Many Believers who have never heard of the Nazarene or Messianic movements are surprised to hear that there are a number of divisions within the Nazarene and Messianic movements. The purpose of this page is to compare and contrast the different Nazarene and Messianic movements, to illustrate why we feel that Nazarene (or Nazarene-Messianic) Israelite worship is the original faith that the Apostles were taught, and therefore the most correct.
The main groups that this teaching will compare and contrast are 1. Catholic Christianity, 2. Protestant Christianity, 3. Islam, 4. Orthodox (Rabbinic) Judaism, 5. Karaite Judaism, 6. Messianic and/or Nazarene Judaism/Messianic Israel, and finally 7. Nazarene Israel. The goal is to show how each group measures up to Nazarene (or Nazarene-Messianic) Israelite worship as the standard.
1. Catholic Christianity was originally created as a hybrid religion between the Mithraic sun-worship of Rome and the spreading Nazarene Israelite movement. Catholic Christianity teaches that the Torah (the Law) was done away with, and the Scriptural day of worship was changed from the seventh-day Sabbath to the Sun day. The Pope even attempted to change the Ten Commandments, editing out the commandment against idol worship. The Catholics changed the sacred Names for pagan ones. The first Catholic Pope Constantine was further responsible for persecuting those who kept the Scriptural feast days, as he set up two pagan feast days of his own as substitutes [(the rebirth of the sun on December 25th, and the impregnation of the Earth at the Vernal Equinox) (This is prophesied against in Daniel 7:20-25)]. Although this goes entirely against the Scripture which says that YHWH does not change (Malachi 3:6), the Catholics maintain that they are justified in making changes because they say so.
2. Protestant Christianity is descended from the Catholic Christian hybrid religion (of Mithraic sun-worship and the original Nazarene Israelite faith). Ironically, while the stated purpose of the Protestant Reformation was to return to the original faith that the Apostles practiced, the Protestants chose to work backwards from within the confines of the Catholic hybrid. They retained the hierarchical structure, the pagan feast dates, the pagan name substitutions, much of the idol worship, the idea of "buying" your salvation, and a number of other unscriptural, non-spiritual concepts. For these reasons, it is unlikely that the Protestant Reformation will ever be able to accomplish its goals of approximating the original faith of the Apostles. Most Protestant Churches continue to hold to the erroneous beliefs that the Law (the Torah) is done away with, and that the Church has replaced YHWH's people Israel. They fail to realize that most of them are likely the physical descendants of Jacob (Israel), and that even if they aren't the requirement is to graft in to Israel, rather than to replace it.
3. Much like Christianity, Islam is another substitute religion. Islam holds that the Torah is of YHWH, but that Abraham offered up Ishmael on the altar instead of Isaac, and that therefore they (as the children of Ishmael) are the heirs to the Promise. Further, they hold that Friday is the Scriptural day of worship, instead of the seventh-day Sabbath, which goes against Genesis 1 and 2. Their chief prophet, Mohammed, went in to a house of idol worship in Mecca where there were 360 pagan idols. He destroyed all of the idols except one, the moon god, the god of war, called "Allah" (a derivative of Elohim). What gets especially confusing is that although Isaac and Ishmael are the both the descendants of Abraham, when we read Genesis 21:34 it states that "Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines (the Palestinians) many days." Since Abraham was not a Palestinian, his sons Isaac and Ishmael were not Palestinians either, yet the Palestinians claim to be the descendants of Ishmael, which does not make any sense. I have yet to hear a suitable explanation of that complaint.
