I see no one replied to this post, though it is old and I don't know if it'll be read by the poster (if a person can be called a poster)....Yea, Messianic Christian sounds strange. But what is meant by Messianic is that we recognize the origins of the church, the bible, and even our Lord as being Hebrew. We as gentiles seem to believe, because we were taught that way, that the Jewish Remnant has nothing to do with the church. But that could not be more wrong. The church began with Jewish believers who observed the festivals, who kept the sabbaths, and teachings of the old testament. Even after the crucifixion you'll see in scriptures that the apostles kept the teachings of the old testament, but with a twist, they recognized and accepted Jesus as Messiah. As believers we are not required to keep the Law in it's ordinances and sacrifices, but observing the festivals as remembrances and teachings is really getting into the very meaning(s) behind them. It helps me to understand more of the New Testament.
Speaking of the New Testament, that's one thing lately I've come across that blew me away. We as gentile christians separate the bible into old and new, there is not a separation between the two...what we call the new testament is building upon, added to the 'old'. The Complete Jewish Bible is one continuous book, though like any other translation some scriptures may be debatable.
And we also need to remember that as the bible says, the Lord has made us both one together, to make of the two people (Jew and Gentile) one new man. Ephesians 2:11-19.
We gentiles are part with them, not the Jew conforming to gentile style church. We can't rightly call ourselves Messianic Jews, because we are not. So, being part with them spiritually, as part of the household of God (Ep. 2:19) we can call ourselves Messianic Christians! Hope that answered your question.
This comes from someone who is Missionary Baptist and I've never attended a Messianic Congregation. I go to a good church, but they have not come to this belief yet, I consider myself Messianic all the same. All I've learned is online. A good source is
hebrew4christians.com