Love For His People: Are Messianic Jews different to Christians?

SHALOM!

Perhaps you've wondered why Messianic Jews don't call themselves Christians, and reasonably so. After all, don't we believe the same thing, and aren't we are part of the same family? Why the distinction?

If you find yourself puzzled, just imagine how confusing it is for Jewish people who come to realize that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah all along! What does that make them? Are they no longer Jewish? Or are Christians the new Israel in some meaning of the word? The way we understand our identity as believers is crucial to the way we live out our lives, and liberates us to become united as One New Man in Messiah.

Dr. Erez Soref, President

of ONE FOR ISRAEL

Messianic Jewish Identity

It's not always easy explaining to those that do not understand or perhaps do not want to that there is nothing more Jewish than believing in Jesus the Jewish Messiah.

For 2000 years we've been a bit of an oddity. On the one hand, Jewish tradition has rejected and excluded Jews who believe in Jesus. On the other hand, Christians also misunderstand us and our struggle with our Jewish identity.

Before we deal with what it means to be a believer and in particular a Jewish believer we must first answer the question: What does it mean to be Jewish?

Why Don't Many Jewish People Accept Jesus as Messiah?

It can be bewildering considering that Yeshua the Messiah was an Israeli-born Jew, grew up in a Jewish community, practiced Jewish laws and customs, worshiped God at the Jewish Temple, his original followers were Jewish, and that all of his teaching was based upon and rooted in the Jewish Scripture that so many Jewish people find him incompatible with Judaism… So why do we often hear today that “Jews don’t believe in Jesus”?