Shhh…dear blog readers, I’m going to tell you a secret. Don’t tell anyone, this is just between me and you, so I’ll whisper. You’re not gonna tell anyone, right? Good.
You know that whole Messianic Judaism thing? Yeah. This “Messianic movement” thing? Right. This Torah & Messiah faith? Well, by some estimates, it’s now 80% gentile. 
Similar to how Messiah’s original followers were all Jews, only to be overwhelmed by a massive gentile following in the decades after, the same has been true in Messianic Judaism. Initially almost entirely comprised of Jewish believers in the 1970s, Messianic Judaism has attracted a large number of gentiles who are fed up with the church and wish to return to the faith of Messiah and the disciples.
Naturally, this has re-opened those aged theological questions of the 1st century. Questions like, how much of the Torah is applicable to gentiles? Is Torah required for salvation? Can gentiles become part of Israel? Should Jews be distinguished from gentiles in a congregation and should they be treated differently? Is it a problem that we’re dominated by gentiles? Do gentiles need to formally convert? And what do we do with all these crazy gentiles?!
Derek Leman, a Messianic gentile who is formally converting to Messianic Judaism, asks the question, Who Let the Jews Out of Messianic Judaism? In that post, now harboring 87 comments of Jewish-gentile debate, Derek suggests yes, there is indeed a problem with Messianic Judaism being dominated by non-Jews:
“[Back in the 1970s] God, as I see it, was moving the hearts of Jews not only to follow Jesus as the long-promised Messiah, but also to identify as Jews and eventually to return to Judaism.
Increasingly, however, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Messianic Judaism became a haven for non-Jews looking to find a restoration of a perceived early church or some alternative to a church that had grown soft on Biblical practice and strong on revivalist tradition.
In other words, something God had been doing amongst Jewish people became a predominantly Gentile movement.”
Derek then suggests certain gentiles ought to leave the Messianic movement and “form their own movement” distinct from the Messianic movement.
Derek’s employer and affiliated Messianic organization, the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute (MJTI), is an organization on one extreme end of the spectrum: it calls for a clear separation of Jews and gentiles, desires for a completely-Jewish Messianic Judaism, and essentially asks gentiles to go back to the Church. MJTI leader Stuart Dauermann writes in his blog,
“We are a family friendly community of Jews and Intermarrieds. There is a place for some Gentiles in a Messianic Jewish congregation (besides the intermarried), but … how does such a person help us to honor our identity and achieve our goals? Gentiles who are not helping us get these jobs done serve as a hindrance to their accomplishment.
Gentiles not intermarried who are members of my congregation are a distinct minority, and must be people with a demonstrated calling to and involvement with the Jewish people, and not just those who "love the feasts," who want to keep the Sabbath and Torah.”
Dauermann even suggests that gentiles applying for membership in Messianic congregations should first answer a questionnaire that, in order to keep a Jewish majority in Messianic Judaism, is designed to send them back to the arms of Mother Church! He suggests gentile congregant-wannabes answer the following questions before being allowed membership:
- Do you believe in the basic legitimacy of the Church, in its many varieties, when it confesses the historic creeds; that its celebrations and sacraments are legitimate?
- Do you believe that Gentiles have a different relationship to the Torah than Jews and are not responsible as Jews for the Jewish patterns of life within the Mosaic revelation but only responsible for the universal ethical teachings of Torah as also expressed an applied in New Covenant teaching?
- Do you believe that as a Gentile believer in Yeshua, joining a Messianic Jewish congregation, you have a special calling to the Jewish people but reject the view that the Messianic Jewish congregation is a more ideal form of congregational life for all?
I’m certain God loves Rabbi Dauermann deeply and that God is using him in numerous ways, so I don’t wish to attack this brother in Messiah or the way God is using him. (Thank you, Lord, for Rabbi Dauermann!) One can be used by God and still have bad theology. (Isn't that true for all of us?) In this particular instance, I find Dauermann’s theology shameful.
No, Rabbi Dauermann, I do not believe in the basic creeds of the church, many of which are thoroughly anti-Jewish and ought have no place in the life of a Messiah-follower. And yes, gentiles grafted into the commonwealth of Israel should hear God’s Torah preached in the synagogues every sabbath, follow what they can, join Israel and become first-class citizens in God's kingdom.
A human policy which treats Jews and gentiles differently invariably leads to mistreatment and racial discrimination. It’s the 1950s policy of separate-but-equal, only with a religious twist.
Indeed, before my family found our Jewish ancestry, we experienced this very discrimination in certain Messianic congregations in our trek all over the United States. I told Derek Leman in a blog comment,
Before my dad knew of his Jewish biological grandparents, as God was moving us towards Torah, towards keeping His commandments, we were a gentile family visiting MJ synagogues. During this time, certain Messianic congregations discriminated against us:
We were allowed, reluctantly I think, to attend, but never to do music, have any kind of leadership position, speak in front of the congregation. Basically, sit in the back and be cheerleaders. Be seat-fillers and money-givers.
After my dad found our Jewish ancestry, it made a world of difference. As a teen at the time, I remember it well. Suddenly, we were treated as first-class citizens in MJ synagogues:
Please, come speak to our congregation.
Please, will you lead music?
Please, be on our board of directors.
It was as if we were blacks in the 1950s US who suddenly woke up one morning with white skin.
The Ephesians 2 “wall of hostility” is very much alive. Efforts to create a purely-Jewish Messianic Judaism invariably create this wall, intended or not. Don’t get me wrong; I understand the need to preserve Jewish culture and Jewish expression of faith, but surely this “Jews here, gentiles there” approach isn’t the right way to do this!
So what do we do with this fact that MJ synagogues are 80%+ gentile?
Look at Messianic Judaism bigger than “Jews following Yeshua”. While some look at it that way, and it indeed encompasses that, as for me, I look at Messianic Judaism as God’s move to restore Israel. I include gentiles in the Commonwealth of Israel. I do not see gentiles in MJ synagogues as a hindrance to this goal, but as a part of God’s overall plan. Just as God is drawing Jews to Yeshua, who’s to say it isn’t God drawing the gentiles into Messianic congregations? Such a thing is hard to swallow for those in favor of a purely-Jewish Messianic Judaism, but maybe, just maybe, it is God at work.
Gentiles in the Messianic movement? I believe this is God at work. Rather than arguing how to “fix” the issue of gentiles in the Messianic movement, I say we ought to be rejoicing that God has brought Jews to Yeshua and gentiles to walk more righteously, more in-line with His commandments. The idea that we need a congregation made up entirely of Jews at the exclusion of gentiles is one not supported in the apostolic Scriptures, a fact ignored by proponents of an exclusively Jewish Messianic Judaism.
“Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted gentiles by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”
-Peter, addressing the disciples in Acts 15
Fine blog readers, what do you think? Is it a problem that Messianic Judaism has become inundated with gentiles? Should gentiles be treated differently than Jews in a Messianic congregations? Should gentiles go back to the church; is Messianic Judaism just for Jews? Or is this Messianic movement something bigger?