The Man the Mission The Message
Gentle readers,
Sometimes I think that I bit off more that I can chew! For example we find such a wide variety of readers who have as my Rabbi friends say “You get 6 Jews together and you have 12 opinions.” This is the Roman Catholic Year of St Paul and since I am a Pauline Scholar I am going to jump on the coattails of the Catholic Church to write a few blogs about what is the “truth” about your Apostle Paul.
Where do we begin? Ah yes a hot steaming cup of Irish coffee to clear your head!
Many have no idea that there has been a great controversy about the author of 14 books of the New Testament. Nor, the fact that some even believe that Paul was the founder of “Christianity” and that Paul’s idea of the church and Christ’s were totally different. On top of that who do you believe? This authority or that one? Many people think that Judas was the supreme betrayer of Jesus. But others say that Paul (Saul of Tarsus) holds that title.
Judas gave Jesus over to be tortured and put to death (isn’t that just like mankind if you can’t silence them “kill em” ) Paul it is claimed buried His spirit . Paul was charges with substituting his theology for the simple teachings of that itinerant preacher from Galilee. So lets get all the trash out of our thinking by looking first at the accusers of Paul and then in this 1st entry and Paul’s own testimony.
As recently as our president Thomas Jefferson who said to his friend in letter that Paul was “the first corrupter of the doctrine of Jesus” Now remember that while Jefferson was a deiist [The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation. ] he in fact, cut the parts of the Bible he didn’t like out.
Next we have G. B. Shaw who said basically the same thing in the preface to his play “Androcles and the Lion”
Nietzsche called Paul in the Antichrist - “the Dysangelist” (Bad news bearer) and “ The man with the Genius for hatred”. Shaw told a reporter that it would have been better if Paul had never been born. What a contrast from Paul’s own words, and Christ’s.
To me I find it fascinating that God uses the as it were Mankind’s cast-offs for his work. One evening when my Partner in evangelism Ron Bridgewater [ A huge man of over 6 ½ feet tall and 350 pounds] as we were coming back to the church after a night out on visitation were we were able to share Christ with a whole family, father, mother, two children and all of them accepted Christ as their personal Saviour , Ron was in tears as he said to me “Denis, I just don’t understand how God can use a sinner like me to share the wonderful grace of Christ!” To which I replied as I tried to put my are around his shoulder in comfort “Ron, He’s desperate!”
You see Gentle Reader, In 1Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1CO 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: God chose Moses and then allowed Him to mature on the back side of the desert to mature. He chose David a little Shepherd boy to become a King, and He chose the 12 disciples along with Peter to preached the message of the Kingdom of heaven. (Who would have picked that rag-tag bunch of smelly old fishermen and a tax collector. Why Gentle Reader, He chose you and me! And Paul (Saul of Tarsus, but I am getting ahead of my narrative Turn with me to Acts Chapter 9 ACTS 9:1-8 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
9:2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
9:8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Just think of that Gentle reader, Paul (Sorry, Saul) struck blind on the way to destroy this young group of believers (Jews his own people) why? Because he wanted to keep pure God’s honor. But we’ll leave that for next time.
Love,
Denis
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