Jacob DeBoer

“I argue that Paul believes that the eschatological restoration of Israel is already underway in the wake of the death and resurrection of Jesus and that his insistence on equal gentile incorporation is closely tied to his hopes for Israel's restoration. Specifically, since the full restoration of Israel must include all twelve tribes, Paul argues that the incorporation of gentiles into the eschatological assembly is the necessary means for the reconstitution and restoration of "all Israel," an entity not only including Jews but also non-Jewish Israelites restored from the nations among which northern Israel had assimilated. The destines of both Israel and the nations are therefore interdependent, and the ethical transformation afforded by the spirit of Israel's Messiah paradoxically serves to redeem Israel through the redemption of all nations.”
― Jason A. Staples, Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites

“The relationship of the Christian understanding of freedom to that which has provided the central thrust of the Enlightenment must necessarily be a critical one. Seen from a biblical perspective, a human being is not and can never be autonomous. Consequently, liberation in the Bible is always seen as a change of regime, or jurisdiction, from the false domination to the true, from serving Pharaoh to serving Yahweh, from serving sin and death to serving God. From the point of view of the Enlightenment, the biblical idea of freedom is paradoxical – a freedom of the one who serves the true master. From the point of view of the Bible, the freedom celebrated in the Enlightenment is the freedom offered by the serpent in Eden, the freedom to make one’s own decisions about what is good. By accepting that offer, we put ourselves under the domination of the powers that lead to destruction. We become, as Paul says, the slaves of sin.”
― Lesslie Newbigin

“Consider the contrast with the church in the West today. The early Christians made tremendous demands of their converts – demands that affected the most important areas of their lives. And people came in droves. But we bend over backwards in our churches to accommodate the radical individualism of people who come to us to find a “personal” Saviour who, we assure them, will meet their every felt need. And the overwhelming tide of secular culture threatens to suffocate what is left of the spiritual life of our churches, as the West becomes less and less Christian.”
― Joseph H. Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community

“Evangelization is not proselytism. Proselytism is centripetal. It is a movement inward. People are invited to come to the center where salvation is localized. In order to become a participant of salvation, they will have to join the group that mediates redemption… Evangelization is centrifugal. It leaves Jerusalem and is on its way to the ends of the earth and the end of time. To join means here: to join the journey away from the center – a light for the Gentiles, which goes forth toward the people, seeking them out and taking them by surprise in their darkness.”
― Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered