According to many anti-Messianics, the authenticity of Messianic Jews as true Jews can be called into question as many of them receive financial and ideological support from powerful churches.

Many people in the anti-Messianic group Magen League clearly feel this way, such as director Alexander Lakshin, who thinks:

‘Self-described “Messianic Jews” are essentially evangelical Christian missionaries in Jewish disguise. Their aim, well camoflauged at first by a blitz of Jewish words, symbols, songs and traditions is simple, to convert as many people as they can to Christianity.’

Then again, the Magen League also enjoys Christian support:

Though underfunded and understaffed, the anti-messianics have in Russia a strong ally — the Russian Orthodox Church, which in many places means de facto state support. “We are viewing the so-called messianic Jewish organizations as sects, which means we are definitely against them,” Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a Moscow-based church official, told JTA.

So perhaps the anti-Messianics of Russia aren’t true Jews, as they receive church backing for the Magen League?

In fact, did you know the Magen League was started as a joint project between, amongst others, Chabad in Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church?:

An international conference: The Missionary Threat – How to combat it? was held in Moscow yesterday. It discussed the issue of the activity in Russia of various evangelical sects, which has increased noticeably over the last year. In order to combat sects together, Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar, the chief rabbis of Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, and Armenia, and representatives of the Jewish religious communities of Belarus and other CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries attended the conference. Roman Silantyev attended the conference on behalf of the Moscow patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Those who had assembled agreed that the active work of missionaries from the organizations, Jews for Jesus and Shma Israel, constitute a real danger.  The sect propagandists, who come from the United States and Finland, are called representatives of Judaism and call upon all those who consider themselves true Jews to believe in Jesus Christ. The conference participants are of the opinion that this propaganda has two negative consequences – the incorrect interpretation of the main dogma of both Judaism and Orthodoxy and, consequently, the emergence of tension between the two confessions.

In his speech to the conference, Roman Silantyev, an official from the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Moscow Patriarchate, also expressed concern about the sects’ activity, although he noted that these missionaries do not represent an especially serious danger to Orthodoxy but that the patriarchate approves and supports Mr Lazar’s initiatives. The first informational steps were made right away yesterday. A seminar to train specialists who will oppose the missionaries, chiefly in Jewish communities in the provinces, was held as part of the conference. A decision was made to set up a “Magen” league that will monitor the activity of the sect groups.

If Messianic Jews can be questioned because they receive support from Gentile Christians, then so can anti-Messianic Jews.