(June 10, 2024 at 12:13 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:Quote:I am quite aware that Jews who do not accept Yeshua as their Messiah think quite sincerely that I have converted to xtianity,
You have. Accepting Jesus as the Messiah is what makes Christianity Christianity and what makes Christians Christians. It is THE defining characteristic - you can’t be a Christian without it, and without it, you can’t be a Christian.
But if you insist on calling yourself a Messianic Jew, go right ahead. You can call yourself Empress of The Alfalfa Fields if you like, but it doesn’t change what you are.
Boru
Accepting Yeshua as the Messiah makes Judaism what it was designed to be . . . a plan on its way to completion, that was designed with a specific ending in mind from the beginning. Many xtians adhere to this, but they do not divest themselves of the essential problem they accepted with the Greco-Roman concept of what the Messiah is, and the blatant changes to Messianic thought among Jews of the First Century made by those who were anxious to separate themselves from the political dangers of being proselytes to Judaism.
It is the Greco-Roman culture that xtianity is steeped in that I reject, preferring to adhere to the tenets laid down in the Scriptures, and the culture that is described there-in, and added to, if involuntarily, by my family.
Calling me an xtian is intrinsically incorrect, as I cannot adhere to anything that xtians put forth in their statements of beliefs other than that they also have acknowledged that Yeshua is the Messiah. Once having stated that, the various denominations start adding in what other beliefs inculcated in the pagan, Greco-Roman world. I begin reading them, and then sense a big tilt sign being flashed at me as they sharply digress from Torah.
Salvation is what YHWH promised us, and whomsoever will choose to follow the one named Salvation (Yeshua) may do so. But that salvation merely makes Gentiles proselytes to Judaism - God-fearers, and those that were first in acknowledging Yeshua as their Savior were in Judea, and attending the synagogues to understand and adhere to Judaism, as a culture and a religion. They ceased doing so before the First Century was completed, and the few that remained were ducking and running from the Roman Empire and from the Jews. Some stayed within a Jewish framework, but most accepted the changes inculcated by the so-called Church Fathers, who themselves rooted Judaism out of the western idea of xtianity. Indeed, they fathered an entirely different idea of how to follow Yeshua that has since spun out of control.
You seem to not realize there is a sharp dicotomy between Jews that accept Yeshua is the Messsiah, and live as Jews, and those Gentiles who accept the Greco-Roman idea of Yeshua as their Savior, and live as pagans. Calling me a xtian is pretty much the same as calling me a pagan, and I don't like it. Perhaps it is your upbringing in a pentacostal denomination that keeps you from recognizing that dicotomy, and you are still far more xtian yourself than you might believe.
I consider myself to be quite blessed to not have been raised in xtianity, nor steeped in any particular halacha as a Jew. I get to choose my way, guided by the Tanakh, and by G-d. Just the remnants of that mindset that float in the western consciousness are hard to avoid, but I do so by not connecting myself to any xtian ideas or practices as is possible. But I do admit that it completely confuses the xtians I know, as they do not undnerstand the Hebraic mindset. And those Gentiles seeking to shed their xtianity need to begin by following what is written in the Torah, and taught upon in midrashic form in the Apostolic writings, as those who are called Messianic Gentiles do so now.
But if your understanding of what a Messianic Jew is, is so codified as a denomination of xtianity, so be it. It simply means that you cannot divest yourself of xtian thought anymore than other xtians do.
