Publication Announcement
Is Yeshua the hoped for Messiah? Is he Salvation as his name implies? What makes Yeshua different from all the other would-be Messiahs scattered about Jewish history?
As a Jew who believes that Yeshua was and is King Messiah, a number of years ago, I attempted to teach a course on the Good News about Yeshua, and predictably found a tremendous lack of appropriate material, so I began to write up my own explanation of the דרך ישוע: the Way of Salvation. Derech Yeshua being an obvious play on words, I yet felt it to be a convenient title, and so have stuck with it. Since that time on the University of Washington campus other contributions have been made. Thankfully. Since then Sam Nadler, Derek Leman and others have produced great literature, but I still needed something I felt that I could comfortably put in the hands of Jewish person who I was talking to. I wanted something that would answer at least some of their questions about my faith that Yeshua is Messiah. At the end of a long, slow process, with the help of an excellent proofreader (thank you Meirav!) and a talented Messianic Israeli graphic artist (thank you, Steve at www.giantjellyfish.com!) and Lois Gable (thank you, too!) who did a great cover, not to mention generous donations that helped to cover our many costs, Derech Yeshua is now in print.
One of the issues that needs to be addressed, and I hope that I have at least partially done so, is that Jews who are considering the claims of Jesus are also implicitly required to accept a whole truck load of other baggage. This ‘baggage’ is a load of cultural and communal expectations. In many cases this culminates in a rejection of the Jewish people in favour of the church. Derech Yeshua says that yes, you can be Jewish and believe in Jesus. It is my heartfelt desire that this might be at least one spark that will help to ignite an acceptance, turning to, and recognition of Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel from within the Jewish world.
If you are in the UK, you can order the book from this link. Derech Yeshua is 128 in paperback.
Every chapter concludes with discussion questions, making this book suitable for small study groups.
Lastly, if you are a Jewish person who wants to know more about Yeshua – or if you have a Jewish friend who is enquiring and wants to know more about Yeshua – please just email my office at info@chosenpeople.org.uk or call +44 208-455-7911 and we will send you a copy for free!
Filed under: Jewish Life, Judaism, Messianic Judaism | Tagged: Christ, Derech Yeshua, Discipleship, jesus, judaism, Messiah, messianic judaism, Moshiach, Salvation, yeshua |
Messianic Marzipan 
One thing I don’t understand, is why Messianic Jews don’t just call themselves Christians, when they technically are?
What would the Gentiles call themselves if Jews believed in a Jewish Messiah?
Christians… Which is what the Messianic Jews should be calling themselves.. I’ve noticed that they seem to have an aversion to that word, and I don’t understand why.
@sarabressler — If you would like truly to understand the distinctions by which Jewish Rav-Yeshua messianists should not be associated with the label Christian, you need look no farther than Christian history and how quickly it diverged from any understanding of Jewish perspective and the Jewish Messiah. What began as an entirely Jewish social movement was overtaken by non-Jews who then suppressed Jewish followers and Jewish perspective. Even Rav Shaul who is falsely charged with inventing Christianity did not identify himself as a Christian but rather as a Pharisee among Pharisees. While it is true that “Christos” was an attempt to translate “Messiah” into Judeo-Greek, the term “Christianos” appears only three times in the Apostolic writings, once to note its origin, once as a mistaken attempt to label Rav Shaul, and once to clarify that it was a slur and a term of persecution. Gentiles were mistaken even to accept that label for themselves, and there is no justification, theological or other, for Jews to accept it. Messianic Jews are not Christians and have never been so, neither technically nor historically. Messianic Jews are not of the same religious outlook as Hebrew Christians nor Jewish Christians nor Christianised Jews nor “Jews for Jesus”. Hence the term Christian does not apply to Messianic Jews, and those who falsely and mistakenly attempt to equate them simply do not understand who and what they are mis-labeling. Nonetheless, some confusion is understandable, because there are many who claim the label “Messianic” who do not conform to the “Messianic Jewish” religious and cultural paradigm. They also suffer from a version of your misunderstanding that would falsely equate Jewish Christians and Messianic Jews.
