One of my more interesting experiences was to spend a fair amount of time, over roughly a week in January 1993, with the Jewish theologian, historian, and Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide (d. 1997).
We were both participating in a small Jewish/Christian/Muslim “trialogue” held in Graz, Austria. I was delighted to meet him, because I’d read about him long before, not expecting that we would ever cross paths.
He had published a book entitled The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, in which, contending that the historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection was solid and convincing, he argued that Jesus had in fact risen from the dead . . . not as God’s Messiah but, nonetheless, as a divine sign and a mercy to the Gentiles.
In his capacity as an Israeli diplomat he had participated in meetings between David Ben Gurion, the founding leader of Israel, and a visiting United States cabinet secretary by the name of Ezra Taft Benson, and he and his wife Ruth were absolutely delighted to learn that Secretary Benson had since become the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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