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POSTED
01 JANUARY, 2007
Where Should the Messianic Movement be in 2107?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
One-hundred years from now—should the Lord have yet to
return—the world will be a much different place than it is
today. It will be the Twenty-Second Century. Technology will
have advanced much more than it has advanced in the past few
decades with the rise of the personal computer and the Internet.
Rather than having to dictate to a computer with a keyboard and
mouse, interactive voice communication and some kind of
artificial intelligence will assist people with their daily
affairs. Travel between continents will become even more
commonplace, and it is likely that man will probably have a
permanent presence on Earth’s moon, will have set foot on Mars,
and possibly even other celestial bodies in the Solar system.
But will the ills that plague the human condition have changed
at all? Will there still be poverty, disease, hunger, and
discrimination? Will there still be global terrorism? How will
the United States have changed? Will the center of world power
have shifted from the West to the East? What will the Middle
East look like? Will people have more freedoms, or fewer
freedoms?
Planet Earth in the year 2107 is undoubtedly an issue that few
of us today want to consider, because of the likelihood that
most of us will be dead when it arrives. I doubt that when going
on his missionary journeys in the 50s C.E. that the Apostle Paul
ever frequently asked the question of the legacy his work would
have left for those living in the 150s C.E. Did the Ancient
Israelites, entering into the Promised Land under Joshua, ever
think that their progeny would quickly fall into a cycle of sin,
rebellion against God, and then chastisement? They probably just
focused on the moment that they found themselves, not worrying
about the long-term affects on their grandchildren and
great-grandchildren.
When we look at what God is doing in our day through the
emerging Messianic movement, including the restoration of the
Torah to His people, where will we be in another century? Are we
presently—today—considering the legacy that we will be handing
to those who come after us if the Lord does not return in our
lifetimes? Are we going to leave something that the next
generations of Messianic Believers can build upon and use for
the situations that they will be facing?
God’s Timetable is Not Our Timetable
When any one of
us surveys the Bible, we should discover that many events occur
over a long, drawn-out period of time. Few of us are aware of
the fact that a name like “Israel” (or close derivatives) was
common in the Ancient Near East in 2300 B.C.E., at least five
centuries before the Patriarch Abraham was even born.[1]
What something like this shows the Biblical reader is that Jacob
being renamed Israel is certainly plausible, as Israel was a
name that existed in the ancient period and was not simply “made
up” by someone thinking that he had an encounter with God. But
the fact that when we read Scripture that time works in a much
different way than modern-day people perceive it, presents some
major challenges for us—especially if we are Americans.
Many of us run the risk of looking at things from too much of an
American perspective, where we are completely disconnected from
the fact that the Lord works from century-to-century and not
necessarily from year-to-year. Most of this comes from the
reality that here in the United States we are disconnected from
anything that is ancient. We do not have Medieval castles with a
drawbridge and moat in the countryside. We do not have aqueducts
or Roman ruins we can park our cars next to. We do not have any
of the things that our European neighbors have that are older
than 500 years. We think that when a sports stadium is 30 years
old that it needs to be torn down in favor of a new one. Are we
surprised that our lack of understanding things from
century-to-century affects our view of the Bible? It frequently
causes us to not have a long-term approach to the work that God
has placed us here to do.
Few that I know today are willing to ask the question: Where
should the Messianic movement be in 2107? The majority of
today’s Messianic community believes that by this time Yeshua
the Messiah will have returned and the world will be
experiencing His Millennial reign. We should certainly hope that
this will be the case—but what if it is not? What if we
are found wanting by the Lord for not performing some critical
spiritual work, as a result of putting it off because we thought
the Second Coming would absolutely occur in our
lifetimes? Surely, if we are performing the work of God—and then
the terrible things prophesied about in Scripture come crashing
down upon us—our training from the Scriptures and life
experience should have disciplined us enough so we can properly
encounter whatever we will face.
