WE BELIEVE
SCRIPTURE: We believe that the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Covenant Scriptures (the "Scriptures") is the inspired, infallible, inerrant (in its original language) and authoritative Word of God. The Scriptures are the eternal, supreme Law and the fullest revelation of God to man. The Scriptures will serve as the ultimate authority for congregational life, teaching, conduct, doctrine, principles of faith, and perspective. The Scriptures are "valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults, and training in right living" (II Tim. 3:16).
NATURE OF GOD: We believe in the One and Only Living God, the Holy One of Israel, eternally existing in a complex unity revealed in three expressions — Av (Father); Ben (Son); and Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit), the G-d of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaacov. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. He creates and guides all creatures, and makes, and will make everything. He knows the hearts and actions of all men, and one day will reward the righteous and judge the unrighteous.
YESHUA HAMASHIACH: We believe that Yeshua of Nazareth is the one and only promised Messiah and Redeemer of Israel and of the world. He is the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, atoning death through His shed blood on the tree, His bodily resurrection on the third day, and His physical return as King of Israel and Master of the Universe in power and glory. By His life, death, and resurrection, He fulfilled the Messianic prophesies in the Hebrew Scriptures related to the Messiah's first coming. He bore the reproach of sinners and was afflicted even unto death on the tree. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our Iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Is. 53:5) He is the visible image of the invisible God, the exact representation of God’s nature, and the perfect expression of His Glory. He is the Word of God, the Living Torah, and the fullest representation of God to man. He is the Aleph and Tav, the first and last, the beginning and the end. He was eternally with the Father in the beginning and was not created. All things are created through Him and by Him. He is fully Divine and yet came in the flesh. The fullness of the Deity dwells in Him in bodily form. He and the Father are One (Echad). We believe in the total Deity and total humanity of the LORD Yeshua the Messiah.
SIN AND SALVATION: We believe that man was created b’tzelem Eloheim (in the image of God), but because of Adam's disobedience, fell into sin. We believe that unless man repents from his sin and accepts Yeshua HaMashiach as His Messiah, LORD, and Savior, and actively submits to and puts his trust in Him and in Him alone, he is condemned to eternal separation from God. Thus, for the salvation and redemption of man, regeneration by the Ruach haKodesh (Spirit of God), through trust in the person and work of Yeshua the Messiah, is absolutely essential. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through Him. The only provision God made for reconciling man to Himself was through the atoning work of Messiah Yeshua, who died as the kipporah (sacrifice) for our disobedience and rose again, manifesting His victory over sin and death.
HOLY SPIRIT: We believe in the work and presence of the Ruach HaKadesh (Holy Spirit) in the life of the Believer. He is the Comforter, Sealer, Guide, Gift-Giver, and by whose indwelling the Believer is enabled to live a godly life. He brings forth the fruit of righteousness in the lives of all followers of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit also gifts, orders, and leads the local body of Believers, enabling them to become a community of love and service.
THE CONGREGATION: We believe that those who are of the Ruach haKodesh become members of the universal people of God, or the Body of Messiah. Gentile Believers are grafted into the natural olive tree of Israel, and become part of the Commonwealth of Israel. This one spiritual fellowship thus includes both Jews and non-Jews as equal members of His body. We therefore believe in the spiritual unity of all Believers who truly trust in God through Yeshua the Messiah. The LORD Yeshua is the head of this body, and members find their place of service and worship in the local congregation.
COVENANTS WITH ISRAEL: We believe in the continuity of God’s eternal covenants with the physical people of Israel. Jewish followers of Yeshua are called to maintain Jewish biblical heritage and traditions, as expressed through the everlasting covenant of the Torah, and remain part of the people of Israel. This demonstrates our obedience to God and is also part of our identity, serving as a witness to God's faithfulness. We believe that God gave the Torah for moral instruction, which would point forward to the Messiah’s work. By the Torah, God sets forth a righteous standard for holy living and for preserving a distinct nation of Israel. Yeshua’s fulfillment of Messianic prophecy in no way annuls the Torah. (Mth. 5:17) Yeshua is the Living Word of God made flesh. The biblical commandments are Yeshua’s commandments. They are a revelation of the heart of God. They are therefore a reflection of Yeshua’s heart. The Scriptures guide and train us to become more like Him, because this is how He Himself lived and what was in His heart. However, righteousness with God is, and has always been, solely by His lovingkindness, grace, and mercy, through repentance and grace through faith. We also believe that Eretz Yisrael is the homeland of the Jews, as promised by God to our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzahk, and Yaacov, as an eternal inheritance. We believe that Yerushalyim is the City of the Great King, Yeshua the Messiah, from which He shall rule and reign upon His Return in power and glory, for the Torah shall go forth from Zion, and the Word of the LORD from Yerushalyim.
