They told me I am special. That they have never seen anything like it. A Jew who follows Jesus. Unheard of. Prophetic. Extraordinary.
And I believed.
Back then there weren’t that many of us, and when Christians heard that Jews were coming to faith in Jesus, they got excited, really excited, Kingdom Come excited.
God is fulfilling prophecy! Redemption is nigh! ”Their [Jews] acceptance [of Jesus] will be life from the dead!” (Rom. 11:15) they shouted from the pulpits.
I got excited too.
The Christian support was massive, exhilarating. “You are the key to world redemption,” we were told, and we believed it. “Jews and Gentiles in one Body, it will heal ancient divisions. Unite the Church. The missing link has arrived. Revival is coming. Authentic faith restored!”
Heady stuff. With biblical texts to support. So onward, and upward, we stretched our wings, believing, best we could, and took off around the world to hundreds of churches, nay thousands, to Christians who wanted reconciliation, with us, with Jews, with Israel.
Teach us, they said,...
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Thanks Israel Today for reprinting this article.
Somehow I think God is going to give an increased revelation to the Messianics in Israel as to their unique role. At the same time, I also believe God is going to give an increased revelation to the Gentile believers that will reflect a humbling of themselves before the Jewish Yeshua and his Jewish followers.
What does Yeshua want to inform the non-Jews when he says, “Salvation comes from the Jews”??
First and foremost is the FIRST FACT THAT YESHUA WAS A COMPLETE JEW! Then for any one who calls themselves a Christian or Follower of YESHUA, that the Christian has REPLACED THE JEW OR CALLED “REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY”……I call it Evil or have said it comes right out of the pits of Hell! YHWH OR YESHUA FROM GENESIS 1, THROUGH THE WHOLE BIBLE KNOWS WHERE HIS OFFSPRING ARE…….HIS TIME FOR THUS WHOLE WORLD……..YES, ROMANS AS WELL AS THE WHOLE HOLY WORD OF ALMIGHTY YHWH SEEMS TO BE COMING TO AN EARTHLY CLOSE! BUT NOT AN ETERNAL CLOSE! Much Love, Gay Ford
I very much appreciate and enjoy your writings, Mr. Lazarus. May God continue to bless you, your family, and your work.
I agree with the previous commenter, thank you for reprinting this article. Mr Lazarus places a very important question in front of us: where do we go from here? If we are not to just be evangelical churches that say “Yeshua”, then our focus must be the restoration of Zion and we must not ignore 3,000 years of Jewish bible interpretation. A more Jewish approach to scripture would give new life to the Jewish hermeneutic which Jesus and the apostles themselves used. But it will require us to re-examine some long held assumptions such as: Was Jesus against the Pharisees? Or did he teach from a Pharisaic perspective? What exactly do we have in common with the Messianic Yeshua Believers of the first century?
I am also intrigued about the “digression” in this article. Would it be possible for Mr Lazarus to perhaps write another article expanding the idea of how Messianic Jews are engaging in Israel to apply Torah to national life in the Land?
I appreciate the common assumptions you point to that ought be questioned. Good to know others are thinking along these lines. I will certainly give thought to reporting on how Messianic Jews are engaging with and contributing to our national conversation on how our nation can fulfill our destiny with Torah and the Messiah’s guiding Spirit. For now let me say that some young professionals are actively involved in helping our government, our politicians, and in civil affairs edge our nation closer to our constitution – the Bible. Others, and some of my generation, meet regularly with local rabbis in a variety of forums to learn and discuss Torah and Halacha, times that are proving to be exhilarating in what we are learning from one another. Shalom and thanks.
As a messianic rabbi with a congregation in America, we had a young jewish messianic sabra who had moved to the states as part of our congregation. He came short of mocking us for running our congregation by the template of synagogue services instead of like messianic congregation in Israel do it. I do think that if is a really sad state of affairs, and I do agree that something needs to be done in addressing the relevance of products halacha. I try to do that with my congregation using the advice given us in the Brit haChadasha, as well as in the Didache.
MESSIANIC JUDAISM IS SUFFERING FROM A CRISIS OF IDENTITY
We have been called but we have failed to see for what special purpose we have been called. We must not be just another of many Christian denominations. We must not do, as Christian Evangelicals do. Our identity and our role is to be as the Messianic Jews of the First Century were, the Essenes of Qumran, and to do as they did.