But in the meantime, as we wait for the Lord’s return, how much
of that spiritual work is not being performed? Consider the
Apostle Paul’s words to the Thessalonicans, who likewise
believed that Yeshua was absolutely going to return in
their lifetimes. Not only did they stop doing the daily work of
God’s Kingdom, many of them quit their jobs, thinking that
Yeshua could come at any time. He candidly tells them that the
person who does not work should not be allowed to eat:
“For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order:
if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.
For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined
life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such
persons we command and exhort in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah to
work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you,
brethren, do not grow weary of doing good” (2 Thessalonians
3:10-13).
How much work has gone unfinished because of this attitude? How
many of us are ill-equipped to deal with the daily struggles
that the world delivers us as Messianic Believers—to say nothing
of the rise of the antimessiah/antichrist or beginning of the
Great Tribulation?
The modern Messianic movement has been around for almost forty
years. Many attribute its growth to the recapturing of Jerusalem
in 1967 by the State of Israel and the high prophetic
expectations that were on the horizon. Many of the Messianic
Jewish pioneers of the early 1970s likely thought that the world
of the year 2000 would have been much different than the world
they were living in. Certainly, many evangelical Christians in
the past thought that Jesus Christ would have returned by 2000.
Seven years ago there was a great uproar about Y2k and the
thought that it would have brought about the “End of the Age.”
We have all been subject to seeing teachers and ministries rise
up and declare that “this is the year” the Messiah will return,
and this has contributed to some major Kingdom work not
being completed. Many more previous generations have thought
that they were the ones that would see Yeshua return, but as of
yet, He has not.
The Messianic movement has certainly achieved some major things
in the past forty years. It has restored the need to see Yeshua
the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, as a First Century Jew. It has
allowed us to recognize that Jews who come to faith in Yeshua do
not have to give up their Jewishness. It has shown us the need
to understand that our belief in Yeshua and His teachings are
intimately connected to the Torah and Tanach. And, it has given
rise to many non-Jewish Believers being exposed to the Hebraic
Roots of their faith and the need to live lives fully like the
Messiah and Apostles.
But what has not been accomplished during the past forty years
that could have been? The modern Messianic movement has not been
subject to the same kind of circumstances that the late First
Century Believers were subject to. No Messianic has had to
worship or live in catacombs for fear of his or her life. None
of us have had to worry about the government coming in and
arresting us for keeping Shabbat or eating kosher. To my
knowledge, none of us have been subjected to martyrdom. At most,
we have been harassed for our beliefs and have been socially
ostracized by a few. For some, the lack of resources and
financial support have been the major obstacles. And when
compared to the martyrdom of some of the early Believers, these
things are not that bad. On the whole, we have had it pretty
easy compared to the others who have gone before us, and our
brothers and sisters in the third world who do face martyrdom on
a regular basis.
For a movement that largely considers itself to be one that will
significantly, if not radically, change the face of our
faith—certainly more could have been accomplished in the past
forty years. This is evidenced in some of the current
theological controversies that we are facing today, that will
have to be remedied in the next forty, if not one-hundred years
should the Lord tarry. Do we have a basic theology about God?
Where are all of the Messianic commentaries on all books
of the Bible? How do we relate to our modern age? These are only
a few of the things that should have probably been addressed
earlier, but are only now being discussed by Messianic
Believers.
As the Lord expands and grows the Messianic movement, we have to
be aware of these things so we can truly be that light to the
world that God has called His people to be. We have to know the
areas where we need to make some major improvement, while
continuing to empower people for the challenges that they face
right now in their daily lives. While we do this, we also have
to avoid the mistake made in the past of force-feeding an
American view of time onto the Scriptures, which demands that
change be almost instantaneous. We certainly need to be looking
for our Master’s return, but not forget the daily work of His
Kingdom that He has imparted to us.
In this article, I have laid out three long-term areas where I
believe we can commit ourselves to improvement now. This
will not only affect the current work that the Lord has given
us, but will enable us to hand over a legacy to those who come
after us. Should we indeed arrive at the year 2107, substantial
progress should be made in these aspects of our faith.
