Messianic Jews Meet in County : The Movement That Began in 1967 Has Blossomed to 150,000 Believers

At first glance, a Saturday morning service at Congregation Beth Yeshua in Westminster looks and sounds like any typical Jewish Shabbat . The men wear yarmulkes and prayer shawls. Much of the prayer is in Hebrew, and a cantor reads from the Torah.

But as soon as the rabbi begins discussing Yeshua (the Hebrew word for Jesus) and the New Testament, it becomes clear that this is quite different from a traditional Jewish service.

The congregation members are Messianic believers. And despite a philosophy that traditional Jews find contradictory, they say Judaism and a belief in Jesus as the Messiah are wholly compatible.

“As Jews we are not doing anything we haven’t always done, except found the Messiah,” said Rabbi Fred Butler of Beth Yeshua. (Messianic rabbis are ordained through Messianic schools.)

This weekend 700 to 800 Messianic believers are converging on the Red Lion Hotel in Costa Mesa for the West Coast regional conference of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. The conference, which began Friday night and is open to the public, features seminars on topics including the “tri-unity of God” from the Messianic Jewish perspective, the history of Messianic Judaism, the place of Messianic Judaism within the Christian church and the Messiah as seen in Rabbinic Judaism. Believers from Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming will attend.

The movement, which began in 1967, is made up both of Jews and Gentiles who follow many Jewish traditions and holidays and worship in a Jewish setting. But while a primary tenet of Judaism is that there is one God and the Messiah has not yet come, Messianic Jews believe in the Trinity and that Jesus is the Messiah and should be recognized for his Jewish roots.

There are about 50,000 Messianic believers in California, and the growing movement has about 150,000, Butler says. Congregation Adat HaMashiach in Irvine is the only other Messianic congregation in Orange County.

Butler, 48, who is the West Coast representative of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, founded congregation Beth Yeshua 13 years ago after leading a home Bible study through Calvary Chapel in Downey.

Butler, who is of Jewish descent, said that he was not raised religiously but had been strongly affected by Christians during his life. He began to read the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and in his 20s he came to believe in Jesus. In 1974 he began going to church, but soon got “tired of being the token Jew” at services and decided he wanted to study the Bible more from a Jewish perspective. His small gathering at a congregant’s home soon grew, and the 100-member congregation now meets at the Goldenwest Worship Center.

Messianic Jews feel strongly that they can retain their Jewish identity while believing in Jesus. “Jews are a race of people,” Butler says. “Just because we are believers in the Messiah does not mean we become monkeys or something. This is a total fulfillment of being Jewish--Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah as promised to the people.”

Saturday morning services at Beth Yeshua are a combination of Jewish and Messianic tradition. Half an hour during the middle of the service is devoted to “Davidic dancing” and singing about Yeshua, a Messianic custom. At a recent service, a dozen women and girls performed in front of the congregation, accompanied by a keyboard and guitar. The lyrics were projected onto the wall, as Butler and a woman playing a tambourine led the congregation in song.

The Torah is kept in a traditional-looking wooden ark, on which is written Yeshua in Hebrew. After the service congregants gather for the Kiddish , or blessing over wine and bread.

“I wanted to learn the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective,” said Judy Corathers, 40, after a recent Saturday morning service. Corathers, a clerical worker from Rowland Heights, is not Jewish and has a background in Christianity. “The Scriptures were written by Jewish people, and this way I get more depth and clarity,” she says. “I get the best of both worlds.”

Many in the Jewish community feel the Messianic movement does not represent the best of both worlds.

“It is a distortion of history, a distortion of Judaism and Christianity,” said Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, national director of Jews for Judaism, an organization that works against the recruiting of Jews by Christian missionaries and other religions. He said a belief in Jesus as the Messiah and in the Trinity is directly opposed to the fundamentals of Jewish theology.

“I’m sure many (Messianic Jews) have a sincere desire to be close to God, and they believe this is it,” Kravitz said. “But if you know what Judaism is and understand it theologically and spiritually, the two are incompatible. (Messianic Jews) are dangerous because they are not portraying the movement for what it is, which is born-again, fundamentalist Christianity dressed up in Jewish garb.”

Kravitz also says many Jews feel the movement discredits Judaism.

“It perpetuates the anti-Semitic view that Judaism is a dead, fossilized religion that is not sufficient in and of itself, that it is incomplete,” he said. “We believe it is complete and spiritually fulfilling.”

Representatives from Jews for Judaism will be at the hotel during Messianic conference, Kravitz said, not to disrupt or challenge it, but to be available to anyone who has questions.

Indeed, Messianic Jews often find themselves alienated from not only the Jewish community but also the Christian community, Butler said. Many Christians don’t understand why Messianic Jews insist on maintaining a Jewish identity while believing in Jesus.

“The churches are afraid, though some pastors have come to accept us,” he said. “But there is hostility from the Jewish community, and we are pushed down, held down by the Rabbinic community, and not given a voice.”

Butler, who looks like an Orthodox rabbi in his long white beard, black hat and black coat, said Jesus has long been interpreted though non-Jewish eyes. “He has been a Gentile Jesus instead of a Jewish Messiah,” he said. “Yeshua was Jewish, and he taught the Torah--nothing we believe in contradicts the Torah.”

Beth Yeshua is not affiliated with the organization Jews for Jesus, which aggressively evangelizes and is not based in congregations. Butler says his congregation does not proselytize.

Despite the controversy surrounding the movement, many within it say they find fulfillment, and believe their faith is consistent with the Bible.

Judy Houle, 37, of Costa Mesa was raised Jewish, but said that two years ago she “came to know Jesus as the Messiah.”

“It was as if God had opened up an understanding in me that he was real and the Messiah,” said Houle, who is a student and assistant to Butler. “I began going to church, but I wondered why God made me a Jew if I was supposed to convert. I came (to Beth Yeshua) and it all came together.”