Some years ago, I attended a seminar in Phoenix produced by First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) called the Wooden Podium Conference. It was focused on equipping those of us who teach, but the information was illuminating to everyone who attended. FFOZ is largely an educational organization and one of its missions is to promote unity between the Messianic or “One Law” community and the traditional Evangelical church. This isn’t always easy, given some of the differences in perspective on Biblical issues.
One of the teachings provided at the conference included a “broad strokes of comparison” between the modern Evangelical church and the One Law movement. I thought as part of my Messianic Judaism 101 series, that presenting this list here would help to not only define the core values of the Messianic movement, but also to illustrate how both alike and unalike our Evangelical brothers and sisters are with their Messianic counterparts. The information I’m presenting is raw, and some of it may be outdated, as both the church and Messianics are continuing to evaluate their practices, relative to the Bible, and attempting to find the path that the Messiah has given all of his followers.
I’m presenting the same list of points and the same basic question for each point; does the result of each comparison maintain the relationship between Evangelicals and Messianics or does it break the relationship? Keep in mind that not all differences automatically break the relationship between Evangelicals and Messianics. Also remember that some of these values or attributes may be commonly held “stereotypes” and may not reflect each group or individual members within these groups.
All of the points I’m about to present were originally introduced by the FFOZ staff at the Wooden Podium conference and belong solely to them. Any conclusions drawn in this blog based on those points is strictly my own (with I pray, wisdom provided by the Spirit).
Point 1:
Evangelicals affirm the whole canon of Scripture.
Messianics affirm the whole canon of Scripture.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 2:
Evangelicals deny the authority of the Torah of Moses (recognizes moral law).
Messianics affirm the authority of the Torah (all commands are moral).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 3:
Evangelicals are primarily focused on salvation (eternal destiny in Heaven).
Messianics are primarily focused on the Kingdom of God (Tikkun Olam or “repairing the world”).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 4:
Evangelicals see Jesus primarily the Savior, providing justification.
Messianics see Yeshua as primarily Master, King, High Priest, and Savior, providing sanctification.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 5:
Evangelicals anticipate going to Heaven.
Messianics anticipate going to (New) Jerusalem after resurrection.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 6:
Evangelicals Affirm the resurrection of Jesus.
Messianics Affirm the resurrection of Yeshua.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 7:
Evangelicals affirm salvation by grace through faith.
Messianics affirm salvation by grace through faith.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 8:
Evangelicals affirm the call for repentance as defined by confession.
Messianics affirm the call for repentance as defined by transformation through the Spirit.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 9:
Evangelicals believe Christians are the new Israel (though this may be changing).
Messianics believe Christians are grafted into ancient Israel.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 10:
Evangelicals encourage good deeds.
Messianics mandate good deeds.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 11:
Evangelicals are primarily centered around meetings in a building.
Messianics are primarily centered around family and the home (though not true of all groups).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 12:
Evangelicals have a central mission of evangelism to non-believers.
Messianics have a central mission of introducing Torah to Christians (evangelism is a by product of living Holy or Torah/Messiah centered lives).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 13:
Evangelicals encourage Bible reading.
Messianics encourage Bible reading in the original language (at least to some degree).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 14:
Evangelicals tend to be open to diversity.
Messianics tend to be narrow and judgemental.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 15:
Evangelicals expect and depend upon their leaders for teaching and growth, though not 100%.
Messianics expect and depend on self-study and independent research for teaching and growth, though not 100%.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 16:
Evangelicals are willing to mix with the world in order to be a light to the community, though they sometimes are not distinguishable from the community.
Messianics are not really willing to mix with the world but see themselves as a light by appearing different than the community.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 17:
Evangelicals believe salvation frees you from “the Law” and that keeping the Law is a burden.
Messianics believe that salvation frees you to keep “the Law” (Torah) perfectly and sees it as a delight.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 18:
Evangelicals do not attempt to keep the Law and sees the Law as directly opposed to Grace.
Messianics attempt to keep the Law (Torah) to the best of their ability within their cultural contexts and sees Torah and Grace as co-existent rather than mutually exclusive concepts.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 19:
Evangelicals define a legalist as one who keeps the Law for any reason.
Messianics define a legalist as one who tries to keep the Law only for the purpose of “earning” salvation.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 20:
Evangelicals think of the commandments as either the 2 greatest commandments defined by Jesus (Mark 12:28-34) or the Ten commandments given at Sinai.
Messianics think of the 613 commandments as defined by Rambam or the entire Torah or Bible.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 21:
Evangelicals typically focus on the weighter matters of the Bible.
Messianics typically focus on more external matters (how to tie tzitzit and so on).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 22:
Evangelicals define the New Covenant as Matthew through Revelation, at least significantly modifying if not completely replacing the Old Covenant.
Messianics define New Covenant as written on our hearts, forgiveness of sins, and the restoration of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31).
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Point 23:
Evangelicals consider Torah keepers to be legalists.
Messianics consider Christians to be “lawless”.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
As you can see, there are some significant differences offered and the way some are represented in this list seems a bit harsh. I don’t know that I agree with all of these definitions, but remember, they’re meant to describe each movement’s general attributes as a whole, not the practices of individual congregations or particular believers. I don’t doubt though, that some Evangelicals and Messianics reading this list are going to feel insulted or at least chaff a bit at some of the terms employed.
I provided this list, not to continue to create divisions, but to try and define basic terms. It’s difficult to really understand what a Messianic is, particularly given the fact that there are so many inconsistencies between specific Messianic communities. In one sense, the Evangelical church has an advantage, in that it exists as more or less a single entity with a single set of core values within their theology. Messianics by contrast, are highly variable as a group and no two Messianic congregations do or even believe exactly in the same way.
Rather than render my own opinions regarding the list, I encourage anyone reading my blog (Evangelicals, Messianics, or anyone else) to write their own comments and observations, particularly on whether the differences outlined maintain or break the relationship between Evangelicals and Messianics. I can use that information in an analysis of these points and post your ideas and suggestions in a future blog in this series.
#1 by David Rudel - April 10th, 2009 at 21:02
Is this a typo?
Point 14:
Evangelicals tend to be open to diversity.
Messianics tend to be narrow and judgemental.
Maintains or Breaks the Relationship?
Depending on your definition of “Evangelical,” this seems rather odd. Evangelicals are not at all open to diversity…especially in the realm of doctrine. My understanding was that that was a big difference in Judaism…at least the willingness to discuss or put on the table what “normal” Christians would consider not even up for debate or inquiry.
One thing that is not mentioned here that I think might be worth looking into is the notion of “How do we/they/you conceive of sin?”
Evangelicals have an understanding of sin that, I believe, is rather different in timbre than what sin meant to the apostles and their Jewish and Hebrew forerunners.
#2 by James - April 12th, 2009 at 06:48
No typo. The folks that created the list (not me) believe that Messianics tend to be more rigid and closed minded about how to interpret the Bible than Evangelicals. Since the list is not mine, I can’t speak to its accuracy and, in the last paragraph in this blog, I did call for comments as to what folks thought of the list.
In our own way, Messianics as a group can be somewhat inflexible. I try to keep our particular congregation more open but there are some groups that are extremely dogmatic.