1. Our Need to Have a More Conservative-Critical
View of the Bible
Many of today’s Messianic Believers are rightly convicted that
the entire Bible is for their instruction. We witness this when
people from Jewish backgrounds come to faith in Yeshua, and see
the richness of the Hebrew Scriptures lived out in His life and
the life of His early followers. We also witness this when we
see non-Jewish Believers from Christian backgrounds see that
there is no major difference between the Old and New Testaments.
The Tanach forms the foundation that the Apostolic Scriptures
build themselves upon. Even if a new Messianic has difficulty
finding a congregation or fellowship in his or her local area,
he or she often will find a small group of people to associate
with and study Scripture.
I firmly
believe that a regimented, disciplined study of the Bible is
required for our spiritual growth. The easiest way that I
believe you can do this is to study the weekly Torah portions,
be engaged in mid-week study of another text from the Prophets,
Writings, or Apostolic Scriptures, and then be engaged in
examining a text yourself. You may think this sounds hard, but
no one ever said our faith was easy! Having a balanced diet of
Biblical instruction is required so we can face the challenges
of our world. Every single one of us, at least once in our
lives, should read through the entire Bible, surveying the text
and making observations about what we are reading.[2]
The immediate challenge that we often have to overcome today is
that the vast majority of Messianic Bible studies are only
focused on the weekly Torah portions. Now while I fully believe
this is something important—and should by no means be
discouraged—many coming out of Church settings the past few
years have simply exchanged only reading the New Testament to
only reading the Torah. This needs to be remedied.
We cannot forget the centrality of Yeshua to our
faith and His love. He is the model that we are to emulate.
Problems have erupted in the past several years in sectors of
the Messianic community as some have challenged the canonicity
and inspiration of various books of the Apostolic Writings. They
believe certain teachings made by the Disciples of Yeshua and
their immediate successors contradict God’s revelation in the
Torah. Rather than reason with the Scriptures, many are content
to simply throw texts away without examining them with a
critical eye. Many perceived contradictions can be easily solved
by an examination of the history and/or circumstances
surrounding the original writing of a Biblical book, or by
looking into the original language source text behind it. How
many have failed to do some basic research into the Bible before
casting things aside? Certainly, if it leads people into
doubting who Yeshua is in their lives—we should be greatly
concerned.
How much of this failure to consider the history of the Bible is
a result of the fact that today’s Messianic movement is largely
disengaged from the reality that the Scriptures as a whole have
always been under attack? While it rightfully appalls many
Messianic Believers that some would cast aside Yeshua because of
a supposed contradiction here or there (that can often be easily
solved), very few of us are aware of the same kinds of
criticisms against the Tanach, and in particular, the Torah. As
the Messianic movement grows and matures—particularly in a
movement that places a great deal of emphasis on the Torah—these
are the kinds of things that we must increasingly become aware
of so we can combat them.
Did you know that there are many Christian and Jewish
theologians who believe that Moses had nothing to do with the
composition of the Torah? Many believe that Moses, at best, was
a herdsman who led a group of disenfranchised slaves out of
Egypt, and that they ultimately made it into Canaan. These
people would later become a tribal power known as Israel. They
would be subject to invasion and exile. When some of them
returned from Babylon, they would then compile the varied
traditions of their tribal myths and call it the Torah of Moses.
They contend that Moses did not have anything to do with the
Torah; it is said that it should all be attributed to the
Yahwist (J), Elohist (E), Priestly (P), and Deuteronomic (D)
writers.
For many of you reading, this is the first time you have ever
heard about the JEDP documentary hypothesis. This liberal
viewpoint is not something new, as it has actually been around
since the mid-1800s with the rise of German higher criticism.
You do not have to go that far to read about it, as many Bible
dictionaries and Bible commentaries are written from the
perspective that Moses did not write or compile any of the Torah
(that is, if he existed). This is not only true of liberal
Christian works, but also many liberal Jewish works as well. If
you have a copy of the Jewish Study Bible (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2004), you will get a strong exposure to these
kinds of beliefs.
