A Random Pew

From of a random pew, a book is thrown across the sanctuary during a Jewish Sabbath. It hits a teenage boy named Adam directly in the head, just hard enough to wake him up. He picked it up and then glanced behind his shoulder to see where the book came from. As he turned around, he recognized the faces of three boys from his school. He realized that those are the same boys who bully him for being a Messianic Jew. Jewish believers of all ages often run into this type of scenario day to day. Messianic Jews are thought to be a minority group and struggle to find an identity for themselves. Unfortunately, being labeled a minority can lead to the result of misconceptions (Yangarber-Hicks). The Messianic Judaism movement is a religious movement that is seen in a narrow perspective by society. People often view religious problems in one perspective when in reality there is much more to be understood. The belief in Messianic Judaism is the acceptance of Jesus and the fact that he is the Messiah. Messianic Jews accept their belief in Jesus, yet they yearn to stay faithful to Jewish customs (Yaakov). Messianic Judaism is the distinctive difference between Jewish and Christian beliefs. It is the partition between the two religions and roots tension within those congregations (Morgan and Weitzman 23-24). The movement dates back 2,000 years ago, but evoked more of a modern day attention after the Holocaust and World War Ⅱ. As of 2007, there were approximately 150,000 Messianic Jews in the United States and only 7,000 in Israel. The movement persists in finding a healthy medium for its people and strives to spread its ideas (Neusner). An overview of Messianic Judaism resonates from the faith of its people, therefore, projecting through its ment...

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... awakening that happened in stages: In the late 1800 's, then in the 1940 's-50 's, then after the 1967 war. Most times, Jewish individuals trusted the word of Jesus, however, kept living and identifying themselves as Jews. Soon after, Jewish followers migrated toward a bigger Gentile-Christian Church. Pretending to be unaware of what they are doing, numerous Jewish followers (or "Hebrew Christians" as they were called at that time) held gatherings. They soon created organizations, and by the mid-1970 's shaped their own religious groups. In the research to regain their Jewish identity, they settled with the agreement on a name change and that is now why Jewish believers are called Messianic Jews rather than Hebrew Christians. The change of religious philosophy turned into a new belief and gave birth to a distinctive movement known as the Messianic Judaism movement.