In a past blog article I wrote about five kinds of Hebrew Catholics. Richard Harvey in 2009 published a book called “Mapping Messianic Jewish Theology” in which he listed eight kinds of Messianic Jews who have or are developing their own kind of Messianic Jewish theology.
They are:
1. Jewish Christianity [represented by Baruch Maoz]
2. Dispensational Hebrew Christianity [represented by Arnold Fruchtenbaum]
3. Israeli National and Restorationist [represented by Gershon Nerel]
4. New Testament Halakah [represented by Dan Juster and David Stern]
5. Traditional Judaism and the Messiah [represented by Michael Schiffman, John Fischer and David Friedman]
6. Postmissionary Messianic Judaism [represented by Mark Kinzer, Rich Nichol and Tsvi Sadan]
7. Rabbinic Halakah in the Light of the New Testament [represented by Joseph Shulam]
8. Messianic Rabbinic Orthodoxy [[represented by Elazar Brandt]
Most Hebrew Catholics would not have heard of most of these people except for possibly Mark Kinzer and David Stern. Baruch Maoz is an Israeli Christian pastor whose parents were Russian Jews that settled in America. Baruch was born in America in 1943 but moved with his family at age 10 to Israel. His famous book is called ” Judaism is not Jewish: A friendly Critique of the Messianic Movement”. He is a critic of any reliance by Messianic Jews on Rabbinic authority. He is thus an Evangelical Protestant pastor of Jewish background and Israeli nationality.
Arnold Fruchtenbaum was an Ashkenazi Jew also born in 1943 in Russia and at the age of 4 his family moved to Germany and then in 1958 to America. He founded Ariel Ministries and is concerned with the evangelisation of Jews as the number one priority. Gershon Nerel is a Israeli who lives in the Messianic community Yad Hashmona in Israel and prefers the term Jewish believer in Yeshua. Dan Juster is an American Jew who was the first president of Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations and the founder of Tikkun Ministries. He now resides in Israel. David Stern is an American Jew now based in Jerusalem who produced the Messianic Jewish Bible and wrote the ‘Messianic Jewish Manifesto’.
Michael Schiffman is an American Messianic Jewish Rabbi who wrote “Return of the remnant: The Rebirth of Messianic Judaism”. John Fischer is an American Messianic Rabbi born in Hungary in 1946. David Friedman was the former Academic Dean at the King of Kings college in Jerusalem. Like Mark Kinzer, Rabbi Rich Nichol is a leader in the UMJC today in America. Rabbi Tsvi Sadan is an Israeli Messianic Jew who publishes ‘Kivun’. Joseph Shulam is a pioneer of Messianic Judaism in Israel and Elazar Brandt is an Israeli Messianic Jewish musician.
It is interesting that distinct forms of theology from a Messianic Jewish perspective are developing and we are looking forward to this development among Hebrew Catholics in the future. It is pleasing to note those developments in Messianic circles that are departing from merely parroting Evangelical Protestant theology with a Jewish gloss. The turn towards liturgy, tradition and mysticism shows a positive move of the Holy Spirit among certain groups of Messianic Jews.
