The Restroration of Nazarene Judaism
2,000 years ago Yeshua the Messiah came to this world. Contrary to
what the world believes, Yeshua did not come to create a new religion
(Christianity) but to be the Jewish Messiah of Judaism. His original
followers came from various sects of Second Temple Judaism: Pharisees,
Essenes and even Hellenists. Together with many new Gentile converts,
they came to be known as the Jewish sect of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5).
By the end of the first Century, a Gentile Convert named "Ignatious" who was leader of a congregation in Antioch, Syria, began a new religion, which he called "Christianity". This new non-Jewish religion distanced itself from Judaism, rejected the Torah, and made Sunday its day of worship. Their "Church Fathers" went on to declare Nazarene Judaism to be a heresy. In time Gentile Christianity became one of the world's largest religions, while Nazarene Judaism virttualy disappeared from the planet. The long night of apostasy had begun.
But there is a great restoration of Nazarene Judaism taking place today. Many Jewish people are once again accepting Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah of Judaism, while many Gentile Christians are heeding to the call to come out from Babylon and be separate.
My own role in this restoration began in the mid 1980's. I was just eighteen years old back around 1984, when I first left Rabbinic Judaism and became a believer in Yeshua as the Messiah. I was an armature anti-missionary back then, debating with my Christian friends, arguing that "Jesus" could not have been the Messiah. I had all the arguments down pat. Then one day Wendy asked me to go to an evening church youth meeting with her. I agreed, largely because I wanted to go out with her. So there I was, wearing my kippah with my JPS Tanak in hand. I did not know anyone else there. After the meeting Wendy was off socializing with other friends, and I was sitting there bored. Despite my anti-missionary arguments, I had curiosity about Yeshua, so I prayed, "If Yeshua is really your son, prove it to me." For the first time in my life a bat kol (voice from Heaven) spoke to me and said "John 1:34". I did not have a "New Testament" so I borrowed one off the pew and looked up John 1:34 "And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.". This revelation changed my life. I would have questioned it forever if the voice had answered my question with a direct answer, but instead it was a Scripture verse that I had to look up, that was an answer to my exact question. I knew for sure that Yeshua was Messiah.
In 1985 not long after I had become a believer in Messiah I had a dream which I recorded in a journal I was keeping at the time. This is the dream as I recorded it in 1985:
In my dream I was rebuilding the ruins of an ancient stone alter.
As I finished rebuilding this alter, it shined with a great light so bright that I
could not look directly at it, brighter than the sun. I turned around
and saw several shafts of blue light shining down out of heaven. It was
shear beauty like I had never seen. Behind me was the Messianic
Synagogue I was attending at the time. I ran inside to tell all of my
friends in the synagogue about what I had seen, but most of them seemed
disinterested, and only a few were willing to come outside and see what I
had seen.
In the months that followed I studied everything I could to help me understand the so-called "New Testament" as a Jewish book. I learned that the original followers of Yeshua were an ancient sect of Jews called "Nazarenes". I found several references to these "Nazarenes" in the writings of the so-called "Church Fathers". I began identifying myself as a "Nazarene" and began working to reconstruct and restore the ancient sect of the Nazarenes. My friends at my local Messianic Jewish synagogue thought I was crazy. But I began publishing these truths, first on FIDONET (an old network of Computer Bulletin Boards before the Internet) and later on the Internet. I found they were resonating with many others around the world, and a resurgence of Nazarene Judaism was born.
I sought out and found ancient Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of the books of the so-called "New Testament". In 2001 I published the first edition Hebraic Roots Version New Testament, the first Messianic Sacred Name NT translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, rather than Greek, manuscripts.
Just this last month we published an old Hebrew text of the Creed of the Emissaries, in Hebrew and English, published in a little known volume nearly 500 years ago, tied to the publications of Hebrew Matthew from that same source, along with evidence tying the Creed to the original Jewish followers of Yeshua known as the Nazarenes.
