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 Are
you a Messianic congregation?
Currently, an official Messianic congregation does not
exist in the Niagara area. Messianic Niagara does host a Shabbat table
fellowship on Friday night and occasional studies during other times. With God's help, we will begin to facilitate
further opportunities for learning and fellowship. Please continue to
visit the home page of this website for upcoming events.
Contact us if you'd like
to be a part of what we're doing.
Are
you a Messianic Jewish ministry?
No, Messianic Niagara is a Gentile Christian-based outreach group who seeks
to teach Gentile believers the truths of the Bible from a Messianic Jewish
perspective. We do not believe in trying to get Jewish people to become
Christians in the traditional sense. Instead we seek to show both the Jewish
community and the Christian community that being a follower of Yeshua means
living a Torah-based lifestyle. If a Jewish person were to come to faith in
the Messiah Yeshua, we would encourage them to continue to practice Judaism
according to teachings of Yeshua, his Apostles and normative Jewish
tradition. If a Gentile comes to faith in the Messiah Yeshua, we would
encourage them to begin to live their lives in imitation of Yeshua, which
ultimately means living a Torah-based lifestyle.
Questions from a Christian
Perspective:
The following are questions that the average Christian
might ask after viewing this website.
What
is the Torah?
The Torah is the Hebrew
name for the first five books of the Bible (also known as the Pentateuch
or Chumash). The word "torah" means "teaching" or "instruction" but is
usually translated in our English Bibles as "law." From a Jewish
perspective, all of the Hebrew Scriptures and much of Jewish oral
tradition is also called Torah. For the most part, when the word Torah is
used by Messianic Niagara, we are referring to the first five books of the
Bible and the commandments found therein.
What
is the Tanakh?
The Tanakh is the
Jewish name for what Christians call the Old Testament. We do not refer to
the Hebrew Scriptures as the Old Testament because we believe this is a
misnomer. The word Tanakh is actually an acronym with the "t" standing for
Torah (the five books of Moses), the "n" standing for Nevi'im (the
Prophets) and the "k" standing for Ketuvim (the Writings such as the
Psalms). Interestingly, this is the same way that Jesus referred to the
Hebrew Scriptures in Luke 24:44.
What
are the Apostolic Scriptures?
The Apostolic Scriptures or Apostolic Writings refer to the books of the
Bible that Christians call the New Testament. We do not refer to the
writings of the Apostles as the New Testament because we believe this is a
misnomer. The term Apostolic Scriptures is common among believers who are
recognizing that God's word does not change and the writings of the
Apostles are in full concert with the Hebrew Scriptures.
Why
do you sometimes refer to Jesus as Yeshua?
In Matthew 1:21, it
says: "She will bear a son; and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will
save his people from their sins." The Hebrew name Yeshua means
"salvation," therefore when the angel instructed Joseph to name the
Messiah "'Yeshua' [salvation], for he will save his people from their
sins," he was making a play on words. Jesus would have been known to his
family, friends and disciples as Yeshua. How did we get the name Jesus?
The Gospels were written in Greek and therefore the Messiah's name was
transliterated into Greek. Eventually, the Greek transliteration was
transliterated into Latin and, finally, transliterated into English as
Jesus. There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling the Messiah by the
name Jesus, and we do often, but Messianic Niagara seeks to emphasize the
Jewish and Hebraic nature of the Gospels and will sometimes refer to the
Messiah as Yeshua.
Why
do you try to obey the Law of Moses?
Followers of
Jesus should uphold the Law (Romans 3:31). The notion that
Christians shouldn't keep the commandments of the Torah is not actually
found anywhere in the Bible. According to the Bible, any prophet or king
of Israel who teaches that it's permissible to break the commandments of
the Torah should be labeled a false prophet (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and
17:18-20). Therefore if we truly believe that Jesus or Paul put an end
to any part of the Torah, then that would mean they were false prophets.
Messianic Niagara upholds the truth that Jesus and all of the Apostles did
not teach against keeping the Torah but obeyed it themselves (John
15:10, Acts 21:24) and expected us to as well.
The Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures spoke of a time when the Messiah
would come and, as a result, the Torah would go forth to the ends of the
earth (Isaiah 2:3, 42:4). Jesus Himself taught the Torah would
never be done away with and that His followers should keep even the
smallest commandments of the Torah in order to be great in the Kingdom of
Heaven (Matthew 5:16-20). Additionally, all of the Apostles upheld
the Torah, exhorting followers of Jesus to keep the Torah in imitation of
Him (Romans 8:7-9, 1 John 5:2-3, James 1:25).
Do
you believe that you are saved by works?
The Bible is clear that no one is saved by keeping any
kind of law, whether man-made laws or the laws of God. The Bible also
makes it clear that we have all broken God's Law and therefore we are
separated from Him. God is infinitely holy, so no amount of law-keeping
will merit salvation. Whether they lived before the coming of Jesus or
after the coming of Jesus, no one is saved by keeping the
Law. It's only through faith in the death and resurrection of God's
infinitely holy Messiah that a person can be saved. Once coming to faith
in the Messiah, though, the Believer is obligated to keep the commandments
of God's Torah. The keeping of the commandments does not get you saved nor
does it keep you saved, it is simply doing what is right (the commandments
define what is right and wrong [Romans 7:7]).
Why
are you trying to put people back under the Law?
There
are several issues with this question. Firstly, the phrase "under the
law," used by Paul only a few times in his epistles, refers to having a
negative relationship to the Torah. In some instances, it refers to being
under the condemnation of the Law through our disobedience to God or it
can refer to trusting a legal connection to the Law through being Jewish
for salvation. Our exhortation to believers to keep God's commandments
have nothing to do with putting people under the Law's condemnation or
getting people to become Jewish. So, we are not trying to put people back
under the Law. Instead, we are trying to educate people that, as
believers, God's commandments are His wonderful and wise instruction for
us.
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