Art Katz

Art Katz was born in the late 1920s into a Jewish family in the United States and grew up in New York. He was a bright and restless young man who was drawn to the great questions of life. He studied, worked as a teacher and was involved in the intellectual and political currents of his day, including the left-wing movements that promised to remake society. He saw himself as a man of principle, and he was searching for a cause large enough to live and die for.

His search left him empty. In the 1960s he went through a deep crisis, and he began to see that the answer to his questions was not found in politics or in philosophy. He came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah of Israel and that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had spoken in His Son. He turned to Christ in 1966 and was baptized. For a Jewish man of his background, the step was costly, and it cut him off from many he loved. He later wrote about the turmoil of that season with honesty, and his autobiographical work tells how God broke through to him.

He spent years in Israel, where he and his family lived and ministered. He worked among believers there and studied the Scriptures in the land. His time in Israel left a lasting impression on him. He held a deep conviction that God has not finished with the Jewish people and that the church is bound to them in the purpose of God. He was also a sharp critic of what he saw as an easy and shallow Christianity that avoided the cross.

He later returned to the United States and traveled widely as a speaker and teacher, ministering in churches, conferences and gatherings of believers across the world. His message was intense. He spoke of the fear of the Lord, the cost of discipleship, the place of suffering and the need for the church to be formed by God into a people who are truly apostolic. He wrote and recorded a large body of teaching, including the book Apostolic Foundations. He was known for his long, searching sermons and for his refusal to flatter his hearers.

He had a strong personality. Some found him too severe, and others were deeply moved. He often spoke with stern words about the condition of the church, and he could be hard on those who did not share his vision. He was open about his own struggles and about the way God had humbled him. He held a high standard and was impatient with half measures.

He died in the first decade of this century, and the detailed record of his life is not widely published. What can be said is that he was a man who came out of a Jewish and secular background, who gave up his own way for the sake of Christ and who spent his life urging the church to be serious about God. His life shows that the Lord can reach a seeker through crisis, and that one who has been broken may speak with weight to others.