Saturday, July 18, 2009

Book Review: Showdown at Jerusalem

The "Showdown at Jerusalem" in the title of this book is the counsel (not council) that appears in Acts 15, where questions of circumcision and such were discussed to clarify the position of the Jerusalem assembly. I won't go into the matter here, but will tell you that Rod McQueen's book is a good place to get an aisle seat.

His thesis is that the issue in Jerusalem, and much of the NT, centers around whether or not gentiles need to become Jews, or whether they are accepted as gentiles, not whether or not gentiles must obey the law of Moses. I assure you that you will have a better grasp of the 1st century background of the NT discussions as a result of this book.

As with McQueen's other books, I find him a master of exposition and persuasion, articulate and resourceful, but he still manages to drop the ball in big ways. In this book, his fundamental assumption is that the sacrifices made before Sinai indicate that the law of Moses was revealed as a binding set of laws on mankind prior to Sinai. In fact, of course, the opposite is true. The sacrifices made before Sinai would all have been illegal under the terms of the Sinai covenant. Sinai requires a Levite priest!

To fit this idea of a universal law for all men merely inserted into the Scriptures at this convenient point, he relegates all discussion of law in the NT to the question of whether or not gentile believers need to become Jews.

So the book is a treasure trove of good historical info, exposition and clarifications, but breaks down in the end game. I highly recommend the book, but with that caveat.

http://www.dawntoduskpublications.com/html/Brochure-Showdown.htm

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