Mark Huey of Outreach Israel Ministries delivers the following message, “Our Messianic Journey: An Historical Perspective,” as we consider the unique circumstances and experiences that our family has had, being a part of the Messianic community of faith.
As a lifelong student of general world history and Biblical history for over thirty-five years, I have discovered that reviewing both histories at times is beneficial for understanding the here and now, with the possibility of discerning what the future can become. After all, it was the persistent questions in my mind to want to know why I even existed, where I came from, and who my forefathers were—that ultimately led me to the gospel understanding which totally transformed my life! Asking those questions, seeking somewhat unknowable answers, and knocking on seemingly impenetrable doors, finally resulted in the door to my soul being opened (Matthew 7:7-8). The spiritual revelation that I was forgiven of my iniquities by absolute belief in the atonement provided by the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, Yeshua the Messiah (John 3:16), finally took root, and my life has never been the same since. But unlike some of my Christian peers, who early in my walk insisted that my enthusiasm and zeal for knowing the Messiah would fade over time, it never has, and I pray, it never will!
Along the journey of faith, as a born again Believer who understands that living by faith is the model first exemplified by Abraham (Romans 4), the twists and turns of life have been interesting to say the least. Thankfully, the Lord in His timing ultimately blessed me with a wonderful, Spirit-filled wife, who also appreciates history (after being raised by a college history professor)—and who joyfully embraces the real world challenges of living by faith, so that the Lord could bestow His favor upon our family. As Proverbs 18:22 so aptly says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (NASU).
Needless to say, it was this union of two non-Jewish seekers of the Most High God, totally in love with Yeshua, who were led to take a tour to Israel with a Messianic Jewish ministry—which is what catapulted our family into the Messianic community of faith back in 1995, and into ministry by 1997. Providentially, as we have concluded by God’s design, Margaret’s Wesleyan-Arminian background and my Calvinistic-leaning beliefs were then, and continue today, to be solid places for understanding much of salvation history, as it has progressed down through the ages. The balance of these two interpretive perspectives has been instrumental in helping us sort through much of what we see transpiring today in the sectors influenced by the Judeo-Christian worldview. After all, it is clearly discernible that the Reformation Age of the past five centuries or so, is increasingly yielding to the Restoration Age which is currently proceeding. At the very least, a notable interest in the Hebraic and Jewish Roots of our faith, by increasing numbers in Christianity, has been conclusively illustrated by the accelerated growth of the Messianic movement and perspective over the past several decades.
In 2003, we were blessed when our son, John McKee, a Biblical apologist, and who has an under-graduate degree in political science and a post-graduate degree in Biblical Studies, joined our ministerial efforts. When it comes to understanding what the Holy One is allowing to occur in the Messianic community of faith, we as a ministry are constantly triangulating our Spirit-led assessments and conclusions. Having the Holy Spirit teach us in all things (John 14:26), coupled with significant study of the Scriptures in the ancient languages, along with detailed research from contemporary Bible scholars and commentators—instill a relative confidence that what we publish has a collaborative level of scrutiny. By respecting each others’ unique giftings, we each individually take the Biblical admonition by James the Just very seriously, noting that handling the Word of God without a high level of solemnity has inherent eternal consequences. As he says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1, NASU).
With this being stated, I must remind the reader that our thoughts and conclusions that have been widely committed to writing, about where the Messianic world is currently, and where we believe it is going—have all been influenced by what we have witnessed over the past eighteen years. We sincerely believe in our hearts that the Messianic restoration of all things is a verifiable, end-time move of the Holy Spirit, preparing the faithful remnant for the return of Yeshua the Messiah.
There are a few, basic questions, which we have asked ourselves multiple times over the years. These include: (1) What in the world are Spirit-filled, non-Jewish Believers doing in the Messianic movement? Is this not something only for Jews? And, (2) Why are we compelled to reach, teach, encourage, and disciple the Body of Messiah with our ministerial efforts? Has there not already been a sufficient amount of work done to uphold the Messianic point of view?
