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POSTED
19 MAY, 2008
Another One
Bites the Dust
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
reproduced from the McHuey Blog
I have been in the Messianic movement almost
thirteen years since 1995, and I have witnessed
a great deal firsthand. I have been able to
truly taste of what the Messianic movement can
be if we place Yeshua the Messiah at the center
of what we do, and we all strive to make a
positive difference in the world. I have seen
Jewish people come to enlivened faith in their
Messiah, and I have seen Christians come to a
deeper understanding of who He is. I have seen
true unity among all the saints when the Lord
and His work are emphasized as being the most
important things.
I have also been able to witness a great deal of
sensationalism and opportunism. There have been
various individuals and so-called teachers who
have taken a very holy and important message—the
restoration of our Hebraic Roots—and have made
it into a mockery. It has become very en vogue
now for words like “Christian” and “pagan” to
appear in the same sentence, deeply offending
our Christian brethren and those who faithfully
serve the Lord. It is now becoming more and more
appropriate to castigate the Synagogue as not
having anything beneficial, as a-traditional
interpretations of the Torah are keeping more
and more Jews away. And, I have actually
encountered people telling me that they are
receiving new “revelations” every day, about
things that are not only
not
from God, but actually rob us of who we are as
human beings made in His image.
I know I am not the only one who feels this way,
either.
Many of you, unfortunately, have had to
disturbingly witness friends, colleagues, or
acquaintances actually enter into the Messianic
movement—who later deny both Yeshua’s Divinity
and Messiahship. Many of these people convert to
Orthodox Judaism. But in a few instances, such
people keep asking questions, and then may even
deny God altogether when they are not answered
to their satisfaction. While this is certainly
disturbing, we should not be totally surprised
as such apostasy has been taking place for a
very, very long time. People deny the Supreme
Creator all the time. What’s the big deal?
The big deal is that the Messianic community is
very small, which means that
people know
each other, or at least know
of each other. When a congregational leader or teacher
bites the dust, and reneges on faith in Yeshua,
people quickly find out about it. It can cause a
ripple effect, with others wondering if such
things that Person XYZ now believes actually
have some validity. And to outsiders,
particularly those who believe in Yeshua and are
wanting to know about their Hebraic Roots, it
makes them (legitimately) question whether or
not the Messianic movement is a move of God that
can assist them to know Him in a more profound
way. The Messianic community is so small that
even those who stand for God’s truth can be
lumped in with extremists.
Many of the cases that I have been able to
document since 2002 concern those who accept
anti-missionary arguments about the Messiahship
of Yeshua. Some of these people have converted
to Orthodox Judaism, others to their own
primitive form of Yahwism, and a few are now
atheists. But here is a testimony that I
recently discovered of someone who committed
none of these offenses:
It was around 2001 that we found ourselves
making a major transition regarding our
faith. We became very involved in what many
know as the messianic movement. Due to some
teachings I heard and the conclusions I
reached based on those teachings, I felt
that many doctrines and practices within the
world that I was part of, that being
evangelical fundamental Christianity, were
not biblical. I was convinced that much of
Christianity’s core doctrines were simply
men’s traditions. As a result, we made some
changes which included the celebration of
Passover and Tabernacles instead of
Christmas and Easter. Saturday became our
day of worship rather than Sunday. In 2002,
2003, 2004 and 2005 I had the opportunity to
speak at messianic conferences… We also had
several messianic speakers come to [visit
us]…for weekend conferences during this
time.
….
Things really started to change in
2004/2005…I headed [out on speaking tours]
with more and more questions emerging about
this path I found myself on…From being very
active writing and teaching in the
fundamental Christian world and then the
messianic world, for the past couple of
years I ceased writing to a great degree and
spent hour after hour reading,
contemplating, and studying. As time went
by…I found our spirituality undergoing some
major changes.
….
So am I a Christian? Probably not if you
define a Christian by the set of creeds or
doctrines found within most of evangelical
fundamental Christianity or the messianic
movement. BUT…. if you ask me “Am I trying
to follow the teachings of Jesus?” my answer
would be “ABSOLUTELY.” When the word
Christian was first used I believe it simply
meant “those who followed the teachings of
Jesus” so as much as I would say I would
fall into that category, whether others
would use that label to identify me isn’t
really important. To be fair, I need to
point out that my interpretation of what
Jesus taught is probably going to differ a
great deal from the interpretation held by
evangelical Christianity and/or the
messianic movement.
It would
probably fit in much more with Christian
mysticism etc…
This individual testifies to have been involved
with charismatic and fundamental Christianity,
was quickly raised up as a Messianic teacher,
and then started asking spiritual questions for
which he could have no sufficient answer. I can
only read between the lines here and speculate,
but he was probably ill-prepared to handle some
of the criticisms not only levied against
Yeshua, but also against the Bible itself.
Anyone
involved in Biblical Studies—Jewish,
Christian, or Messianic—is
going to see that there are criticisms against
the Bible. Yet, this is one of
the weakest areas of Messianic theology today.
Too many of our leaders remain isolated and
purposefully ignorant of the poignant questions
of faith and Biblical reliability, and the enemy
has been able to use it for his (great)
advantage against us!
This individual in question did not fall into
atheism, but instead into some kind of mystical,
quasi-New Age type of Christian expression. How
on Earth did he get here? Did his Messianic
quest ultimately end up with him believing, or
at least giving credence, to ideas like “the
Christ-spirit inside of all of us?” Was he,
perhaps, ever opened to the occultic ideas of
Jewish Kabbalah while in the Messianic movement,
and now is opened to some of its paralleling
ideas in fringe sectors of Christianity? Are the
historical narratives of the Bible now to be
viewed as simply metaphors for reaching into the
universal consciousness, since they cannot be
reliable accounts of what actually took place as
some will falsely teach?
Today’s Messianic community is getting ready to
enter into a very interesting season up ahead.
As I said previously—apostasy has always been
going on. But the testimony of our faith
community
does not need
to be that we lead people astray!
The testimony of the Messianic movement needs to
be that we fully embody the ancient mission of
Israel, being blessed by the Lord and thus being
a blessing to others. We need to demonstrate
that by our obedience to God, we can live like
our Messiah Yeshua in a very real, interactive,
and hands-on way. And above all, we need to
demonstrate that we have transformed lives via
the power of the gospel, without having to
listen to lying or seducing spirits that wish to
demean the Scriptures and its straightforward
message for us.
Believe it or not, it might be very difficult to
get some of today’s Messianics to see the
importance of such a basic mission. Will others
bite the dust along this path? I hope not, but
will not hold my breath. I will simply plow
ahead with the work of the Lord assigned to me,
remembering what Paul wrote to Titus: “But as
for you, speak the things which are fitting for
sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). These are the
things that will empower us to ultimately be
that force that can be Israel to the max—a
people even more impactful and influential than
Ancient Israel was commissioned to be! How fast
or
slow we get there, though, will be the result of
the choices that we make—whether wise
or
foolish.
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible. |
