Newmarket 1983
The following statement was issued by the Consultation and is commended to the Churches for study and action:
We rejoice in the growing number of Jewish people who believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord. These Jewish believers are variously known as Hebrew Christians, Jewish Christians, Christian Jews or Messianic Jews, depending on personal preference or the culture in which they live.
We also rejoice in the enrichment of the Church as a result of the added insights on Biblical Jewish customs and practices (e.g. Passover) provided by these Jewish believers in Jesus.
We appeal to our fellow Christians to recognise that Jewish believers have the freedom to keep or not to keep certain customs and practices that are prescribed in the Mosaic Law, while continuing to rely solely upon the sufficiency of Christ for salvation. The Law which was given by God through Moses is part of the heritage of both Jews and Christians.
We affirm that God has not cast away His people, and we call upon all Christians to pray that the Jewish people may he saved. Furthermore, we call upon all Christians to acknowledge the continued election of the people Israel, and their return to the Land of the Fathers as a demonstration of God’s faithfulness.
We believe that Scripture teaches that it is our Christian duty to speak the truth in love and to comfort Israel (Isaiah 40:1-11, Matthew 11:28-30, Acts 3:19). We proclaim that Jesus is the only way to the Father. We realise that to fail in this is to betray our Lord and Saviour. We call upon all Christians who claim to be friends of the modern state of Israel to sustain, support and co-operate with the Christian community within the Land, Jew end Arab and other.
We proclaim that it is a fundamental tenet of the New Testament that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. Yet it is frequently maintained today that the Jewish people have their own covenant which is sufficient for salvation, and that therefore Christians have no evangelistic obligation to Jews. We believe that the mission to the Jewish people is the foundation stone upon which the Christian mission to all the peoples of the world is built. It is the Jewish people who were the original focus of Jesus’ mission: and even when the church widened its approach to include the Gentiles, its witness was still ‘to the Jew first’. If this foundation stone is dislodged, then the universal mission of the Church is in danger of theological collapse.
We rejoice in the growing co-operation among Jewish missions, as exemplified in the recent ‘Messiah has come’ evangelistic campaign in London, England. We urge that this spirit of co-operation be emulated elsewhere by those concerned to reach the Jewish people with the Gospel.