Customer Reviews

Messianic Jewish Manifesto

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I found very interesting this book. The author explains the destiny, the identity, the history and the theology of the Messianic Judaism, as he understands it, without beeing an official delegate of it. He explains also correctly different passages of the New Testament which were used against the Jews by an antisemitic spirit in past centuries. The chapter about Torah (Law) is very elucidating. Many Christians will feel a revolution in their Christian thought and theology if they accept the presuppositions of thought of this chapter. Perplexing thoughts and opinions of apostle Paul are explained and commented aptly. Personally, I would like to read more explanations of other passages of the New Testament that seem denigrating the Law. But for this end the author made "The Jewish New Testament Commentary". His appendix "Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel" is also very interesting. It is very helpful the "Glossary of Hebrew words and names" at the end of the book. The author is very punctilious in his references and footnotes. I think that this is the book for every Christian and/or Jew that is open-minded and longs for further biblical truth, even if he doesn't agree in everything written in this book.

I've followed David Stern for some time and read much that has come out of the Messianic Jewish movement. I've also read many books by traditional Jews about Jesus and/or Christianity (Geza Vermes, for instance). 50 years ago, Jews didn't dare write about Jesus. Now, many traditional Jews are trying to reclaim Yeshua (Jesus) as part of the Jewish rabbinic tradition, and rightly so. How times change.

It saddens me that so many (all) of the negative reviews here simply assume 1) that Messianic Judaism must be wrong, 2) Stern is a Christian masquerading as a Jew, and 3) any such people and/or attempt must be "evil." They are criticizing Stern's motives and character, but where is the critique of the content of the book itself? I doubt if most of them have even glanced at a page. Stern's reputation alone is probably enough for many people to seek him out and attack him. Sad. But before you say it is impossible to be both Jewish and to follow Jesus, please give a definition of Judaism that both allows for all current strands of Judaism (to make it easy, I'll even let you exclude Kaballah) and exludes the Messianic variety. Just don't make it circular (i.e. "anything but Jesus.")

Granted, the relationship between Gentile and Jew has been ugly at times. No question. But then again, as Einstein and others have pointed out, it was only the genuine Christians who came to the aid of the Jews in WW2. Some might point today to the evangelical loyalty to Israel. All that aside, it is incredibly ironic to me that the central question for early Christians was whether or not anyone but a Jew could follow Jesus. (Read Acts, esp. Acts 10 where Peter apologizes for allowing Gentiles into the Jewish sect later known as Christianity. Look at the Jewish response, "so God has granted EVEN the Gentiles mercy.") Back then, people assumed only Jews could follow Jesus. Now the assumption is the exact opposite. Granted, this turnabout is historically mostly the Gentile's fault. However, many Messianic Jews were kicked out of synagogues for following Jesus. Militant followers of Simon bar Kochba didn't get the same treatment. Even today, one of my close friends was physically assaulted by Orthodox Jews in Israel for disclosing that he was a Messianic Jew. He was rescued from the growing mob by an Israeli soldier.

So where's the book review?

If nothing else, understanding this transition is reason enough to read Stern. Navigating this minefield with such aplomb is why Stern deserves a "5." His research and ample footnotes alone rate a "5." Many Gentiles today forget that Jesus was a Jew, his disciples were Jews, the first 3000 or more followers were all Jews, and the growing sect was officially recognized by the Roman Empire as a sect within Judaism. But as many Gentiles there are who forget this, there are probably more (by percentage) Jews who do the same.

Where we go from there is another question. But it doesn't do any good to deny the possibility of being both a Jew and a follower of Jesus. At least in the beginning, that's all there was.

I discovered Messianic Jews within weeks of discovering Jesus. I have straddled both the church and (messianic) synagogue ever since. This book helped clear up much of the history I was missing and seemed to lay out the entire discussion in a great way. I highly recommend it for "Christians" to learn about how we ended up in 2002 with the kind of church culture we have.

I disagree with those parts of this book that endorse a two track system: one for Jews and another for Gentiles. But David Stern is not negative with regard to Gentiles following a Torah life as long as they do so for the "right reasons." This book covers a lot of ground and can be read for great profit by those interested in the Messianic Jewish movement.This book is essential for those who want a broad understanding of the issues. David Stern is a giant among Messianic Jewish teachers.

I am Irish and Native American Annishinabe and am concluding this book in record time. Thought provoking, inspirational, and needed to begin the mending processess of twisted time.

It is great to see a prespective from those treated as invisible "the Messianic Jew."

As a person coming from the same time of background (a people who was almost destroyed by the "Christians" it brought me back to a time of my mind wherein it was demanded of Indians to "speak white only, cut your hair, etc" and give up you cultural heritage and become a Christian. Christian meant "death" not life.

