Q: I have just finished studying your book 'The Jewish Roots of Christianity', which I found very readable, and being a Bible student of some
40+ years I found some of the content (surprisingly) most enlightening--things
I have wondered about for a long time regarding Paul's writing.
As I was reading your book I did wonder if you have ever
come across and read the books of Eric Chang, 'The One True God' and 'The Only
Perfect Man.' If you haven't I think you will find them extremely interesting,
they are freely available as downloadable pdf's at this link:
As a serious student of the truth I would very much appreciate
your views of the content covered in this material, considering your extensive
and knowledgeable background and area of expertise. If you have a little time
to examine it, you may find it interesting yourself. (They are also available
on Amazon books if you prefer physical books, as I do. I have nothing to do with
their church by the way).
I hope you have time to respond, looking forward to hearing
from you.
With kind regards --Phil
A: Thanks for the positive feedback about our Jewish Roots of
Christianity book. I’ve glanced briefly
through Eric Chang’s The Only True God at your request. It’s nice to see him struggling honestly with the
challenges of Christian monotheism in a way that the original sources
invite. However, to strengthen his
credibility, he needs to wrestle more with early Christian sources from the pre-Augustinian era. The views of Trinitarians have not always
been monolithic, and many of these early voices have important insights to add
to the conversation. To put it another
way: not everyone who claims to be a
Trinitarian agrees about what that means.