Spring 2008, Issue 232
Is the BMJA apartheid?
Some have accused the BMJA of racial apartheid because only Messianic Jews can have full membership within a Messianic Jewish alliance! They dismiss statements the BMJA has made on various issues because Gentiles can't be voted onto the committee and can't vote, yet they level no such accusation against other specialist support networks. It is true that Gentiles are not allowed to stand for membership of the management committee nor are they allowed to vote for new committee members. However, the BMJA welcomes Gentiles and, as associate members, they can fully participate in the life and fellowship of the alliance. In addition, there are exceptions: Gentiles who are married to Messianic Jews, and are therefore tied to the fate of the Jewish people in some way, are eligible for full membership.
Nevertheless, this pejorative accusation gives rise to a serious question: Is the BMJA guilty of rebuilding a wall of separation and going against the "one new man" principle?
The BMJA is not a local congregation
The answer is no, because the BMJA is not a local congregation; rather
it is a specialist support group for Jewish followers of Yeshua in Britain.
It is odd that the people who level the above accusation at the BMJA don't also complain that only doctors, medical staff and medical students can join the Christian Medical Fellowship. Like the BMJA, the CMF offers associate membership for non-medical staff who wish to support them.
Neither are there complaints that only serving or retired police officers can join the Christian Police Association.
The Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International is only for Christian men in the business community and only those in the FGBFI are eligible for election to their committee.
The Overseas Fellowship of Nigerian Christians attracts no such rancour although only Nigerians are elected to their committee. In fact it is understood that Nigerians know best how to run their own affairs and understand the issues and challenges of other Nigerian Christians living in Britain.
Again, do members of one local church complain they are not allowed to vote in the members meetings of another church and go on to accuse people of dividing the one true Church? Even within a local church, not every member can become a pastor, elder or deacon and take on a leadership role. Is that elitism?
Why is the BMJA selected for such special treatment? It would seem that some Gentile Christians are threatened by a distinctive, autonomous Messianic Jewish Alliance. Stranger still is the fact that many who bring this accusation are friends of Israel, Christian Zionists, supporters of Jewish mission and fellow travellers in the Messianic movement. The only other group who accuse the BMJA of racism are the Orthodox anti-missionaries – strange bedfellows indeed! Messianic Jews have become victims of other theological agendas and are stigmatized for exercising control over their own support group. It seems like even the friends of Messianic Jews are sometimes less than friendly when people don't dance to the tune of their desired agenda.
Romanticised and theologised
I have met a surprisingly large number of Gentile Christians who love
the concept of “the Jewish people”, and in particular Jewish
people who have embraced Yeshua as the promised Messiah. Yet, when they
meet Jewish people something strange happens. Their idealised, theologised
and romanticised version of the Jewish people they have comes crashing
down. They are not as keen on the real flesh and blood version!
“Messianic Jews are all weird heretics”
I have also heard unqualified comments made that Messianic Jews can't
be trusted because they exaggerate, are untruthful, are weird or hold
heretical views. However you can find such people in most – if not
all – churches, so why seek to exclusively categorise all Messianic
Jews in that way?
Make no mistake, this is a form of anti-Semitism even when it is from
people who believe in Jewish evangelism and God's ongoing purposes for
Israel. In one church in which I was preaching, someone described a believer
as a "proud Jew" as if, in following Yeshua, the man ought to
be ashamed of his heritage.
Gentiles in British Messianic Fellowships
The British Messianic Jewish Alliance of Fellowships is affiliated to
the BMJA with many members of these independent Messianic Fellowships
also being members of the BMJA. Although for most attendees these groups
are not considered to be their primary place of worship, Jews and Gentiles
have equal status within them.
However, the BMJA is not a local fellowship or congregation and should not be evaluated in those terms. Those who are offended that Gentiles not married to Messianic Jews cannot vote or stand for office ought to question what their real motives are.
Why Gentiles should join the BMJA
Gentile Christians should support British Messianic Jews for many reasons.
Firstly, to serve brothers and sisters in Yeshua who are misunderstood, maligned and misrepresented by Church and Synagogue.
Secondly, because Gentiles owe a debt of gratitude to Jewish disciples of Yeshua who, in the past, have sacrificed much to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Thirdly, to be part of God's ongoing purposes for the Jewish people.
Fourthly, to gain understanding and sensitivity from Jewish brothers and sisters in Messiah so that we might have a more effective witness to the wider Jewish community who don't yet follow Yeshua.
Fifthly, Gentile Christians are the wild olive branches that have been in-grafted. Therefore the norm should not be Messianic Jews visiting “Gentile-culture” churches, but Gentiles visiting Messianic Jewish Fellowships and supporting the BMJA as an indigenous self-governing support group for Messianic Jews.
Sixthly, it is an immediate and practical way to oppose anti-Semitism. European Protestantism failed six million Jewish people including an estimated 300,000 Messianic Jews who perished in the Shoah (Holocaust). Messianic Jews in Nazi Germany were purged from the pulpits and pews as the church implemented the Nazis’ Aryan clause. A German Christian hymnal which had purged Jewish influences and language was widely used, and the Institute for Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Church Life was established influencing the wider Protestant church in Germany. Ideas used to ease the implementation of this evil, were taught by the pro-Nazi German Christian Movement, are still common in British church life, manifested in replacementist ideologies (see Betrayal by Ericksen & Heschel).
Finally, the BMJA deserves Gentile Christian support as a simple demonstration that Gentiles are not boasting against the branches. Today the burden of proof that we are one in Messiah rests with Gentile Christians not Messianic Jews.
Richard Gibson, Editor of Chai
Tel: +44-7753527738 office@bmja.net © 2012 British Messianic Jewish Alliance