Page 31 - Prophetic Word Newsletter Archive 2010

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Consider this analysis of the Messianic movement by another of their own concerned leaders:

“…THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT…HAS GONE IN MANY DIRECTIONS BOTH DOCTRINALLY AS WELL AS
POSITIONALLY. WHAT WERE AT ONE TIME KNOWN AS HEBREW CHRISTIANS ARE NOW CALLING
THEMSELVES MESSIANIC JEWS. THIS IS BECAUSE AT THAT TIME HEBREW CHRISTIANS

WERE EXACTLY THAT: JEWISH BELIEVERS IN JESUS OR CHRISTIAN JEWS. HOWEVER, WE HAVE LATELY
SEEN THE EMERGENCE OF A SUB GROUP THAT HAS GROWN OUT OF THIS SOUND MESSIANIC POSITION,
AND HAVE BECOME “THE JEWISH ROOTS MOVEMENT.” THESE ARE GENTILES THAT HAVE BECOME AWARE
OF THE JEWISH ROOTS OF THEIR FAITH… THEY HAVE ADOPTED IN SOME CASES VIRTUALLY THE WHOLE
RABBINIC ORDER OF WORSHIP WHICH IS WHAT THEY UNDERSTAND AS BEING JEWISH.…MOST OF THESE
FOLKS ARE GENTILE AND ARE CAUGHT IN AN IDENTITY TRAP BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT JEWISH AND FEEL

THE NEED TO BE JEWISH, SO THEY HAVE TO GO OVERBOARD ON KIPPAS AND SHOFARS AND TALLITS
AND EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAS COME TO BE UNDERSTOOD TO BE THE DOMAIN OF JEWISH PEOPLE.
THEN THEY GET SO CONSUMED WITH JEWISH CULTURE THAT THEY ARE SIDETRACKED AWAY FROM WHAT
IS IMPORTANT: SHARING THE GOOD NEWS WITH THE JEWISH PEOPLE…THEY GET CAUGHT UP IN NON

PROFIT ENTERPRISES SUCH AS TRYING TO BE JEWISH…

BUT BRETHREN, JESUS CAME TO BRING THE WAY TO LIFE,
AND NOT THE WAY TO JEWISHNESS.

TRUE JEWISHNESS IS NOT MERELY THE EXTERNAL WEARING OF CLOTHES OR THE SPEAKING OF HEBREW
SENTENCES. IT'S ZEAL IN FULFILLING THE LORD’S COMMAND TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS TO THE JEW
FIRST, AND THEN TO THE GENTILE…I AM OFTEN VERY TROUBLED AT WHAT I SEE IN THE DIRECTION OF
THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT. IT WILL HAVE GRAVE CONSEQUENCES FOR INCOMING NEW BELIEVERS,

ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE GENTILE…THEY BRING FORTH LITTLE FRUIT FOR THE KINGDOM FROM
JEWISH PEOPLE COMING TO FAITH. RATHER THEY SPEND ALL THEIR TIME INTERNALLY
TRYING TO GET THEIR JEWISHNESS, AS THEY SEE IT, RIGHT.
THIS WHOLE BUSINESS IS IN GREAT NEED OF BEING ADDRESSED…”

CONDENSED FROM THIS ARTICLE: Dr Alan Poyner-Levison http://www.messianicassociation.org/ezine08-messIDcrisis.htm

The enlarged shaded emphasis in the above article is my doing in order to bring to the forefront what
diversion Satan is after in drawing Gentiles into mimicking the Messianic Jewish believer’s pattern of
serving God by means of becoming Torah-observant. We Gentile believers in Christ are not called to
become a new breed of “Gentile Jews” for Jesus, but rather to simply declare the message of Jesus to
the Jews! Becoming Torah-observant is not how to witness to the Jews. It is the Torah (Law of Moses)
which is presently blinding them, and dear Gentile believer in Christ, if you yourself now become
primarily focused on becoming Torah-observant, you place yourself in danger of becoming spiritually
blinded (as are the Jews) by submitting to the myriad of laws contained within the Law of Moses! Listen
to the warning of Jewish Paul who was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning…the Law-blameless” (Phil. 3:5):

“FOR UNTIL THIS DAY THE SAME VEIL REMAINS UNLIFTED IN THE READING OF THE OLD
TESTAMENT, BECAUSE THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY IN CHRIST. BUT EVEN TO THIS DAY, WHEN
MOSES IS READ, A VEIL LIES ON THEIR HEART. NEVERTHELESS, WHEN ONE TURNS TO THE

LORD, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY. NOW THE LORD IS THE SPIRIT;
AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY” 2 Cor. 3:14-16

“THIS ONLY I WANT TO LEARN FROM YOU: DID YOU RECEIVE THE SPIRIT
BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, OR BY THE HEARING OF FAITH? ARE YOU SO FOOLISH? HAVING BEGUN
IN THE SPIRIT, ARE YOU NOW BEING MADE PERFECT BY THE FLESH?…THE LAW WAS OUR TUTOR TO
BRING US TO CHRIST. BUT AFTER FAITH HAS COME, WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER A TUTOR…THERE IS

NEITHER JEW NOR GREEK…YOU ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS” Gal. 3:2-3, 24-28
“STAND FAST THEREFORE IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE, AND DO NOT BE
ENTANGLED AGAIN IN A YOKE OF BONDAGE…I TESTIFY TO EVERY MAN WHO BECOMES CIRCUMCISED
THAT HE IS A DEBTOR TO KEEP THE WHOLE LAW...THIS PERSUASION DOES NOT COME FROM HIM

WHO CALLS YOU.” Gal. 5:1-8 excerpts

These are but three brief sets of many passages in which Paul declares war on the Judaizers in his
day who sought to turn Gentile Christians to submission to the Law of Moses. Does Paul encourage a
believer in Christ who has received the Spirit by faith to return to studying the dead letter of the Law of
Moses? Does he teach Gentiles to return to the instruction of the tutor, the Law of Moses, as a means
of becoming a better Christian? Does Paul support the notion of this segment of the Messianic
movement that to become Torah observant will now somehow perfect the work which began in us by
the receiving of the Spirit of Christ? Indeed, are we Gentile believers going to become so foolish?