Competing Trends In Messianic Judaism: The Debate Over Evangelicalism
One of the central challenges Messianic Judaism faces is how to orient itself against its two parent communities: modern evangelicalism and American Judaism. As modern Messianic Judaism is historically rooted chiefly in the evangelical movements of the twentieth century, I will trace Messianic Judaism's relationship with this particular parent. Nevertheless, one cannot discuss the one without the other: the further Messianic Jews move from evangelicalism, the more closely they identify with the Jewish community. The central question to determine the extent of identification with evangelica