Many people are becoming interested in the Messianic Jewish movement. Are you interested? Congregation Beth Messiah is a Messianic congregation in the Detroit area that is "reaching out" to the Jewish people. However, you may be suprised to know that Congregation Beth Messiah is not a Jewish organization, but a Christian group. I will prove this, using information from their web-site and other Christian sites. Each time, reference links will be provided, so that you can see the evidence with your own eyes.
The Leader The leader of Congregation Beth Messiah is Harold Brickner. In Brickner's testimony, he reviews much of his past, such as people who evangelized to him and his personal psychiatric treatment history. However, on the third page of his testimony he states: "Not long after asking Yeshua (Jesus) into my heart, I was immersed in His Name for the forgiveness of sins and received the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh, God�s Holy Spirit. After my high school graduation, I attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago..."
Here is the link to the quote, the quote comes from the second paragraph:
Click Here So, you may be asking yourself, what is this Moody Bible Institute? The Moody Bible Institute is one of the main evangelical Christian training centers in the United States. There is nothing even remotely Jewish about the Moody Bible Institute. Here are the mission and vision statements of the Moody Bible Institute: "Our Mission
Under the authority of God and His Word
and in commitment to Christ and His Church...
"The Moody Bible Institute exists to equip and motivate people to advance the cause of Christ through ministries that educate, edify and evangelize."
Our Vision
To encourage and equip believers to:
Think Biblically
Live Christianly
Serve Effectively
Evangelize Consistently"
Clearly, Moody is a Christian school. A real Jewish leader would never attend such an organization, but a Christian evanaglist like Brickner would! Here is the link to the Moody quotes:
Click Here As a Christian leader, it is not suprising that Brickner is active with local churches. Here is a link to Echo Christian Fellowship in which Harold Brickner is listed in the Announcements (Please note that the link is to a PDF file and requires the Adobe PDF reader to access it):
Click Here
The Money Trail As Congregation Beth Messiah is run by a Christian leader, it should come as no shock that they are funded by Messiah Church, an evangelical Christian church in Detroit. Congregation Beth Messiah is under "Ministries We Support":
Click Here So, let's look, at Messiah Church more closely. Much like the Moody Bible Institute, the mission of the Messiah Church is: "Our Mission
By the grace of God we commit ourselves to:
cultivate communities of worship committed to prayer, preaching, study of the Bible, the celebration of the sacraments and fellowship across gender, race, age, culture and class.
equip loving, giving, growing Christians to reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ evangelizing the lost, ministering to those in need and seeking relief for the oppressed."
Obviously, Messiah Church is a typical evangelical Christian group funding another Christian group, Beth Messiah. Here is the link to the above quote:
Click Here Similarly, Beth Messiah is listed in the Ministry Affiliations of Fisherman's Net Christian Church. Here is a link to their blogspot, the affiliations are listed at the bottom on the right side:
Click Here
Violating the Ten Commandments Similar to other Messianic congregations, Congregation Beth Messiah has a "Shabbot School", in which the children engage in: "...learning of the vital teachings of Scripture through narrative, crafts, drama, cooking and creative design." While reading the quote, you may have asked yourself, why do synagogues have their schools on Sunday, and not Saturday like Beth Messiah? Simply put, activities such as crafts (which involves writing, cutting and pasting) and cooking are direct violations of the Sabbath. A real Jewish synagogue would never desecrate the Sabbath like Beth Messiah, and transgress the Ten Commandments! Interestingly, when you look at the pictures on their webpage, you will see that almost none of the boys in the pictures are wearing a kippah (Jewish head covering). At any real Jewish synagogue, all of the boys are required to wear a kippah during religious school classes. In fact, if a picture was taken of boys at a real Jewish religious school without a kippah, the teachers and rabbi would throw a fit if the pictures were placed on the webpage. It would be considered an embarrassment to a real Jewish group, but not to Beth Messiah. Here is the link to the Congregation Beth Messiah Shabbot School webpage, the quote comes from the 3rd paragraph:
Click Here
Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus There are many reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus, and the links below are some of the better explanations on this topic. Of course, if you have questions that are not covered on the links, you can always e-mail me with your questions. An Answer from Rabbi Stuart Federow Click Here
An Answer from Rabbi Shraga Simmons Click Here Ask the Rabbi from Ohr Somayach Click Here An Answer from Rabbi Tovia Singer Click Here Countermissionary Counseling
There are a number of groups that provide Countermissionary Counseling. Here are links to a few of them:
Jews for Judaism Alternatively, you can call them at 1-800-4PROOF1 with general questions about missionary claims.
Torah Atlanta
Outreach Judaism
Torah Life and Living Great Sites, Priceless Information
Here are a number of great sites that counter missionaries and explain the differences in belief between Judaism and Christianity, including addressing the Biblical verses that missionaries try to use against the Jews and explaining why the missionaries are incorrect. For the most in-depth analysis of verse by verse questions, go to Messiah Truth (sections on Counter-Missionary: Multi-media training [this can be read without being "multi-media"], Knowing Your Orchard and Judaism's Answer), Jews for Judaism (in their Reference Section (please note that the Isaiah topics tend to be under "Suffering Servant" part of the "Proof Text" section) and the Q & A section of Outreach Judaism. Messiah Page Messiah Truth Jews for Judaism Outreach Judaism Counter Missionary Reference Torah Atlanta Messianic Verses in Tanach Kosher Judaism Escape From Counterfeit Judaism Talking to Kids About Missionaries
| 