Introduction Review
In the introduction to Postmissionary Messianic Judaism, Mark S. Kinzer immediately confronts one of the most entrenched assumptions in modern religious thought: that Christianity and Judaism are two separate religions — historically related, yet now independent and self-contained. Within that framework, Messianic Judaism — the attempt of Jewish believers in Yeshua to sustain Jewish identity and religious expression as intrinsic to and required by faith in Him — is often dismissed as a syncretistic system that disrespects both traditions.
Kinzer clarifies, however, that this book is not merely about Messianic Judaism as a sociological phenomenon. Rather, it is fundamentally a work about the ekklesia — the community of those who believe in Yeshua the Messiah — and its relationship to the Jewish people. More specifically, it is a study of supersessionism and the ecclesiological implications that arise from rejecting it.
Supersessionism, as Kinzer defines it, is the teaching that the ekklesia replaces the Jewish people as the elect covenant community — the people in whom the divine presence resides and through whom God’s purposes in the world are realized. According to this traditional Christian view, the church becomes the new and spiritual Israel, fulfilling the role formerly occupied by what was often characterized as “carnal” Israel.
In the decades following the Holocaust, many Christians formally repudiated supersessionist theology. Yet Kinzer observes that few have learned to read the New Testament in a genuinely non-supersessionist manner. Even fewer have wrestled seriously with the ecclesiological implications that such a repudiation demands.
The Ecclesiological Tension
Kinzer argues that Christian communal identity rests on two foundational convictions:
The universal mediation of Yeshua in all of God’s creative, revelatory, reconciling, and redemptive activity.
God creates through Yeshua
God reveals Himself through Yeshua
God reconciles humanity through Yeshua
God redeems the world through Yeshua
The church’s participation through Yeshua in Israel’s covenantal privileges.
The covenants belong to Israel
Gentile believers don’t replace Israel
They are grafted in (Romans 11 framework)
These convictions are embodied structurally in the church’s twofold biblical canon (Old Testament -Israel’s scriptures & New Testament - Messiah’s mediation extended outward) and function as non-negotiable beliefs at the very core of Christian existence.
However, the rejection of supersessionism raises unavoidable theological tension. If we reject supersessionism we are saying:
The Jewish people are still in covenant with God.
Their calling and identity remain intact.
They are not replaced by the church.
What is the tension? If Jews remain in covenant with God, and if Yeshua is the universal mediator of all covenant relationship, then how do Jews relate covenantally to God without acknowledging Yeshua? How can the church consistently maintain either of these two central convictions?
Supersessionism historically resolved this theological tension by asserting that Jews who reject Yeshua are no longer covenantally Israel. In this framework, the church becomes the “new Israel,” inheriting the covenantal status, promises, and divine presence once associated with the Jewish people. As a result, the question of covenant mediation is effectively settled: relationship with God is now mediated exclusively through Yeshua within the ecclesial community that has replaced Israel. However, this resolution comes at an enormous theological cost. Israel’s ongoing election is functionally nullified, the Torah is rendered obsolete or superseded, and the Jewish people are theologically displaced from their historic role within God’s redemptive purposes. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Christian theologians rejected this supersessionist solution, recognizing its moral and theological dangers. Yet, as Kinzer critiques, this repudiation has often occurred without the development of a coherent alternative framework capable of holding together the church’s christological convictions and Israel’s enduring covenantal identity.
Kinzer describes the dilemma metaphorically: the church’s two convictions and the repudiation of supersessionism function like three puzzle pieces that simply do not fit together. Something is missing.
The “Fourth Piece” — Postmissionary Messianic Judaism
Kinzer proposes that the missing theological “fourth piece” necessary to resolve this ecclesiological tension is what he calls postmissionary Messianic Judaism. His argument is that Jewish believers in Yeshua who live fully covenantal Jewish lives provide a living bridge within the people of God. Their communal existence integrates two realities that otherwise appear irreconcilable: the universal mediation of Messiah and the ongoing covenantal life of Israel. In this way, Messianic Judaism functions as the theological connector that allows all three affirmations to remain intact — that Yeshua mediates covenant life, that the church participates in Israel’s blessings through Him, and that the Jewish people remain in enduring covenant with God. Without this mediating reality, Kinzer contends that Christian theology is left with unstable alternatives: it drifts back toward supersessionism, moves in the direction of dual-covenant theology, or collapses into internal incoherence where its core claims can no longer be held together in a consistent ecclesiological framework.
He signals that later chapters will trace the historical development of the Messianic Jewish movement, particularly its roots in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Hebrew Christianity. This movement, he notes, is far from monolithic. While many who identify as Messianic Jews participate in Messianic Jewish congregations, others exist within broader church contexts.
Observance also varies. Some Messianic Jews seek to live in faithful observance of Torah, while others regard Torah practices primarily as national customs — valuable, but optional.
Yet Kinzer identifies a shared core: all who call themselves Messianic Jews affirm that Yeshua of Nazareth is Israel’s Messiah and that faith in Him establishes rather than undermines Jewish identity.
Defining “Postmissionary”
Kinzer’s proposal is not for generic Messianic Judaism, but for a specific form he calls postmissionary. This concept centers on the unique and enduring relationship between Yeshua, His ekklesia, the Jewish people, and the Jewish way of life.
