Jews who believe in Jesus betray Judaism.
Well what is Judaism to begin with? This is about as definitive as the opinion on who is a Jew. The definition is too hard to define in one blog and could be quite exhaustive in scope because of the smorgasbord of beliefs and traditions.
Judaism is largely what anyone wants it to be and modern day Judaism is more of a human invention of religious ideas, doctrines, practices, and superstitions rather than strict adherence’s to biblical precepts.
As previously stated on my last blog regarding contemporary Judaism I discussed how that Judaism has evolved from biblical times into an adaptive form of traditional teachings of men as expressed through the many ideas of the rabbis both past and present. Rabbinic Judaism has claimed the right as an authority of prophetic utterance which served originally to revise reshape and remold the structure of mainstream Judaism
To begin with Rabbinic Judaism evolved mainly from the Pharisaic tradition and was codified into various rulings and interpretations as handed down through many pieces of literature as being orthodoxy.
Prior to the destruction of the second temple there were different factions of religious Jews who took various positions on belief and observance. Several of these groups were the Essenes, Sadducee’s, and the Pharisees.
Today like then there are various divisions among those who make claims to the religion of Judaism. Some of these branches of Judaism encompass various forms of observance and belief whether you are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and groups such as the Karaites.
There is a vast diversity in the expressions of Judaism in that there are groups within groups and these compartmental groups have various traditional observances based on geographical influences. So to ultimately define Judaism both then and now wasn’t always definitive but nevertheless these groups tolerated each other to some degree even if there was no complete agreement.
Also there was yet another group that emerged and coexisted with these ancient religious groups of Jews and was known as Messianics. Not because they merely had messianic expectations and hopes such as was the case of many of the religious Jews of that time but because they believed in an actual Messianic figure.
The Jewish people have had several ancient as well as modern messiahs that have not impacted the world in the same way that the Jewish Messiah Yeshua or Jesus has. These groups or followers of these false messiahs usually fade out over the course of time and their followers or devotees are no longer in existence today and this will be the case for the Lubavitch as well who recently lost their candidate for the title.
These Messianic believers have always existed from the onset of Yeshua’s ministry 2000 years ago until modern times numbering as high as over 300,000 Jewish believers today. They too have a unique expression of their Judaism which is biblically based as the “New Covenant” people as outlined by the prophet in Jeremiah 31:31 and were considered originally as the “People of the Way” . Many of these people kept or tried to keep their cultural ties and identity within the Jewish community at large and they likewise deserve inclusion within the observant and religious Jewish community as well.
You know it wasn’t long ago that the Hasidic Jews were considered heretics and apostates just a few centuries ago but now today they have won the respect of the religious community having endured persecutions for their beliefs much like these Messianic Jews are suffering rejection and persecution today especially in Israel.
So who is betraying who here and by whose supreme authority can one group of Jews discriminate against another group? These Messianics have the same right to their personal expression of faith as being the heirs of the biblical promise in being new covenant Jews. These Jews still make claims and identify themselves with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In conclusion Messianic believers who hold to belief in Yeshua as the Messiah by seeing themselves as new covenant Jews have minimally only betrayed perhaps other viewpoints of Judaism but then again who among the Jewish community doesn’t have opinions or challenging views in regards to the nature of religious expression.
Lastly you can believe in Yeshua or Jesus and be faithful to a personal expression of Jewish faith who finds it origins based on the biblical authority of the Hebrew Scriptures.
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