Teaching Team
Borough Park Symposium
Tonight in New York City, a room full of Messianic Jewish leaders from around the country and from across the world gathered together to discuss theology, specifically Christology, at the 2010 Borough Park Symposium. Tonight we heard from Messianic Rabbi Russ Resnik, Dr. Mark Kinzer, Mitch Glasser of Chosen People Ministries, Dr. David Rudolph, Rabbi Jason Sobel, and doctoral candidate Jen Rosner. The rest of the room was filled with notables from the Messianic Jewish community and Gentile friends of the Messianic Jewish movement. The subject matter was serious and, perhaps, controversial, but the spirit in the room was electric and charged with hope--hope for a future as our fledgling movement begins to take critical steps in defining itself independent of, and yet in concert with our two larger affiliations: the Gentile Christian church and larger Judaism. At a certain point in the evening, I felt like weeping for joy at the beauty of seeing these great men and women come together in one body, despite deep and significant differences, to glorify God in seeking truth.
The Burough Symposium originally formed after the publication of Dr. Kinzer's watershed 2005 book Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism to discuss the controversial nature and sweeping theological ramifications of that book. This year's symposium continues along that same track. Dr. Kinzer opened the event with a synopsis of a significant paper on Messianic Jewish Christology which will be published in a forthcoming issue of Kesher, the theological journal of the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute. I urge you to read the paper.
These next three days will be intense days of discussion and dialogue, and I already sense a profound and deep reconnection with the great mission of Messianic Judaism. I realize, despite great diversity in vision, each of the participants here are committed to the future of this movement, and for the first time in a long time, I feel re-energized in my confidence that there is indeed a future for this movement.
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Visitor Feedback:
Boaz - I hope to be able to hear more about your experience ... and about the different perspectives ...
Ari | April 12, 2010 10:23 PM
How exciting! Thanks for sharing! I have been reading Richard Harvey's book "Mapping Messianic Judaism" while on vacation and find great hope in your report!
Karen W. | April 13, 2010 1:48 AM
I had dinner with Richard last night. Great guy. We discovered we have a common love for Levertoff--Richard lives in the UK and is on the hunt for additional Levertoff works. It was a lot of fun to swap stories--we are also going to get him connect with P.P. Levertoff's children in the UK.
Boaz Michael
|
April 13, 2010 5:27 AM
Thanks, Boaz. I was too busy to come to Borough. I wonder how people reacted to Mark Kinzer's paper. In my opinion, he has expressed the theology of Yeshua's divinity in the most developed and mature fashion so far of any published works by Messianic Jewish thinkers. If anyone had a concern that the Hashivenu side of MJ was deficient in the doctrine of Messiah's deity, I would think Dr. Kinzer's paper would end that concern and actually cause skeptics to reflect on the profundity of the topic. Many in MJ I have conversed with have a poor theology in this area, uninformed, and end up believing in some kind of modalism in an attempt to "be more Jewish" or they ignore Jewish concerns entirely and simply accept the Nicene language without any acknowledgement that Jewish concerns could be better reflected.
Derek Leman
Derek Leman | April 13, 2010 8:30 AM
Thanks for the update.
Yisrael | April 13, 2010 12:36 PM
Thank you for FFOZ and all the updates! Please continue to bring us all that HE is doing and for HIS glory...many blessings~
Cynthia | April 14, 2010 10:24 AM
That is good news. I have just today rediscovered FFOZ on the internet. I remember FFOZ in its earlier days but I was uncomfortable with its approach to Gentile Torah observance and thus avoided it. i have noticed a positive change in their approach and i have really enjoyed watching the videos by Lancaster on Levertoff. As a Catholic Jew i feel very comfortable with Levertoff's ideas and i have shared links to Lancasters videos on the Hebrew Catholic Discussion board. The Holy Spirit is really guiding you guys and my prayers and support are with Mark Kinzer and the UMJC and with FFOZ.
Athol Bloomer | April 15, 2010 7:45 AM