The modern Messianic Jewish movement began to surface around the early 1970s, when Jewish believers In Yeshua/Jesus started forming

Messianic congregations. These Messianic Jewish congregations gave Jewish believers a place to worship God in a more Jewish context

and provided them with the opportunity to present Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah to their fellow Jews.

As the Messianic Jewish movement grew, more and more Jewish people came to these congregations. At the same time, many Gentile

Christians felt themselves being strongly attracted to Messianic Jewish congregations and the Messianic Jewish way of life and worship. By

1990 the membership of the average Messianic Jewish congregation was composed of roughly 50% Jews and 50% non-Jews, according to a

Jews in the Messianic movement Is now probably much higher than 50%.

The ever-growing number of non-Jews identifying with the Messianic movement has caused concern to some Messianic Jewish leaders. On

the one hand, Messianic Jewish leaders want to prove to the Gentile Church that Messianic Judaism is not re-erecting the middle wall of

partition between Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Messiah, so Messianic Jewish leaders feel obligated to welcome non-Jews who want

to join their congregations. On the other hand, Messianic Jewish leaders want to persuade the larger Jewish community that Messianic

Judaism is not a foreign religion but a legitimate form of Judaism. When the overwhelming majority of people in the Messianic Jewish

movement are not Jewish. this makes It more difficult for Messianic Jewish leaders to gain the recognition that they desire from the larger

Jewish community.

Some Messianic Jewish leaders have suggested that some sort of formal conversion process be set up for Gentile Christians who wish to

practice Messianic Judaism, so that these Christians can have the status of a full-fledged Messianic Jew conferred upon them.

Other Messianic Jewish leaders want to place certain restrictions upon non-Jews who wish to join their congregations. These restrictions are

couched in noble-sounding terminology, but they result in a kind of ethnic purging of the Messianic Jewish movement. About a year ago

one very prominent Messianic Jewish leader wrote that Messianic Jews "must protect themselves from dilution through the Incursion of

large numbers of Gentile believers.~ These Messianic Jewish leaders insist that Gentiles are welcome to join their congregations, yet in the

same breath they also publicly state that it is Important for Messianic congregations to maintain a membership that is predominantly Jewish.

It is one thing for a congregational leader to want a Jewish majority if his congregation is located in Israel, where the majority of the general

population is Jewish. But if a congregational leader wants his congregation to have a Jewish majority in America, where Jews comprise only

a small percentage of the general population, then he must do one of two things. He must either formally convert the Gentile congregates to

Messianic Judaism and confer Jewish status upon them, or he must do something to restrict the large numbers of non-Jews who want to join

the congregation. If he opts for converting Gentiles to Messianic Judaism, neither the Church nor the Jewish community is likely to consider

the Messianic Jewish convert a true Jew. If the Messianic Jewish leader opts for restricting the number of non-Jews in his congregation, he

will rightly be accused by Christians of bigotry and of re-erecting the middle wall of partition. And he probably still won't gain the

recognition that he desires from the larger Jewish community.

Out of this mixture of Messianic Jews and Messianic non-Jews, there is emerging a steadily-growing movement known as the Messianic

Israel movement. The Messianic Israel movement embraces and teaches what is known as 'Two-House theology" or "the Ephraimite

doctrine.' This teaching is explained in detail in three books by Batya Wootten (In Search of Israel, The Olive Tree of Israel, and, more

recently, Who Is Israel? And Why You Need to Know) and a book by Eddie Chumney (Restoring the Two Houses of Israel). I have read all

three of Batya's books; I have not read Eddie Chumney's.

It is not in the scope of this article to explain all the details of this teaching. I refer the interested reader to the above-mentioned books.

However, for the sake of readers who may be unfamiliar with this teaching, I will briefly summarize the main points without going into all the

details that are offered as proofs for the teaching.

To understand the teaching of the Messianic Israel movement, a person has to be familiar with three significant events in the Old Testament

1) Israel's division into two kingdoms (or "houses') after the death of King Solomon;) the exile of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom and 2)

their subsequent scattering and assimilation among the Gentiles; and 3) the Prophets' declaration that these two houses would someday be

reunited and restored as one kingdom.

