Rejection of Yeshua in favor of Orthodox Judaism: four main reasons

Many years ago, a man who had become well known in American Christian circles for teaching the Jewish roots of the faith renounced his faith in Yeshua and became an Orthodox Jew. This was a man who apparently experienced profound and wonderful things in the Holy Spirit. Many who knew the man or supported his ministry were shocked by his public announcement of conversion to rabbinic Judaism. How is this even possible? This is not the first time that a Christian or Messianic Jew has abandoned Yeshua in favor of Orthodox Judaism. However, this is one of those rare occasions when someone from the national level does this. The reasons he voiced for this conversion were mostly theological and historical in nature. It has been argued that there are contradictions in the New Testament which confirm that it is not the Word of God and that the worship of Yeshua is idolatry. I will touch on theological issues. But, based on my experience, even if a person believes that this is the primary reason, I place it only in fourth place on the list of reasons for abandoning Yeshua. As I observed those who abandoned Yeshua in favor of rabbinic Judaism, I noticed a clear repetition of a pattern. I express this in terms of four categories.

Inability to maintain a relationship with Yeshua

The first is the inability to maintain a living and active relationship with Yeshua himself and the New Testament reality. When experiences begin to be forgotten and the heart grows cold, a person becomes susceptible to mistakes and a legalistic approach to religion. Most Jewish believers in Yeshua came to Him through a dramatic experience. Visions, miracles, and powerful manifestations of the Spirit are very common. If we think back to the early days of passionate love, we can often notice that we gradually begin to drift. However, if we support this passion with a desire for the Lord, the realities of the New Testament remain just as alive, and we cannot allow them to be replaced. Paul calls any false religious priorities a loss of connection with “[the head] from which the whole body, being joined and held together by joints and bonds, grows in the stature of God” (Col. 2:19). When a person is correctly united with the Head, with Yeshua, he understands that the pre-New Testament ministry is like the light of a candle in comparison with the light of the Sun – so great is the superior glory of the New Testament. “That which is glorified does not even turn out to be glorious from this side, because of the predominant glory of the subsequent one.” In this case, loss of right orientation is the key to everything else and the most important reason why people can abandon Yeshua. Other reasons only strengthen it.

In addition, feeling like a new creation in the Messiah is critical to avoiding an identity crisis in which a person begins to look for greater importance in ethnicity than the Bible provides. The Jewish calling is important, but it is not more important than other callings in the Body of Messiah.

Rabbinic idolatry

The second reason is what I call rabbinic idolatry. Rabbinic idolatry is an unbalanced veneration of rabbinic sages and their teachings. We must remember that Rabbinic Judaism inherited the position of the rabbis of the first and second centuries who rejected Yeshua and the testimony of the apostles. This should lead us to assume that Rabbinic Judaism is corrupt. For all the extent of his legalism, the most important aspects of the Law are not practiced, and the main essence of the Law is often obscured. Rejection of Yeshua has resulted in a religious position that is at best inadequate and at worst a terrible mistake. Additionally, when one becomes immersed in rabbinic literature and legalism, one can lose perspective. For those who were not raised in rabbinic Judaism, the newness of all this rabbinic culture is fascinating. A person may quietly move away from Yeshua and become more focused on rabbinic thought than on Yeshua. I want you to understand correctly: the answer to rabbinic idolatry is not a complete rejection of rabbinic ideas and culture. There is a lot of good and beautiful things in them. The filter here is a renewed mind that is filled with the “charm of Yeshua” and weighs everything according to God’s Word with an emphasis on New Testament fulfillment (Rom. 12:2). When this is truly the case, a person can embrace good and wonderful traditions as he is led by the Spirit. However, intensive study of rabbinic literature is only for individual and spiritually established people who have a calling to it.

Failure to maintain accountability

The third reason for losing faith in Yeshua is the failure to maintain an accountability relationship. Such a person does not subordinate.

