Should I Convert to Messianic Judaism?
By Jonathan Bernis,
President and CEO of Jewish Voice
I personally don’t believe in a conversion to Messianic Judaism. I believe in a change of heart. Biblically, conversion means “to turn” toward God, but there are many kinds of turnings. For instance, when an anti-Semite becomes a Christian and finds out that Jesus was a Jew and begins to love and appreciate the Jewish People, that’s, in a sense, a turning.
God may be giving you a love for and a commitment to the Jewish People, and that’s a wonderful revelation. The blindness is coming off of your eyes. Jews have a blindness that keeps them from recognizing Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. Many in the church have a blindness that keeps them from understanding their Jewish roots and God’s plan for Israel because they have bought into replacement theology.
God is doing a conversion in your heart and He is giving you a burden to pray for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but as far as a conversion to Messianic Judaism, I don’t think that’s biblically supported at all. If you choose to be a part of a Messianic congregation or a fellowship that prays for Israel and the Jewish People, then that’s wonderful.
Our message at Jewish Voice is not that Christians should convert to Messianic Judaism, but that the church needs to understand their debt of responsibility to provoke the Jewish People to jealousy, to pray for the salvation of Israel, and to understand it’s the restoration of the Jewish People that is the final great act before Jesus returns, the final great outpouring.
You should never feel like a second-class citizen just because you aren’t Jewish. We are one in the Messiah. Jew and Gentile become one in Him, and that’s extremely important. There are no favorites with God. There are Jews that are called to remain as Jews in Messiah, and there are non-circumcised Gentiles who are called to remain non-Jews who happen to love the Jewish People.
Frankly, for some Jewish People that’s a greater testimony than Jews like me who believe in Jesus. To see Gentiles who love the Jewish People and are embracing the God of Israel makes the Jewish People say, “Wow! That’s interesting.” It provokes them to jealousy.
Scriptures show us that God set apart the Jewish people
Prayers and blessings are fundamental to Jewish worship, and therefore to worship in Messianic Judaism as well. The Siddur (SID-dur), the Jewish prayer book, contains prayers and blessings used as liturgy in daily and special services at synagogue.
Yeshua HaMashiach (Yeh-SHOO-ah Ha-Mah-SHEE-akh) is Hebrew for “Jesus the Messiah ” Yeshua is a shortened version of the name Yehoshua (Yeh-HO-shoo-ah), which means “Adonai saves ” Mashiach is the Hebrew word for Messiah and means “anointed one
