What is Jews for Jesus relationship to “Messianic Jewish” congregations?
A. Jews for Jesus is part of the “Messianic Jewish” movement, a movement created by Christianity as a way of evangelizing the Jews and making them more comfortable in church. The movement originally called itself “Hebrew-Christianity”, and it was not until the 1960’s and ’70’s that the term “Messianic Judaism” became popular. For instance, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, arguably the largest organization of Messianic congregations, was originally named the Hebrew-Christian Alliance of America. The “Messianic Jewish” movement has over a dozen different Christian denominations that count Messianic congregations among its churches, with the Southern Baptist Convention and Assemblies of God movement being the most active in creating these congregations. The difference between Jews for Jesus and the standard Messianic congregation is that Jews for Jesus is a ministry. In other words, Jews for Jesus goes around trying to convince Jews to have Christian beliefs, but it does not have
