It's easy for believersboth Jewish and Gentileto get lost among the various "Messianics" out there. This handbook is a friendly, reliable, spiritual Baedeker. Edited by veteran Jews for Jesus staffer Rich Robinson, it deftly steers readers through a vast and often confusing realm. Not everything called "Messianic Jewish" is either Messianic or Jewish. There are many Gentile pretenders, some of whom don ritual Jewish garb, including the yarmulke (skullcap) and tefillin (phylacteries).
The Field Guide offers a concise yet informative history of the Messianic movement and its educational and evangelistic institutions. A section delineates the disagreements Jewish believers in Jesus have with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who heads an organization, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, that gladly receives financial contributions from evangelicals, but that also sternly rejects any notion of Christians' witnessing to Jews.
The heavily sourced Field Guide is a detailed and useful primer. It is a must-read for those who want to understand the nature of Messianic Judaism today.
CT Classic: Do Jews Really Need Jesus? | What evangelicals believe about evangelization of the Jewsand whether the Holocaust makes a difference in that task. (Aug. 16, 2002)
The Return of the Jewish Church | In 1967, there were no Messianic Jewish congregations in the world. Today there are 350. Who are these believers? (Sept. 7, 1998)