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Anti-Paul Cult - Ed Hurst - 04-16-2018
You may encounter various brands of Christian belief that make Paul out to be a complete outlier. One of my friends is a total weirdo who hates Paul and hunted down a printed Bible that excluded Paul's letters. It should be no surprise that this is rooted in the Judaizers. They hated Paul as the ultimate traitor, because he had intimate knowledge about the nasty legalism of the Pharisees, and then did so much to expose them. Worst of all, Paul was a former Pharisee who dared take the gospel to Gentiles, of all things.
None of the Apostles faced as much hostility from the Jewish leadership as Paul did. You can read between the lines and see how the Judaizers followed him everywhere, actively keeping track of him so they could go along behind and corrupt everyone who heard his preaching. This hostility never went away. Long after Paul died, there was a concerted effort to disparage his work and his motives.
Throughout Church History we can see moments when this flared up. It gave rise to a whole area of academic study that tried to characterize Paul's theology as somehow different from everyone else's. We have such fancy terms as "Pauline doctrine" and "Petrine theory" and so forth, striving to distinguish the preaching of the Apostles based on their extant letters. They try to create the image of rivalry and dispute between them. Such academic pursuit makes a mountain out of a molehill, so that the continuity between Old Testament, Jesus, and the various Apostles, is completely lost. (See 2 Peter 3:15-16)
Thus, today we have any number of little cults based on hating Paul's letters. Any excuse you can imagine is used; a big one is the LGBT community suggesting that Paul was the only one who preached against homosexuality. They flatly deny that Jesus taught the Old Testament. This is aligned politically with the Zionists, for obvious reasons.
RE: Anti-Paul Cult - IainH - 04-16-2018
Paul stomps on our toes. You cannot read his letters and not sense your own depravity, he makes us uncomfortable. Then he reserves his harshest criticism for himself which again makes us uncomfortable but them he offers us Grace in Christ alone. "Oh, what a wretched critter I am, who can save me from this spiral of festerin' death? Christ Jesus, that's who. Thank you, praise you, bless you Lord!" End of Romans 7 Helton's Hillbilly version. It's another evidence of the judgement on this nation, the appeal of ear tickling nonsense that calls itself Christian, I no longer claim that title it's just too damaged. "I try to walk in the Light of God's Law as revealed through His Son Jesus" yeah it's a mouthful but, it's closer to the truth. Fortunately, it doesn't come up often.
RE: Anti-Paul Cult - jaybreak - 04-17-2018
People forget a crucial bit of context: recording things wasn't nearly as easy as it was today. The NT writers aren't likely to waste energy recording a teaching of Jesus that wasn't really out of the ordinary, in the case of the NT letters: reiterating things that weren't big issues. The Jews were already aware of God's laws against homosexuality, so it's not likely that the gospel writers would find it remarkable if Jesus said as such.
One of the re-interpretations of Paul's anti-homosexuality verses claimed he was saying heterosexuals pretending to be homosexual was the real immoral part--genuine gays were fine. When I read that, I thought we had reached peak eisegesis, but maybe not.
RE: Anti-Paul Cult - IainH - 04-18-2018
(04-17-2018, 12:13 PM)jaybreak Wrote: People forget a crucial bit of context: recording things wasn't nearly as easy as it was today. The NT writers aren't likely to waste energy recording a teaching of Jesus that wasn't really out of the ordinary, in the case of the NT letters: reiterating things that weren't big issues. The Jews were already aware of God's laws against homosexuality, so it's not likely that the gospel writers would find it remarkable if Jesus said as such.Eisegesis, a new word for me so I looked it up. Jay, you have once more expanded my vocabulary. I like new words, thank you.
One of the re-interpretations of Paul's anti-homosexuality verses claimed he was saying heterosexuals pretending to be homosexual was the real immoral part--genuine gays were fine. When I read that, I thought we had reached peak eisegesis, but maybe not.
RE: Anti-Paul Cult - Ed Hurst - 04-18-2018
And now you have a fancy new word for something almost everyone does.
RE: Anti-Paul Cult - IainH - 04-18-2018
(04-18-2018, 01:26 PM)Ed Hurst Wrote: And now you have a fancy new word for something almost everyone does.Yeah but, I still wind up cussing and getting fussed at.