return (see Matthew 23:39 and Romans 11).

Discussion

We now have assembled some fairly strict requirements on what it means to be a Messianic Jew.

First, you must be a believer in Yeshua, committed to following him, and recognizing that the only assurance of salvation comes through following him.
Second, you must be part of a certain movement. This movement consists of congregations (or congregation-like groups) that are Biblically-based and identify with Torah and the Mosaic Covenant, and also making appropriate use of Jewish tradition and identifying as part of the Jewish people.
Thirdly, this implies that some or all of the people in your congregation (or group) are Jewish by lineage. Otherwise your congregation (or group) is not in itself proclaiming as a prophetic witness what God is doing among the Jewish people, and that God's plans still contain a role for the Jewish people.

We should also notice what is not required.

As a member of such a congregation, a Messianic Jew keeps Torah and some of the traditions of Judaism while participating in congregational activities. (For example, congregational life celebrates the appointed times and avoids food that is not scripturally kosher.) But this does not require that a Gentile believer who participates in Messianic Judaism must do such things at home. It is already a powerful witness of an amazing move of God that Gentile believers would be called to join a Messianic Jewish congregation; asking individuals who are not participants in the Mosaic Covenant to always pretend they are is needless and legalistic.

A Messianic Jewish congregation is Jewish because of what scripture teaches and because it accepts the responsibilities of Jewish life. It makes use of Rabbinical Jewish traditions, but is not Jewish because of this, just as a non-Jewish individual can adopt Rabbinical traditions without becoming Jewish. A Messianic Jewish congregation does not need to "Jewish" as defined by any one branch of Rabbinic Judaism, let alone all of them!

The specifics are vague about being part of the movement and part of a congregation or group. Should people be included who only attend the congregation on holidays? What about a family who shares the vision but has no local congregation to join? Such questions lack established answers.

It is also unclear whether a Gentile believer who belongs to a Messianic Jewish congregation can be called a "Messianic Jew". The definitions cited above disagree. In practice this is an issue of grammar. Perhaps a clearer phrase would reverse which word is the noun and which is the adjective: "Jewish Messianic". That would allow a Gentile to more clearly claim "I am a Messianic person, believing in Yeshua as the messiah, and I participate in a Jewish community." But currently the phrase everyone uses is "Messianic Jew", and applying this label to Gentile believers is often more confusing than helpful. When a Gentile is asked what religion they belong to, it does not take many more words to avoid the issue (like the UMJC definition) by saying "I am part of Messianic Judaism" or "I attend a Messianic Jewish congregation".