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MESSENGERS OF THE NEW COVENANT BIOGRAPHY OF MOTTEL BALESTON, DIRECTOR
In our day, there has been a resurgence of Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus as their Jewish Messiah and Savior. They have a continuing love and affection for Jewish life and culture, while at the same time affirming Jesus as Messiah. Mottel Baleston of New Jersey is one of these. Mottel was born into a Jewish home in Brooklyn, New York and attended Jewish and public schools there. He came to faith in Messiah as a result of a search for spiritual truth. After a careful reading of the Messianic prophecies of the Jewish Bible, it was evident to him that only Jesus has fulfilled these. Mottel is the Director of the "MESSENGERS OF THE NEW COVENANT" of New Jersey, an organization established in 1940 to communicate the good news of the arrival of Messiah Yeshua . Messengers carries on a work of sharing Messiah within the Jewish community, discipling Jewish believers as well as educating Christians concerning the Jewish roots of their faith. Over the years a number of respected Jewish Believers have headed up MESSENGERS, including Rachmiel Frydland and Isaac Levy Finestone. The Messengers Fellowship met in Springfield NJ in the 1970's, in Montclair NJ from 1983 thru 1998, and now meets with Beth Messiah Congregation of Livingston, NJ. In addition to leading "Messengers", Mottel served as Messianic Rabbi at Beth Messiah Congregation from 1997 thru 2001, and currently serves there as a Teaching Elder and Hebrew School Director. Officiating at life-cycle events such as Weddings & Bar Mitzvahs that are Messiah centered adds to his joy. Mottel is a graduate of Northeastern Bible College and has completed extensive course work at Biblical Theological Seminary of Pennsylvania and Ulpan Beit HaAm (Hebrew Language Institute) of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel. He has taught at Congregations, Churches and conferences in Israel, Canada, New Zealand and throughout the United States. Mottel is a founding Board Member of the ASSOCIATION OF MESSIANIC CONGREGATIONS, started in 2003 to encourage and strengthen Messianic Congregations to be Messiah Yeshua centered, grace embracing, doctrinally sound, and joyfully Jewish in their culture. Messengers of the New Covenant - Box 274 - Ledgewood, NJ 07852 e-mail: MessiahNJ @ aol.com (just remove the spaces, an anti-spam measure) |
Two thousand years ago, a
young Jewish Rabbi named Yeshua walked into a Synagogue in Israel and announced
that He was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. During the next 3 years many
thousands of Jewish people came to believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah. Some of
these followers were older, respected, well-known Rabbis. The early
congregations that they established were Jewish in their culture. However, in
the next 200 years the large influx of Gentiles who joined resulted in a gradual forgetting
of this rich Jewish heritage, and eventually produced a church that
drifted far from its' Jewish roots.