An Open Letter to Candace Owens

This past week you made the following statement on social media in response to a post on X by Rabbi Brian Samuel (@rabbriansamuel) proclaiming that one day every knee will bow to the Jewish Messiah. Your exact statement was: “This is deception. If you accept Christ is Messiah, you became a Christian. This is Judeo-Christianity which simply does not exist.”

I am responding to you even though I sincerely doubt I will get you to reconsider your position. My hope is that the many people who follow you will have the opportunity to read my post and come to understand just how wrong you are in your statement above. 

To start with, I understand that I don’t have the social media following that you possess nor the platform of influence that you have, but I do have the truth. While I do believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, I am not a Christian. I am in fact a Messianic Jew or a Jewish believer in Yeshua the Messiah who like Peter, Paul, and Mary (Miriam the Mother of Yeshua) continues to live out my faith within the framework of Judaism. A simple review of the New Testament will demonstrate that every one of the disciples of Yeshua, all of the Apostles, as well as the thousands and thousands of Jews in the 1st Century all continued to live lifestyles consistent with what you call Judeo-Christianity, more accurately, Messianic Judaism. Yes, I understand the term Messianic Judaism is modern and didn’t exist in the 1st Century, but the concept of faith in Messiah while continuing to live a Jewish lifestyle absolutely did. 

The early followers of Yeshua continued to attend synagogues for worship on Shabbat (Saturday). They continued to regularly go to the Temple and make sacrifices and offerings there. They continued to observe the Biblical Holy Days. In other words, after accepting that Yeshua was the Messiah, they continued to live their lives as Jews. 

As the years went on, the disciples and their disciples shared the message of the Messiahship of Yeshua throughout the known world and had such a great impact that they incurred both political and religious persecution. Initially, persecution came from the Jewish leaders who rejected the message of Yeshua being the Messiah. Persecution also came from the Roman government. Later, as more non-Jews became believers, a rift formed between those who would continue to live their faith within the framework of Judaism and those who would separate from Judaism completely as governments such as Rome became “Christian.” 

So yes, this new Christianity outgrew the Messianic Jews and persecution of Jewish believers and forced conversion to this new Christianity diminished the number of Jewish believers in Yeshua. However, from the time of Yeshua until today there have always been Jewish believers in Yeshua living their lives as Messianic Jews.

Your statement: “If you accept Christ is Messiah, you became a Christian” is 100% absolutely incorrect. The truth is you do not have the authority to tell me and the millions of other Messianic Jews that have lived since the time of Yeshua what we are. It is correct that there are similarities between our beliefs and Christianity, primarily that Yeshua is the Messiah. But there are also many differences. Some examples are that we observe and celebrate Biblical Holy Days such as Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover, while Christians celebrate Holidays such as Christmas and Easter. We observe Sabbath from Friday evening until Saturday evening while Christians observe Sabbath on Sunday. We also circumcise our sons on the 8th day. These are only some of the many differences between Messianic Jews and Christians. To say that because Messianic Jews have some commonalities with Christians, they are Christians is equivalent to saying that because men have commonalities with women, men are women. Or because both cars and boats have motors, cars are really boats. Or because horses and camels both have four legs, horses are really camels.

In closing, I hope that somehow this open letter reaches your computer and you take the time to honestly research how the 1st century Jewish believers in Yeshua (Messianic Jews) lived their lives. Then maybe you will recognize that the hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews alive today not only have the right, but the legacy responsibility to continue in the example of those Messianic Jews who came before us and keep the traditions of our faith passed down to us over the last two thousand years.