Posts by Mark S. Kinzer
Is Jesus of Nazareth Still King of the Jews? New Testament Christology and the Jewish People
Elliot Klayman has been a pillar of the Messianic Jewish movement since its inception in the final decades of the last century. He has also been a trusted, respected, and beloved friend to many. I count myself among them, and am grateful for the opportunity to express my appreciation for Elliot with this short article. While…
Read MoreThe Besorah, Jerusalem, and the Jewish People
Almost all Messianic Jews are Zionists. We take seriously the land-promise given to the patriarchs and matriarchs. According to our post-supersessionist understanding of the teaching and work of Yeshua, the Jewish people—the genealogical descendants of the patriarchs and matriarchs—remain recipients of an irrevocable covenant. That covenant includes the promise of the land. In light of…
Read MoreBeginning with the End: the Place of Eschatology in the Messianic Jewish Canonical Narrative
A “canonical narrative,” as defined by R. Kendall Soulen, is “an interpretive instrument”—a hermeneutical tool—that orders the Bible’s complex story line so as to present it as “a theological and narrative unity.”1 While the Bible describes people and events set in the distant past, its narrative transcends that past. It includes prophetic and apocalyptic material,…
Read MorePots, Pans, & Seraphim: Messianic Jewish Prayer in its Heavenly Context
The Kedushah Perspective In 1899 an English missionary derided Judaism as “a dry husk from which all semblance of real spiritual life has departed.” Judaism is a contemptible “religion of pots and pans.”2 Nearly ninety years later Jacob Neusner published a volume in which he adopted this vivid culinary image as a badge of honor.3…
Read MoreMessianic Jewish Community: Standing and Serving as a Priestly Remnant
Hashivenu Forum 2011 To build community of any sort in the 21st century Western world is a formidable task. The building of Messianic Jewish community involves additional challenges, but also unique resources and opportunities. We must perceive the distinctive character of Messianic Jewish community if we are to face the challenges, draw upon the resources,…
Read MoreFinding Our Way Through Nicaea: The Deity of Yeshua, Bilateral Ecclesiology, and Redemptive Encounter with the Living God
The Question and its importance A few years ago a controversy erupted in the Israeli Messianic Jewish movement over the question, “Is Yeshua God?” some leaders had publicly answered the ques- tion with a definitive “no!” Their refusal to call Yeshua “God” ignited a firestorm. In the eyes of many, these dissenting leaders had denied…
Read MoreFinal Destinies: Qualifications for Receiving an Eschatological Inheritance
In What Does It Mean To Be Saved?, Regent College professor John Stackhouse points to a misunderstanding of salvation that he sees as endemic in the evangelical world: In his gracious but penetrating response to the essays in this volume, Oxford professor John Webster wonders whether it is particularly North American evangelicals who need to…
Read MoreRejoinder to Responses to Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism
I must begin by thanking Kesher, and my esteemed reviewers, for awarding Postmissionary Messianic Judaism such serious attention. I can only hope that the book will receive similar treatment within our movement as a whole, as well as within the wider Christian and Jewish worlds. I have learned much over the years from these six…
Read MoreJudaism Is Not Jewish by Baruch Maoz
(Christian Focus ©2003 Scotland) In his recent volume, Judaism is Not Jewish, Baruch Maoz provides a notable service for the Messianic Jewish movement by drawing the distinction between Jewish Christianity and Messianic Judaism in a clear and unambiguous fashion, and challenging Yeshua-believing Jews to make a decision between the two. He further serves the movement…
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