Paul had suddenly invented the eighteenth-century ideal of “tolerance,” but because he believed a new world order was coming to birth in which all Messiah people were welcome on equal terms, in which all were assured they were the “heirs” of the “kingdom” that was even now being launched. The events of Jesus’s death and resurrection and the powerful gift of the divine spirit meant that the “powers” that had held the pagan world captive had been overthrown and that pagans who now came to believe in the Messiah were free from the defilements of idolatry and immorality.