Most of today’s Messianic community—even among some teachers—is
not even aware that these beliefs exist. It is surprising to me,
in a movement that studies the Torah on a weekly basis, that few
questions (at least that I am aware of) have ever arisen from a
person reading through a study Bible or consulting a commentary
that mentions something called JEDP. Certainly, there are solid
Biblical and historical answers to these criticisms. But how
many of us remain ignorant of them? When we see something on the
Discovery Channel or the History Channel that criticizes the
Bible—what do we do? Our answer cannot be to throw away our
television set. We need to engage with the criticism and respond
to it so that our own faith can be strengthened in the process.
If we truly give the Tanach a high place in our understanding of
God, then we need to be willing to know that there is criticism
out there against what it says. We need to know how to respond
to this criticism so that our own faith can be reinforced.
The ultimate answer to our dilemma in Messianic Biblical Studies
is that we need to have a conservatively conscious, critical
view of the Scriptures. (This is not going to come if the only
sources we consult are Orthodox Jewish commentaries that are
often totally disengaged from the discussions going on.) We need
to find the safe middle ground between the Bible and history. We
need not make the errant conclusion that the Exodus did not take
place because there is no Egyptian record for it as liberal
theologians often do. We should, rather, engage with the history
and consider why the Egyptians would not write about it. We need
to understand that we cannot read our modern-day expectations of
preciseness and exactness on a text that was compiled millennia
ago. We need to affirm the truth of what the Bible communicates,
and understand it in the context of real history.
When we can learn as a Messianic movement to appreciate the
historicity of things such as the Exodus, Israel’s monarchy, the
Babylonian exile, and certainly the life of Yeshua and the
Apostles—we will also learn to appreciate the call that God has
upon us. We will learn from the testimony of Scripture, the
complex circumstances that ancient generations faced, and thus
be empowered to adequately face our own complex circumstances in
our life and society.
If the Lord has yet to return by the year 2107, the Messianic
movement should have adopted a more conservative-critical view
of the Scriptures. This will affirm that what the text is saying
is true, but does not shy away from any of the controversies it
presents.
2. Our Need to be Able to be a Socially Relevant
Movement
Every week when we study the Torah we are surely presented with
an issue or two that relates to something we are facing today.
In the first few Torah portions in Genesis, we see comments made
about the Fall of humanity, the first fratricide, God judging
the Earth via the Flood, and the judgment upon a city engaged in
gross homosexuality. We face all of these things today, and
nothing has changed that much. We should learn from the lessons
that God teaches us in His Word, so we can then be able to deal
with these same sins present among us.
But is our study of the Torah ever really focused on the mission
of God in the world? What about Scriptures like the Prophets,
which we seldom ever examine other than to just read about the
coming of the Messiah or the end of the world? The Prophets have
a great deal to say about social justice and how we need to be
involved in our communities. How many Messianic congregations
and fellowships are closed off from others around them? Does
your congregational leader or rabbi have friends who are pastors
of local churches? Does he have any friends in the local Jewish
community? Do they ever focus on humanitarian and social issues
that are relevant to the local community? These questions are
some that we as Messianics need to answer today.
Surely, if the Lord is restoring the Hebraic Roots of the faith,
He will—via time—transform us into a movement that can more
readily respond to the social challenges of the day. A
consistent study of Scripture and an appreciation for the
circumstances that previous generations have faced should
empower us to be about God’s work today. When we study the
Torah, if all we are focusing on are “curiosities” in the text,
and we are not able to apply those curiosities in our own
relationship to God today—what have we accomplished? If all we
do is sit around discussing how many Hebrew letters are in
Genesis 1:1 versus Deuteronomy 34:12, we have accomplished
nothing in terms of the mission of God in today’s world.
The message of Scripture has so much to tell us about the human
condition and how our Heavenly Father is intimately concerned
about the salvation of the lost. The Lord wants us to be a
people who are transformed by His Holy Spirit and are able to
testify of Him via our good works. The Lord wants us to have
hearts that love others, and minds that can deal with the
complexities of human living. But how many of us are so closed
off to modern-day issues that we cannot properly respond to the
questions of pre-marital sex, homosexuality, abortion, murder,
terrorism, cloning, stem cell research, embezzlement, fraud,
extortion, discrimination, and a host of other things too long
to list? These are the things that the world is asking about—and
we need to have Biblically-based answers!