A great restoration is taking place today, and I want to invite all of you to be part of it. Congregations and home groups are meeting all over the world, in places like Belgium, Australia, Brazil etc. If you have a Nazarene Congregation or home study please let us know, so we can all be connected.
By the end of the first Century, a Gentile Convert named "Ignatious" who was leader of a congregation in Antioch, Syria, began a new religion, which he called "Christianity". This new non-Jewish religion distanced itself from Judaism, rejected the Torah, and made Sunday its day of worship. Their "Church Fathers" went on to declare Nazarene Judaism to be a heresy. In time Gentile Christianity became one of the world's largest religions, while Nazarene Judaism virttualy disappeared from the planet. The long night of apostasy had begun.
But there is a great restoration of Nazarene Judaism taking place today. Many Jewish people are once again accepting Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah of Judaism, while many Gentile Christians are heeding to the call to come out from Babylon and be separate.
My own role in this restoration began in the mid 1980's. I was just eighteen years old back around 1984, when I first left Rabbinic Judaism and became a believer in Yeshua as the Messiah. I was an armature anti-missionary back then, debating with my Christian friends, arguing that "Jesus" could not have been the Messiah. I had all the arguments down pat. Then one day Wendy asked me to go to an evening church youth meeting with her. I agreed, largely because I wanted to go out with her. So there I was, wearing my kippah with my JPS Tanak in hand. I did not know anyone else there. After the meeting Wendy was off socializing with other friends, and I was sitting there bored. Despite my anti-missionary arguments, I had curiosity about Yeshua, so I prayed, "If Yeshua is really your son, prove it to me." For the first time in my life a bat kol (voice from Heaven) spoke to me and said "John 1:34". I did not have a "New Testament" so I borrowed one off the pew and looked up John 1:34 "And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.". This revelation changed my life. I would have questioned it forever if the voice had answered my question with a direct answer, but instead it was a Scripture verse that I had to look up, that was an answer to my exact question. I knew for sure that Yeshua was Messiah.
In 1985 not long after I had become a believer in Messiah I had a dream which I recorded in a journal I was keeping at the time. This is the dream as I recorded it in 1985:
In my dream I was rebuilding the ruins of an ancient stone alter.
As I finished rebuilding this alter, it shined with a great light so bright that I
could not look directly at it, brighter than the sun. I turned around
and saw several shafts of blue light shining down out of heaven. It was
shear beauty like I had never seen. Behind me was the Messianic
Synagogue I was attending at the time. I ran inside to tell all of my
friends in the synagogue about what I had seen, but most of them seemed
disinterested, and only a few were willing to come outside and see what I
had seen.
In the months that followed I studied everything I could to help me understand the so-called "New Testament" as a Jewish book. I learned that the original followers of Yeshua were an ancient sect of Jews called "Nazarenes". I found several references to these "Nazarenes" in the writings of the so-called "Church Fathers". I began identifying myself as a "Nazarene" and began working to reconstruct and restore the ancient sect of the Nazarenes. My friends at my local Messianic Jewish synagogue thought I was crazy. But I began publishing these truths, first on FIDONET (an old network of Computer Bulletin Boards before the Internet) and later on the Internet. I found they were resonating with many others around the world, and a resurgence of Nazarene Judaism was born.
I sought out and found ancient Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts of the books of the so-called "New Testament". In 2001 I published the first edition Hebraic Roots Version New Testament, the first Messianic Sacred Name NT translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, rather than Greek, manuscripts.
Just this last month we published an old Hebrew text of the Creed of the Emissaries, in Hebrew and English, published in a little known volume nearly 500 years ago, tied to the publications of Hebrew Matthew from that same source, along with evidence tying the Creed to the original Jewish followers of Yeshua known as the Nazarenes.
A great restoration is taking place today, and I want to invite all of you to be part of it. Congregations and home groups are meeting all over the world, in places like Belgium, Australia, Brazil etc. If you have a Nazarene Congregation or home study please let us know, so we can all be connected.
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