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Paul's limited understanding!

civilwarbuff

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There are many contradictions between Paul's own teachings.
So list them....
Why did Peter said many has been misusing Paul's teachings?
Please specify....
Is it probably because they are using something that does not belong to them?
That is a question, not a statement so you must not have any answer....
So why is Christianity divided today? Is it because we are taking all of Paul's teachings which are distinctly adapted for different cultures?? It makes no surprise why we are....*sigh*.

Is it really God we are following or the folly of the majority? Jesus said, only few will find it so why am I surprised....
Only questions, no answers....not much for you to go on....
 
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Righttruth

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True, but The Gospel was something he himself witnessed, and Jesus, via the Holy Spirit, was actively involved in his life. Also, there was an oral tradition during his lifetime that we can't really appreciate as 21st century people.

Paul was 'please all' personality. It helped him when he set apart himself for spiritually ignorant Gentiles!
 
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Righttruth

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This what Paul wrote here can be considered describing a virgin birth, if Mary was a virgin, Christ made of a women.

So Christ come to happen of events, become, be made, arose of a women. So the man is not mentioned, since the Christ did not arise from man and women, but God and women.

Gal 4:4
From the greek word ginomai

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, made (born) of a woman, born under the law,

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1096&t=NKJV

Defined as
  1. to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being

  2. to become, i.e. to come to pass, happen
    1. of events
  3. to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage
    1. of men appearing in public
  4. to be made, finished
    1. of miracles, to be performed, wrought
  5. to become, be made

But Isaiah did not indirectly mention about it! No point in trying to defend Paul by hook or by crook definitions!
 
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Righttruth

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If your position is that St. Paul could not have known of the events described in the Gospels because they post-date his epistles, you have it quite literally backwards. We know that St. Paul had knowledge of events described in the Gospels (compare 1 Corinthians 11 with the synoptic accounts of the Last Supper; it is fair to say that the synoptics based their description on St. Paul and not vice-versa).

Synoptic Gospels don't mention about the ritual of communion that Paul instituted on his own imagination!
 
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Righttruth

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Oh my goodness. Paul definitely stood his ground when opposed! He was not a people-pleaser for sure. Read the book of Acts. :)

He worked against the calling of Jesus to start with and against semi-literate chosen apostles with his scholastic egoism!
 
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Righttruth

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They do, but apparently you haven't read them.

They don't mention to observe that as a remembrance-ritual as Paul had imagined. Luke's verses are later insertions. The witnesses of the Last Supper, Matthew and John, don't advocate to observe that to glorify Lord's death! There is no big deal to proclaim a death, rather it should be resurrection!
 
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Wgw

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They don't mention to observe that as a remembrance-ritual as Paul had imagined. Luke's verses are later insertions. The witnesses of the Last Supper, Matthew and John, don't advocate to observe that to glorify Lord's death! There is no big deal to proclaim a death, rather it should be resurrection!

It seems that you have also not read John 6.
 
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Righttruth

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It seems that you have also not read John 6.

Indeed it is the best to understand the significance of eating the body and drinking blood for eternal life-- not elements to observe death but to understanding (consuming) the message of Jesus and being in obedience, giving life to it. [words represent his body (Word became flesh) and wine (blood) life] Therefore, whenever one reads the message of Jesus in the gospel books and remains faithful to his words, will be observing spiritual communion. It cannot a dead ritual to proclaim a death!
 
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Wgw

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Indeed it is the best to understand the significance of eating the body and drinking blood for eternal life-- not elements to observe death but to understanding (consuming) the message of Jesus and being in obedience, giving life to it. [words represent his body (Word became flesh) and wine (blood) life] Therefore, whenever one reads the message of Jesus in the gospel books and remains faithful to his words, will be observing spiritual communion. It cannot a dead ritual to proclaim a death!

You know its quite disconcerting to see someone ise what amounts to Orthodox sacramental theology of the Eucharist to attempt to discredit St. Paul. However, the disuqlifications from the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 make it clear that St. Paul does hold to the Orthodox understanding of the sacrament; this do ye in remebrance of me" means something more than a mere remembrance if we look at the original Greek word anamnesis. Anamnesis has the effect of suggesting recapitulation; a participation in the Last Supper as opposed to a ceremonial re-enactment.
 
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timewerx

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It seems that you have also not read John 6.

John 6 in context:

- To eat of the bread that is the flesh of Christ is to study His Word
- To drink of the water that wells to eternal life is the application of the Word
- To drink of the blood of Christ is to suffer the consequences, persecutions because of the Word

The above is the real deal which renders the symbolic communion redundant.

The last supper communion may be symbolic itself pertaining to John 6.