He outlines at least three defining features of Postmissionary Messianic Judaism:
1. Covenant Fidelity Rather Than Missionary Expediency
Postmissionary Messianic Judaism calls Jewish believers to live an observant Jewish life as an act of covenant faithfulness — not as a missionary strategy.
Kinzer expresses particular concern over Messianic congregations that adopt Jewish symbols and practices primarily to attract Jews, without principled commitment to Torah observance. In such settings, Jewish forms function as transitional tools, easing Jewish assimilation into a Gentile Christianity that does not call for sustained Torah faithfulness.
2. Embrace of the Jewish People and Tradition
Postmissionary Messianic Judaism embraces the Jewish people and their religious tradition, seeking to encounter God and Messiah in the midst of Israel’s lived communal reality.
3. Service to the Gentile Church
Finally, postmissionary Messianic Judaism serves the wider (Gentile) church by linking it concretely to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In doing so, it confirms the church’s identity as a multinational extension of the people of Israel.
The church of the nations can only function as an extension of Israel if its Messianic Jewish partner remains deeply rooted in Jewish soil. Israel’s covenant endures; the church draws nourishment from Israel’s root; yet Yeshua remains Messiah and Lord for both Jews and Gentiles.
In this way, the church may affirm its identity as an extension of Israel in a non-supersessionist manner — because its connection to Jewish heritage becomes a concrete sociological reality rather than a mere spiritual abstraction.
Rethinking Categories
Kinzer ultimately calls readers to rethink long-held presuppositions regarding:
Christianity and Judaism
Church and Israel
Christians and Jews
Even the terminology, he argues, reflects a conceptual framework that assumes two separate religions and two separate peoples.
Kinzer challenges this construct directly. Rather than two religions, he suggests we are dealing with one people and one religion — though inherently twofold in nature. What should have been a mutually enriching differentiation tragically became a bitter historical schism.
Accordingly, throughout the book, the figure known commonly in the church as “Jesus Christ” is referred to by His Jewish name and title: Yeshua the Messiah.
The Ongoing Jewish Identity of Yeshua
Kinzer closes the introduction by highlighting a theological implication often overlooked. While virtually all scholars today acknowledge that the first-century Yeshua of Nazareth was a Jew, far fewer who confess His resurrection reckon with the reality that He remains a Jew today — and will do so forever.
The failure to grapple with the enduring Jewish identity of the risen Messiah, Kinzer suggests, has profound implications for ecclesiology, covenant theology, and Jewish-Christian relations.
Introduction Summary
In the introduction to Postmissionary Messianic Judaism, Mark S. Kinzer challenges one of the most common assumptions in modern religious thought — that Christianity and Judaism are two separate and independent religions. Within that framework, Messianic Judaism is often viewed as a mixture of two incompatible faiths. Kinzer pushes back on this idea, explaining that Jewish believers in Yeshua who maintain their Jewish identity are not creating something artificial, but are living within a reality deeply connected to the story of Scripture itself.
He clarifies that his book is not primarily about Messianic Judaism as a movement, but about the ekklesia — the community of those who believe in Yeshua the Messiah — and how this community relates to the Jewish people. This leads him directly into the issue of supersessionism, the belief that the church has replaced Israel as God’s covenant people. According to this traditional view, the church becomes the “new Israel,” inheriting the promises and role once given to the Jewish people.
Although many Christians rejected supersessionism after the Holocaust, Kinzer argues that few have fully worked through the theological implications of doing so. This creates a major tension. Christianity holds two core convictions: first, that all of God’s redemptive work is mediated through Yeshua; and second, that the church shares in Israel’s covenant blessings through Him. Yet if the Jewish people still remain in covenant with God, the question arises: how does that covenant relationship function if many Jews do not acknowledge Yeshua? Supersessionism solved this problem by removing Israel from the covenant equation, but at the cost of denying Israel’s ongoing election and rendering Torah obsolete.
Kinzer describes this dilemma as three puzzle pieces that do not fit together — something is missing. His proposed “fourth piece” is what he calls postmissionary Messianic Judaism. Jewish believers in Yeshua who live faithful Jewish lives serve as a living bridge within the people of God. Their existence holds together the universal mediation of Messiah and the enduring covenantal life of Israel. Without this bridge, Christian theology tends to drift back toward supersessionism, adopt dual-covenant theology, or remain internally inconsistent.
Kinzer explains that postmissionary Messianic Judaism is not driven by missionary strategy but by covenant faithfulness. It calls Jewish believers to observe Torah as an expression of their ongoing covenant identity, embraces the wider Jewish community and tradition, and serves the Gentile church by grounding it concretely in Israel’s historical and covenantal life. In this way, the church can understand itself as an extension of Israel without replacing Israel.
He ultimately calls readers to rethink the categories that divide Christianity and Judaism. Rather than two separate religions, he suggests we are dealing with one people of God expressed in a differentiated — though historically fractured — form. This is why he consistently uses the name Yeshua the Messiah, emphasizing Jesus’ enduring Jewish identity.
Kinzer closes the introduction by highlighting a final implication often overlooked: while nearly all scholars acknowledge that Yeshua was Jewish in the first century, far fewer consider that He remains Jewish even now in His risen and exalted state. Failing to reckon with this reality, Kinzer argues, has far-reaching consequences for how the church understands itself, Israel, and God’s covenant purposes in history.