The Divine Spirit

2013

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

The Messianic Jewish Movement and its relation to Torah - a theological field study, 2024

This study on the Messianic Jewish movement and its relationship to the Torah explores the various aspects of the relationship to the Torah on the basis of 10 interviews with selected Yeshua-believing Jews in leadership positions. The selection of interviewees results in a range of different positions typical of the movement as a whole, which overlap in many respects but are often fundamentally different and sometimes contradictory. Particular attention is paid to the theologically based, divergent and contradictory positions in an attempt to make these understandable. After a brief introduction to the Messianic Jewish movement, aspects of the Messianic Jewish dual identity are examined and their relevance for the relationship to the Torah is demonstrated. This is followed by an overview of the forums in which Yeshua-believing Jews discuss their relationship to the Torah. The extensive bibliography at the end of the work provides an insight into a lively discussion process within the movement that is still far from complete. A briefly annotated differentiation of terms serves as an overview of the most important meanings of Torah used in the Messianic Jewish movement. Following this preliminary work, the field study is presented. A description of the research field and methodological reflections precede the interviews. In the interviews, the associations with the term Torah are first recorded and the conceptual meaning and use clarified. This already reveals some serious differences. The theological positions and understandings of Torah are presented with the biographical context and main field of influence, and the most important formative influences are named. The points on which they all agree are noted first, as they serve as a common basis. All study the written Torah and consider it, as well as the rest of the Tanakh and the writings of the New Testament in their present form, to be divinely inspired and authoritative. All have found a positive approach to the Torah according to their own definition of the term. For all of them, the written Torah and the Tanakh point to Yeshua. All agree that Yeshua did not abrogate the Torah, but fulfilled it. And all feel a responsibility as a Jew to the Torah in some way. With regard to keeping commandments, all say that no one can earn their way to heaven by doing so. G-d's faithfulness to His promises to Israel is affirmed by all, but whether the new covenant in Yeshua superseded the old covenant of Mt. Sinai, or whether it is simply added to the already existing covenant of Sinai, whether ritual commandments are to continue to be kept after Yeshua's death and resurrection and the destruction of the Temple, whether the commandments aiming at separation from the nations should continue to be kept, whether and under what conditions rabbinic halacha should be followed and what individuals do and teach in their families and communities - all this is discussed interview by interview. It becomes clear how different ways of reading and weighting key scriptures produce different positions. Just as the diversity of positions in relation to the Torah already suggests, the interview partners are divided on the question of a Messianic Jewish Halacha. But here too, the term halacha is interpreted differently by the representatives. At the end of the field study, the attempts to produce Messianic Jewish Halacha and the problems and points of criticism expressed by other interviewees are explained. The work concludes with a theological framework able to contain all the different positions and relationships to the Torah and some starting points for a possible Messianic Jewish hermeneutic theology of the Torah.

Pneuma, 2009

We Believe in the Holy Spirit, Global Perspectives on Lutheran Identities, 2021

This paper argues that the mission of the Holy Spirit in the world is to bring humanity and creation into unity with the crucified and risen Lord providing even in this life a taste of what it means to live in God's Kingdom. What the Holy Spirit does must always be seen with what the Son is doing. Both the Spirit and the incarnate Logos act differently but not independently, expressing the will of the Father for the World. Through Christ and the Holy Spirit, God is actively present in all historical situations and movements, despite the ambiguities, conflicts, and destructive evil forces that operate in them. The Church being co-instituted by Christ and the Holy Spirit is simultaneously, particularly because of its faith in Jesus Christ and universal in its eschatological orientation. Nevertheless, as it encounters the challenge of pluralism, it must neither abandon its particularity nor its universality. The Church, in its judgments, should exercise discernment through prayer and by taking into consideration the normative principles of its tradition (historical and eschatological). The criterion of such discernment is the celebration of the eucharist. The Communal Nature of the Eucharist (κοινωνία) and its eschatological orientation provide the basis, the criterion of its prophetic witness to the World.

Religious Studies Review, 2008

The purpose of this paper is to provide one perspective on how a clearly identifiable and tradition-respecting Jewish community of Jewish Yeshua followers can help partially fulfill the Messianic Hope of G-d’s redemption of his creation through effective witness and discipleship within the Jewish Community. My proposition is that this kind of Jewish Yeshua faith community is uniquely relatable and naturally attractive to Jewish people for two reasons. Firstly, as communal space for members of the Jewish community expressing spiritual curiosity regarding the person of Messiah Yeshua, and secondly for Jewish believers in Messiah Yeshua who desire normative Jewish community to actively live out their lives as Jewish people according to tradition, to find and marry a Jewish spouse who shares their faith and to help them transmit Jewish life, values and culture for their children and grandchildren. This proposition is therefore consistent with G-d’s promise in the Messianic Hope of bringing redemption for the individual Jew, and the Messianic Hope of bringing redemption for collective Israel.

Norsk Tidsskrift For Misjonsvitenskap, 2019

This article proposes an eight-fold typology of Messianic Jewish theologies. It reviews previous studies and makes proposals for the development of Messianic Jewish Theology. It characterises the views of reflective practitioners within the movement of Messianic Judaism by summarising their views on God, Torah and Israel in the light of the Jewish and Christian theologies that have influenced their development. Keywords/Søkeord : Messianic Judaism – Typology Messianic Jewish Theology – Torah – Christology – Israel