Messianic Judaism

Christianity can be hard. Judaism even harder. But what happens when you are caught between both worlds?

Total chaos.

Judaism doesn't like you because you are still a Christian. Christianity doesn't like you because they think you are turning Jewish. It's quite an interesting place to reside. But who can run from God? When you pray and beg God for truth, consider 2 things. One, God will answer you. Two, are you prepared for His answer? As Jesus once said, "Count the cost..."

And there will be cost.

As I began to study with Eric, I was led to the world of Messianic Judaism. This movement can best be described as people who believe Jesus is the Messiah and also hold to the Hebraic roots of the Christianity. They take into consideration that Jesus, the disciples, the first church, and Paul were all Jews. They lived, taught, and thought in a Hebrew mindset. Greek influence was something that was trying to take over the Jewish world. Many Jews resisted, many did not. Those who did not eventually took over the church. Many of the most notable changes occurred during Roman Emperor Constantine's rule. This began the reign of the Roman Catholic Church. Messianic Judaism attempts to go back in time to the pre-Roman era of "Christianity" and to find what the first followers of Jesus did.

I was beyond excited to take on this endeavor. To think that we could actually live like Jesus did. Speak His language. Keep His festivals. Follow His Torah. All of this was worth the cost to me. And so I traveled this road. It was a tough road no doubt. 25 years of Gentile/Christian thinking had to be chiseled away. Greek thoughts, practices, and traditions had to be removed. It was a slow process as well. At times I found myself living the best of all worlds. Celebrating Christmas, Easter, Passover, Chanukah, Yom Kippur, Halloween, etc. It all seemed "kosher" to me. My excitement in what I was learning began to spill over into my church life. At the time, I taught Sunday School to 11th and 12th grade students. I began to slowly introduce them to new ideas and show them from Scripture why we had it wrong for so long. To my amazement, they saw it too! Well, those who were paying attention to me. I wanted everyone to know and see what I was seeing. Eric and I started a Messianic Synagogue and began to reach out to anyone who wanted to learn. Really, it was just us at first. We tried to share, but people just weren't interested. We would get discouraged, but we kept on fighting. I had to. I had a new focus! Not only did I think God wanted me to evangelize the Jewish people and lead them to their Messiah, but now God wanted me to show the church the errors of its ways too.

I did not think the church was completely in error. Not by a long shot. It was still God's vehicle for showing His truth to the world. It had just gotten slightly off track over the years. This could be easily fixed. All we had to do was educate the people. Once we did this, we could all return to the original intent of God's church. And so the work began. By this time I was teaching Bible at a Christian High School along with teaching at church. I had great venues to share God's truth at! It would all be amazing.

Naivete can be so cruel...

Truth is, people love their traditions. We all do. It is just a fact of life. You can change, destroy, or manipulate a lot of things in a person's life, but messing with their traditions is strictly off limits! This was one hard lesson to learn.

It is one I will NEVER forget!