Hashivenu, Messianic Judaism, and Christianity - RepostedBy David T. E. S. Cooke
February 9, 2006
As of March 24, 2005, this article has been temporarily removed from our web site. David Daniels, the Director of New Covenant House, explains our decision below. Your feedback is welcomed.
On January 27, 2005, an individual posted the following question on the
bulletin board in
Messianic Forum:
Date: Jan. 27, 2005
Posted By: Tom
Comments: Hello, have you ever heard of a messianic group called Hashivenu? What are they about? Thanks Tom
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Being unaware of Hashivenu, we did an online search to find them. As we perused their
web site, we found that Hashivenu is a ministry committed to the gospel of Yeshua (Jesus), but we also discovered areas that raised significant concerns for us.
We responded to our bulletin board inquirer as follows:
Date: Jan. 31, 2005
Reply From: Moderator
Comments: This is the first time we have heard of Hashivenu. From a review of their web site (www.hashivenu.org), we see that they are a group of believers in Yeshua who are committed to extending and deepening Messianic Judaism. Though they speak of the centrality of Yeshua and His atoning work, they see rabbinical customs and teachings as a fundamental, inseparable part of their faith and practice. Also, they desire to remove themselves from any Christian thought and expression that they would see as non-Jewish.
We have some important concerns about this movement which we hope to address in a more extended article in the near future. Our main concerns are: First, that Hashivenu appears to be rebuilding the wall of separation that Messiah came to break down between Jew and Gentile; and second, that Hashivenu may be putting tradition and custom in the way of God's plan of salvation for His Jewish people in Yeshua. |
We did study the core values of Hashivenu, as stated on their website, and then posted the article "Hashivenu, Messianic Judaism, and Christianity" here on February 9, 2005. In that article we discussed aspects of Hashivenu's core values that create significant uneasiness with us.
Within a few weeks, we received several emails from Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, President of Hashivenu. Vigorously challenging the validity of the concerns our article raised, he chastised us for posting the article without ever having contacted Hashivenu. Rabbi Dauermann believes our article is one of "misinformation and mischaracterization."
In retrospect, we recognize that we should have contacted Hashivenu, giving them an opportunity to respond to our concerns prior to posting our article. We have apologized to Rabbi Dauermann for this, and in fairness to them, we have removed our article from this web site until Hashivenu has opportunity to respond to our concerns.
Challenging the beliefs of a fellow disciple of Yeshua is not something we take lightly. When we do so, as we did in the article we posted, we do it with a sincere desire to promote biblically-sound theology.
It was never our intention to malign our brothers in Messiah at Hashivenu. The Torah commands: "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour" [Shemos (Exodus) 20:16]. We take this seriously.
Our hope is that Hashivenu will engage us in profitable discussion so that future articles will be a respectful and fair representation of our respective beliefs and convictions. Please visit this page again soon.