In your experience as a Messianic Believer, have you considered
your own personal ministry to the lost in today’s world? Are you
connected to what they are experiencing? Or, do you simply
remain cloistered to yourself and others like you—oblivious to
what is going on? Certainly, each one of us has our individual
callings and roles to perform based on our unique spheres of
influence. However, if the Messianic movement is truly something
of God, then given time we should not remain a community that is
largely devoid of making any sizeable impact on others. Given
time, we will have the answers that the lost are desperately
seeking, as they know they need salvation and to live a holy
life according to God’s commandments.
If the Lord has yet to return by the year 2107, the Messianic
movement will need to engage itself more with society at large.
We need to be able to make a significant impact on our local
communities, sharing the good news of Yeshua and discipling
people in how to properly follow God.
3. Our Need to Have a Global Vision
Beyond impacting our local communities and those we interact
with every day, the current Messianic movement of 2007 needs
more of a global vision. We have to consider that the early
Messianic Jewish movement of the late Twentieth Century was
limited in the goals that it set. It was largely concerned about
restoring the Jewishness of Jesus, and establishing the fact
that Jewish Believers did not have to give up their own
Jewishness or cultural traditions. These were very important for
the early days of the movement. But in the past decade, a large
number of non-Jews have entered in, and the kinds of questions
being asked are becoming more complex. While many non-Jewish
Messianics rightly acknowledge that they have missed out on the
Jewishness of Yeshua, they see the present vision of today’s
Messianic movement being limited. Frequently, there is too much
of an emphasis on Israel at the expense of the world. The
dilemma that we face may be summarized in the following remarks:
“Just as Joseph was disguised, so too the Messiah remains
disguised to His brethren, the Jewish people. In some ways,
Gentile Christianity is responsible for the disguise. Christian
artwork represents Jesus with Gentile hair, makeup and clothes.
In Christian literature Jesus speaks in Greek and in the
language of every nation; His Hebrew mother tongue is all but
forgotten. Christianity has removed Him from His Hebraic and
Torah context and made Him unrecognizable to His own brothers.”
It is absolutely true that much of the Christian Church is
responsible for forgetting about the Jewishness of Yeshua, and
the fact that He was a Torah observant rabbi. Yeshua taught
according to the norms of His day, and observed the standard
customs of the Judaism of His period. These are things that the
Messianic movement has rightly been restoring to the faith. But
Yeshua did not only speak Hebrew; He also spoke in Greek to the
Greeks and Romans He encountered. He commissioned the Disciples
to go to the ends of the Earth and proclaim the gospel. The
Christian Church today largely speaks of having a global vision,
but then can forget about “tiny little Israel.” Has today’s
Messianic movement made the reverse mistake? How do we maintain
the integrity of having a high regard for Israel, while
recognizing that Israel is to serve the masses of humanity?
This, perhaps more than anything else, is something that many
Messianics today need to discuss.
Certainly, our world today is becoming more global. All you have
to do is go to your local grocery store and see a wide array of
food products from Europe, Africa, and the Far East that thirty
years ago you would probably not have found. The global economy
has changed the way we do business. Whereas the Disciples would
have had to walk days to get where they wanted to go, we can now
drive a car. When Paul was in Asia Minor, it may have taken him
five to six weeks to get to Jerusalem. Now, all we have to do is
call a travel agent or book our tickets online. If you live on
the Eastern seaboard of the United States, you can be there
within fourteen hours.
If you have not been to modern Israel, you may not realize that
within this small country is a very ethnically and culturally
diverse group of people. Many expect to go to Israel and see
Orthodox Jews everywhere. While they are certainly there, you
will also encounter Jews from seventy or eighty different
countries, Jewish people visiting from diverse parts of the
world, and hear at least a dozen languages spoken. It is not as
easy as learning modern Hebrew to communicate with everyone. On
top of this, many different ethnic churches have representation
in Israel. Do not be fooled: Israel itself is not an homogenous
place.
