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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... continues to assign to Israel . " Israel " Not to be Confused with the " State of Israel " In the Hebrew Scriptures and in the rabbinic texts , the term " Israel " designates those religious peoples who accept Abraham and Sarah as their ...
... continues to affirm that the church is the " universal sacrament of salvation " and to deny that Jews can be said " to come to the Father " or " to find salvation " solely within the covenant God made with Israel . This opening chapter ...
... continues to stun me , however , is that the bishops completely bypassed my boyhood insight that excused some Jews ... continuing to affirm ( a ) that " the definitive meaning of the election of Israel does not become clear except in ...
... continues to affirm his calling to Jews to be faithful to the covenant he made with their ancestors , then it follows that Jews , even today , are sanctified and saved precisely be- cause of their Judaism and not because of some ...
... continue to come to the Father through Moses and the proph- ets.20 It would be blasphemy to imagine that the Scriptures lied when they affirmed that " the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face , as one speaks to a friend " ( Exod 33 ...
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 |