Perhaps the basic answer to these questions can be summed up with a foundational understanding that everyday we are one day closer to the return of Yeshua. Since we have been commanded by the Messiah in His parting words, to go and proclaim the good news, and make disciples by teaching people all that He has commanded—then we are simply obeying what is commonly referred to as “the Great Commission”:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20, NASU).
It has not just been our desire to be obedient to these instructions, which originally launched us into the ministry. There has also been the additional, eschatological understanding and conviction that the end-time saints are going to have the undesirable challenge of participating in what is referred to as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) or the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14). Knowing that difficult times are on the horizon, does not give us a seemingly lackadaisical comfort, which many of our Christian peers have about the end times—because of their thought that they will simply be “raptured out” and removed from all of the turmoil associated with the Tribulation period. Being of a post-tribulational position surrounding the return of the Lord has helped us become very serious and focused about our walk with the Messiah, and has fostered a sense of urgency to know Him and His ways more fully. This belief has led us to a heart-stirred responsibility to personally prepare and help our children, grandchildren, and others become equipped to be like those saints mentioned who will eventually be at war with the beast system that arises at the End of the Age.
Early in our Messianic journey, it was brought to our attention at two significant places in the Book of Revelation, where the Tribulation period is more fully described, and how there were two common denominators which defined what characterized the end-time saints. These two common denominators were having a testimony of salvation in Yeshua, and keeping the commandments of God:
“So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua” (Revelation 12:17, NASU).
“Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Yeshua” (Revelation 14:12, NASU).
Upon being led to a Messianic Jewish congregation, we found that there was a sincere attempt to more fully obey the commandments of God found in the entire Bible, while acknowledging a faith in Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel. In relatively short order, our family began to understand the blessings associated with remembering the seventh-day Sabbath or Shabbat, celebrating the feasts of the Lord, and even eating Biblically kosher. While these lifestyle changes were causing some concerns with our Christian family and friends, we were convinced that God was revealing to us simply more about what He was doing to prepare a sector of His people to endure the trials and tribulations of the End of the Age that was approaching. Over the course of just a few months, it became abundantly clear that the long prophesied “restoration of all things” spoken of in the Book of Acts was in process, and our family was simply being prepared to witness and participate in what the Holy Spirit was doing around the world:
“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time” (Acts 3:19-21, NASU).
Moreover, in every Messianic congregation and gathering we attended around the country, there was the additional confirmation that those being led into the Messianic community of faith were definitely from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. This verified that the ultimate kingdom of priests would be multi-cultured, and eventually represent every people group just as the Scriptures indicate:
“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth’” (Revelation 5:9-10, NASU).
In our new religious environment, it did not take long for the Holy Spirit to reveal what the Lord was doing around the world. With the advent of the Internet facilitating the increase of knowledge (Daniel 12:4) and flow of communication and information, the Almighty was transitioning His faithful ones from the Reformation Age to the Restoration Age. From an historical perspective, we noted the providentially-timed similarity of the introduction of the Gutenberg Press in the mid 1400s that had accelerated the publication of the Holy Scriptures into other languages and the dissemination thereof from the 1500s onward. Once the World Wide Web started to become more ubiquitous in the mid-to-late 1990s, we began to communicate with people from around the globe, who were likewise being drawn into the Messianic movement in various Spirit-led ways.
Clearly from the multitude of testimonies discovered, there was a unique worldwide move of the Holy Spirit in 1995-1997 that many Jewish and non-Jewish people in the Messianic community today recall as their personal embarkation point to enter into a fuller Messianic perspective or concentration. Needless to say, for our family, we were encouraged with what was transpiring in our hearts and the significant change for us from evangelical Christianity to a Torah obedient Messianic lifestyle. At first, we excitedly concluded that it was just a matter of a comparatively short time, when any true Believer who hears what we were hearing, would sweep Christianity toward the fulfillment of the prophesies found in the Book of Revelation. Well, as the Lord would have it—and not our finite thoughts regarding His timing for the promised restoration—the consummation of the age is proceeding at His speed, and not ours. So along the winding way that we have labeled our “spiritual scavenger hunt,” we have been faithfully doing our part to try and help others through our ministerial efforts to see what the Spirit of God has shown us, so that His blessings can be passed on to others.
