The First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) article Let us Reason Together is quite the read – for Messianics, it will cause either great anguish or great rejoicing, depending on which side of the aisle you shop.
I invite you to visit these FFOZ blogs and reason together with us at First Fruits of Zion as we talk through the biblical basis for our recent rejection of One Law theology that defined much of our ministry in past years.
“One Law” theology is the idea that, in Messiah, Jews and gentiles have the same relationship to Torah. They both ought to keep the Feasts. They both ought to honor God’s sabbath. And so on.
FFOZ no longer holds this view. They now believe that Messiah-loving gentiles aren’t required to keep all the Torah, although they ought to, while Jews must keep all the Torah. FFOZ calls this “Divine Invitation” theology – the stance that gentiles are invited to keep all God’s commandments, but are not required to, while Jews are mandated to keep all the Torah.
In a nutshell, [our] article said: "Gentile believers are not obligated to all of the same aspects of Torah as the Jewish people are, but they are invited to take hold of the heritage of Torah because they have been grafted into Israel and are part of the greater commonwealth of Israel."
FFOZ’s recent installment of Messiah Journal laid out several articles explaining their reasoning for this huge theological shift. FFOZ head Boaz Michael called it their “watershed issue”. It’s a big change for them.
Why did they change?
This is what the Bible says, and we need to make our theology conform to the Bible. If I could re-write the article, I would make it shorter, solely presenting our single reason for this theological shift: the Bible.
None of us at FFOZ wanted to believe that One Law could be wrong. It felt paralyzing to even think that we had theologically gone off the tracks. We resisted it and wrestled with it for years.
This is a big, honkin’ divisive issue in the Messianic movement.
My older brother said to me this past shabbat, after reading the article,
“What a load of crap! It sounds like it’s sinking their ministry…I’m glad.”
Ouch.
I’ve had to defend FFOZ at our small congregation now for months:
- Some members thought Boundary Stones treated Christians too kindly. “Why don’t they just come out and tell it like it is, instead of beating around the bush?”
- Certain folks don’t like the mystical aspects of the book, “Love and the Messianic Age”.
- Many are upset that First Fruits has changed their view on Torah and gentiles.
Our little group is planning on taking part in the HaYesod discipleship study this fall, but since it’s published by FFOZ, there’s all kinds of resistance now. People keeping Torah don’t wish to be taught by people who compromise on Torah. That’s how they see it, and I think that’s the way many independent Messianics see it.
On the other hand, the groups that see it the other way – UMJC and MJTI – these groups rejoiced.
FFOZ is changing their view to the way we see it. All I can say is, halleluyah.
I sensed a bit of religious “neener neener nee-ner!” as I came across these sentiments on various blogs and personal conversations with folks across the Messianic movement.
Yuck.
Please pardon our immaturity.
Stepping Back a Moment
Did you know that Christians have fought over the silliest things?
Is God 3 distinct beings or 3 separate essences? There’s a fight for that. Did God sing creation into existence or did He speak it in tones? There’s a fight for that. When we eat bread and wine, is it Jesus’ actual body or just representative? There’s a fight for that. Really.
Some of these fights, believe it or not, actually ended in bloodshed between large Christian factions.
Yuck.
I think if Messiah was here, he’d slap us around a bit then yell in our faces, “Knock it off! You’re acting like fools and shaming God in the process!”
Despite this past precedence of bad behavior, this is exactly what is happening now. I fear that if Messianics were as large and powerful as Protestants and Catholics, we’d have bloodshed over our differences, too.
If you disagree with us, feel free to contact us about it and give us a piece of your mind, but don't feel as if you have to burn our books…
Organizationally, we knew that this was going to hurt the ministry's bottom line, big time. We braced for the results of being honest and forthright with our constituents. The financial impact already promises to be significant. Not meaning to sound alarmist, but this single theological shift could actually financially sink our ministry because we already operate on a shoestring with little margin.
Here are people like me who disagree with FFOZ’s shift, yet say, “Man, I so disapprove of them now, I hope their ministry sinks.”
Straining a gnat to swallow a camel… “Oh, I disagree on a theological point. Therefore, I hope they go into financial ruin.”
Or more emphatically, “They stink. Therefore, I hope they go to the poorhouse.”
Or still, “I hate them because they don’t agree with me. I hope they go homeless.”
Really, that’s what some people are implicitly saying. Ugh!
A Reformation of the People
Boaz Michael said,
Messianic Judaism is a movement of restoration to a proper understanding of the Scriptures.
In some ways, Messianic Judaism is a reformation of Christianity, albeit a radical one, far more radical than the Protestant Reformation of the Middle Ages. It takes Luther’s reforms and pushes them further, further, further, back, back, back…to the beginning. So much so that Messianic Judaism in its proper form resembles Messiah’s Judaism more than it does Christianity. This is something Christians and even the early pioneers of Messianic Judaism (then known as Jewish Christianity) did not foresee.
Doctrines and theologies have been reformed greatly, but have the people? The Christian reformation resulted in a world-wide spat of hundreds of years of violence and bitterness between Protestant and Catholic. Pockets of that still exist today. Now we are looking at lots of division and bitter feelings between factions of an already-fractured Messianic Judaism.
Yuck. Can we reform this, please?
At First Fruits of Zion, we love the peace and the brotherhood we all share in Messiah. We prefer enjoying Sabbath dinners to debating halachah. We prefer doing mitzvot to arguing about them. We respect that different people with honest and good intentions can still come to different conclusions about certain aspects of scripture, and we are OK with that. For that reason, we have always tried to stay in good relationship with all sectors of Messianic Judaism, even the extreme fringes. And we still want to do that. If you disagree with some theological position of ours, we want you to know that we respect your right to do so. We aren't infallible. We make lots of mistakes, and we continue to learn and grow by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the study of God's Word.
This statement reminded me why I love the First Fruits of Zion folks so damn much. It’s not that I agree with their theologies 100% – I certainly don’t – it’s because of their humility and continued longsuffering in building unity.
FFOZ has taken so much heat lately – whether over the accusations of a mystical hermeneutic, or the One Law issue, or… – most anyone else would have lashed out in anger by now. To hell with it; you’re all a bunch of wayward can’t-get-along-with-anybody’s, they’d say. (And truth be told, I sense a hint of impatience in D. Lancaster’s recent article.) But when all is said and done, I see the humility of that organization come out, trickled down from its leadership.
Thumbs up.
Personally, I’ve never identified myself as “one law” – that’s a label put on me by others; I just want people do as Messiah did. A disciple, when fully trained, becomes as his master. So I line up with the idea that, yes, even the gentiles who are disciples of Messiah should keep all God’s commandments. Even the ones men deem only Jews should keep. I think there’s Scriptural support for this, despite FFOZ’s objections.
I don’t like FFOZ’s theology change. I lament it. It’s discouraging. It caused me much internal division and grief. I hope they’ll change it in the future. But thank God for their humility. It’s breath of fresh air in an atmosphere of stink.