Scot McKnight on The Whole Gospel

Thanks so much for your message. I am glad to hear it!

I hope it fell on good soil in Atlanta. We are too often in lala land because Christianity, in general, has walked down the course alluded to by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11. In cutting ourselves off from our roots, the Church Fathers appear to have done their best to remove anything to which the people of Israel insisted on maintaining: Christians embraced the Ten “commandments” so Israel focused on other parts of the Torah; Israel tenaciously hung on to the Shabbat so we moved ours to Sunday. The Hebrew Scriptures became the domain of Israel and Christians emphasized the Messianic Scriptures to their own loss of the incredible power and meaning of Redemption that the God of Israel is working in the Earth today. The Church is meant to be a part of that redemption, but we have focused on “saving soles” to the exclusion of verses like Romans 15.8 which call us to be a servant to the circumcision and confirm the promises made by the God of Israel to His people, Israel. I pray that your message will bring people back to the significance and the value of the “Old” Scriptures.