MARRIAGE, AND MORALITY: We believe God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of sexual immorality or perversion is sinful and offensive to God. We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Messiah Yeshua.
MESSIANIC JUDAISM
When someone says this “Messianic Jewish movement” didn’t start until the 20th century, you can smile.
Messianic Judaism is the oldest movement in Judaism, predating rabbinic Judaism and even predating Yeshua’s appearance on earth! Ever since Genesis Chapter 3, when God promised “the seed of the woman” would crush Satan’s head, the world has looked for a redeemer. God promised the world’s redeemer would come from the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the founding fathers of the people known today as Jews. The idea of the Messiah has been around since the book of Genesis. From the very beginning, Judaism was Messianic.
The largest movement within Messianic Judaism, however, occurred after the construction of the Second Temple. This was when the Jewish people expected the Messiah to come. And he did.
The “official” beginning of Messianic Judaism occurred almost two thousand years ago on a day (now known by much of the world as Pentecost) when 120 Jewish disciples of the risen Jesus gathered to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot. The Holy Spirit fell on them, and they were filled with God’s presence and power. This was the birth of the first Messianic congregation. Initially, these followers were called Natzarim (a reference to Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth), Jews who believed in Jesus—they called him by his Hebrew name, Yeshua, as their Messiah. And throughout the book of Acts, they numbered in the thousands!
The term “Christian” came from Gentile followers of Yeshua, much later. We don’t use this term much. But Messianic Jews share the essential beliefs of Christianity. “Christ” comes from “Cristos,” the Greek word for Messiah. At first, belief in Yeshua was regarded as another Jewish sect, as Rabbi Sha’ul (the apostle Paul) said in Acts 24:14. But over the years, the Gentile believers and the Jewish believers grew apart. In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem along with the entire city, isolating Jewish believers. By 135 AD, there were only a few Jews in Judea; the rest had been scattered in the Great Diaspora.
And when Roman emperor Constantine, who didn’t like Jews, adopted Christianity, he forbade any elements of Judaism. Up to then, Jewish believers continued to follow the Torah. But at the Council of Nicaea, circumcision was outlawed. The Sabbath was changed to Sunday. Christianity divorced itself from its Jewish foundation, and Messianic Jewish believers became fewer still.
However, there have been Jewish believers throughout history … here are a few:
• Hegesippus the Nazarene was a Jewish believer who wrote around 150 AD. Most of his writings have been lost, but church father Eusebius quotes him.
• Epiphanius of Salamis (320-403 AD) was a Jewish believer and author of the book Panarion.
• Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1225-1286) was a Jewish believer who wrote theology, philosophy, history, linguistics, and poetry.
• Joseph Frey, a Jewish believer in the early 1800s, began a Messianic outreach to other Jews in England and America, publishing the first Yiddish New Testament in 1821. Frey is largely credited with today’s Messianic movement.
• Dr. Carl Schwartz formed the London Hebrew Alliance of Great Britain in 1866.
• In Eastern Europe, Joseph Rabinowitz established a Hebrew Christian mission in Kishinev, Bessarabia (Chisinau, Moldova), in 1884. This was the first time a congregation called itself “Messianic Jews.”
Modern Messianic Judaism originated as a branch of the Jesus movement of the 1960s. Modern Messianic Jews sought a return to their biblical foundation.
• Joy Davidman (the wife of C.S. Lewis) and Keith Green were a couple of famous Jewish believers. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jewish believers worldwide.
Somehow, a belief has crept into Judaism that if a Jew accepts Yeshua as his Messiah and Savior, he can no longer be Jewish. This is not only profoundly wrong; it is silly. If you were born a Jew, you will die a Jew—regardless of your beliefs. Just as Jewish atheists are still Jews, Messianic Jews are still Jews.
For many Jews, the two thousand years of Christianity created another wall, when replacement theology (the unbiblical belief that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people) made it easy for people who called themselves Christians to persecute Jews. (This was one reason Rabbi Sha’ul had warned the Gentiles, in Romans chapter 11, not to be arrogant—the Jews are still God’s chosen people.) This feeling fed into persecutions and killings, such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, and the Holocaust. These times when Jews suffered and died because of the difference in beliefs only widened the gap between Jews and Christians.
Jewish Messianic Congregation of Jacksonville emphasizes the things Christians and Messianic Jews have in common. We believe, with Rabbi Sha’ul, that Yeshua destroyed the wall of separation between Jews and non-Jews. We look for unity with other believers. At JMCJ, we believe that Yeshua is the bridge between humanity and God. Still, we also believe in bridging the gap not only between believing Jews and Gentiles, but also between believing and nonbelieving Jews. Will you join us?