4. Orthodox Judaism believes in the Torah of YHWH, the First Five Books of Moses. They do not believe that Yahshua was the Messiah for a number of reasons. Not understanding the Two House Theory, chief among the objections that the Orthodox have to Yahshua being the Messiah is their understanding of what a Messiah is traditionally supposed to do, which is to unite all the twelve tribes of Israel and bring them together as one in the Land of Israel, as King David did. Because they say that Yahshua did not do that, they say that Yahshua can not be the Messiah. Most Christians do not understand this complaint, because most Christians have no knowledge of the traditional duty of a Mashiach (Messiah). The complaint seems valid enough until we realize that what is actually occurring is that Yahshua is regathering the lost sheep of the House of Israel (the Northern Kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim or the Lost Ten Tribes) in to Himself. The fact that the traditionally Judeo-Christian Northern European nations (which is where the Lost Ten Tribes of the Assyrian dispersion settled) usually come out in support of the Jews in the modern day Middle East. That is to say they show a relative lack of anti-Semitism, because the Israelites of the Lost Ten Tribes are brothers to the Jews (the three tribes of the Southern Kingdom). The problem was compounded in the Babylonian Talmud at Yebamot 17A, where the rabbis ruled that the Lost Ten Tribes are lost, and no one knows of their whereabouts. The rabbis have ruled that the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel (also called Ephraim) will return one day, yet the rabbis refuse to understand that the traditionally Christian Northern European peoples are Ephraim. That is because since Christianity does not keep the Torah as a result of Catholicism's influence under Constantine, the Jews see no relation at all between the Christian peoples and Ephraim. Because Christianity is Lawless (does not observe Torah), Rabbinic Judaism sees no more connection between Christendom and Ephraim than they do between Islam and Ephraim. This is largely Constantine's doing, but has to be ruled as Christendom's fault today, because no one else can correct the problem.
5. Karaite Judaism does not accept many of the traditions of men as found in the Babylonian Talmud (the Talmud Bavli). Instead, they adhere quite strictly to the Scripture. They still keep the feasts of YHWH according to the phases of the moon, as is commanded in Scripture, instead of calculating the calendars in advance, as Rabbinic Judaism has done. Though they do not understand Yahshua as the Messiah, they are allies with Nazarene (or Messianic) Israel in keeping the calendar that way that YHWH specifies in the Scripture, because they eschew the traditions of men.
6. Messianic Judaism (and perhaps Nazarene Judaism) presents a special case. While there are many flavors of Messianic Judaism, there are some rough generalizations to be made. Although Orthodox Judaism believes that the Ephraimites (the Northern Kingdom of Israel or the Lost Ten Tribes) will be regathered to Israel at some future, unspecified date, Messianic Judaism believes that the Lost Ten Tribes have already been regathered to Judah, and that Judah is now all that there is of Israel. They believe that all Israel has been gathered to Judah, and now flies under the banner of Judaism. Yet this is not the case. The extant 16 millions Jews we have today represent perhaps ten percent of the Jews who were exiled to Babylon (those ten percent who came back to the Land of Israel in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah). The other ninety percent of the Jews still missing in the Babylonian Exile should number perhaps 144 million others. Yet even this total of 160 million Jews only accounts for roughly 2/12ths of the descendants of Israel, as the Ten Lost Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel are still in the Diaspora, and should account for perhaps some 700 million Israelites in addition to the 160 million Jews, for a rough estimate of 860 million. If we count the possibility of mixed marriages and graft-ins to Israel, the number climbs to astronomical levels. Messianic Judah does not account for these, and further is not open to understand the Greeks and "gentiles" of the Brit Chadasha (the New Testament) were actually the Hellenized Jews of the Exile, and the Ephraimites (Israelites) of the Diaspora (the Lost Ten Tribes). Messianic Judaism claims that these "converts" to Judaism became Messianic Jews, and not Christians, which is a total disconnect when you think about the history of the Believers, and how Roman Emperor Constantine paganized all of them in the fourth century AD, turning them into "Christians." Messianic Judaism is unable to account for this disconnect. They claim that the Christian peoples that were gathered in to Messianic Judaism are in fact today only "righteous gentiles." Like the Orthodox, they do not credit them with any Israelite heritage at all. Still, they are saved, and they are our brothers, and we love them. We just want them to acknowledge us, as in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Ephraim) at Luke Chapter 15.
7. Nazarene (or Nazarene-Messianic) Israel is the original faith of the twelve Apostles and Sha'ul (Paul), as mentioned in Scripture at Acts 24:5 and Acts 28:22. Nazarene Israelites keep the Torah (the Law) and the feasts, just as the Apostles did. Further, they understand their identity as Israelites. They seek to gather Judah and Ephraim (the Lost Ten Tribes) in to Mashiach Yahshua, who is regathering all of Israel, and not just ten percent of the three tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (Judah, Levi and Benjamin). Just as Ya'acov (James) and Kefa (Peter) ministered to the true gentiles, the Orthodox, the Diaspora, and the Exile, Nazarene Judaism ministers to true gentiles, the Orthodox, the Diaspora, and the Exile, yet they understand the importance of the Two Houses of Israel.
Nazarene Israel understands that the Two Houses of Israel must be reunited in to one Nation of Israel with the second coming of Mashiach. That can only happen when people know who they are, and what they are aiming to do.