Because the ten northern tribes (known in Scripture collectively as "Ephraim' or "Israel') were scattered and assimilated among the Gentiles

through intermarriage, a large percentage of the world's population today has to have some Israelite ancestry.

There is no way to prove or disprove who has an Israelite ancestor and who does not, but that is not the point The point is that there are, of

necessity, a great number of Gentiles who ~ have some Israelite ancestry somewhere in their family tree. Tens of thousands of Israelites

intermarrying with Gentiles thousands of years ago would result in millions of offspring over the centuries. Theoretically, all of the world's

population could eventually be genealogically linked to the tribes of Israel. and, theoretically, all the world's population could already be so

linked, except among ethnic groups that have been geographically isolated and have not intermarried with outsiders.

The Prophets said that the House of Ephraim - the ten tribes who intermarried and lost their tribal identities - would eventually be reunited

with the I-louse of Judah. The Jewish people are obviously 'the House of Judah,' and because the Church (or at least a large percentage of it)

is composed of Gentiles who have Israelite ancestry somewhere in their genealogy, the Church is presented as the obvious candidate for 'the

House of Ephraim" of end-time prophecy. Two-house theology asserts that the Prophets' declaration of the two houses being reunited will

come about through Christians and Jews who will join themselves together as 'one new man."

At times the terminology gets a bit confusing, even in the pages of the Bible, because all Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews.

Sometimes the term 'Israel' includes the House of Judah and sometimes it refers only to the ten northern tribes, the House of Ephraim (also

called "The House of Joseph" or "Israel").

This is not, I repeat, not replacement theology. This idea us not about the Gentile Church replacing the Jewish people and claiming all the

blessings and promises for itself but leaving all the curses and commandments for the Jews Two-house theology is about Gentile believers,

as the House of Ephraim, joining with the House of Judah and sharing in the blessings of God as co-equal members of the commonwealth of

Israel. It is about sharing the abundant blessings and promises of God, not about taking them away. It is also about sharing the

commandments and obligations. TWO-house theology points out that both houses have been in error for centuries: The Jewish people, the

House of Judah, have been blind to the identity of the Messiah, and the Christian people, the House of Ephraim, have been blind to the

importance of the Sabbath and the Torah. A summary of the beliefs of the Messianic Israel movement are reproduced on page 11.

Several readers have contacted me to ask what my views are on this topic. I have not written on this subject until now, because the question

of whether or not Gentile Christians have any Israelite ancestry has been something of a moot point for me. My manner of life and worship is

going to be the same whether I have Israelite ancestry or am of pure 100% pagan stock. While I do believe that a large percentage of Gentile

Christians undoubtedly have unproveable and untraceable lsraelite ancestry somewhere in their family tree, I also believe that even those

disciples who maybe of 100% pagan ancestry are every bit as obligated to honor the Sabbath and the Torah as are those disciples who

happen to have some Israelite ancestry.

Since the question of Israelite ancestry should not affect how a disciple of Yeshua lives and worships, it has been a moot point for me.

Furthermore, I have always been secure in my identity as a non-Jewish disciple of Israel's Messiah, and I have never felt a need to demand

recognition as an Israelite from anyone. I know that my faith in Israel's Messiah makes me a full-fledged member of the commonwealth of

Israel in God's eyes. Christians and Jews can deny it, the modern State of Israeli may deny it. But their denial does not change the facts. By

my faith in Israel's Messiah, I become a part of the Israel of God.

Perhaps the important question, though, is not "Do (some/many/most/all) Gentile Christians have Israelite ancestry?' but rather 'WIN the

prophecies about the reuniting of the two houses be fulfilled by Jews and Christians coming together? Or, to put it in simpler terms, 'Is the

Church Ephraim?' 1 was first made aware of the Messianic Israel movement about five years ago when I read an article that used this

question as its title. 'is the Church Ephraim?' The article was written by well-known Messianic Jewish leader Dan Juster, and Dan argued

against the idea of the Church fulfilling the end-time role of Ephraim.

