Introduction and testimony

[Beit Avraham]

Good day to all fellow forum members in the Messianic Judaism forum! I would like to take some time to introduce myself and how I came to Messianic Judaism.

I "accepted Jesus" when I was 5 years old, I still remember praying the "Jesus prayer" with my sister. From then I attended a Protestant Christian school and was more or less always around Christianity. I was baptized while in college, and at that time I started studying more of Christian history and different faith paths, both Christian and not.

When I was 28 I went through RCIA and became Catholic. I rather enjoyed my time in the RCC and to this day I appreciate the people there. However, I still had a lingering belief that if you did "everything right" that God would protect you and keep your path clear of issues. That belief came crashing down when my wife committed adultery and was unrepentant about it, causing a divorce.

The belief I held caused me to question everything about faith, and for a time discarding Christianity entirely. I was not sure what I believed. I still believed in God, and working through the issues I held and the positions that I studied I came to believe that the god must be the god of Israel - the God. This caused me to actually convert to Judaism for a time. However, after intensely studying anti-missionary information from Rabbi Tovia Singer and then the rebuttal information provided from resources such as First Fruits of Zion I came to understand that Yeshua is/was indeed the Messiach.

By that time I was married again and in a quandary, my wife wished to attend a Christian church, not a synagogue, so we decided on a Lutheran church that was understanding of my Messianic beliefs and willing to let me hold them as well as be a member at their church. This worked for some time, but their denomination drifted further to liberalism than I was comfortable with and we had to leave. Now we attend an independent church on Sunday and I attend a Messianic synagogue and am a member with the MJAA. The church, however, actually encourages some practices such as sabbath, fasting, set prayer times, and other "Jewish" practices. My wife and son participate in some MJ practices such as Shabbat prayers and some of the festivals, but broadly they keep to the Christian church.

 

[WIP]

we decided on a Lutheran church that was understanding of my Messianic beliefs and willing to let me hold them as well as be a member at their church. This worked for some time, but their denomination drifted further to liberalism than I was comfortable with

I am a member of the Lutheran church. We are associated with the LCMC (Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ). We separated ourselves from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) back in 2007 because we could no longer accept the liberal movement.

Wild guess here but I imagine you were members of an ELCA Lutheran church. The ELCA today embraces same sex marriage, gay and lesbian clergy, and when our congregation denounced our membership there was a rapid movement toward Universalism. I haven't kept up with it so I don't know how far along they are in that regard.

The Lutheran church is becoming more divided but it seems many want to hang on to the "Lutheran" label than to form a new denomination and that creates confusion.

 

[Beit Avraham]

I am a member of the Lutheran church. We are associated with the LCMC (Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ). We separated ourselves from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) back in 2007 because we could no longer accept the liberal movement.

Wild guess here but I imagine you were members of an ELCA Lutheran church. The ELCA today embraces same sex marriage, gay and lesbian clergy, and when our congregation denounced our membership there was a rapid movement toward Universalism. I haven't kept up with it so I don't know how far along they are in that regard.

The Lutheran church is becoming more divided but it seems many want to hang on to the "Lutheran" label than to form a new denomination and that creates confusion.

Yep, it was ELCA. The congregation was conservative and orthodox enough, mainly because the members were pretty much all older people, but the denomination itself just went way left. I could not stay once they elected the trans bishop, which ended up backfiring on them anyway.

 

[jasonc]

I am a member of the Lutheran church. We are associated with the LCMC (Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ). We separated ourselves from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) back in 2007 because we could no longer accept the liberal movement.

Wild guess here but I imagine you were members of an ELCA Lutheran church. The ELCA today embraces same sex marriage, gay and lesbian clergy, and when our congregation denounced our membership there was a rapid movement toward Universalism. I haven't kept up with it so I don't know how far along they are in that regard.

The Lutheran church is becoming more divided but it seems many want to hang on to the "Lutheran" label than to form a new denomination and that creates confusion.

It was that way 100 years ago .the elca church split off and two churches claim going back to 1919 here and both from what I can find are not apostate .

The larger of the two grace Lutheran church and other I can't recall .there is another but that is another much younger

 

[GodsGrace]

Good day to all fellow forum members in the Messianic Judaism forum! I would like to take some time to introduce myself and how I came to Messianic Judaism.

I "accepted Jesus" when I was 5 years old, I still remember praying the "Jesus prayer" with my sister. From then I attended a Protestant Christian school and was more or less always around Christianity. I was baptized while in college, and at that time I started studying more of Christian history and different faith paths, both Christian and not.

When I was 28 I went through RCIA and became Catholic. I rather enjoyed my time in the RCC and to this day I appreciate the people there. However, I still had a lingering belief that if you did "everything right" that God would protect you and keep your path clear of issues. That belief came crashing down when my wife committed adultery and was unrepentant about it, causing a divorce.

The belief I held caused me to question everything about faith, and for a time discarding Christianity entirely. I was not sure what I believed. I still believed in God, and working through the issues I held and the positions that I studied I came to believe that the god must be the god of Israel - the God. This caused me to actually convert to Judaism for a time. However, after intensely studying anti-missionary information from Rabbi Tovia Singer and then the rebuttal information provided from resources such as First Fruits of Zion I came to understand that Yeshua is/was indeed the Messiach.

By that time I was married again and in a quandary, my wife wished to attend a Christian church, not a synagogue, so we decided on a Lutheran church that was understanding of my Messianic beliefs and willing to let me hold them as well as be a member at their church. This worked for some time, but their denomination drifted further to liberalism than I was comfortable with and we had to leave. Now we attend an independent church on Sunday and I attend a Messianic synagogue and am a member with the MJAA. The church, however, actually encourages some practices such as sabbath, fasting, set prayer times, and other "Jewish" practices. My wife and son participate in some MJ practices such as Shabbat prayers and some of the festivals, but broadly they keep to the Christian church.

Quite a trip.
I consider myself to be non-denominational.
Long story.
Right now I attend a Catholic church in my town.
One Protestant church nearby but they believe you could be saved after death so I'm not willing to join a church that is not orthodox. Not that I agree with all Catholic doctrine...