Quote:
Originally Posted by nateswift
Not unlikely, the point being to see what motivates the prospect. Now Paul knew that the form of a religion was not what is really important and that the religious forms and traditions were important to the Jews from a historic and cultural standpoint. Hey, they were still doing animal sacrifice, but that is no longer important in the Jewish religion. SO he supported their OWN practice while showing that it was not a requirement for following the Way when someone not a part of that culture found that Way.
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Paul said that he was a Pharisee, and Paul was no different than the MYRIADS of Jewish believers at that council, and ALL of those Jewish believers were more zealous to keep the laws of Moses WAY MORE than before BECAUSE it was so obvious to ALL the believers that the punishment for not keeping every law had been lifted and it was no longer done in fear of failure, it was done in joy and great ambition because there was no longer any curse from God. Paul wasn't appeasing anyone, Paul's head was on the stump where he was about to die because of liars and people telling rumors about Paul that were not true. Paul acted in accordance with the law to prove liars wrong, and that was the point. Everyone had heard the lies and rumors about Paul, and that is exactly what they were, lies and rumors. Paul NEVER left Judaism, Paul loved Judaism more than any Jew because his entire people were killed. Paul was of the ten tribes of Israel, one of the 7000 reserved in Israel and he is in great pain explaining how God had cursed his people and now he and 6999 people remained as a remnant of those ten tribes, and they were not Jewish. Paul was an Israeli, not a Jew, and this is why Paul was more zealous for the law than most people. He lived in the knowledge of what his people had done, and who he was, and he explains all of this but every Christian who reads what he writes, they get it wrong and they don't understand because they simply do not know Israeli history, they don't know the difference between Ephraim and Judah, and Paul was of Ephraim, not Judah. This fact made him all the more zealous because HE TOO was becoming a Jew, and had become a Jew in his ways, where EVERY ONE of his people in the past had rejected the ways of God and became an enemy against Judah and here is a man to whom the spirit of Elijah had come. The spirit of Elijah is only sent to Gentiles of the lost ten tribes, and Paul was one of those numbers as was all of the disciples.
His love and great zeal for the law NEVER dissipated, and where he was the most zealous killing Christians and defending the law, he became even MORE zealous because he understood that his duty and mission was in fact, to fill the void in his own people where the ten tribes had been lost for 700 years, his mission as being amongst a 7000 remnant was to make sure that there was 100 million Gentiles come under the name of his people,'' Ephraim.'' Paul KNEW that the people of Ephraim would be found in such great numbers as to call them by the name,'' Sands of the seas.''
Paul went around converting Gentiles to Judaism, JUST AS HE STOOD as a father in Joseph, being a choice selected remnant who would become a Jewish father to Gentiles every where, that he would fill the void in Ephraim and present 100 million Gentiles to his Jewish brothers as they continued to convert to Judaism.
Gentiles continued to convert to Judaism, and they continued to love and have great passion for the commandments of God, and Gentiles were so zealous to become like the Jew that they were willing to Get circumcised even if there was no need, but there was a need for half Jews, because Paul took people that were half Jews and had grown men circumcised himself.
Did Paul circumcise these men out of fear that they might go to an invented hell?
No, Paul had them circumcised because it was the law, and he never stopped keeping the law. This great misunderstanding people have about circumcision is just silly. Paul wasn't going around telling anyone that they had to be circumcised to be saved because that would be ridiculous, and it would also be ridiculous to think it was a sin for a Jew to be circumcised because that is their culture, and the rules of the Temple had to be followed if that Jew wanted to ever step inside the Holy place, and he did.
Paul was the great champion of Judaism that the world has ever seen beside Jesus, All Paul did was go around converting gentiles to Judaism, and he didn't put the whole weight of every law on Gentiles because the law didn't require it, but he proved beyond any doubt that ALL Jews should be circumcised and Paul would help them do it so that they didn't offend anyone who loved the law. The laws of the temple had to be followed or you are just a lawbreaker who disrespects the laws of the house of Trumpets.
Such a great champion of his own faith in Judaism, and no man has been brought down so low by so many people who convict him of being a false prophet, supposed Christians trying to prove that Jesus was a lying false prophet who came against the commandments of his father, and then he took lawless disciples and began teaching against his father's commandments. But that was not Paul, Paul stayed FURIOUS and perplexed at his own disciples because they were not committed to the law and the prophets. They were to study day and night and they were not doing this. Paul was amazed at their lack of commitment so much that he tells them that after all that time, they had yet to be born again because of their lack of knowledge of the law, that Jesus hadn't even been formed in them yet.
For lack of knowledge people die, for lack of passion, people don't even know the days of their own visitation, and out of racism and anti-Semitism, people choose to stand against everything that is called of God or that is worshipped because the Jews just happen to keep everything of God and all his worship system.
I can just imagine Paul's shock at finding out how anti-Messiah, anti-God, anti-law that everyone claims him to be when he was in fact one of the greatest champions of Judaism who had more passion than a thousand men.
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