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How can these people read the Torah and not see the plain conflict between G-d's commandments and what they believe in?!?

Christians are Messianic Jews.

Close. Christians are Messianic Non-Jews. They are not Jews. Some Jews may convert to Christianity, so they are Jews by heritage, but they are not Jews by faith or practice. They are Christians.

Messianic Jews are Christians, by definition. Not all Christians are Messianic. To be Messianic you have to participate in Jewish customs and observe mitzvot, which the majority of Christians do not do.

As far as I'm aware, Christian is anything that falls under what we typically consider to be "Christian". Very broad, huh?

J4J is the crazies on the subway trying to convert you. Generally they get a lot of baptist funding and conversion is their only purpose.

Messianics is where the situation gets sticky. A lot of people will tell you, "oh, they're just like J4J but more subtle." However, a lot of people who practice "Messianic Judaism" do cling to commandments from the Torah and to a Jewish identity, and will identify themselves as Jewish.

There shouldn't be anything negative attached to any of these labels. Something we often lose track of is that other religions and other takes on religion... they're not wrong, per se, they're just different from what we're familiar with. If we associate other religions, mixed religions, etc, with wrongness or evilness, we're just as bad as all our persecutors throughout history. The root of anti-semitism is the fact that Judaism is historically a very different culture from christianity and because others do not understand what we do and why we do it, they are afraid of it.

Whenever I have non-jewish friends over friday night, my dad tries to explain to them what the purpose of each blessing is. As one of history's most persecuted peoples, it's not our duty to hate other religions or to remain ignorant about them. Sometimes stronger religious sentiment comes from looking at all the options and then picking the one that you think is best, but its not your duty to make that choice for others.

It is possible to have a Jewish cultural identity and believe a lot of different things. As far as I'm aware, it's the cultural identity that Messianics cling to. I know it's "wrong" to classify Jews as an "ethnic group", but in a way we are. Common ancestry, common culture. Jewish culture goes beyond religious beliefs.

The only point when any religion becomes "wrong" or "offensive" is when it begins attacking other religions or when its followers take it upon themselves to thrust their faith on others.

I hope no one is trying to say that Messianics are bad, wrong, or purposefully deluding anyone. They've got very sincere beliefs. However, those beliefs aren't Jewish in origin, nor are the vast majority of them able to claim Jewish identity based on the standard Jewish definition of Jew (that is, either their mother was a Jew, or they themselves converted to Judaism by Jewish law). So, they aren't Jewish.

Additionally, Jewish law is very intricate and hard to understand or explain in its finer details; but I think it's safe to say that if a Jew converts to another faith, they are to be considered outside the Jewish community. That is, they cannot function as Jews for purposes of establishing a Jewish prayer quorum, nor can they be called to the Torah, nor marry a Jew. If they have children after their conversion to another faith, those children are not considered Jews; if they wish to be considered Jewish, they have to convert, just as if their parents were not Jews, ever. If they die before returning to Jewish observance and belief, they may not be buried in a Jewish cemetery, nor are Jews permitted to say Kaddish (the mourner's prayer) for them. So even if a person is born a Jew, if they become Messianic (Christian), they are not considered Jews by the Jewish community. And, let's face it, every community has the right to decide for itself who's a member and who's not.

Messianics aren't Jews. They are Christians who have a few Hebrew words and a few borrowed practices from Judaism. No one's saying that their religion is wrong or bad, but we are saying that it is not Jewish.

i was under the impression that J4j meant christians that recognize that their ancestors were jewish, yet they still practice christianity.