Lesson 4 discusses the subject of God
330 Million Gods video mentioned at 20:40 can be viewed here:
Friday, July 31, 2026
Thursday, July 23, 2026
Religions of the World - Lesson 1 - What is religion?
Lesson 1 seeks to examine the subject of religion in general by asking the question, "What is religion?"
Lesson 1 - What is religion? - part 1 of 2 [This video was roughly edited to remove material that is specific to the administration and navigation of the coursework such as the syllabus and assignments required for college credit.] Link for Beatles 3000 video by Scott Gardiner found at 22:00: https://youtu.be/3Z2vU8M6CYI?si=6nhe0ZLAgDlJthEp
Video Classes: Lectures on World Religions
Between 1997 and 2023, I was a professor of World Religions at graduate and undergraduate institutions in Kentucky, Tennessee, Singapore and Illinois.
The following videos are from a 3-credit undergraduate course, Religions of the World, taught online at College of DuPage (Illinois) in the Fall term of 2022 before retiring in May 2023 and moving to Jerusalem.
As such, they represent the core of my understanding of the religious experiences of humankind. Since I had finished recounting my own colorful and dizzying religious experience in the "Confessions" blog, I thought it would be valuable to pass this on to you.
My intention here was to objectively survey the main streams of religion without sectarian emphases or doctrinal/dogmatic authority claims. I focused on the common elements of how historical religious movements work for adherents and how they understand their own relationship to their place in the universe. I am not pushing an agenda here. This is not about me--that is found in in my Confessions blogs. This is about the general religious experiences of the human race. I hope you find this helpful.
[These videos were roughly edited in 2026 to remove material that is specific to the administration and navigation of the coursework such as the syllabus and assignments required for college credit.]
As I finish editing this material, it will likely be about 35-45 hours divided into about 25 lessons.
You can also find these videos on my website ConfessionsofaWanderingJew.com and my YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/@JeffreyWasserman-PhD
-------------------------------------------------
The textbook used for this course is edited by John Esposito: Title: World Religions Today Author: Esposito, Fasching, Lewis and Feldmeirer ISBN: 9780197537657 [paperback] Digital ISBN: 9780197537725 [ebook] Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2022/7th Edition 4th, 5th or 6th editions are less expensive and plentiful as used books. Reading the textbook isn't required, but I encourage you to get a basic religions textbook to help you absorb this material. We will follow this basic outline of study: 1. What is religion? 2. Hinduism/Sikhism/Jainism 3. Buddhism 4. Taoism, Confucianism 5. Judaism 6. Christianity 7. Islam
Thursday, July 2, 2026
Messianic Jewish Congregations - BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
Bibliography
Books
Aviad, J. Return to Judaism. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983.
Bellah, R. The Broken Covenant. New York: Seabury Press, 1975.
Bellah, R., R. Madsen, W. M. Sullivan, A. Swidler, and S. M. Tipton. Habits of the Heart. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.
Biale, D. Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History. New York: Schocken Books, 1986.
Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Doubleday, 1967.
Berkowitz, Ariel, and D’vorah Berkowitz. Torah Rediscovered: Challenging Centuries of Misinterpretation and Neglect. Lakewood, CO: First Fruits of Zion, 1996.
Birnbaum, Philip. Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts. Brooklyn, NY: Hebrew Publishing, 1979.
Brickner, David. Mishpochah Matters: Speaking Frankly to God’s Family. San Francisco: Purple Pomegranate Productions, 1996.
Chazan, Robert. Daggers of Faith: Thirteenth Century Christian Missionizing and Jewish Response. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1989.
Chernoff, D. Introduction to Messianic Judaism. Havertown, PA: MMI Publishing, 1990.
________. Yeshua the Messiah. Havertown, PA: MMI Publishing, 1989.
Chosen People Ministry. How to Introduce Your Jewish Friends to the Messiah. Charlotte: Chosen People Ministries, 1991.
. . . CONTINUE READING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - APPENDIX - Survey Sample
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
Appendix
Messianic Congregation Survey
Congregation Name ______________________________________
Address _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
Survey Participant name? _________________________________
Position in congregation? _________________________________
How did your congregation get started?
