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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... disciples to interpret the law of Moses ( Torah ) in anticipation of the kingdom of God that was ready to break into history . At no point did Jesus or his first disciples renounce their Judaism in favor of establishing a new religion ...
... disciples even after the resurrection ( cf. , e.g. , Acts 2:46 ; 3 : 1 ; 21:26 , etc. ) . ( Notes 20 ) While the Jesus movement did eventually break its ties with Judaism , this break could not and would not take place until Gentile ...
... disciples ( Matt 28:19 ) , and Paul , they acted by virtue of their Jewish identity . Consequently , the Gentile church must be under- stood as at best a derivative participation in Israel's mission to be " light to the Gentiles ...
... disciples . Only when the church acknowledges the priority of Judaism within its faith and practice will it attain " the fundamental condition of dialogue : respect for the other as [ s / ] he is " ( Notes 4 ) . In this regard one can ...
... disciples embraced their Judaism as their path of salvation . Paul under- stood Abraham to be the father of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised ( Romans 4 ) without , at the same time , imposing the judgment that the latter is ...
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 |