The "change or we'll kill you in the name of Christianity" is a tough pill to take...now add, give up your identity and way of life. A way of life that included a "one" Creator of all things in our daily living, tight family relations, and strong sense of community.

Hello, out there...is anyone listening? If you are ever, ever going to bring mending to a slowly twisting world...read this book! Learn the how's and why's for Gentile/Jewish separations, learn to acknowledge a peoples wrongs toward a race/religion. White is not always right... How would you like to have been given a name of Jorge at birth, then have someone from the Anglo/Saxon world change it to George. You've been called Jorge by your parents, but now Phil from London starts a trend wherein you're known as George world-wide. Yep, Yeshua (salvation) by his mom, brothers, community...but, now it's Jesus whether he likes it or now. Did he quit becoming a Jew with the name change..nope, not so. He came not to abolish the Torah..but to fulfill it. The New Covenant is a strong conclusion to the Tanakh. He observed the Sabbath...(Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown). Who changed what God commanded from Sat. to Sunday. Many questions begin to be answered with this book of strong in-sight.

If you feel that somethings just not right, that you don't have to give up your life to believe, that you don't have to change your very essence to come to the Messiah...READ THIS BOOK! WE CAN MEND A WORLD AND IT STARTS HERE WITH DEEP ROOTED UNDERSTANDING OR OUR ORIGINS!

Another great, informative book by Stern. Though his writing, like all others, must be weighed nevertheless he should be applauded for showing the Jewishness of the early church and restoring the proper view of the law. Christianity is properly termed a Judo-Christian religion.

David Stern has lived a very interesting life. Born in Los Angeles, great-grandson of two of the city's first twenty Jews, he earned a his PhD in Economics at Princeton, taught at UCLA, his Alma Mater, came to believe in Yeshua in 1972, earned a Degree at Fuller Seminary where he taught their first course on Judaism and Christianity, married in 1976 and made Aliyah (emigrated to Israel in 1979). In his younger years he ran a health food store, and co-wrote Surfing Guide to Southern California, with Bill Cleary.

Stern is not only interesting, he is brilliant. He wrote Messianic Jewish Manifesto in his twelfth year of Yeshua-faith. This is a prophetic, visionary book, not only describing Messianic Judaism as it existed in 1988, but forecasting how Messianic Judaism might and must develop to serve its God-given destiny. Those of us intimately acquainted with Messianic Judaism will find some his ideas and prognostications somewhat obvious, until we remember the book was written in 1987, published in 1988. Then the astonishment sets in.

The book is in seven chapters with an Appendix. Chapter One, "Destiny," examines why Messianic Judaism is crucial to God's purposes for the Church, for Israel, and for the world, which is the theme of the entire book. It is a compelling chapter, with a compelling ending: ""It all depends on Messianic Jews whether the theological-ideological program outlined in this book will motivate action. If the present generation is too dull to grasp it rightly, a future, finer and better generation will arise to understand it. The Messianic Jews who try it, sparking the salvation of the Jews and the fulfilling of the Church's Great Commission, will be rewarded by an eternal weight of glory, and they will deserve it." Chapter Two. "Identity," defines Messianic Judaism. Messianic Jews, and Christians, and further explores the interrelationship between the Church and Israel and the crucial role Messianic Judaism and Messianic Jews must play. In setting a standard for Messianic Jewish identity and Messianic Judaism, he also addresses substandard expressions, and provides a nuanced review of nine terms that have been used self-descriptively by Jewish believers in Jesus, and the differences between the terms.

Chapter Three, "History," begins contemplating three basic questions: (1) How can one be happy? This is the concern of psychology; (2) What should one do? This is the concern of ethics. (3) What does it all mean? This is the concern of history. Briefly, history is events interpreted. Under eight categorizations, he considers how the relalationship between the Church and the Jewish people has been and should be configured, advocating "reconciliation" as the ideal. He states, "reconciliation will involve change in both Judaism and Christianity in a direction that Messianic Judaism can help make visible, even through Messianic Judaism makes no claim to have itself already arrived at the ultimate goal." Well said and well considered, and compellingly prophetic.

In Chapter Four, "Theology," Stern provides a grab-bag of theological issues to be developed and explored by a maturing Messianic Judaism He calls for an audience-sensitive theologizing, postulating four broad audiences: Messianic Jews, non-Messianic Jews, Christians, and the rest of the world. He suggests taking an Aquinan approach: stating principles, then postulating and responding to objections from one's four audiences. Chapter Five, "Torah," examines why Messinaic Judaism cannot neglect Torah obedience, as has been Christendom's habit, providing preliminary guidelines for this project. I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read this: "I am certain that the lack of a correct, clear and relatively complete Messianic Jewish or Gentile Christian theology of the Law is . . . the greatest barrier to Jewish people's receiving the gospel. Even though many Jews do not observe Torah . . . attachment to Torah is rooted deep in the Jewish people's memory, where it affects attitudes unconsciously" (1988:125). This is his largest chapter, and he delves into a rich diversity of hot button issues, including conversion of Gentiles to Messianic Judaism.

