"Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete."  Matthew 5:17

Jewish Heritage Revival
 

One Heritage United by Messiah
 
 

"After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice."  John 10:4
 

 

 

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Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations

Statement of Belief

 

Vice President Dr. H. Bruce Stokes answers the question: What is the UMB, and why be part of it?

The apostle Paul makes it clear in his letter to the Romans that Israel’s hardening toward the Gospel is an act of God for the benefit of the Gentiles. Salvation has come to Gentiles at the expense of Israel. But that does not mean that God has rejected Israel or that the Gentiles can boast of their acceptance. Because, Paul says, ultimately God will save all Israel. In other words, this hardening is a benefit to the Gentile but does not remove hope from Israel. How can this be?

Beyond explaining this mystery, Paul actually enlists the Gentile believers to assist him in reaching out to restore the remnant of Israel. He explains that the Gentiles will be used by God to bring Israel to faith in the Messiah. This happens when the promises made to Israel are being enjoyed by the Gentiles and that provokes Israel to jealousy.  Paul actually wants to use his place as apostle to the Gentiles to enlarge this jealousy. This means that the faith and practice of Gentile Christians must in some way reflect the profound truths of the Torah and the Prophets, so that the unbelieving, or assimilated, or religious Jew will see a righteousness based on faith as the basis of salvation.  And that saving faith is in Yeshua, the Messiah.

This then is the purpose of the UMB. Not another Jewish- Gentile group. Certainly we don’t need another organization to compete for our time, money, and effort.  We are all busy enough. But we do need a channel of communication and a strategy that will allow us to facilitate the relational unity of Jews and Gentiles in the Messiah and, more importantly, to engage in a ministry of provoking Israel to jealousy so that they will see and desire what is rightfully theirs. After all, the Gospel is to the Jew first, not to reject or remove Israel, but in order that all Israel might be saved. To accomplish this, we must work together as Jews and Gentiles committed to the restoration and salvation of all Israel.

Individuals, families, and congregations who join with the UMB have an opportunity to participate with believers in Israel, America, and around the world from every possible background united by a common theme – demonstrating God’s faithfulness through the remnant of Israel.  We are united in belief that God is bringing Israel to faith in her Messiah Yeshua, and that the Church is not truly complete without this emerging and authentic expression of Jewish faith in Messiah.

Basic Statement

The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC) envisions Messianic Judaism as a movement of Jewish congregations and groups committed to Yeshua the Messiah that embrace the covenantal responsibility of Jewish life and identity rooted in Torah, expressed in tradition, and renewed and applied in the context of the New Covenant. Messianic Jewish groups may also include those from non-Jewish backgrounds who have a confirmed call to participate fully in the life and destiny of the Jewish people. We are committed to embodying this definition in our constituent congregations and in our shared institutions. 

Expanded Statement

Jewish life is life in a concrete, historical community. Thus, Messianic Jewish groups must be fully part of the Jewish people, sharing its history and its covenantal responsibility as a people chosen by God. At the same time, faith in Yeshua also has a crucial communal dimension. This faith unites the Messianic Jewish community and the Christian Church, which is the assembly of the faithful from the nations who are joined to Israel through the Messiah.  Together the Messianic Jewish community and the Christian Church constitute the ekklesia, the one Body of Messiah, a community of Jews and Gentiles who in their ongoing distinction and mutual blessing anticipate the shalom of the world to come.  

For a Messianic Jewish group 1) to fulfill the covenantal responsibility incumbent upon all Jews, 2) to bear witness to Yeshua within the people of Israel, and 3) to serve as an authentic and effective representative of the Jewish people within the body of Messiah, it must place a priority on integration with  the wider Jewish world, while sustaining a vital corporate relationship with the Christian Church.

In the Messianic Jewish way of life, we seek to fulfill Israel's covenantal responsibility embodied in the Torah within a New Covenant context. Messianic Jewish halakhah is rooted in Scripture (Tanakh and the New Covenant writings), which is of unique sanctity and authority. It also draws upon Jewish tradition, especially those practices and concepts that have won near-universal acceptance by devout Jews through the centuries. Furthermore, as is common within Judaism, Messianic Judaism recognizes that halakhah is and must be dynamic, involving the application of the Torah to a wide variety of changing situations and circumstances.  

Messianic Judaism embraces the fullness of New Covenant realities available through Yeshua, and seeks to express them in forms drawn from Jewish experience and accessible to Jewish people.

UMJC Theology Committee; affirmed by delegate vote, July 20, 2005.

Source 1 - UMJC web site

Source 2 - UMJC web site