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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... turn the money over to Mr. Martin " lest someone come asking for it . " It didn't even occur to me that the money would be mine if no one claimed it or that I might receive a handsome reward if someone did . As for my tests , Mr. Martin ...
... turn around and affirm that the " Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation " ( Notes 7 ) . Even Jews who " remain very dear to God , " it would appear , might be classified with the followers of the other ...
... turn around later in the gospel and tell his disciples , " No one comes to the Father except through me " ( John 14 : 6 ) . This needs to be examined . John the Evangelist does not presume to have received word - for - word dictation of ...
... turns toward petitions on behalf of Christians and thereby defeats this prayer as being on behalf of the Jews . The collect that follows prays for " the coming of your kingdom , when Israel shall be saved , the Gen- tiles gathered in ...
... turn more attention toward the Gentiles . 2. Tension surrounding the persistence of Judaism - As long as Jews were routinely perceived as cursed by God due to their crime of killing Jesus , it was easy to imagine that Jews had to ...
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 |