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POSTED
12 APRIL, 2007
The Top Ten Urban Myths of Today's Messianic Movement
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
Today’s Messianic movement is in a very precarious situation.
On the one hand, some good things are happening
as many Jewish people are coming to faith in
Messiah Yeshua, and Christians are expressing a
love for Israel and embracing their Hebraic
Roots. Our numbers are getting larger and
larger—with many not having to really wonder
what “Messianic” is any more. Many people know
that when you call yourself “Messianic” you are
either a Jewish Believer in Yeshua, or a
non-Jewish Believer in Yeshua who has some kind
of strong connection to Israel.
On the other hand, though, there are some not so good things
happening today in the Messianic movement. The
theology of the Messianic community and its
understanding of the Bible have largely not been
able to keep up with its growth. On the whole,
many of the answers that we have to give in
response to external criticisms of our
convictions have not been very deep. They have
sometimes not been examined very well from the
Scriptures, and our engagement with theological
discussions—in some cases going back several
centuries—is often just not there. We have a
great deal of progress that we must make in the
coming years as a more coherent and
scholastically-minded Messianic theology begins
to come forward.
What needs to be done to secure a stable and secure future for
today’s emerging Messianic movement? How can we
be people who make a positive difference in the
fallen world in which we live?
A Required Change
As a teacher surveying today’s Messianic community, I have to
admittedly guard myself to not be pessimistic. I
have committed, and continue to commit, a great
deal of time, energy, and financial resources to
research various theological issues and perform
what I hope will be capable exegesis of the
Scriptures. I try my best to be engaged not only
with the subjects that impact us as Messianic
Believers, but also with theological and
academic conversations that have been occurring
for centuries. I see a great opportunity on the
horizon as the Messianic movement gets larger,
and the need for us to examine things from a
unique Messianic perspective becomes more
apparent. But this is not going to be easy with
some of the trends that have been allowed to
occur in our “theological studies” for the past
decade.
For the most part, our ministry reaches out to people who are
pursuing a Messianic walk of faith because they
are sincere, God-fearing individuals who want
the most of Him in their lives. They take their
relationship with the Lord very seriously,
wanting to be true to the Word, and wanting to
be transformed by His love. They are not
concerned with the approval of others, but
instead want to be men and women who are
empowered by the Lord for His service. They want
to obey Him to the fullest possible extent and
realize that this obedience begins with a
morality and ethics rooted in the Torah of
Moses. Above all, such people often have to
recognize that the Messianic road is not an easy
one, and that it will take time for us to become
a mature people who can be used by God to make a
significant impact on our world. We have more
work ahead of us then what lies behind us.
The above paragraph should encapsulate many of
your reasons and spiritual motives for being
Messianic.
While I do not wish to speak in broad terms, the growth of certain
segments of the Messianic movement during the
past decade has not always come from people
wanting to live more like Yeshua and make a
change in our desperately sinful world. As with
all religious movements since the Reformation,
opportunists have entered onto the scene and
have sensationalized things like Torah
obedience. Rather than encourage this obedience
as a means to emulate our Lord and Savior,
unwarranted criticisms against the Christian
Church, theologians and Bible teachers, and even
the Jewish Synagogue have been allowed to
prevail. Unsubstantiated remarks about
Scriptural interpretation, ancient history, and
contemporary theology have been allowed to
disseminate. In many cases, some of the
Messianic “literature” that is allowed to
circulate as being “must reads” is little more
than pulp fiction.
Looking back on my experience in the Messianic movement in the past
decade—and some of the things that have
occurred—I believe that the next decade is going
to be a very tenuous time. There will be some
extreme tension when people who were told the
grossly exaggerated, “The Church lied to you,”
then get to hear “Messianic
TEACHER X
has not done his/her homework on
SUBJECT Y.”
The examples that I could list regarding this
are quite numerous. I am certainly thankful that
our ministry has adopted the policy of
preferring to addressing teachings—rather
than teachers.
In the years immediately ahead of us we will need to solve some of
the problems, and theological and Scriptural
issues, which the Messianic movement since the
1960s has largely not addressed. At first,
posing the question itself on an issue may be
controversial—but over time if this truly is
a move of God we will have to move toward
adulthood and recognize the cold reality that
Biblical interpretation and making a difference
in a fallen world are not as “black and white”
as we may want them to be. We will have to
endure some growing pains, and some teachers and
leaders may have their faith shaken. Ironically,
the issues we will have to address are not
issues that are new. In many cases, they are
theological and historical issues that go back
several centuries—some even before the founding
of an independent United States of America.[1]
How much longer will we be able to “plead ignorance,” especially if
many people in our faith community claim to only
be following “the Scriptures”? If we truly
follow the Scriptures, then should we not be
more familiar with the impact that they have
made since the first texts were (presumably)
composed about 3,300 years ago? Should we not be
familiar with some of the criticisms that exist
against the Bible? Do we not realize that as a
Messianic movement that gives a great deal of
attention to the Tanach (Old Testament) that we
will inevitably be dragged into discussions
concerning its reliability and accuracy?
The scope of this article cannot possibly address all of the issues
and controversies that are on the Messianic
theological horizon. However, in an effort to
prepare you for some of the things that we will
all be discussing in the future, I would like to
address what I consider to be the
Top Ten
Urban Myths of Today’s Messianic Movement. I
believe that these undercurrents—be they
statements that are made in Messianic preaching
or teaching, ideas that can go unchallenged, or
conversations that take place at meal
gatherings—are things that need to be brought
out into the light and seriously questioned. A
great deal of our work as a ministry (Outreach
Israel and TNN Online) is spent having to
counsel people who have fallen into some of
these traps, showing them a better and more
constructive way so they can be effective in
their relationship with God.
Admittedly, some of the tension we will face over the next decade
will come as a direct result of these urban
myths—concepts and ideas that are allowed to
pass themselves as being one-hundred percent
factual—when they are shown to not be factual.
At best some of these things are someone’s
opinion, but in many cases they are things have
been over-exaggerated, or are even outright
falsehoods. When we can move beyond having to
resort to a “one-liner” as our deep
theological response to criticisms, perhaps
then we can begin to have a much larger
influence on those around us. We can then
demonstrate ourselves to be men and women
empowered by God in both heart
and
mind.[2]
Consider the following ten urban myths, and where we as the
Messianic community need to exhibit some serious
improvement.
End of sample excerpt.
Enjoyed this excerpt?
Purchase
Confronting Critical Issues
coming soon to paperback and Amazon Kindle eBook
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.
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