When today’s Messianic movement can learn to appreciate the fact
that our faith is not just about Israel, nor is it just about
the world, then we can begin to have a more global impact. The
Spirit of God moves at many Sunday services in our own country,
just as in Shabbat-keeping Messianic services. But even
more so, the Spirit moves in places like Africa, India, or
China. How do we expect to relate the Messianic things God has
revealed to us to those Believers? Have we even considered this?
Do we even recognize that when Believers in the third world are
persecuted or killed for their faith that we as a whole are
being persecuted and killed? Do we ever attempt as Messianics to
see the “big picture” of the world and God’s people?
The phenomenon known as globalization is changing the world we
live in and how we do business. The Messianic movement should
embrace it because if it gives the enemy the ability to spread
lies and sinful behavior, then it surely also gives us the
ability to spread the good news of Yeshua across the world as
well. Embracing a global perspective—perhaps more than anything
else—will indeed require time. Perhaps we are not ready to send
Messianic missionaries into the Congo—but are we even
recognizing that it will come? What are we to do in the
meantime? We need to be trained to understand that it is not
about Israel or the world—it is about Israel serving the world.
The Prophet Isaiah tells us,
“Thus says God the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out
the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on
it and spirit to those who walk in it, ‘I am the
Lord, I have called
you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch
over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as
a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out
prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from
the prison’” (Isaiah 42:5-7; cf. Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22).
These are the exact same things that Yeshua came to do.
If the Lord has yet to return by the year 2107, the Messianic
movement needs to continue its strong support of the State of
Israel, while at the same time making a strong impact on others
all across the world who need salvation. The Messianic community
will hopefully have a global influence that it presently does
not have.
What can we do right now?
Realistically, we actually have a long way to go before we can
see some of the goals I have written about being achieved. Many
of us could easily adopt them in our own personal approach to
Messianic faith and the Scriptures, but it will take some
time—and probably even some more “ups and downs”—in the
development of the Messianic movement as a whole for them to be
more fully integrated. We have to know what the criticisms
against our faith are, especially if they have been around for
several centuries. We have to make an impact on the world
immediately around us. And, we have to recognize that Israel is
called to serve the world. If the Lord does not return as soon
as we may think, then we need to take advantage of the time He
has given us to make progress in these areas.
The most pragmatic way to see some of these things integrated
into our current Messianic experience is being able to readily
submit ourselves to the teachings of the Bible. But these need
to be well-balanced teachings from all across Scripture. We need
to see the mission of God and His salvation history present in
what we read. We have to recognize the cultural diversity of the
text and how Israel is called to interact with its neighbors and
positively impact them. We need to become self-critical
individuals who can wake up each morning and pray, “Heavenly
Father, show me where I need to improve.” Truly, if we can be
self-critical individuals and learn to improve ourselves, than
we can become a self-critical movement. Those who recognize
their faults and their need to rely upon God, are those who
can be used by Him to do great things. It was the Apostle
Paul himself who said, “I am the least of the apostles, and not
fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the [assembly]
of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9), and yet he was empowered to
perform some great tasks for the Lord—leaving a legacy that we
now benefit from.
What will we be able to do in the coming years that will
transform the emerging Messianic movement into one that can be
used to bring about the final restoration before Yeshua returns?
Where do we need to improve? Will Yeshua have returned by 2107?
How much of answering that question is contingent on whether or
not we are performing the work that He has us to do right now?
If we do not do that work, will we be delaying His return?
Remember that God does not see time the way we do as limited
humans. He will only accomplish His tasks through a people that
are maturing, that can love others, and that can handle the
complexities of the fallen world that He is trying so
desperately to redeem. Let us be about the tasks before us! Let
us make significant progress so that should we arrive at 2107,
we have left a positive legacy of Messianic faith that our
grandchildren and great-grandchildren can benefit from and
appreciate, as they await Yeshua’s return.
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 author of several books,
including: The New Testament Validates Torah, Torah In the
Balance, Volume I, and When Will the Messiah Return?.
He has also written many articles on the Two Houses of Israel
and Biblical theology, and is presently focusing on Messianic
commentaries on various books of the Bible.
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