Rev 14 (The Open Remnant 3)– The key point I took away from James Dunn’s book The Partings of the Ways was that when religions break apart they both tend to lose something. It was almost as if Jews and Christians sat down at a table around 100 AD to negotiate their separate futures. In that imaginary scenario the Jews said to the Christians, “We love the Messiah, but whenever we talk about Messiah people think we’re Christians, and we can’t have that, so you keep the Messiah.” And the Christians said to the Jews, “We love the Sabbath, but whenever we worship on the Sabbath people think we are Jews, and we can’t have that, so you keep the Sabbath.” Then the Jews said to the Christians, “We love eschatology, but whenever we start talking about eschatology the Romans come and beat us up again, so why don’t you take the eschatology.” And the Christians said to the Jews, “We love obedience to God, but whenever we talk about obedience people think we are Jews, so why don’t you maintain that as an emphasis.” And so it goes. In order to set solid boundaries against each other, each religion gives up a part of what God gave it to witness to the world. When religions break apart, they both lose something. And so it was with Judaism and Christianity when they broke apart in the late first century. Neither was entirely the same after the breakup.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 23:21:39 +0000
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