What is Messianic Judaism?

 

 

We are integrally connected with the modern re-emergence of a very Jewish movement, the Messianic synagogue movement, a movement committed to our Jewish heritage, traditions, people and life.

For centuries the devout among us have longed for the coming of our promised Messiah. We have found him! When he came, he fulfilled prediction after prediction made by Israel's ancient prophets. He said he came to carry out G-d's purpose for our world and make good on his promises to our people; his mission was one of fulfillment (Matthew 5:17). In other words (as the term "fulfill" means in the language he spoke), he would uncover the depths and riches of our Scriptures and our heritage; he would showcase our traditions in all their beauty and brilliance; he would pack our beliefs and practices full of significance and meaning!

Everywhere he went, he touched people and transformed their lives; and he still does. A noted rabbi and author said: "Who can compute all that he has meant to humanity? The love he has inspired, the solace he has given, the good he has engendered, the hope and the joy he has kindled—all that is unequaled in human history." One of our foremost philosophers, Martin Buber, added: "I am more than ever certain that a great place belongs to him in Israel's history of faith and that this place cannot be described by any usual categories." Albert Einstein, one of our greatest scientists, observed: "He is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful." As the anonymous author poetically put it: "...all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, have not affected the life of mankind on this earth as has that one solitary life."

As Messianic Jews, then, we have accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and have accepted G-d's provision of atonement through him. We acknowledge him as the one who fulfilled our prophets' predictions and who rose from the dead, a fact concerning which history bears eloquent testimony. This historical evidence brought Orthodox Jewish scholar, Pinhas Lapide, to acknowledge (Time, May 7, 1979, pp. 88f; cf. The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective): "his Ressurrection was a Jewish affair...he is a dead Jew revived by the will of God."