Stern views the subject of Chapter Six, "Holiness," to be the most important element in a Messianic Jewish vision. Here he examines what it is, why it is important, and how it should be lived out. He coins the world "programmatics," by which he means "the theological discipline of setting forth a program for all or part of the Body of Messiah. It involves stating for a group of people or an institution purposes, goals, means of attaining the goals, priorities among the goals, determination of necessary resources for reaching the goals, inventorying available resources and scheduling--in short, the basic elements of planning--but all in a theological and ideological context" (1988:200).

This he attempts to do, at least preliminarily.

In a crucial Appendix, "Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel," he demonstrates how contextualization is NOT to be the agenda of MJ, because it would involve taking a Gentilized message and communicating it in Jewish terms rather than, as best as possible, restoring the original Jewishness of the gospel.

Stern cleverly speaks of the various kinds of evangelism normally postulated by missiologists, adding a fourth category to their three: Type I evangelism -- evangelizing nominal Christians in one's own culture, Type II - Evangelizing "people who share one's language and perhaps live in the same or a similar society, but whose cultural and religious presuppositions may be very different (1988:246); Type III evangelism which "brings the Gospel across cultural and lingusitic barriers that at times can seem all but insuperable [insurmountable?].

What is needed in the Jewish world is Type IV evangelism, which respects the divinely ordained unique status of the Jewish people, that they are "God's people in a sense that applies to no other people on earth" (1988:248). " . . . the Jewish people are more than a culture, they are the people of God. Therefore, the task in relation to Jews is not to contextualize the Gospel as it has come to non-Jews, with their pagan history, but rather to communicate a Gospel which is theologically correct vis-a-vis the Jewish people, whose history and role in communicating gods salvation is an eternal part of Holy Scripture. Type IV Evangelism is needed to evangelize the people of God (1988:248-249).

No Messianic Jewish missiologist or leader can ignore this book, a rich and well thought out blueprint for all later attempts at configuring Messianic Jewish life, community and theology. I found some of his pietistic and charismatic/Pentecostal presuppositions a bit confining, but this does not diminish my admiration for the work. The layout of the book shows that he developed an outline for the endeavor and worked from that, and I cannot but admire the orderliness and discipline of his thought.

You will too.

David H. Stern is (along with Dan Juster and Michael L. Brown) one of the most respected "theologians" of the "Messianic Jewish" movement. Stern is also the author of Complete Jewish Bible : An English Version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B'Rit Hadashah (New Testament), Jewish New Testament Commentary: A Companion Volume to the Jewish New Testament, Restoring the Jewishness of the Gospel: A Message for Christians Condensed from Messianic Judaism, and Messianic Judaism: A Modern Movement with an Ancient Past (the latter two books are expansions on the present book).

He wrote in the Preface to the First (1988) Edition of this book (2nd Edition 1991), "This manifesto is addressed primarily to Messianic Jews, offering elements of ideology, theology and program in a call to action. However, I hope it will also be informative for others, whether in favor of our movement, or just curious."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"However, in the Diaspora, where a Jew is always under pressure to maintain his Jewishness in a Gentile society, Messianic Jews do risk letting Jewishness replace Yeshua as the focus of congregational life." (Pg. 15)
"According to Scripture the word 'Christian' does not denote Jewish believers in Yeshua at all... According to New Testament usage the term 'Christian' is reserved for Gentile believers in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua." (Pg. 32)
"It is desirable that Messianic Jews observe the Orthodox Jewish Law but not essential... the Law was given by God to the Jewish people and never abrogated; it is God's guide to godly behavior and worthy of being followed. We are Jews, so we will follow it." (Pg. 141)
"One question remains: Who will use Messianic Jewish liturgy? It there a demand for it? If I am right that Messianic Judaism will not make significant inroads in the Jewish community without interacting seriously with the Judaism that exists today, then we have no alternative to creating Messianic Jewish liturgy." (Pg. 174)
"There are in the United States over 120 Messianic Jewish congregations, mostly independent but some affiliated with Christian denominations." (Pg. 198)

This is the most concise and accurate writing that I have ever seen on this subject. I highly recommend reading this to anyone regardless of religious or ancestral background.

This is an excellent book for someone who is Jewish and looking at the messiah Yeshua. it was well written
I am a christian man who has recently discovered my JEWISH roots.I don't know if there is a book that covers this transition. But this book talks speciffically about the Jewish person who belives in Christ. and I am very pleased to see a book like this in print.
Bravo!