He communicates with the wise elders and goes his own way, often criticizing the Church or Jewish Messianic communities quite unfairly. When I returned to a strong commitment to Yeshua in my twenties, I had some knowledge of sociology and anthropology. These studies show that people conform to their primary social environment. About a hundred years ago, a group of anthropologists settled among primitive tribes and lived with them without any external connection. Some of them ended up becoming Bushmen! Without external connection and communication, they themselves became the same as the people they studied. After this, communication with the outside world became mandatory for such scientists! When I returned to the Lord, I knew that I would not grow in faith without deep and lasting relationships with those who shared it. Additionally, I knew that I would need to be accountable to the elders in my spiritual development. This is God’s order. People leave accountability relationships long before they eventually leave Yeshua. They begin to identify themselves first of all with that society which does not participate in the fellowship of the Spirit in the New Testament. Our main fellowship should be with our brothers and sisters in faith. This is the only way we can develop serious relationships with people of different views. For Jewish believers, the feeling of alienation from Jewish society and relatives can sometimes be very painful. They need to be prepared for this. This preparation includes a strong and deep relationship with committed believers in Yeshua.

Being misled by stupid arguments

The fourth reason is to be misled by stupid arguments. Today there is anti-missionary and anti-messianic literature. Their arguments are superficial and stereotypical. First, they point out contradictions in the New Testament that are not real contradictions and have various explanations. They then point out that the quotations in the New Testament do not correspond to the Hebrew Bible. What they don’t say is that the New Testament generally quotes from what was considered the authoritative Hebrew translation into Greek in the first century, the Septuagint. Due to its popularity in Christian society, Jewish society abandoned the use of this translation several centuries later. However, the textual tradition of the Septuagint remains strong and valid. The differences in most quotations are very minor and none of them significantly change the doctrinal conclusions. In addition, some anti-Messianic Jews emphasize radical liberal “Christian” teachings that admit contradictions and the mythical nature of the New Testament. And then they claim that Christian leaders are hiding this information.

These arguments are examples of incorrect weights and measures. Why? First of all, regarding the quotations, such a person needs to become more familiar with rabbinic interpretation in order to understand the level of bizarre interpretation that the followers of Yeshua could not even imagine. Does Rabbinic Judaism often deviate from the text in context? Oh, yes all the time!

Moreover, if we are going to look at the radical liberal school, let’s do it evenhandedly. Such teaching rejects the Divine origin of the Torah and presents us with a Torah that is the product of primitive stories and retellings of stories during a tribal campfire gathering and then collected together centuries after the supposed time of Moses. They point out many apparent contradictions in the Torah and other Jewish biblical books. In any Christian or Messianic seminary these radical liberal theories are studied; they are not hiding at all. However, we consider these theories of unbelief to be useless in teaching our people, which is why we spend so little time teaching them. We are convinced that they simply do not have reliable evidence.

Better evidence

We have stronger evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament than the Torah. I believe both of these portions of Scripture completely. However, one of the good reasons to trust the Torah is what Yeshua taught about its authority and divine origin, and that He rose from the dead. However, without the teachings of Yeshua, we must rely on the evidence of Torah manuscripts from copies that were made, at best, 1200 years after the days of Moses. I believe that archeology has sufficient evidence for the authenticity of the Torah. However, they are much weaker than the evidence for the New Testament. For the New Testament, we have thousands of manuscripts based on original records from the first century. Almost all scholars agree that the disciples went to their deaths for their testimony of the resurrection of Yeshua. It is unlikely that we have stronger evidence of the reliability of any historical figure than Yeshua. Finally, God’s revelation of Himself in human form is predicted in many verses of the Torah and does not contradict anything in the Hebrew Bible except rabbinic speculation.

My heart goes out to those who refuse Yeshua. They strayed from the truth and sold their birthright for a bowl of stew. May they find their way back, and may we make the Messiah the dominant one in our lives, as the first Messianic Jews did.

Author – Dan Juster / tikkun.tv

Source: https://ieshua.org/otkaz-ot-ieshua-v-polzu-ortodoksalnogo-iudaizma-chetyre-glavnyh-prichiny.htm