I can recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a sound, but charitable, refutation of the New Perspective on Paul.
Westerholm does an admirable job of cutting to the chase to show why the New Perspective on Paul in fact misrepresents what Paul had to say concerning justification and the need for all men, both Jewish and Gentile, to approach God by faith.
Anyone who has viewed the growing popularity of the New Perspective in academia with a large dose of skepticism will come away from this book with a refreshed belief that the biblical texts Paul wrote concerning justification are indeed as simple as they seem on face value.
As with many recent academic novelties which purport to tell us what a biblical author "really meant" (inferring that the brightest minds in the church down to our time somehow "misunderstood the point"), the New Perspective is to be rejected because it undermines a central tenet of biblical teaching concerning the way of salvation—which is not about joining the covenant people of God, but about being born again: party to a transaction where, whether Jew or Gentile, we gain God's righteousness instead of bearing our own sins.
If you have an uneasiness with the popularity of the New Perspective, but have struggled to put your finger on exactly why, this book will help you do just that.
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Tony Garland
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Newsletter - March 8, 2015
