cgb2 wrote:I don't understand the reverence for the Roman & Protesting Catholic Canons of authorized books. Why were Revelation and Enoch omitted during most of the 300's, then Revelation made the cut but not Enoch? Why are Jubilees, Jasher & others mentioned in the OT but not included? Look at the agendas of various meetings (Council of Nicea, when to have easter, etc)...
This is precisely the problem. Once you accept that the only stuff in the last third of the "Bible" that could be construed to be the Word of God is printed in
red ink, the problem of Paul
starts to go away.
When Mr. Oftarsus writings are taken to be
what they say they are, ie:
personal correspondence, he becomes just another first century itinerant evangelist. His letters become just that, half
(or sometimes one quarter!) of a 'conversation' that we are trying to piece together two thousand years later. It is like reading only (half of) the e-mail messages in
some guy's "Sent Messages" folder, then building an entire doctrine around that material.
Some of the stuff Paul says could be attributed to hyperbolic speech, perhaps he is just trying to "make a point". On this very forum people's writings get misunderstood all the time, even when we can see the entire "thread" of messages.
If we move Paul off shelf of "Scripture" and down to the shelf that has writings/books by Clement, Polycarp, Ignatious, Irenaeus, CS Lewis, Francis Schaffer, Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Jim Dobson, Max Luchado, Rob Bell, et al. then he (Paul) is
just another guy. He makes some good points, and he is waaaaaay off on some others.
The people who said "Paul's writings are the Word of God" are the same people who brought us Christmas, Easter and Priestly Child Molestation. Their belief system is based upon the writings of an itinerant first century evangelist who was
always getting in trouble with the disciples and "James". Who gives a rat's-rump about what they think? These jokers say that they follow Jesus,
but they can't even get His name right!!!
Perhaps I should write a 600 page book/website under the title: "Ignoring Paul".
(Sorry, Yada, I couldn't resist!)
I am going to spend most of my time studying and applying the stuff in the Tannahk and the words in
red. I may study Mr. Oftarsus writings, later, perhaps in the fall of 2033...