- Mission of another church
- Denominational mission
- Agency mission
- Group of individuals
- Self
- Other _____________________________
When? ___________________
. . . CONTINUE READING SURVEY SAMPLE
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - CHAPTER 6 - The Future for Messianic Jewish Congregations
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
The central issue facing Messianic Jewish congregations is context, especially as it relates to Jewish evangelism. Of course, fulfilling Yeshua’s Great Commission is not the only reason for congregational life. Congregations also serve to provide a sense of identity and community and become the source of discipleship and spiritual growth for believers. Certainly, this should be understood in Yeshua’s commission to “make disciples” and to teach those disciples “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20 NASB). However, entrance into and participation in Messianic congregational life depends on the proclamation of the gospel and the extension of the offer of Kingdom living to Jews and Gentiles alike. Therefore, Messianic Jews must first be concerned with gospel proclamation to other Jews. With this in mind, the evangelistic question, which asks whether Messianic congregations function practically to attract Jews to Yeshua, applies equally to matters of fellowship and discipleship.
. . . CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 6
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - CHAPTER 5 - The Israeli Expression
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
In the previous chapter, we noted that the twentieth century Messianic congregational movement is not directly linked with the first century Jewish disciples of Jesus. Both the American and Israeli Messianic congregations are modern phenomena linked more closely to evangelical Protestantism. Nevertheless, the reappearance of Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel after an absence of 1,600 years merits examination. In this chapter, we examine contemporary Israeli Messianic congregations in their functions of fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism.
Sources
Much of the material for this chapter was gathered by means of personal interviews conducted in Israel January and February of 1997. There is little available written material on Israeli Messianic congregations. The movement is still in its inception and there are few who have reflected on it. The threat of persecution by Jewish religious authorities causes Israeli Messianic Jews caution in committing information to writing that might somehow be used against them.
Out of the fifteen interviews conducted, I have selected six as an introduction to the breadth, variety, and development of the Messianic congregational movement in Israel. These include Zvi, a pioneer-pastor; Yakov, a product of the sixties from America; Reuven, a psalmist; Shlomo, an “almost” rabbi; Natan, a leader for a new generation; and Daniel and Sarah, an Eastern-bloc immigrant couple. Their stories highlight the principal characteristics and significant events in contemporary Israeli Messianic Judaism.
. . . CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 5
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - CHAPTER 4 - The North American Expression
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
The reemergence of Messianic Jewish congregations in the late twentieth century North America is not directly linked to the Messianic Judaism of the first through fourth centuries nor to the European Messianic developments such as that of Rabinowitz or the London Mildmay Mission. Rather, it is an outgrowth of evangelical Protestantism that flourished in the absence of a State Church. Independently minded North Americans have approached church development with the same pioneering spirit that impelled coast to coast expansion. In every locale, adjustments were made to existing church models to fit geographical, social, and cultural requirements.
American Messianic Jewish congregations represent another adaptation of Evangelical Protestantism to the diverse American context. And it is the very diversity of the American context that complicates description of North American Messianic Judaism. Presently, there are as many as 200 to 250 Messianic congregations in North America. David Brickner of Jews for Jesus comments:
We have surveys from over 800 Messianic congregations in our files. They start up and go out of existence almost overnight. There are probably no more than 150 to 200 in existence at any one time.
Sources
In this section, I will not attempt to treat every facet of the constantly changing American Messianic Jewish landscape. Rather, I have selected individuals and congregations to characterize it. Such a characterization must certainly leave out much of what some will consider essential elements of Messianic Judaism. The sources for this characterization include 62 surveys completed by congregational leaders and interviews with Roy Schwarcz, a Messianic pastor; Suzanne, a new convert; Steve Katz, a Messianic worship leader; Jeff Feinberg, a scholar; and Rich, a member of “Generation X.” The subsequent sections on fellowship, discipleship, and evangelism will draw on these sources as well as Messianic literature, my personal visits to congregations in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisville, and Cincinnati, as well as conversations with Messianic leaders from Boston, Atlanta, Hartford, Houston, and New York.
. . . CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 4
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - CHAPTER 3 - An Emerging Identity
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
Although the believing Jew had been absorbed into the Gentile-controlled church and independent Jewish congregations disappeared from view after the fourth century, there were those within church life who were known as both Jews and Christians. Arnold Fruchtenbaum comments:
The nineteenth century saw at least a quarter million Jews come to Christ, and many of them made invaluable contributions to their respective fields. The list would include Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of England who gained the Suez Canal and India for the British Empire; Alfred Edersheim, whose Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah is still the classic on the life of Christ; Felix Mendelssohn, the great composer; Johann August Wilhelm Neander, whose work in church history became the basis for all future works in this field. Franz Delitzsch, who along with Keil wrote the Old Testament commentary that is still the finest and the standard in this field (his translation of the New Testament into Hebrew is still the translation used in Israel today); Bishop Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky, the translator of the Chinese Bible; David Baron, whose commentaries on Isaiah 53 and the book of Zechariah have yet to be superseded; Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander, the first Anglican bishop of Jerusalem; Rabbi Leopold Cohn, founder of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, the largest Jewish mission in the world; Rabbi [sic] Joseph Rabinowitz, founder of the Hebrew Christian Synagogue in Hungary [sic, Kishinev, Russia]; Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein, who also had a Hebrew Christian Congregation in Europe; and many others.
