The Challenge of Living an Authentic Christian Life

Art Katz is a Jewish man who embraced the teachings and Messiah of the New Testament while still relatively young. Now 72, Katz has spent his life seeking the Lord and teaching others what he discovers along the way. He and his wife live in a secluded rural community of like-minded believers in northern Minnesota.

Those who haven't read Katz or heard him speak might want to check out his website, www.benisrael.org and read his autobiography entitled "Ben Israel." For those who have read and heard him, his more recent book, "Apostolic Foundations," is a breath of fresh Spirit.

Katz builds his examination of what constitutes apostolic foundations on Ephesians 2:19-20 (NASB):

"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone."

These words have special significance for those of us who attend Rosh Pinah which of course means "cornerstone."

"I have a very special respect for the word apostolic," Katz begins in his Preface. "The church was apostolic at its inception and needs to be so at its conclusion. Indeed, only an apostolic church can stand and overcome, and by that witness, testify to and penetrate an obdurate (impenitent) and resistant remnant of Israel in the mystery of God at the end of this age."?

In all his teachings, Katz passionately identifies with the remnant of Israel which, he says, must be reached by a strong, empowered, and fully apostolic body of believers (the called out ones from this present world, the church).

Midway into the book, Katz writes: "The biblical and ancient hope of Israel, which has been lost both to the church and the Jew, is the crucial aspect of a God who raises the dead, and that He will raise the dead again in His coming. The church at large subscribes to that doctrine, yet it lacks, in my opinion, the concomitant living hope. When they say 'Jesus is coming soon,' they really mean that their escape is coming soon. There is not that purifying of ourselves because we do not have the incentive to get our act together. If we could but see the church as God sees it, we would find that it is living so beneath the apostolic standard. The dynamic and quality of our witness and life and the willingness to break the power of our selfishness are only possible when we truly believe that the Lord is at the door; that we truly believe the world is coming to its historic end, and that God is going to break into time to conclude history and to begin the reign of the Lamb."

Katz contends that we don't live as if we really believe this and that is why our witness to the world and to Jews is so distorted and largely ineffectual. He should know. He travels all over the world every year and sees for himself.

This review will stop here to serve as an encouragement for readers to seek out and read this study, over and over. It is not easy reading. It is not light reading. It will not titillate your senses vis-a-vis end time scenarios or fictional treatments of the last days. This is heavy duty stuff for people ready for a heavy duty calling.

Otherwise, why are we even bothering?

Reviewed by Mary McReynolds

(Apostolic Foundations is available through Art's website or by requesting a copy from: Ben Israel Fellowship, Rt. 2, Box 183, Laporte, MN 56461.)