The way of imagination

S ome (in my view, misguided) Christians believe that we should revert to the practice of some kind of (messianic) Judaism in order to demonstrate faithfulness to Scripture.  Such views reflect a misunderstanding of the central thrust of the NT, i.e. that Jesus, as Israel's Messiah, has fulfilled the Old Covenant and launched the New Covenant, membership in which is open to all peoples through faith in Christ, which, as Paul says to the Romans and the Galatians, is the same faith as that of Abra(ha)m, who believed the promises of God and was counted righteous as a result (Rm. 4, Gal. 3).  This same kind of faulty reasoning stands behind Christian interpretations of the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel as being the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. I believe that the appropriate form of appreciation for our Jewish heritage is not to go back to the Old Covenant and its practices, but rather to embrace the biblical teaching that there is only one people of God, launched wit