The Essenes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, saw the corruption among mainstream Judaism and rejected it, setting themselves apart both physically and scripturally, moving into the Judaean wilderness. They were a remnant of Israel who understood the prophets. And out of them emerged Elijah in the form of John the Baptizer, himself a voice in the wilderness who denounced the corruption he saw in Jerusalem and the Temple and preached repentance, thus preparing the way for the coming of Moshiach, as prophesied by Isaiah (suffering servant) and Daniel (to be “cut off”).
Today, as in the 1st century B.C. we see mainstream Christian Evangelicalism both within Protestantism and Catholicism becoming increasingly corrupt and politicized, chasing after false prophets. We must denounce their corruption drawing a clear line of separation from them.
Instead, as we see the Messianic age coming to an end, we must see ourselves as the true ‘remnant’ of Israel from whom will emerge the two Olive Branches to prepare the way for the end of time and the return of Yeshua — no longer as the ‘suffering servant’ but as the ‘conquering King’.
Thank you David Lazarus for such an honest and deeply felt “confession”. I used to be a member of your very insightful reading group and could sometimes sense your frustrations with the opinions of some of our evangelical members. I think a major problem is that most of them come from churches rooted in Greek/Latin philosophy (whether they realize it or not) and they are not going to take any criticism of their beliefs (the Nature of God, Trinity, Easter and Sunday observance etc), they just like to add to them and would be very happy if you could accept the whole package, too. If Yeshua came today, He wouldn’t recognise His teachings there. The 1st century church was considered by the Romans to be an offshoot or branch of Judaism, so simmilar it looked. I don’t think anything will change unless those Christians start looking back to Jerusalem apostolic church and are prepared to reject all later additions. Some have already done so but life is not easy for us….As for the Messianic Believers – you need to find your own way of accommodating faith in Yeshua into the ancient revelations, national promises and destiny of Israel. And maybe there are also some extra biblical later additions that you would be prepared to shed.
All the best!
And He Himself will do it! We have a humble yet important role as true witnesses to Him, as examples of His faithful betrothed, and as His hands and feet and heart to the willing. Yet it is His Kingdom driven by His Truth and Love. He will sit on David’s throne in Zion. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Jesus is the victory! We must follow Him!
AMEN & AMEN
Messianic Jews were a joy to receive in the body of Christ. It took a little while for evangelicals to realise that Israel, not the church was the umbrella under which we would all identify. The appearance of physical Israel brought the challenge of understanding the church as a nation, indeed “a holy nation”, 1 Pet 2:9.
Although the church very much became a political entity from its establishment by Constantine in the 3rd century it chose to separate the spiritual from the temporal. The church divorced itself from the nation and became rather holier than thou. Yet it launched the Crusades, the Inquisition and on many occasions claimed the divine right of its kings and leaders. The church was easily compromised by political rulers in every nation it operated, and still is today.
The church knew it should be a nation but could never learn how to be a nation. It often made grand pronouncements to assert its divine position among the nations, even quoting scriptures, but because it had firmly rejected Israel, it had firmly rejected its national identity.
Those of us who have embraced Israel are finding that we do have a national identity after all. Israel’s problems are our problems, we want to bear their burdens with them, Gal 6:2. Israel’s Messiah is our Messiah. Israel is God’s witness to the world. They witness His spiritual and temporal life. They stand against spiritual idolatry as well as the “God is dead” mentality of modern and postmodern society, with its degenerating descent into immorality, wickedness and being empowered to do whatever is right in your own eyes.
Physical Israel doesn’t necessarily understand that this is how the Lord has used them, is using them and will use them but one day they will understand their part in Messiah as well as other believers. All we have to do now is to get the church and Israel to realise this.
Enjoyed the article; am taking it in with much thought & Prayer. One thing for sure GODS WORD is always True. For you are all sons of GOD through Faith in MESSIAH JESUS. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female: for you are all one in MESSIAH JESUS…GOD Bless ISRAEL & our HOPE is in JESUS soon RETURN….
Sadly the church has become institutionalized and its mission had become to institutionalize everybody else. Too many Israeli messianics were taught and trained under the institution. I say bury the institution. Run from the institution. Base your gatherings on the book of acts and the rest of the new covenant. Base your life strictly on the word. Men have cluttered it all up. Yes, a rather simpleton response but hey,I’m a simpleton.????
Thank you for sharing your heart, David. Fascinating to think about your role. What a privilege!