tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post5015927150632725988..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: A Good Word for PaulLKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-66137826215891823442012-02-02T22:15:41.203-06:002012-02-02T22:15:41.203-06:00Okay... will give Paul another chance... Honestly ...Okay... will give Paul another chance... Honestly would love to read the books you have mentioned in your blog.. I need to have a more informed education on Paul.. so tired of the misquotes one hears in church.. Painful! Would like to see him in a new light..Thanks-Leslie TomichekLeslie Taylor Tomichekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06966530659682545195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-7523096171428566262012-01-25T21:01:55.409-06:002012-01-25T21:01:55.409-06:00My Thinking Friend in Kentucky, who is a noted sch...My Thinking Friend in Kentucky, who is a noted scholar, sent this e-mail message:<br /><br />"Bravo, Leroy! I think we Protestants have often relied too much on Paul and too little on the Gospels, but my own studies leave me still with some confidence that Paul did a pretty good job of laying a foundation upon the conviction that God raised Jesus from the dead and began an new epoch in human history. Christianity would be terribly impoverished without Paul."LKSeathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-63822187184411103742012-01-25T10:42:48.524-06:002012-01-25T10:42:48.524-06:00Paul was a Greek to the Greeks, a Jew to the Jews,...Paul was a Greek to the Greeks, a Jew to the Jews, and a citizen to the Romans. His writings are the oldest in the New Testament. He wrote with a freedom that is hard to understand in our day, for he wrote without the long tradition of Christian development. He was our pioneer.<br /><br />Of course we love him and hate him, his pithy statements are all over the place, sometimes contradicting each other, often confounding us. For instance, Mormons did not invent "baptism for the dead." It is right there in 1 Cor. 15:29. But what did Paul really mean by it? <br /><br />In our modern world, we frequently want to read the Bible like a cook book. We find a chapter, work it up like a recipe, and then taste the creation. The atheists spit it out, and the true believers eat it up. I believe that whole model is wrong. Oh, there are some great recipes in there, but overall the Bible is more a book of questions than answers, a place to sharpen and test our souls. Paul models this for us, with his explorations of the mysteries of the gospel.<br /><br />Hebrews 6:1-2 speaks of "press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation" --yet every time I have ever heard it discussed, "laying again the foundation" has been exactly the point developed. Now Hebrews was probably not written by Paul, but he makes a similar point in 1 Cor. 13:11. "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (NIV) When we read Paul we need to do the same thing. Read him for what he says best to you.Craig Dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00033176451913108084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-14426520862936332142012-01-25T10:12:35.901-06:002012-01-25T10:12:35.901-06:00The irony in emphasizing Jesus solely is that we h...The irony in emphasizing Jesus solely is that we have only secondhand accounts reported in the gospels as to what he is purported to have uttered; whereas, with Paul we have letters written or dictated by him (granted through various translations and interpretations). With Paul there is at least a practicable way of reading his thoughts, but with the gospels Jesus' statements are frequently far more stark (e.g. hating your family, giving away everything, etc.) without the continual whitewashing and avoidance of his these statements by those giving us a warm, fuzzy Jesus. By seperating Paul from Christianity, as some try to do, these folks run the risk of diminishing Christianity to the level of a service club (i.e. blind guides) without the basic understanding of their own depravity and the need (universal) of the "Great Physician".DHJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18034507180227927247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-60021379137024817602012-01-25T10:00:11.054-06:002012-01-25T10:00:11.054-06:00St. Paul certainly was an amazing, outside-the-box...St. Paul certainly was an amazing, outside-the-box thinker. His epistles to the gentile (and Hebrew??) churches, and to his apprentices have been accepted by the Church since they were written. It is sad that we do not have the writings of the other apostles to round out the early church documents in addition to tradition. Both "liberal" and "conservative" views need to be taken within the integrity of the scriptures if we are to hold faithful to what was said and accepted by the Church.<br /><br />Thankfully, the writings of St. Paul and St. John are part of the balance of scripture.<br /><br />Just this week I have had to deal with a zealous Christian attempting to forcefully proselytize a minor from a more traditional Christian background, coercing her to repeat the magic words of the "sinner's prayer". It was a good exposure to American religion for her, but sadly, not the work of the Holy Spirit.1sojournernoreply@blogger.com