Along our spiritual journey, it has been apparent that the Adversary, an astute and knowledgeable student of the Holy Scriptures as well (James 2:9), is certainly aware of what is occurring in the Messianic community. While the enemy has always been about his nefarious ways since the beginning to try and disrupt, distort, and delay God’s plans for humanity—he has certainly begun to feverishly work overtime, to do as much internal damage to the Messianic community of faith as he is allowed to do. Over the past several years, this has led to division, strife, contention, and downright unloving nastiness by many in the Messianic faith community, who actually claim to be followers of the Messiah Yeshua (Galatians 5:20; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; Titus 3:9). Controversies over pedigree, calendar systems, protestations about the Divine Name of God, disparagement of entire books of the Apostolic Writings, false predictions about the start of the Great Tribulation, and other problems far too many to mention—have merely been an affirmation of what was foretold in the letters of Jude and John. After all, the appearance of “antichrists” among the brethren in what John concluded was the “last hour,” was written to warn Believers then—and every follower of the Messiah since—that the “world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” are worthy opponents that everyone has to individually and collectively contend with:
“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:15-29, NASU).
For far too many years, we have concluded that the schemes of the Devil (2 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:11) that have done so much harm to the Messianic movement, were more or less conclusive evidences that the enemy of our souls was doing everything possible to discredit the Messianic community of faith. And, if you take some time to think about it, just consider all of the ecclesiastical institutions that have been developed down through the centuries. If you were the Devil, with the intention to disrupt God’s will for the Creation, where would you place your deceivers in order to do the most damage?
The conclusion, from even a cursory study of Church history, would be to infiltrate these institutions with people—whether they wittingly knew it or not—who through their misguided influence can, or at the very least, would seek to alter the trajectory of salvation history. And yet through it all, God continues to work all things together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). Through all the controversies, the Holy One is still accomplishing His will, despite the challenges associated with the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Also, let us never forget that the Apostolic Writings were merely giving future readers more details about what Yeshua had already warned His Disciples about concerning the coming of the end. Here, the sobering comment by Yeshua that “if possible” the very elect might be misled, should encourage one and all to be discerning when it comes to listening to the teachings of false messiahs and false prophets—who seem to be spread here and there throughout not only just the Messianic ranks, but in every conceivable religious establishment:
“For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. For false Messiahs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matthew 24:21-31; cf. Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15, NASU).
One key elaboration on the Last Days comes from the Apostle Paul, in his final letter to Timothy, where the “difficult times” will be saturated with people operating in the power of their flesh rather than the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16-26). Note that the warning indicates that these people will be holding to a “form of godliness” although they have denied its power:
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, NASU).
Note the strong admonition to avoid people claiming God, but actually denying Him. Lamentably, from our experience, we have found far too many in the Messianic community who are susceptible to those who, for lack of a better term, are consumed with “selfish ambition,” a term used pointedly by Paul (Philippians 1:17) and James (James 3:14, 16), to describe one of the prime motivations that is not always discernible to the unsuspecting. Nevertheless, the Father continues to accomplish His will despite all of the deviations, which are in many ways simply His “tests” for those who call upon Him. These “tests” are not too dissimilar to what the Lord did when He used false prophets/dreamers/teachers/relatives to test the hearts of His people in ancient times (Deuteronomy 13).
Without dwelling too much on a negative side of things—which should simply serve as a warning to us all—what are some of the positive aspects which are readily apparent in the Messianic community of faith at this hour in the restoration process? Perhaps the most encouraging reality is the simple proliferation of the number of people worldwide who, despite the listed challenges, are overcoming the obstacles and are sincerely pursuing a Messianic lifestyle. Incredibly, because this is definitely from our perspective a significant end-time move of the Holy Spirit, the Lord is preparing a people to endure through the Great Tribulation with the positive common denominator attributes noted above. Hence, many people from different tongues, tribes, and nations, are being supernaturally led into the Messianic movement. Just understanding what is required for a true born again seeker of the Most High to come from a Christian background, or for a Jewish person to leave the relative comfort of many of his or her traditions—and proclaim faith in the Messiah Yeshua, and fidelity to God’s Torah—are both in and of themselves, indicative that the fingerprints of the Spirit of God are upon the Messianic movement. Thankfully, the Lord has been preparing various individuals with the spiritual gifts that are critical for not only the establishment and nurturing of this move, but more importantly, the maturation process that is sorely needed.
