As a ‘recovering’ pastor, I always find it interesting when I run into other pastors who have come to the same conclusions I have. I’m not the first and certainly won’t be the last…. Abba is opening eyes left and right and it seems every week I run into or meet another seminary trained brother who has the ‘aha’ moment and realizes, theologically, Christianity has some major inconsistencies and holes in their doctrine.
It is the opinion of some scholars that Christianity would not be what it is without Paul. I have even read that, in the opinion of some of them, Paul changed what Jesus taught. Dr. Bart Ehrman, for example, teaches that Paul’s teaching on circumcision in Galatians 5:2 was in response to Jewish men going to the Gym (where Greek men exercised in the nude) and feeling socially ostracized because they looked different. So, according to Dr. Ehrman, Paul undoes the Torah to make the Jewish men feel more accepted in Greek society.
But what does the Scripture say?
Acts 24:14-15 (ESV)
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
Acts 25:7-8 (ESV)
7 When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. 8 Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”
And finally,
Acts 26:30-32 (ESV)
30 Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. 31 And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
Now obviously there’s significantly more here than is relevant to this topic, but I do want to point out that Paul is accused by the Jewish leaders of violating Jewish law and tried in a court which is so friendly to the Jewish leadership that…. “
desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison…” for two years. (Acts 24:27) This court, which stole two years of the man’s life because it wanted to be friendly to the Jewish leadership, was unable to find Paul guilty of violating Jewish teaching.
Think about that a moment. Continue reading….
natsab 