Messianic Apologetics

Addressing the Theological and Spiritual Issues of the Broad Messianic Movement

Articles

Controversies Involving Biblical and Jewish Holidays as a Messianic Believer

Controversies Involving Biblical and Jewish Holidays as a Messianic Believer

12 June, 2025 J.K. McKee

A majority of you who commemorate the Biblical and Jewish holidays experience precisely this: a sense of spiritual fulfillment and unity when they appear in the annual cycle. Yet, it would be entirely inappropriate to introduce you to the appointed times, without also letting you know that these can be periods of division and discord within the Messianic community. Many of you already know this to be the case, if for any other reason because you have volunteered at your local Messianic congregation or fellowship to help, in some capacity, during the Fall high holidays or with the congregational Passover seder. You probably got a quick lesson in how it is one thing to remember the Biblical and Jewish holidays within the privacy of your own home; it is another thing to remember the Biblical and Jewish holidays in a much larger venue of people who have opinions about the “right way” things are to be done.

A Torah Foundation

A Torah Foundation

11 June, 2025 J.K. McKee

Within today’s broad Messianic movement, different perspectives are witnessed as they involve the ongoing relevance of the Torah or Moses’ Teaching for God’s people. For sure, it is agreed that the Torah composes the ethnic and cultural heritage of today’s Jewish people, to which they should be faithful. Yet, how do we approach the Torah as our spiritual heritage?

The Messianic Mission

The Messianic Mission

10 June, 2025 J.K. McKee

Why are any of us involved in today’s Messianic movement? The answers that we might provide to this question are likely varied, and they each involve a number of distinct life circumstances and encounters. Hopefully the main answer that each of us would have to this question is: God wants us here. If you are a Jewish person raised with a knowledge that your ancestors definitely stood at the base of Mount Sinai, hearing the Ten Words from the Almighty, then you have found your promised Messiah and may be considered a completed Jew. If you are a non-Jewish person, likely raised in an evangelical Protestant home, then you have connected with your Hebraic Roots in the ancient Scriptures of Israel, your Jewish Roots in the Synagogue, and have joined with your Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters in an important move which will culminate in the return of Israel’s Messiah.

To Eat or Not to Eat?

To Eat or Not to Eat?

5 June, 2025 J.K. McKee

The issue of eating the way God has prescribed is one where we need to realize whether or not God has the right to tell His people what they can and cannot ingest into their bodies, and why He specifically issued these commandments. Messianic practice directly challenges much of modern Christian thought as it relates to “food.” Why does one need to follow the dietary commandments the Lord issued? What lessons might we learn from following them, in addition to how the kosher laws may affect our health?

A Summarization of Shavuot Traditions

A Summarization of Shavuot Traditions

31 May, 2025 J.K. McKee

Shavuot is one of three pilgrimage festivals commanded in the Torah (Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16). In Hebrew, its name means “weeks,” derived from the command in Deuteronomy 16:19, “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain” (NASU). Many Christians know Shavuot from its Greek-derived name “Pentecost,” as Pentēkostē means “fiftieth,” indicative of the fifty days which are to be counted between Passover and this time.