Wouldn't it be fair to say that Messianic Judaism is a form of Christianity? That is the belief of being saved by faith in Jesus and his divinity?
You'd be accurate on the assessment - despite where many elements of the movement in the modern sense tend to not want to deal with it (though much of the Jewish world has long noted the dynamic you shared since they understand Messianic Judaism to simply be an attempt at expression of what Jewish Christianity/its various camps were about).
There was never a use of the term "Judaism" in the Early Church - and it is because of that issue that many Jews have had issue whenever it's enforced by others that Jewish believers in Messiah have to be identified with Messianic Judaism rather than calling what they do Jewish Christianity.
And when you understand the background of what Jewish Christianity was about in the times of the Apostles, you're better able to understand the intracies of how much of what we see today isn't a new issue ...but merely another expression of what occurred in the Early Church.
There are reasons many Jews have tended not to assume that the modern day expression of the Messianic Jewish movement was ever the final definition of what it meant to be a Messianic Jew. Theology itself in the Early Church doesn't lend itself to the idea to assume that
anything pertaining to the OT was automatically within the negative (Which much of the Modern Messianic movement claims that it alone does) and only that within the NT was good. Those saying that anything in the New Covenant is opposed to the Old Covenant are simply doing the heresy of
Marcionism - which tried to divorce the God of the OT from the God of the NT in a false scenario ...but the Early Church valued OT practice (more shared
here,
here,
here) and thankfully combated him...
There's an excellent paper on the issue elsewhere if interested - as it address the Anti-Semitism present in Marcionism and other systems that developed to combat it and yet went in other directions. ..for
the paper explores Ebionism (the idea of Gentiles having to keep all the OT/Torah in order to be approved by God) and Marcionism, two early church heresies which depict the two most antithetical forms of the Judaism-OT and Christianity-NT breach in early Christianity. It addresses Ebionism's philo-Semitlism and Marcionism’s chagrin for the Jewish roots of Christianity - both shown to be antecedents to certain contemporary heretical conceptions ...and both having a corrective found in Paul's metaphor of God’s revelatiory-redemptive olive tree (Romans 1/:/7-24) which aptly describes the dual necessity of the root and the branches, that is the Old and New Testaments.
And for practical example of where the Church NEVER lost its Jewish heritage, one need to go no further than Ancient Christianity - one expression being the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and its practices (from circumcision to kosher foods, Sabbath, etc.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLq8NFMaax0
Some, again, will always have issue since they feel Christianity is diametrically opposed to Judaism. In their minds, "The Lord didn't come to start a new religion called Christianity!!! - and yet, they forge that neither did he start the term "Judaism" or "Messianic Judaism" at any point either when it came to describing others who followed him (as the term "Judaism" was used centuries after Christ) ...despite where others fight for the term as if the Lord was concerned on it. What matter was whether or not you were a disciple or not..
Acts 11:25-27 is very plain on the subject of how believers, both Jews and Gentiles, were called "Christians" in Antioch...but that didn't harm them. Some may wish to say it'd be better not to be called "Christian" because of alot of the baggage that comes with it since the term has been used to support a host of evils that I vehemently disagree with (i.e. imperialism, colonialism, slavery, associating Christianity with entertainment since many secular movie stars all claim to be "Christians", etc). And with that, I can understand why others prefer not to use the term. My only issue is that any term can be hijacked to mean something other than what it meant historically---just as the term "Messianic Judaism" has been hijacked by many to mean something that in many cases was simply a form of Judaizing/full-blown Judaism apart from Yeshua as Divine.
There has be a recognition of what a term meant and a willingness not to do "guilt-by-association" methodologies with terms. In some places where others have only be exposed to one formation of a term, I can be sensitive to it--but in other places, I'm more than comfortable with others being informed on how the term "Christian" is not something to condemn.
But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Acts 19:8-10/Acts 19
But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
Acts 19:8-10 / Acts 19
Acts 19:23
[ The Riot in Ephesus ] About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.
Acts 19:22-24
Acts 22:4
I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,
Acts 24:14
However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
Acts 24:22
Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings. "When Lysias the commander comes," he said, "I will decide your case."
Acts 24
Acts 11:26
and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Acts 11:26
and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Acts 11:25-27 (in Context) Acts 11 (Whole Chapter)
Apart from those following after Christ carrying the label of "THE WAY", prior to that it was even more simplified: You either were or you weren't a disciple----which is what all were know by (
(Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-40)? and that they're also faithful to this (James 1:27)
Acts 9:1
[
Saul's Conversion ] Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
Acts 9:36
In Joppa there was a
disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas ), who was always doing good and helping the poor.
Acts 9:35-37 /
Acts 9