One of the final requests that Yeshua made to His Disciples at the Last Supper, was that they exemplify a love for the brethren, which was best represented by the unity that He had with the Father (John 14-17). Of course, in order to accomplish such a goal, we can turn to some of the significant instruction given by the Apostle Paul to the Believers in Asia Minor:
“Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Messiah’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN’ [Psalm 68:18]. (Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Messiah; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Messiah, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:1-16, NASU).
As is generally the case, the emphasis on unconditional love (agapē) is always the default mode every Believer should resort to, when it comes to being part of any move of the Holy Spirit. This is critical for this hour, because as the expression goes, “United we stand, divided we fall!” Division over some of the items mentioned above is not what should characterize a genuine move of the Holy Spirit, but sadly it seems to be the case for too much at present. This is a terrible disservice to what the Father is doing—and brings much skepticism not only from without—but increasingly from within. But we now understand that it is when the Holy Spirit resolves these internal strivings, it will be at His appointed time, with whatever is required.
We actually have a considerable amount to be thankful for given the prospect that at this extended hour, nearly two thousand years since the apostles lived, the Last Days are rapidly approaching. We are grateful that the ability of all to freely communicate to the world (via the Internet, etc.) has not been impeded, so that the gospel can go forth to change and enlighten hearts—just like it did years ago for Margaret, John, and me, and that the Messianic understanding is in the process of being fortified. We are pleased, just like Yeshua was when He mentioned to His Disciples, that despite the fact that there were some using His name for ministry without being within their inner circle, He let it continue with the comment, “For he who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). As long as Yeshua is being proclaimed, the Holy One will sort out what needs to be accomplished in the hearts of those who are hearing. Similarly, this same attitude was also elucidated by Paul in his letter to the Philippians, when despite some concerns, he wrote while rejoicing:
“Some, to be sure, are preaching Messiah even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Messiah out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Messiah is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice” (Philippians 1:15-18, NASU).
We are also delighted that despite the motivations of various individuals, the Lord through so many different men and women—from all walks of life, nations, and backgrounds—are being gifted with the supernatural enablement to establish Torah studies, Messianic-oriented home groups, fellowships, and congregations which will be used in various ways by the Lord to mature His kingdom of priests. We recommend that you seek out like-minded Believers who understand what it means to be Messianic. The walk of faith to be conformed to the image of the Messiah Yeshua is, and will always be, a work in progress for each of us, until Yeshua returns and begins to reign and teach from Mount Zion.
It is our fervent prayer that the Lord would now pour out upon His people, the distinct and required ability to discern what is of Him and what is not of Him! After all, having a testimony of faith in Yeshua and obeying God’s commandments can be taught and understood in so many different ways, depending on what is truly in the heart of the message deliverer or the teaching recipient. But regardless of what the intentions of the heart truly are—given that it is solely up to the ultimate Judge to make that determination—we along with Yeshua and Paul will rejoice that despite whatever the enemy may try to do, nothing can prevent or stop the explicit will of the Eternal God from being accomplished!
Let me conclude by saying how wonderful it is to have the opportunity to reflect on a bit of personal history (our testimonies), in conjunction with understanding Biblical history and world history in general. But I would be remiss to not note that the Holy One of Israel—who was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 1:4; 4:8)—is most assuredly the God of the here and now, and that He wants to accomplish His will through each and every one of us each moment of the day. We joyfully continue to offer up praise to Him and His Son Yeshua, who rightfully receives all honor, power, and glory. We dedicate our lives to serve the Holy One, in order to advance His Kingdom on Earth, until the restoration of all things…