I read the article as an interested but unbiased reader. Theologically, the question was irrelevant to me, and the few occasions I had had in

the past to spend some time with Dan Juster had always been pleasant, so I certainly had no prejudice against the writer. Dan did a good job

of presenting the teaching in the first part of his article-so good, in fact, that the teaching sounded quite plausible to me, in spite of Dan's

objections it. But since it was a moot point to me, 1 felt no obligation to either accept or reject the teaching.

Some time later a sister in Michigan gave me Batya Wootten's first two books on the subject Reading these books made the idea seem more

than lust plausible. Now it sounded like a very likely possibility. If I had had to make a decision back then based on my initial gut reaction

and my spiritual intuition, I would have said that the teaching in the books was absolutely true. However, like the Bereans. I wanted to

'search the Scriptures to see whether those things were so. As I have continued to search the Scriptures and read the arguments both for

and against the teaching, I have found the evidence for the teaching to be more and more convincing all the time.

Am I absolutely convinced that the true Church will fulfill) the end-time role of Ephraim? I am very cautious about making dogmatic

statements about the fulfillment of end-time prophecies. Too many teachers of Bible prophecy make premature statements about how the

details of end-time prophecy are going to unfold, and then they have to retract their statements when the unfolding of events proves them

wrong. As one prophecy teacher said, "After I saw my fourth candidate for the Antichrist buried, I quit being so dogmatic about end-time

prophecy." We are not talking about the identity of the end-time Antichrist here, but we are talking about the identity of the end-time House

of Ephraim. Since we are dealing with end-time prophecy, I want to be cautious.

I am too cautious to say that I am absolutely, 100% convinced that the true Church is Ephraim - that is, I am not so thoroughly convinced

that I can in good conscience say it with a "Thus saith the LORD." Yet let me say in the same breath that I have not heard a better

explanation of how the prophecies about the reuniting of the two houses can be fulfilled. I know of no other likely candidate for the House of

Ephraim. Therefore I see no reason to reject this teaching and every reason to embrace it, unless someone comes up with a better explanation

or unless end-time events untold differently than expected.

If the unfolding of end-time events shows that the two-house teachers were mistaken about the identity of the House of Ephraim (a

possibility that seems less and less likely all the time), no great harm will have been done. Even some opponents of the teaching have

admitted this. Daniel Chadwick, in "A Biblical Critique of the Ephraimite Doctrine," describes the teaching as ~a doctrine that we do not find

particularly heretical but only scholastically disagreeable," and Chadwick admits that "positively some good may come of it," even though

he disagrees with the teaching.

Both sides in this debate need to exercise caution and patience - patience to see how events untold, patience with each other, and a

Messianic Christians to immigrate to Israel and become Israeli citizens, I will straightaway start packing my bags and get on the first plane

heading to Israel. Nothing would please me more.

As stated earlier, the purpose of this article is not to explain all the details of this teaching. That has already been done in the storementioned

books. However, I do want to close by sharing some interesting evidence that gives additional support to the teaching. This

piece of evidence is something that I discovered when I was living on a kibbutz in Israel in 1977, long before I knew anything about the

teaching that the House of Ephraim would be made up of Christians in the latter days. I discovered that the modem Hebrew word for

"Christians," notzrim, appears in Jeremiah 31:6 (translated as "watchmen"), and guess where the notzim are in this verse? They are on the

hills of Ephraim (I), crying out, "Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto Yahweh our God And guess when this is happening? It is happening

"in the latter days," when the nation of Israel is being restored. (See Jer. 3024; 31 :lff.)

For more insight on the significance of the word notzrim in the Hebrew Bible, see the article "Notzrim and Jews."

2 I do not wish to embarrass this leader by revealing the source of this quote. A Messianic Jewish friend of mine (who shall also remain anonymous) showed me a list of qualifications

and requirements that one Messianic Jewish congregation had drawn up for Gentiles who wanted to join their congregation. I pointed out to my Messianic Jewish friend that two of the

requirements would automatically disqualify even him and his wife, if they were Gentiles and had to meet this criteria.

3 Dan Juster, "Is the Church Ephraim? Messimnk, Outreach 14:2 (Winter 1995):15ff.

4 Daniel Chadwick, "A Biblical Critique of the Ephraimite Doctrine," Messianic Outreach 14:4 (Summer 1995): 19.

7/31/01 7:44 AM Gates of Eden gatesofeden.org