Am I a Hebrew Jew, am I a Gentile Christian, or am I Messianic?

There is quite a bit of Black African/American/Jewish discussions going on in this community. Much of it simply being an exercise in self-justification, rather than an objective look at the history of the Jewish people (direct blood-line descendants of Abraham) throughout the world, and not just focusing on one general location, such as Europe, Asia, Africa or the western continents. An attempt by anyone to fit all of the Hebrew people a single racial or ethnic box is doomed to failure, it is a fruitless exercise. Such a task is no more possible to accomplish (and no more worthwhile) than an effort to trace all modern-day Christians back to the initial church in Jerusalem or to the Gentiles personally brought into the church by Paul (from Greek, Turkey (the Persian Empire), and other Mediterranean cultures.)

Nor, does the making of one's self into a 'black heredity Jew' create a super-Christian. Considering the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world over the last 3,000 years, and all of the cross breeding of mankind (including a great mixing of blacks, whites, yellow, brown, and 'tan'), there is no such thing as a racially pure group – regardless of the historical efforts by many to establish 'their own'. The original stock is is rooted in Noah.

Now, for those who are interested in examining the history of the Jewish people, with an emphasis on the African content, here are a several of sites that should serve as good introductions (a starting point) to the subject.

http://www.thejewsofafrica.com/

And, African Jews are not the only scattered Jews (both natural and converts, both modern and ancient) remaining throughout the world.

http://www.scatteredamongthenations.org/

Another view of the African Jewish population:

http://www.kulanu.org/tutsi/jews-africa.php

And, not all African Jews are black.

http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/subcont.htm

The point being, racial, ethic or spiritual elitism will inevitably lead to discord and division. Unity, brotherhood, and community cannot result from elitism or spiritual pride. When such things are practiced within the body of Christ, we have divided Jesus up and fragmented the kingdom of God into human defined serfdoms. A house divided. The prayer of Jesus is destroyed in our lives when we say that we refuse to become one with one another except on our terms and will consider the prospect of becoming one with Jesus and with the Father on those same terms. Regretfully, we either take the entire package, on God's terms, or we will receive none of it.

My suggestion is that we all engage in an investigation and study of our common spiritual/religious Hebrew roots, and how those roots support the body of Christ as an extended Jewish religion, rather than playing a spiritual (or some other kind of) one-upmanship game. From some quarters here, it would seem that proving that one is from a 'legitimate' Black-Jewish stock is more important than being a disciple of Jesus Christ, or that perhaps there exists some confusion over the question, “Am I a Hebrew Jew, am I a Gentile Christian, or am I Messianic”. In the Hebrew mindset it is not race or ethnic origin that one is counted into the kingdom of God, but rather, are you a Jew or a Gentile? Under the new covenant, it is question of, "Are you a "legitimate" disciple of Christ?" The bottom line is this: If you are of [in] Christ, then on this particular forum, isn't that what really matters?