Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu (Paul Hudson Jr) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Messianic Judaism Message-ID: Date: 17 May 91 06:50:49 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Georgia, Athens Lines: 31 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I think you are a little hard on Messianic Judaism. I don't think it is fair to say that Messianic Judaism tries to separate the body of Christ. How much contact have you had with Messianics? There is diversity in the movement. So it is not fair to clump them all into one group and make such generalizations. i have a friend who is a Messianic (Gentile, actually I know a Messianic Jew as well. A Baptist, Messianic Jew.) He calls himself Christian. There is nothing wrong with keeping the law of Moses (as long as the proper motives are behind it.) The first century church in Jerusalem kept the law. For one thing, because it was natural for them. Paul and the other apostles did not go around trying to force dietary and Jewish cultural practices on Gentiles (except to the extent that it related to religious practices that were proper for both Jews and Gentiles, for example, the mikveh-Jesus commanded baptism. Laying hands on people, etc.) Why should we force Jewish Christians to become Gentiles? What is wrong with using the Hebrew root of the word Christian. I don't think that anyone should be ashamed to use the word Christian. But the Jewish word for Christ (Christos) is Messiah. Messianic is at least loosely based on the Hebrew word. Here is an interesting idea. When the apostles took the gospel to the Gentiles, they transliterated the name "Yeshua" into "Yesus," a word that could be written and pronounced in Greek. But they literally translated the word Messiah (the Annointed On ) into Christ. Why don't we call Jesus, Jesus the Annointed One instead of transliterating the Greek term? Link Hudson