The impetus toward Jewish Christian identity was fueled by the Reformation and Counter Reformation as well as the Enlightenment in Christian European circles and the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) among European Jews.
One of the results of both the Reformation and Counter Reformation was the rediscovery of the Hebrew Old Testament by Christian theologians. This led to the beginning of an acceptance of the Jewish people as legitimately the “chosen people” of God. The conflict between Church and Synagogue had moderated. After all, the Church was dominant on all fronts and there was little reason for Christians to see themselves in any meaningful competition with Judaism. With a greater recognition of the Jews as a people, doors that had been closed and societal functions that had been walled off now began to open to Jewish intellectuals, businessmen, doctors, and artists.
. . . CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 3
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
Messianic Jewish Congregations - CHAPTER 2 - The History and Theology of Messianic Judaism
The following is a reproduction of my 1997 doctoral dissertation demonstrating that modern “Messianic Jewish Congregations” are actually evangelical Christian congregations, not Jewish.
As such it represents my perspective in 1997 before my return to a Jewish way of life in 1999. Please see my Wanderings 1967-2025 for context.
Both the 2000 print version and 2012 ePub are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Messianic-Jewish-Congregations-Business-Gentiles-ebook/dp/B0097GFOTK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
------------------------------
Messianic Jews see themselves as having a different if not separate history from the Gentile Church. As the “Who Sold This Business to the Gentiles” story indicates, Messianic Jews believe that “something has happened” to bring about this different history. In an effort to understand that “something” some Messianic Jews have attempted a reconstruction of the history of the Jewish Church.
By far the most exhaustive and scholarly attempt was made by the British Jewish Christian scholar, Hugh J. Schonfield, in his The History of Jewish Christianity. He would later write The Passover Plot: New Light on the History of Jesus, in which he denies the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus and he fails to mention his own previously held faith. Nevertheless, his History of Jewish Christianity is the best scholarly attempt at a reconstruction of Jewish Church history.
Since the Holocaust of World War II, which was likely responsible for Schonfield’s disillusionment, numerous Christian scholars have begun to pay attention to the Jewish roots and origins of the Church. Jakob Jocz’s The Jewish People and Jesus Christ represents the first and best of these. In 1981 he published The Jewish People and Jesus Christ After Auschwitz as a sequel to his first work. Here he notes the revived interest by Gentile and Jewish scholars alike in the Jewish origins of Christianity and the Jewishness of Jesus:
The most remarkable development in Jewish culture is the increasing acceptance of Jesus the Jew. There is a genuine effort made to incorporate the Nazarene into the history of Jewish spirituality, not as the Christ of the Church but as a teacher in Israel. Therefore, the question, “Who is Jesus?” is repeatedly asked and answered in a variety of ways. The question regarding Jesus raises the problem of the “normalcy” of rabbinic Judaism. The discovery of the Qumran literature in the Dead Sea caves opened new insights into the structure of religious life at the time of Jesus. Until that discovery it was taken for granted that Pharisaic Judaism was the normative religion in Israel. The Church therefore was seen as an offspring of the Synagogue. Jewish (and even Christian) writers frequently speak of Christianity as the daughter of Judaism, meaning rabbinic Judaism. But the recently recovered facts contradict such a position. Judaism at the time of Jesus was by no means a homogeneous entity. There were many sects in competition with each other, none normative. This is an important point in assessing the status of ancient Hebrew Christianity. The claim to “Jewishness” cannot be sustained anymore as a prerogative of rabbinism. On historic grounds it will be difficult to substantiate the claim the Hebrew Christians have abandoned Judaism. Rather, they have opposed rabbinic Judaism with their own brand, as did the monks at Qumran.
More recent interest by Rodney Stark, Steven Wilson, and Howard Clark Kee is beginning to reveal the variety of Judaisms and Christianities that existed during the first century C.E. Rabbinic Judaism and Pauline Christianity then would represent the “winners” in the struggle for survival from historical trauma and religious persecution in the first century of this era.
Though socio-historical works like that of Stark and Kee are interesting, they offer little in the way of concrete documentation or substantive historical analysis of the early Jewish Church. To-date there has been no exhaustive scholarly history that can supplant the work done by Schonfield. Recent attempts by Arnold Fruchtenbaum and David Rausch rely heavily on Schonfield and his familiarity with Jewish-Christian sources and materials.
. . . CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 2
Messianic Jewish Congregations - Table of Contents
Wandering Jew - Table of Contents
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