When I write an article, I do not try to attack anyone. I do try to get you to think about something new, or to look at something from a different perspective.
Sometimes the new perspective is like standing at the edge of a cliff. Everyone shouts, “don’t look down,” but I do anyway. Then I feel sick to my stomach, everything starts spinning. I look back up, but it’s not the same. The new view is burnt into my mind. I want to run back home to safety. But I must continue my quest. I step out into thin air and find solid ground for my feet. I can see from this new perspective that there was a bridge all along, but from where I stood before I could not see it. I only hope that when I reach the other side there wont be any snakes.
Paul said in Galatians 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.”
Hebrews 4:2 and 6 say that those led by Moses out of Egypt had the gospel preached to them.
Did Paul preach a different gospel than Moses?
John 5:39-47 says that Moses preached about Jesus. And I’m pretty sure that Paul preached about Jesus, too.
In Deuteronomy 12:32, Moses wrote that God said not to add to or take away from His commands.
I now propose a theory that if there was no Romans thru Hebrews in the New Testament, then no one would think that any of the commandments have been taken away. The rest of the books would be understood as supporting the commandments and teaching obedience to them with an emphasis on love for God and man, and not just keeping them for self-righteous reasons.
But Christians tend to put on Greek colored glasses and read Paul with a negative perspective of the Torah.
But Paul was a genius Torah scholar. He spent his life studying Torah and peeling layers and layers of meaning from the words of God. Then he met the Word of God and his perspective changed opening his eyes to new depths in the Torah.
Paul was even misunderstood and misquoted in his day. Yet we take our understanding of his words and set it up as opposite and greater than the bible that Paul studied?
Let’s go to first century Berea. You’re a Gentile (if you’re a Jew then you can be a Jew in the story). You have some Jewish friends and they are very nice people. You’re tired of worshiping idols, so you start asking about the God of Israel. You go to synagogue every Sabbath. You sit in back and listen to the prayers from the Psalms and readings from the Torah and the readings from the Prophets. This stuff seems pretty good so you start practicing what you’ve heard preached.
A few years go by and you hear about this Jew named Paul. Rumor has it that he’s teaching people that they don’t have to obey the bible anymore, they just have to love each other and believe that a guy named Jesus was God and was resurrected from the dead.
“I heard that he says that every day is alike, so Sabbath doesn’t matter.”
“I heard that he says that all animals are alike, you can even eat rats.”
“I heard that he says men and women are no different, so it doesn’t matter if you marry a man or a woman.”
Then Paul comes to town. His preaching isn’t that strange, except that every time he reads from the bible he somehow ties it to this Jesus guy.
After the service he’s talking about how all races are equal in God’s sight, it’s just that the Jews have a special purpose in God’s plan, but that doesn’t make them better than anybody else. Equal, the same, no different. Maybe the rumors are true. You speak up. “Is there no difference between right and wrong, Paul? Are your words equal to God’s?”
Paul looks at you, confused, “What are you talking about?”
“I heard that you said Sabbath doesn’t matter, that all days are alike?”
He smiles, “You can’t believe everything you hear. You might be referring to when I was talking about the fast days that a division of Pharisees tries to get people to keep. Those fasts aren’t even scriptural, but if you want to fast on a certain day, that’s fine by me. And about Sabbath, I would never say that it doesn’t matter. God says it’s holy, and he commands us to rest on it. I’ve learned not to oppose God.”
Was Paul a heretic?
Did his preaching line up with his bible?
Are you willing to look from a new perspective?
1 comment:
The title of this post does not refer to Christians. It is more of a title for the "different perspective" set forth in the post. Or Paul could be a heretic. But it's all open for interpretation and discussion.
heresy >noun (pl. heresies) 1 belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine. 2 opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted.
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