Why dont Messianic Jews simply call themselves Christians?
The term Christian originally meant follower of the Christ or follower of the Messiah. In and of itself, it is a good term. Unfortunately, over time, the term Christian came to mean more that simply follower of the Messiah. Many people today have this dichotomy in their minds that on the one hand there are Jews and Judaism, and on the other there are Christians and Christianity. You are either one or the other. Accordingly, [they think] when a Jew accepts Yeshua he switches over from the Jew/Judaism side to the Christian/Christianity side, and is no longer a Jew but a Christian. For all intents and purposes, the term Christian has become synonymous with non-Jew or Gentile.
