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Is Revivalism Good for the Jews?
What kind of Jewish renewal should Messianic Jews work and pray for?
February 24, 2008
I think God's plans for the Jewish people are far bigger than and other than the revivalistic culture and perspective we have inherited through Christendom. It is clear from Scripture that what God has planned for the Jews is other than what he is doing among the nations, although it is also founded in Yeshua the Messiah. Paul takes pains to contrast the fullness of Israel with the fullness of the nations, calling the former 'greater riches' than the latter. Indeed, whereas the fullness of the Gentiles is the Great Commission, the fullness of Israel is the Greater Commission, since it results in the resurrection of the dead! And again, I would stress that from the vantage point of the Bible, but certainly NOT of Christian revivalism, God's renewal of the Jewish people will eventuate in a return of our people to covenant obedience, walking in His statutes and ordinances (Deut 30:10; Ezek 36:27; 37:24). This means that any renewal among the Jews which does not include a return to Torah faithfulness is not the renewal toward which Scripture points us. "God's end-time Jewish revival" will include a universal Jewish return to Torah-based covenant faithfulness in the context of Jewish unity (See Deut 30:1-10, Jer 31:31 ff, and especially Ezekiel 37:21-28).
It is sad but true that in and around the Messianic Jewish Movement, we have all been taught to distrust Judaism. We have been taught to value Christendom's sources and perspectives. But Christendom has demonstrated its own biases and blindspots, of which supersessionism is one of the most glaring. How could a move of God deny for almost two millennia a reality so intrinsic to the warp and woof of Holy Writ? This is not to dismiss the Church, or its valid insights. But it is a call to caution and awareness.
I think there is another judicial blinding besides that spoken of in Romans 9-11, that hardening in part that has happened to Israel. I believe we could well say, "A hardening in part has happened to the Church from among the nations, until the fullness of Israel has come in, and so all Israel will be saved." I think the Church is largely blind to what God has promised to do among the Jewish people, and instead installs aspirations and models made after the image of itself. Shockingly, if I am right, the Church itself can be guilty of idolatry. And this means that we must be prepared to see beyond the Church's vision for Israel in identifying our own.
All of this is just to say that Messianic Jews must beware of a passivity which reflexively assumes the Church knows best, when in fact the Church has historically demonstrated abysmal blindness and pride leading to violence against Israel and the purposes of God. We must also remember that God is up to something other and something new among the Jewish people. This is clear from Scripture . . . . God will do in these latter days things among the Jewish people which will astound and correct all of us.
Let me prove my point, at least in part. From my research it is clear that the Azusa Street Revival was entirely ignored by the Jewish community of Los Angeles. Aside from perhaps a few Jews coming to Yeshua faith, it had no profile or impact in the Jewish community. So even here, a good old fashioned Holy Ghost Revival of historic proportions had no effect on the Jewish community in Los Angeles, even escaping their notice. I live near Mel Robeck, whose recent book on Azusa Street is the definitive work. He agrees.
As for the revivalist approach developed by Charles Finney, we must bear this in mind. It seems to me that Finney advocated an instrumental approach: if we only do this, this, and this, then God must act. I view what happened in upstate New York during his early ministry as a sovereign act of God rather than the results of a methodology. Finney's methods never worked for him after his time in upstate New York. For example, he tried it later in New York City. He organized prayer and held meetings, but experienced no revival. In fact, he spent the rest of his life with no revivals!
Likewise with the Welsh revival. It passed after a couple of years and was never repeated.
I certainly appreciate the importance of prayer, and appreciate any genuine change that took place in peoples' lives, but I believe that learning from the past goes beyond the story of the immediate events. It involves studying the aftermath as well.
Before we imagine that revival and the coming of the Spirit in revivalistic terms is the answer Messianic Jews should seek, we would do well to ask a few questions:
(1) How is the eschatological renewal of Israel which God promises in the Torah and the Prophets and in the NT unique and different from that experienced by and prophesied of the nations? (It is very different. See my favorite text on the matter, Ezekiel 37:21-28).
(2) Why were the revivals usually lionized in Christian sources of no substantial effect on the Jewish communities of their day? (Azusa Street is the most glaring example).
(3) How prepared are we to see revivalism as a seductive cultural phenomenon--are we not in danger of being wooed and seduced by the prospect of excitement, of being swept away by a tsunami of the Spirit in a manner reminiscent of historic revivals, losing sight of the particular and DIFFERENT pathway of faithfulness toward which Scripture points and to which God calls the Messianic Jewish movement? The danger is that we will become so enamored of the romance, dynamism and excitement of such a phenomenon, that we lose sight of how we are becoming imprinted with an image strange to our people who themselves have historically been unaffected by the phenomena fascinating us!
(4) Has it not become far too easy and familiar for us to default to Christian ways of thinking, associating and feeling, and is this not a hindrance to our embracing the new thing God has promised to do among our people? Isn't it far easier and more familiar for many Messianic Jews to be good Christians than good Jews?
(5) What ought the Messianic Jewish movement to be doing in order to remake itself as a fit tool for the kind of renewal God has in mind for the Jewish people and how will we of necessity look, feel, and sound different than what most of Christendom expects?
(6) If not now, when?
I think these are good questions for all of us to consider. How about you?