Christ may not be alluding to a literal symbolic communion but in remembrance of Him, we must study His Word, apply His Word, and suffer for the Word if necessary.
 
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Strong in Him

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How much of the preaching of Jesus he knew and understood? Gospels were written after he started his epistles.

Yes. Paul knew about the Lord's supper - his account in 1 Corinthians 11 was written before the Gospels, and so is the earliest we have. He quoted Jesus when he said that the latter commandments could be summed up in the phrase "love your neighbour as yourself. He knew at least one phrase of Jesus' that we don't have anywhere else - that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Did he know all the parables? We don't know; it's possible that after the apostles accepted him, they filled him in on a few things. And it's not impossible that Paul was a Pharisee in Jerusalem when Jesus was preaching. That's just speculation and we are not told that they even met, but Paul could still have heard about Jesus and been told, or found out about, what he stood for.
 
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dysert

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Yes. Paul knew about the Lord's supper - his account in 1 Corinthians 11 was written before the Gospels, and so is the earliest we have. He quoted Jesus when he said that the latter commandments could be summed up in the phrase "love your neighbour as yourself. He knew at least one phrase of Jesus' that we don't have anywhere else - that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Did he know all the parables? We don't know; it's possible that after the apostles accepted him, they filled him in on a few things. And it's not impossible that Paul was a Pharisee in Jerusalem when Jesus was preaching. That's just speculation and we are not told that they even met, but Paul could still have heard about Jesus and been told, or found out about, what he stood for.
Paul was instructed by the resurrected Lord Himself! For three years! Read the first 18 verses of Galatians and you'll realize that Paul was (imo) foremost among the apostles when it came to the knowledge of Christ.
 
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Strong in Him

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Actually, many of Paul's epistles were only applicable to a specific church being addressed to....

No, they contain some advice for specific churches according to their situation, and in some - e.g Corinthians - Paul answers specific questions that they asked, that may not have been relevant to the church in Philippi, for example.
But his words about dying with Christ through baptism, life in the Spirirt and nothing separating us from the love of God, were not just for the church at Rome. His teaching about Christ being raised from the dead, and our resurrection bodies was not just for the church at Corinth. His words about being saved by Grace were not just for the church at Ephesus - and so on.

What this means is NOT all of Paul's teachings apply to us. We're not supposed to be teaching them all in churches! They were very specific for a time period and for a specific culture. Certainly not ours!
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8
"Nothing can separate us from the love of God" Romans 8:39
"The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said 'this is my body' ...." 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
"Love is patient, love is kind ......" 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" 2 Corinthians 5:21
"it is by grace you have been saved" Ephesians 2:5
""our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing ............... Philippians 2:5-11

These are only for a certain time and culture??

As Apostle Peter have said, many have misunderstood Paul's letters in their time......

No he didn't. He said that Paul's letters "contain SOME things which are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort" 2 Peter 3:16

And we are still doing it TODAY!
That's because some people don't study Paul's letters to find out what he was saying, who he was addressing, what his words mean in context etc, they just take a verse, out of context, and claim that it applies to everyone today, equally, no question.

If people don't study the Scriptures to find out what the authors meant by what they wrote, and what the people receiving/hearing their words would have understood; if they don't ask themselves what kind of literature it is, look at the context and so on, then they can make the Scriptures say anything they want them to say - so they are distorting them.

Many Christian denominations that don't agree with each other,
I think you'll find that all Christian denominations agree on the Gospel, the Trinity, the virgin birth, in fact those things contained in the Nicene creed. Those that don't; JWs, Mormons etc - are not denominations but cults.
The things we disagree on are, imo, largely to do with church practice - eg type of baptism, wearing robes, ordaining women - and have nothing to do with salvation.
 
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Strong in Him

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Paul was instructed by the resurrected Lord Himself! For three years! Read the first 18 verses of Galatians and you'll realize that Paul was (imo) foremost among the apostles when it came to the knowledge of Christ.

I know; I'm not disagreeing!
 
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Righttruth

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You know its quite disconcerting to see someone ise what amounts to Orthodox sacramental theology of the Eucharist to attempt to discredit St. Paul. However, the disuqlifications from the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 make it clear that St. Paul does hold to the Orthodox understanding of the sacrament; this do ye in remebrance of me" means something more than a mere remembrance if we look at the original Greek word anamnesis. Anamnesis has the effect of suggesting recapitulation; a participation in the Last Supper as opposed to a ceremonial re-enactment.

No point in reading into the words to defend the meaningless ritual established by Paul who was not even a witness in the Last Supper!
Churches always prefer easy traditions rather than understanding the spiritual significance that chosen apostles understood.
 
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