MESSIANICS

JEWS OR CHRISTIANS. WHO ARE THEY? - TYPES OF MESSIANICS

 © Carlos Padilla, March 2015

While at the convention of the Christian Finances Ministry, talking with several brothers from different countries about my English web Yahshua.net, the questions from their part where obliged: Why that name "Yahshua"? and, are you Messianic? As we know, today, before Christianity one must be denominationally classified or identified before it is doctrinally, instead of "you will know them by their fruits" as Jesus would say, Matthew 7:16.

In my case, the domain name Yahshua is due to the scarcity of Christian media that I found online, that would clarify that a true Messianic is also a Christian, because what matters is to follow Jesus Christ, or Yeshua, or Yahshua the Messiah; the same situation that Peter and Paul experienced with the first Christians from the Jews and from the Gentiles. They had to face the beginning of the Church era. We now find the situation again in this era. Today, as then, there are Jews who believe in the Son of God, Yahshua or Jesus Christ, that judaize, and other that do not. And many Christians, the majority, who don't know that in this time many Jews are receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour, according to Scripture.

The concept of "Messiah" originates from the Aramaic meshiha and the Hebrew mashiah, which means "anointed". In the people of Israel, the anointed was the high priest as well as the king, for both where anointed with oil. The patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, as well as the Persian king Cyrus, are also known as anointed, because in their hands was the kingdom of God. New Biblical Illustrated Dictionary, CLIE. Therefore David was the anointed of God. To be anointed with oil meant to receive a special gift of leadership, of liberation, of blessing of God for a mission from God. From the concept Messiah comes the Greek concept Christos o Christ, which make Jesus to be known as the "Son of David" as well as "Son of Man and Son of God". Messianic and Christian really mean the same, but are not conceived the same, and nowadays its meaning is not known and it is not used well.

THE FIGURE OF THE MESSIAH AND TYPES OF MESSIANIC

A bit of history about the figure of the Messiah will help us to place ourselves with respect to what it has been and what it is, to date, a Messianic according to the messiah that is expected. As we have seen, the principal figures in Israel were anointed for their people. But the mission of the messiah varies depending on what was expected from him. If the search is for an earthly king, a priest for religion, the situation is the same as in times of the O.T. but Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, not only for Israel, but for all humanity, is anointed by the Father to set us free from oppression definitely, not only from the world, or from the enemies, but from sin and death and has the capacity to raise us from the dead and give us eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

However in the orthodox Israel they are still waiting for the messianic figure anointed to free the Jews from the oppression of the enemy nations that surround them, in the same way as they were expecting in Judea when Jesus came the first time, and who will allow for them to build the III Temple of Jerusalem to re-establish again the religious order of the O.T. Instead, we Christians await "according to His promises" the coming of Christ in glory at the end of time to establish His Kingdom for all nations, where we can live in peace and blessing, in His presence with all the saved, in the kingdom of justice; Revelation 1:7.

Within the Messianic of Jewish origin there are other groups that we could call Messianic-Christians. These are Christians of Jewish origin who believe in Jesus as the expected Messiah. From these two groups, one judaizes in its teaching trying that all others, Jews or Christians follow the Jewish traditions, do not permit to call the Lord Jesus, but Yeshua, or Yahshua, practice circumcision, and teach to separate from every form of Gentile life, worldly. The other Messianic-Christians are Christians who were born Jews, but do not impose Jewish traditions to others, do not judaize. Amongst them we find "Jews for Jesus". As we will remember these were precisely the problems that Peter and Paul had at the beginning of the Church.

Therefore we can divide the Messianic into four categories:

Jews Messianic Orthodox - They expect a messiah political king.

Jews Messianic-Christians-Judaizants - They believe in Yeshua the Messiah, like Christians and impose Jewish traditions.

Jews Messianic-Christians - They believe in Jesus Christ, Yeshua or Yahshua, as the Messiah and Lord and do not impose Jewish tradition.

Christians Messianic - Any Christian who expects the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ to reign at the end of time.

So, what type of Messianic are you?

CONCLUSION

I conclude, in spite of those I know that from the last there are two groups: the anti-Semitic who separate from Israel, and the Biblical who know that at the end Israel will be visited by Jesus Christ, the same we expect, who died on the Cross, and that God has a plan for Israel according to the prophecies of The Bible: Romans 11.

So, every Christian, whether they like it or not, is a Messianic. But not every Jew is a Messianic and not every Messianic is a Christian. The question to a Messianic is to know if it is a Christian or not. Who is from Jewish origin must not judaize. The Christian must receive the Messianic Jew who is a Christian and understand that this time is that which The Bible has prophesized as the "Restoration of Israel" and that God has a plan for those so they may see the true Messiah, the Son of God who was born in Bethlehem, was raised in Nazareth and died in Jerusalem raising to return at the en as the Messiah of humanity.

To read a study about Messianic prophecies you can read "Messianic - The Restoration of Israel".

The closing is from two Messianic Texts of The Bible:

...And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Daniel 9:26.

...Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities: ²¹And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also. ²²Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. ²³Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. Zechariah 8:20. Amen.