Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22): Saving Grace in Judaism and Messianic Hope in ChristianityGrowing up in an ethnic suburb in Cleveland, Aaron Milavec was an impressionable adolescent whose religious and cultural influences made it natural for him to pity, blame, and despise Jews. All of that began to change in 1955 when Mr. Martin, a Jewish merchant, hired Milavec as a stock boy. Milavec's initial anxieties over working for a Jew surprisingly gave way to profound personal admiration. This, in turn, plunged Milavec into a troubling theological dilemma: How could God consign Mr. Martin to eternal hellfire due to his ancestral role in the death of Jesus when it was clear that Mr. Martin would not harm me, a Christian, even in small ways? This book is not for the faint-hearted. Most Christians imagine that the poison of anti-Judaism has been largely eliminated. In contrast, Milavec reveals how this poison has gone underground--disfiguring not only the role of Israel in God's plan of salvation but also horribly twisting the faith, the forgiveness, and the salvation that Christians find through Jesus Christ. This painful realization serves as the necessary first step for our healing. At each step of the way, Milavec's sure hand builds bridges of mutual understanding that enable both Christians and Jews to cross the chasm of distrust and distortion that has infected both church and synagogue over the centuries. In the end, Milavec securely brings his readers to that place where Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity can again be admired as sister religions intimately united to one other in God's drama of salvation. |
From inside the book
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... believe me , I have been looking for a book like this all my life . My disappointment , in the end , may be the real reason why I was chosen while others pursued less arduous and less dangerous paths . The reader of this volume should ...
... believe that God could only condemn those Jews who knowingly and willingly recognized the enormity of the sin and then went ahead and wanted to do it anyway . It was hardly imaginable to me that Mr. Martin was that kind of Jew . With a ...
... believe that God " desires everyone to be saved " by joining the Catholic Church . Ratzinger , need- less to say , solidly embraces Vatican II on this point . He goes further , then , and tries to examine how the grace of salvation is ...
... believe that Christ invites every human being to find in him " the way , the truth , and the life . " Having been blessed with faith in Christ through no merit of our own , the members of the Church humbly seek to give as a gift the ...
... believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead , you will be saved " ( Rom 10 : 9 ) . Upon examination of his letter to the Romans , 14 however , one finds Paul nuancing his position relative to Judaism in such a way that he ...
Contents
1 | |
23 | |
The Story of Salvation | 57 |
Parting of the Ways | 84 |
Jesus as Messiah | 116 |
The Unsavory Odor of Christian Evangelization | 152 |
Reflections on Covenant and Mission | 173 |
Bibliography | 183 |
Index | 196 |