I hope that you may find this explanation helpful, though there is insufficient space in a post like this one to outline the details of the distinctions. I have not yet read the book described above, hence I cannot determine if you may find such distinctions outlined within it, though portions of its description hint that you might do so.
I’m gentile and believer in Yeshua as a Messiah, but solely from Jewish perspective I stopped calling myself a Christian. Why? Simply put, it doesn’t cover my faith. People that call themselves Christian usually believe dogmas that I don’t share and celebrate holidays I don’t, read their Bibles not in a Jewish way, etc. I’m also not calling myself Messianic. Why? Because there’s also a lot in that movement that I don’t agree with. It also doesn’t cover my faith, although I definitely feel closer to it. So, the Torah distinguishes between Jews and gentiles whether they believe in a certain figure as Moshiach or not. It’s nonsense to say that Jews who believe in Yeshua as Messiah are no longer Jews. You can differ in views and don’t agree with certain things, but they’re Jews. Same with gentiles. They’re G’d fearers and some of those started to believe in Yeshua as Mashiach from a Jewish perspective. To insist on putting labels, is just stubborn behaviour. Jews who believe in Yeshua as Mashiach are way closer to Torah (if they live after Yeshua’s teachings, which agree with most halachah) than secular Jews, or Buddhist Jews. The last ones would be totally fine, but the first ones not? Forget about it! Even many orthodox rabbis would disagree! So stop labeling and pushing, please and accept that Yeshua was part of Judaism and the NT is a witness of that, if you dare to study it honestly!
Reblogged this on and commented:
Here is a new book from a leader in the British Messianic Jewish community. I haven’t read it yet but hope get a copy at some point, anyone out there read it yet?
I can see how in the genealogical sense they are still Jews, so I can see saying Jew when relating to the heredity, but let’s look at the textbook definition of a Christian:
Definition of Christian (n)
Chris·tian
1.believer in Jesus Christ as savior: somebody whose religion is Christianity
2.from teachings of Jesus Christ: based on or relating to a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah, and acceptance of his teachings, contained in the Gospels
I know it’s a large umbrella term, but I don’t see why Messianic Jews have such an aversion to the word itself. There are tons of sects of Christianity, and I don’t think you should call yourself a Mormon, a Baptist, an Evangelist, or a Catholic, but if you accept Jesus or “Yeshua” as your Christ, than you’re a Christian.
I couldn’t a Buddhist and believe that Muhammad is the way to eternal salvation, I would be a Muslim.
The problem with the “textbook” or dictionary definition is that it was formulated by Christians who know nothing of who Rav Yeshua really was, because of inherited anti-Jewish views originating in Imperial Rome. Hence they also formulated a definition of a “Christ” that is far removed from the Jewish definition of “Messiah”, they formulated a character named “Jesus Christ” who is a fictional misrepresentation of the Israeli rabbi Rav Yeshua, and they denied the validity of Jewish particularism in order to substitute a universalistic claim for their non-Jewish and sometimes anti-Jewish religion. But their definitions and terminology do not apply to the Jewish Messiah nor to Messianic Jews; the viewpoints and doctrines and definitions of Messianic Judaism are different. It is precisely to emphasize these differences that Messianic Jews do not accept the standard Christian-invented terminology or its definitions. Messianic Jews intend to reclaim the original Israeli rabbi and to rescue his sullied reputation from the hands of Romanised Christians. There is a midrash about a leprous Messiah held captive in chains at the gates of Rome. Without retelling the entire midrash here, let me say that it is a goal of Messianic Jews to release the Messiah from his presumed captivity by Christianity, to heal his leprous reputation, and to repatriate him to Jewish territory where he belongs.
At issue here is not sects or denominations of Christianity, but rather sects within Judaism. Just as there are Bresslavers and Bratislavers, and Habad and Ponevitch and many others, so also there is a segment of the Jewish commonwealth comprising Jewish messianists who devote themselves to the teachings of their “admor” Rav Yeshua. They do not appreciate efforts to chain them to the gates of Christianity.