Was God's plan of salvation...
Illustration
Was God's plan of salvation to include the Gentiles (non-
Jews)? Paul could give a resounding "yes!" to that question, devoting his entire ministry and risking his life to helping fulfill God's promise to Abraham, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3, NRSV).
In 1913, an agnostic humanist Jew named Franz Rosenzweig entered into dialogue with a Christian philosopher of religion, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. As a result of this exchange, Rosenzweig almost chose Christian baptism, but then turned to his Jewish spiritual roots.
Rosenzweig then developed a salvific understanding of Judaism and Christianity: the task of the latter is to take the innermost aim and meaning of Judaism to the whole world. What began with Abraham must end with all nations, with Christians as the go-between.
Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish rabbi and New Testament scholar, echoes this point of view today, believing that God raised Jesus from the dead in order that his followers might take the essence of Judaism into all the world.
If so, then the greatest "go-between" of all was Paul the apostle, who proclaimed that "the Gentiles have become fellow heirs" (v. 6) with the commonwealth of Israel.
-- Bristow
Jews)? Paul could give a resounding "yes!" to that question, devoting his entire ministry and risking his life to helping fulfill God's promise to Abraham, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3, NRSV).
In 1913, an agnostic humanist Jew named Franz Rosenzweig entered into dialogue with a Christian philosopher of religion, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. As a result of this exchange, Rosenzweig almost chose Christian baptism, but then turned to his Jewish spiritual roots.
Rosenzweig then developed a salvific understanding of Judaism and Christianity: the task of the latter is to take the innermost aim and meaning of Judaism to the whole world. What began with Abraham must end with all nations, with Christians as the go-between.
Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish rabbi and New Testament scholar, echoes this point of view today, believing that God raised Jesus from the dead in order that his followers might take the essence of Judaism into all the world.
If so, then the greatest "go-between" of all was Paul the apostle, who proclaimed that "the Gentiles have become fellow heirs" (v. 6) with the commonwealth of Israel.
-- Bristow
