Prayer and Guidance Needed

[DanielRB]

Shalom, All :wave:

I've really enjoyed being part of this board. It's helped me immesurably in my walk.

By way of background, I was raised in a Christian home and was baptized at age 9. In High School I decided to become a minister, and went to college, earning a BA in Religion with a minor in Greek.

While at college I had a crises of faith, though it didn't last long. I was quite suddenly faced with a loss of faith in Christianity (though not God; it was about God's justice in, among things, the conquest of Canaan). This only lasted a few months, and afterwords in many ways it was like it never had happened.

Well, I went on to be ordained and started working "doing" the ministry in a volunteer sort of way (earning money with my day job). That worked for several years, and I had a falling out with my old Church (it was doctrinal in nature). I eventually resigned my ordination because of that.

I moved on to another Church, but for whatever reason, the old doubts came back, though in new form. I really questioned whether Yeshua was the Messiah or not. I struggled with this for a while, and then I started doubting God himself. Finally, I became an atheist for a few years...and came back to belief (as did many people) after 9/11.

I do strongly believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...but my old doubts of Yeshua's Messiahship have come back. Much of the Jewish arguments against his Messiahship seem to make a lot of sense to me, and frankly the New Testament doesn't seem to make as much sense to me as it once did. The fulfillment citations, for example, seem to me to be taken out of context and forced...and Paul just seemed nonsensical at times.

Years ago, a friend of mine and I went to hear the performance of a Cantor. My friend mentioned something that stuck with me: "Jews view us [Christians] like we view the Mormons."

The charaterization made me start thinking: are we like the Mormons? Is the New Testament analogous to the Book of Mormon, which the Mormons view as "another Testament of Christ"? Is Paul--or even Yeshua--analogous to Joseph Smith? And do we explain away the difficulties with the New Testament in a similar way to the way Mormons handle them--ultimately saying "just ask God and he'll reveal the truth to your heart?"--reducing our faith to a subjective affirmation instead of intellectual conviction?

I'd appreciate your input and especially your prayers. In many ways, Messianic Judaism seems so "at home" for me now, and it would be gut-wrenching to convert to Judaism (or even to become Noahic)--especially in how it would affect my family. But ultimately I want to believe in the Truth, regardless of what pain it might cause me. I don't want to follow a false Messiah and I don't want to just "go along" just for the sake of peace, mouthing words that I no longer believe.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

In Messiah,

Daniel

[visionary]

This is one of those deep soul searches that God has put before you. He has you questioning the very core of your faith. Isn't it time to ask Him to meet you as in Rev 3:20? Isn't it time to move on from the theology of the faith to the reality of the faith? Only God can asnwer this in your heart to your satisfaction. This crisis of the faith is to bring you to your knees and look up with all the resources of man at your feet and say " Where art thou that I may see you?" "Where art thou that I may know you?"

Because until you meet God and know Him, then how are you going to know the struggles of the writers of the Holy Scriptures in trying to describe their experience and understanding? Until you have had an experience like they have had with God and to truly understand what Holy is, scriptures are going to be a sandy ground that changes with the tide and causes you to drift from one theology to another on the shore of knowledge.

Ask God for the Mount Sinai experience, ask Him for that one on one experience He has promised, beg Him to take you to His presence, tell Him of the crisis that you are having, tell Him how much you need Him, And do not stop until He answers with His Holy Presence. Then you can ask Him about the truth in the Holy Scriptures.

Then we all will be blessed with one who has "come up hither" and now knows the reality by experience and understands a bigger breath, depth, and width of God than most of us here.

Revelation 4:1
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Revelation 17:1
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Revelation 21:9
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

[ramblin_ag02]

Hey Daniel. I usually just lurk this board for the good information, but your post forced me out of the woodwork. I respect your zeal for truth regardless of the questions it forces you to ask yourself. These sorts of things can only make your faith stronger, even if it may not seem like it at the time.

I will tell you upfront that I believe that Yeshua is the prophesied Jewish Messiah and the divine son of YHVH. I can give you tons of passages from the Tanakh, but I don't think that is what you want right now. I can tell you that I know of no passages that would have definitively and unquestionably identified Yeshua as the Messiah to every Jewish person alive. I don't think that's the point, though. The entire Tanakh is supporting evidence of Yeshua's Messiahship if you "have eyes to see".

The lack of support from mainstream Judaism should hardly be a surprise. Rabbinical Jews hve considered the Messianics and Christians to be the single biggest threat to Judaism for the last few thousand years. You only have to reference the Talmud and other writings to see their opinion of Christians. As a result, the leadership of Judaism has consistently and constantly pushed Judaism away from ideas that would support Yeshua's Messiahship. That was not true in Yeshua's day, however. Otherwise, no Jew would have even listened to him.

Finally, I get the point between Messianics and Mormons, but other than the superficial similarities it couldn't be more off. First of all, Yeshua did not claim a personal and private divine revelation like Joseph Smith, Muhammed, L. Ron Hubbard or any number of others. He wrote none of His teachings, and He never penned a single new verse. He always told people to follow the Torah, taught from the Torah, and lived the Torah.

More to say, but I have to go. Later

[BarbB]

Daniel, I probably shouldn't say this, but I don't spend nearly enough time probably in the NT. Instead, I find all the proof of Yeshua's messiahship and godship in the OT.

I'm with visionary - it may be time for you to "cry out" to God for heart knowledge that can't be dislodged the way head knowledge can be confused.

:hug:

[Tishri1]

It's time to bring in the big guns Daniel....The Messianic movement isn't like Christianity... our big Teachers are very approachable...Please get on the phone with one or two of them before you make any desisions...PM me if you can't deside who to call and I'll try to help........This is a serious issue and there is need of some one on one with our Movement Leaders many who are Jews themselves and have faced these questions themselves.....Please talk to a few of them:pray:

http://www.hadavar.org/AMA_update.html