Messianic Judaism and its Roots in the Jesus Movement

Until the year 2000, the largest number of Jews lived in the United States, followed by Israel, and the former Soviet Union as third. With the release of Soviet Jewry at the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, a large number of Russian-speaking Jews immigrated to Israel.

After 70 years of religious restriction in the Soviet Union, the new freedoms led to many Russians coming to faith, including a certain percentage of the Jews who immigrated to Israel.

Today, Israel has more Jews living in it than the United States. And the largest block of Messianic Jews within Israel come from Russian-speaking backgrounds.

However, there were earlier waves of Jewish people coming to faith in Yeshua - particularly in the late 1960s, and throughout the 1970s and 80s in the United States, with a smaller breakthrough also in Israel. To a large extent, this revival was connected to what is commonly called “The Jesus Movement.”

The Jesus Movement was a grass-roots wave of evangelism that started among the youth in the United States, and spread across many other nations. It was characterized by several elements, but primarily that young people of “counter-culture” backgrounds came to faith. It included a belief in the “charismatic” gifts of the Holy Spirit, modern free-form worship, a lack of respect for classic denominational expressions of Christianity, and a desire to go “back” to a form of “primitive Christianity” associated with the book of Acts (or at least how the book of Acts was perceived).

Some major high points included Calvary Chapel with Chuck Smith in California; Explo 72 with Billy Graham and Bill Bright in Dallas, and Belmont Church with Don Finto in Nashville. Jews for Jesus started in San Francisco in the late 1960s among young Jewish people in the Jesus Movement. Another well-known leader of the Jesus Movement was Keith Green, who was also of Jewish background.

In retrospect, the connection with Jewish people seems rather obvious. Because of historical and religious barriers, Christianity was not an option for most Jews. However, in a counter-cultural movement that stressed a radical, personal faith in Jesus, outside the box of normative Christianity, there was an opportunity for similarly counter-culture Jewish youth to consider the faith. Most of them were seeking alternative life-styles and not necessarily concerned about adhering to traditional Jewish practices.

Some of the Jesus Movement groups formed communes of believers outside the walls of traditional churches. My wife Betty came to faith in the context of one of those groups in 1974-5.

Some of the Jesus Movement spread to other countries, and some spread to the Catholic Church in groups that became known as “Catholic Charismatics”. I came to faith in the context of a Catholic Charismatic youth group in Guatemala in 1977-8.

There are hundreds of different testimonies of similar experiences of Jewish people in many different locations, beyond what I could even begin to list here, including many of my friends and coworkers. Almost all involved a supernatural, personal revelation about Yeshua Himself.

In an indirect way, this move of the Spirit of God also swept into the Far East. YWAM set up their base in Hawaii in 1973, and in the same year Billy Graham held a large evangelism rally in Seoul, Korea. As far as I can tell from testimonies of our friends in the underground Church in China, the breakthrough of supernatural healings, persecution, and house to house revival, started in 1979.

There were many other spiritual outpourings in different cities and nations, that are beyond the scope of this short review. While we look at the cultural and historical conditions, the entire phenomenon should also be seen as a sovereign intervention of God, at His timing and planning.

Within Israel in the mid 1970’s, there was also a breakthrough of Sabra Israeli Jews and Arabs who came to faith. Some of them became the leaders of the congregations in Israel today.

There was an important connection with the 1967 “Six-day War” and the 1973 “Yom Kippur War”. The 1967 War led to the expansion of Israel and the capture of Jerusalem. This was followed by a certain euphoria in Israel, which left the country rather unprepared for the attack of the 1973 War.

The 1973 War was extremely traumatic for Israel. Many felt that it would result in the total annihilation of the country. In the end it actually solidified the territorial expansion and the control of Jerusalem. However, the people were scarred emotionally and psychologically, particularly the young people, ages 18 to 22 who were serving in the Israeli Army (as well as the older reservists).

The Yom Kippur War of 1973 coincided with the end of the Vietnam War, and the resignation of President Richard Nixon. (In the midst of that crisis, Nixon decided to send aid to Israel during the Yom Kippur War, an act which some Israeli historians credit with saving Israel from destruction).

All this goes to say that the counter-culture movement, the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, the resignation of Nixon and other factors led to a great trauma among the youth, a questioning of traditional values, and an openness to totally different world views. In that context arose the Jesus Movement. And out of the Jesus Movement, arose much of the modern Messianic Jewish Movement.

[Note: To be more exact, a significant portion of modern Messianic Judaism came out of the Jesus Movement, but certainly not all. Some stayed within the boundaries of classic Christianity. For those who were the offspring of the Jesus Movement, there have been problems of independence, disrespect, and mysticism, because of its roots in counter culturalism which has plagued much of the Charismatic Movement worldwide. As one who has devoted my life to Jewish roots and Holy Spirit revival, I would like to express sincere repentance for the carnality in our movements.]

When the Jesus Movement began to seek a “primitive” form of Christianity, associated with the book of Acts, it unintentionally opened the perspective of the book of Acts, describing a movement led by Jewish people as an extension of Israelite faith, before the institutionalization of Christianity. That perspective opened room for a movement of Jews who believe in Yeshua, consider themselves Jews, and seek to restore the First Century origins of the faith.

Regardless of one’s political viewpoint, the capture of Jerusalem by the Jewish people is an event of biblical proportions and importance. Yeshua said in Luke 21:24 that the recapture of Jerusalem would represent a turning point of the “fullness of the Gentiles” and Paul said in Romans 11:25 that the “fullness of the Gentiles” would result in a revival movement among the Jewish people.

The connection between the capture of Jerusalem, California counterculture, the traumas of the Vietnam and Yom Kippur Wars, biblical prophecy, and the start of the modern Messianic Jewish movement is startling.