Book Review: Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism

The book review below is something I wrote that was published in The South African Baptist Journal of Theology, 2010, volume 19. The book reviewed is Mark Kinzer's Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism: redefining Christian engagement with the Jewish people, published by Brazos Press in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2005 (ISBN 9781587431524). Kinzer works at the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute.

Post-Missionary, in Kinzer’s jargon, does not suggest an end for missions. Rather, Kinzer promotes a post-missionary form of Messianic Judaism which reaches out to Jews in a different manner to the traditional missionary approach. Instead of converting Jews to Christianity and instructing them to abandon “all things Jewish”, Kinzer promotes helping Jews to discover the Jewish Messiah within their Jewish faith, its practices, history, scriptures—and among the practising Jewish community.

“Religious etiquette in the mainline Christian churches—as in the Jewish world—prescribes that Messianic Judaism is not a suitable topic for serious conversation.” So begins Kinzer’s groundbreaking book on the Church and its relation to Israel, Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism (PMJ). Most importantly, PMJ explores the ecclesiastical implications of the widespread repudiation of supersessionism in churches today which few theologians have followed to their logical conclusions. So, while Kinzer does argue for the legitimacy and importance of Messianic Judaism, PMJ is primarily about the whole ekklesia and its relationship to the Jewish people both in and out of the Church. The central thesis is that the church’s own identity is at stake.

Although published in 2005, PMJ seems to have gone unnoticed in Baptist circles in South Africa. Yet the Messianic movement is flourishing worldwide and in South Africa—there is even an alliance of Baptist Messianic congregations in the US! So members of the Baptist Union of SA would do well to understand the theology of Messianic Judaism in order to respond appropriately to this growing movement at home.

Contrary to the claims of some local Messianic groups, Kinzer is opposed to any suggestion that gentile believers should observe the Mosaic Law. (Such groups have largely misrepresented Messianic Judaism in South Africa.) Yet he does argue that Jewish believers in Jesus are still obligated to observe the Law (though the priestly and sacrificial aspects are changed as explained in Hebrews). This is in accord with the “mainstream” Messianic movement and his reasoning overlaps closely with other leading Messianics such as Dan Juster and David Stern, and means that “Jewish Christians” must continue to live as Jews. Using biblical and historical evidence, the author explains that authentic Jewish practice and culture cannot be divorced from Judaism as it exists today, nor from the Jewish people.

Kinzer examines both Jewish practice and the Jewish people through the lens of the New Testament, providing insights that generally escape Christians altogether. This leads to a case for what he calls “bilateral ecclesiology in solidarity with Israel”, reminding us that the apostle Paul taught that the remnant (Jewish Christians) is a “representative and priestly component of Israel that sanctifies Israel as a whole. In order to fulfill its vocation, this portion of Israel must truly live as Israel.”

PMJ includes a review of the schism between Christianity and Judaism and the emergence of Christian supersessionism, starting in the first century and growing into accepted Christian theology during the age of the church fathers. Kinzer notes in particular that the rise of supersessionism is correlated with schism both within the church (of the Jewish and gentile branches) and between Jewish believers and their unbelieving fellow-Jews, as well as “the demise of Jewish Yeshua-faith as a viable corporate reality.”

Aside from the challenges to our traditional theology that Messianic Judaism raises, Kinzer uses unfamiliar terminology and chose a potentially inflammatory title, but justifies both. Post-Missionary, in Kinzer’s jargon, does not suggest an end for missions. Rather, Kinzer promotes a post-missionary form of Messianic Judaism which reaches out to Jews in a different manner to the traditional missionary approach. Instead of converting Jews to Christianity and instructing them to abandon “all things Jewish”, Kinzer promotes helping Jews to discover the Jewish Messiah within their Jewish faith, its practices, history, scriptures—and among the practising Jewish community. This means that believing Jews ought to engage in Jewish practice (including synagogue worship) and culture authentically, not merely feigning Judaism duplicitously to attain evangelistic opportunities. Post-missionary Messianic Judaism, as a form of Christianity, is thus both pro-Judaism and pro-Jesus.

I would urge the reader to press on past one’s preconceptions to the heart of Kinzer’s ecclesiology which, for him, ranks equally with missiology and soteriology since they are intertwined. PMJ is no light bedtime reading; it is a serious scholarly work that deserves serious investigation and open dialogue.