Paul's Authentication Scripturally Sound - By His Demonstrated Love for Jesus Christ

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jul 21, 2011 at 19:15

In conceding the confusion of some that seems to infuse the study of the scriptures from times past, there must be a recognition that the true scriptures are under heavenly protection by the Holy Spirit to those who are seeking His Truth to live by His WORD. If that were not true, then the Adversary can make book on his invective to Eve: "did God really say?" There would not be a man or woman alive, past present or future that could argue the validity of living life as Almighty God desires for each of us by going against His WORD. This is where faith comes in; that by His faithfulness, Almighty God does protect His WORD to the believer in a way that cannot be controverted by humanist reasoning or defective human logic.

Taking Paul to task by taking things out of the spiritual context is a divisive study methodology, never achieving anything that the Holy Spirit intends for the individual believer. Pardon my cynicism for not embracing the effort to discredit Paul, it seems that more would be gained to attempt a relational understanding of Paul's messages than to figure out the same tools used by unsympathetic scholars to discredit the Holy Bible in its entirety by subtracting creditability piece by piece. Trusting the Holy Spirit to teach through a spiritual discernment will permit a more analytical and broad stroke of the wisdom found in the Brit Hadassah, the New Testament.

Doing a more thorough 'reading between the lines' of the Corinthian messages brings about a different conclusion when one realizes that the Corinthians were a hard hearted group that by today's standards, would be quite comfortable with many of the compromised congregations found in America and abroad. The licentious behavior to be dealt with was just the tip of the iceberg, that coupled with the other less than Christian attitudes pervasively found there, it is no wonder they were looking for excuses to ease up on the 'restrictions' of sanctification that a disciple of Jesus Christ should be pursuing: but they were doing exactly that, looking for excuses.

Now for the issue of going to the law about civil matters about property or debts owed, civil courts in Corinth were more in tune with the justice (or lack thereof that we might today here in this contemporary society) and not about the reason Paul was incarcerated-for his faith. Paul was not dealing with a simple civil matter, but was being persecuted for his preaching the Gospel in a Judaically hostile environment, forced by the spirit to resort to the one place he needed to be in order to fulfill his mission-preaching to all the world, which in those days meant Rome. One needs to discern the intent.

Now, it is interesting that Paul found himself being castigated for the very same reason this discussion is being observed here-his credentials. Still being harassed for preaching to the 'Goyim' instead of the faithful in Jerusalem, it is quite evident his mission was purposefully leading him away from Jerusalem, for mostly because he was preaching to a population heavily influenced by the Jewish presence still recovering from the crucifixion of Jesus several years earlier.

Now it is interesting that you should use the situation of Elymas, a confessed sorcerer who was involved in withstanding Paul's preaching. We can go to a number of places and determine that the LORD can use whatever means He devises to get a point across-and who will judge Him for that? In Exodus 4:10, we read, "So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?" Isaiah 44:18) They do not know nor understand; For He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, And their hearts, so that they cannot understand. Then Zephaniah 1:7) "I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse." Since Elymas was only blinded for a season, it sounds like he got off easy.

As for his commission, since he was not at the congregation in Matthew 28, it is not hard to understand that, for the sake of semantics in this forum, his mission started on the road to Damascus and presents itself more definitively different than that of Peter or any other of the disciples.

And for the last, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all Scripture IS divinely authored; and there you reveal the true spirit of your discourses against the truth.

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