mptions and courageously challenging dogma is not a property exclusively possessed by Messianic Judaism, Christianity, or any other religious movement. These qualities should be used by all people of honesty and faith when reading and studying our holy writings. These qualities should transcend denomination, movement, and sect, and be embraced by anyone who truly is a disciple of the Master and who seeks the truth of God and human existence.
The revelations Lancaster presents are too numerous to mention in this simple review (and I don’t want to give away too many “surprises”), but in reading this book, you will be introduced to a Paul and a Galatians letter that are completely new to you. This book offers a way of looking at Galatians, not as Paul’s anti-Jewish, anti-Torah rant, but as his answer to a complex dilemma facing the non-Jewish believers in the various churches in Galatia: does a “goy” have to convert to Judaism in order to be “saved”? The 21st century church would say emphatically “no” and in fact, would present the counter-argument that a Jewish believer would have to abandon Judaism and convert to Gentile Christianity in order to be a disciple of the Jewish Messiah. Conversely, Paul, at least as Lancaster understands him, would be appalled to hear that his letter had been so misappropriated by the modern church.
The book isn’t perfect. In general (and I agree with him), Lancaster uses various portions of Galatians to support his argument that Jewish believers (and non-Messianic Jews for that matter) were expected to obey the commands of God that He gave to the Children of Israel through Moses at Sinai, while at the same time, saying that the standard of non-Jewish “Torah” obedience to God was different…not non-existent, just different (see Galatians 5:13-26 for Paul’s interpretation of Gentile “Torah”). Unfortunately, there are any number of points in the book that, taken out of context, could be used to support the “One Law” argument (the position that states when a Gentile is “grafted in” to the Jewish root, they take on obligations to God absolutely identical to Jewish obligations). Other parts of the book make Lancaster’s position clearer, but I tended to stumble a few times when I encountered these ambiguous paragraphs.
To be fair, Lancaster is providing a detailed, in-depth analysis to a very difficult and wholly misunderstood piece of writing. Paul wasn’t easy to understand and trying to get into his head and into the culture and language in which he lived in the 1st century of the common era, let alone write an entire book about it, is a major undertaking. While I think the book succeeds overall, the reader is going to have to exercise a certain amount of patience and not jump to conclusions. Getting the entire message of Galatians means reading all of Lancaster’s book (I had to take copious notes) before coming to any sort of conclusion. Bringing an open mind as well as a notepad is also essential.
I don’t doubt that many of the people who read this book will either try to ignore it or start an argument about what it says. Lancaster completely disassembles the traditional Christian understanding of the letter and rebuilds it an atom at a time. That doesn’t make for comfortable reading if you’ve been taught for most of your life that the Torah is slavery for the Jews and grace is freedom for the Christians. For the One Law supporters in MJ, the book will also challenge many of their assumptions and at a few points, Lancaster even directly confronts the OL assumptions. Lancaster makes it clear in many of his comments that Paul never intended for the Gentile disciples to take on the entire “yoke of Torah” and that the “Torah” for the Gentiles was the “Torah of the Messiah”.
If you consider all that “the bad news”, I’ve also got “the good news”. The good news is that, if you set aside your preconceptions of what you think Galatians says, and by inference, many of the assumptions you have about what it means to be a Christian or to be “Messianic”, you’ll be able to read Lancaster’s book as an adventure