Messianic Gentiles?

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Reuter’s News Service, February 9, 2004, with the headline: “Messianic Gentiles?: dateline, Grand Rapids, Michigan—The weekly Messianic Jewish Sabbath service opened with prayer, lively music, and the swirl of divine Davidic dancing. Harking back to a tradition dating from King David, the dancers wore colorful outfits and moved together in choreographed movements of joy and praise. As they danced in the back of the sanctuary at a Christian Bible Church near Grand Rapids, teaching elder Mike Lorburg stood draped in a prayer shawl behind the pulpit in the front. He would soon recite scripture verses, some in Hebrew.

“Later, Rick Shantz, another of the congregation’s teaching elders would process through the worship space allowing people to touch the Torah. ‘It’s extremely important to realize that the Christian faith was initially a branch of Judaism,’ said Shantz in an interview before a recent Saturday service at the Tree of Life Congregation.

“The goal of the Messianic movement is to restore oneness of believers. Messianic believers say they have been and remain in a difficult bind. ‘We can be in the middle where we’re not really accepted by either side,’ said Terri Adamson, who along with her husband, T.L., coordinate the small Messianic group in Kalamazoo.

“ ‘Different denominations worship in different ways,’ Adamson said. She said her group happens to incorporate a Messianic Jewish approach.

“ ‘The Messianic movement,’ her husband said, ‘openly hails Yeshua, that is, Jesus, as the Savior of the world. But should that mean forsaking the use of Old Testament rules and rituals?’ he asked. ‘We don’t want to become Jewish. We’re Messianic Gentiles,’ Adamson said.

“ ‘We’re into friendship and not evangelization. We have a sprinkling of people in our congregation—Catholics, members of the Christian Reform Church, Lutherans, Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostals, and a few Jewish people,” said Lorburg, a salesman for a trucking company.

“ ‘We see this as an end-time movement of God. We are very strong supporters of Israel and the Jews according to biblical mandates, but we also believe that God loves all peoples equally, and non-Jews are given other lands and blessings as well,’ said T.L. Adamson.”

Tom: Dave, quoting from this article, it says, “We see this an end-time movement of God.”

Well, too many things that have been presented in this article are just so far from God. Where’s the church in this? Why are they Messianic Gentiles? What is that? Isn’t that the church? What are we talking about here?

Dave: It is a last days movement, I would say in the apostasy.

Tom: Yeah.

Dave: You’ve got all kinds of Catholics, members of the Christian Reform Church….

Tom: Seventh-Day Adventists.

Dave: …Seventh Day Adventists, and so forth. And a few Jewish people. It doesn’t say they’re Hebrew Christians. So it’s an ecumenical thing. The mistakes are rather glaring. For example, it says, “We believe God loves all people equally.” I would agree with that. “And non-Jews are given other lands and blessings as well.” So they believe that just as God gave the land of Israel to the Jews, so he gave France to the French, apparently, America to the Americans, whoever they are, Germany to the Germans. No, it’s simply not true. I often say, there is no people who were ever given a land except the Jews. So they’re a bit confused on there.

“We’re into friendship not evangelization.” I don’t know what that could mean. How could you be a real friend to a person and let them continue on their way to hell without giving them the gospel? And without the gospel, they can’t possibly be saved. So….

Tom: And, Dave, and then you bring them into your congregation and you have them—in the process of the worship—you allow them to touch the Torah. What is that? What kind of efficacious value might that have? I mean, it’s superstition.

Dave: It is; I don’t understand it. So, Tom, it sounds like somehow—these are Gentiles. These are not Jewish believers. Now if you are a Jew, then you have some roots back there. You would have some reason, for example, for celebrating the Passover. I believe the apostles—it’s clear, Paul and the other apostles celebrated the Passover: “This is something that would relate to my Jewish ancestors, and I, as a Jew, have a part in this.” But there’s no reason for Gentiles to go back and try to practice some of these Jewish customs. And further more, it says, you know, it talks about a custom harking back to a tradition dating from King David. Well, come on guys! You’re sure you can really trace this tradition back to King David? I don’t think so. So now we’ve got traditions that we’re building on. Jesus had nothing good to say about traditions. In Matthew 15, he said to the rabbis, “By your tradition, you have made void the word of God. Your traditions contradict the Bible.” And I’m afraid that’s whatever this tradition is that they’re relying upon, it has brought them into some practices and beliefs that contradict the Bible.

Tom: Dave, I know some people, and I have great respect for them, just love them, and their approach to learning about Jewish customs, and so on, is to better understand what God was saying in the Old Testament for us today, and then also some of the types that were presented—types, you mentioned earlier, shadows of things to come, that when we understand those better, we see the fulfillment better in the New Testament. Is there anything wrong with that?

Dave: No. That’s fine, but not studying the customs of the Jews, because the customs of the Jews, that would be…

Tom: Oh, I see.

Dave: …the customs of the Jews don’t come from the Bible. But we study the Bible. We study the Old Testament. Christ quoted the Old Testament. The apostles quoted the Old Testament. But, see, that would be, Tom—and this may upset some people, but anyway I guess I’ve been guilty of that before—there are many churches that celebrate the Seder, for example. That’s the Passover feast. Not that the congregation is doing it, but that you have a re-enactment, and supposedly you are seeing the gospel in this—the way the Jews now practice the Passover.

But that’s not from the Bible. You don’t learn about three cups and hiding leaven so you can search it out. You don’t read about the ritual that they actually go through. Now where it came from, I don’t know. It didn’t come from God, and I would not want to honor traditions of Jews and say, “Well, this is really inspired,” and so forth.

So we have to be very careful that we stick with the Bible. This is God’s Word.

Tom: Dave, one last point along that line. Jesus says in John 14: “I go and prepare a place….” And many have said He’s alluding to the marriages of Jewish people. In other words, the tradition there, the bridegroom goes away, prepares the place in his father’s home, comes back for the bride, and so on. What do you say to that?

Dave: I don’t think Jesus has been up in heaven building mansions for us all these years. On the other hand, my dad used to give a very good illustration of the…I don’t know whether we’ve given it before…but the very wealthy lady, remember?...In heaven, and she’s being shown around and she sees this fabulous mansion and thinks Wow, who’s is that? Well, the angel tells her it’s her maid’s. And she thinks wow, what is she going to have? And finally they get into the slums of heaven, if there is such a place, and this shack is so pitiful that she couldn’t resist asking, “Whose is that?” And the angel says, “Well, that’s yours.” She says, “What? How come? My maid has this mansion, and I’ve got this little shack?” And the angel says, “Well, we can only build with the materials you send up here.”

Well, it’s a good illustration, but I think Christ prepared the place for us at the cross by paying the penalty for our sin.