Dennis On: "Oh Paul, You Nut"

"Oh Paul, You Nut"

I believe most readers understand that I personally have come to the "low view" of the Apostle Paul.  This Saul now Paul came out of nowhere to tell everyone the true meaning of his hallucinatory Christ.  Remember, Paul NEVER met any real Jesus of the Gospels , never quotes him and the Gospels never heard of him either.  You'd think the "Pharisee of the Pharisees" and  the one "above my fellows" would have shown up in the Gospel group of Pharisees tormenting Jesus.  Even though the Gospels were written well after Paul had lived, preached and died, he was not put into the stories about Jesus and his confrontations with the Jerusalem Pharisees.  It is simply because they never heard of him or , at best, hated him and didn't agree that he even was an Apostle.

Personally, I feel Paul was the false apostle that the Jesus of Revelation (not Gospel Jesus) praised the Ephesian Christians for getting rid of.  Paul even bitched that all in Asia, where the church of Ephesus was located,  had forsaken him but he prayed God would not hold it against him.  He seems never to have asked why they forsook him and won't share that with us in his writings.

He withstood that scoundrel Peter "to his face," but again, really fails to tell us why.  I wonder what Peter would have said about this event?

"I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false." Revelation 2:2 (NIV)

At best, Paul was and is a controversial figure in the NT.  It is Paul, not any Jesus, that is the author of modern day Christianity.  Paul the Pharisee's Gentile Christianity won out over the Jewish version.

 

Paul cursed those that did not preach the Gospel that he came up with.  Paul hated Peter, James and John of the Jerusalem Church, and they weren't all that crazy about him. 

Let's notice how Paul views himself and ask if this is a man that may have actually been outside the intent of Jesus teachings but who, nonetheless, won out and with whom we are stuck today. 

Paul took a salary from others for those of us who think ministers should not be paid.  However, he admits to stealing it.

 "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service." II Cor 11:8

Paul was given to boasting to keep up with the boasting of others.  What this really means is that since others are presenting their actual credentials, he better think of something to present his own or lose out.  You'd think that he'd not do this to show he was not like them, but alas, he can't resist.

 "Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast." II Cor 11:18

Evidently, one only comes out of the world when that's all there is left to do. Otherwise, use it to your advantage.

Paul had no problem making stuff up that he knew any Jesus on earth did not say.  His opinion was just as good as everyone elses.  Usually when one says they aren't boasting or lying, they know they are so may as well try to say they aren't really.

 "That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting" II Cor 11:17

Paul was not against trickery to get his points.  After all, this is a man who can be all things to all men (duplistic) to save some.  Just what exactly does this kind of "all things to all men," really believe?

 "Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery!" II Cor 12:16  Nice!  You tricked me into the truth.

Paul points to his own example and not that of Jesus.  He says he is everyone's father in the faith.  I remember HWA saying that too.  Paul was not only a guardian of their faith, (do I need one?) but he is the father of it.

"Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me." I Cor 4:15/16

 

"Judge not that you be not judged," seems to have escaped Paul. Of course, he never heard of Gospel Jesus and those stories had not been written yet.  It's the reason when some asked him how to pray he said "don't worry about it. The Holy Spirit would moan and groan, utter and peep for us" and never heard of Gospel Jesus saying,  "When you pray say, 'Our Father who art in heaven....""

"And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just if I were present." I Cor 5:3

Paul had no problem handing someone over to his concept of Satan for destruction for the greater good.  It never seemed to occur to Paul to encourage, love and help the one who had slipped.

"hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." I Cor 5:5

Paul was as falsely humble as they come.  He felt he was the ultimate way for others to be and his way of being was THE way of being.

"I wish that all men were as I am." I Cor 7:7

Paul felt his views were just as valid as those of his Cosmic Christ.  Even though Jesus didn't teach something, he did and he had the spirit of God.  This is a rather dangerous view and leaves him open to saying and demanding anything he wants thinking he and Christ are one and the same.

"To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord):" I Cor 7:12

The single, unmarriageable and probably troll like Paul tells everyone that his being single is the best way to be.  He never heard any Gospel Jesus say, "A man should leave his father and mother...."  Of course, this "stay unmarried as I am" which was a function of his view that "time is short," was bullshit in reality.

"Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am" I Cor 7:8

"Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife." I Cor 7:27

"What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;" I Cor 7:29

Paul rethinks the above and tells everyone to stay stuck in the situations they are in.

"Each one should remain in the situation he was in when God called him." I Cor 7:20

Paul's view of marriage is unreal and childish.  The unmarried or virgins are NOT all that concerned about the things of the Lord, as far I could ever tell.  The married woman was NOT always just concerned about the affairs of the world and I thought pleasing a husband was part of being in a relationship.  Paul knows nothing of love and marriage.  He was only fit to bring a watermelon to the church picnic as that is what the single men were good for.

"An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs:" I Cor 7:34

"But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world - how she can please her husband." I Cor 7:34

"In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is - and I think that I too have the spirit of God." I Cor 7:40

Paul totally expects to make a living off the preaching of the Gospel.  (This for those who think it is not Biblical)  Paul likes his stuff, just as everyone else does.

"In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel." I Cor 9:14

"If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?" I Cor 9:11

Paul likes his boasting.  It is part and parcel of what he needs to feel good.

"I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast." I Cor 9:15

Paul curses those that don't love the Lord.  Nice touch!  In one place Paul says, "when cursed we bless," however, he had his moments.

"If anyone does not love the lord - a curse be on him.

This reminds me of a sign on a barn south of Greenville, SC here.  "Love Jesus or burn forever in hell."  Nice!

Paul blames others for his having to make a fool of himself and feels they should have appreciated him more. He says he is nothing but thinks he really is something great.  He can't call Peter, James and John "fellow laborers chosing rather to be sarcastic and call them "super apostles."  This shows his immaturity and need to also be "super."

"I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the 'super-apostles', even though I am nothing." II Cor 12:11\

Paul admits that Satan got the best of him and blames some physical problem on Satan.  In other words, he sees Satan behind everything that thwarts him even though it probably is not so and he is just not getting what he wants.

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surprisingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." II Cor 12:7

Paul was competitive and could not abide anyone being as smart or equal to himself.  He thinks everyone who disagrees with him is boasting and enjoys cutting them off at the knees. 

"And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about." II Cor 11:12

Paul was the kind of personality that would say he was not lying, when he knew he was.  Was not boasting when he knew he was.  And had to keep on boasting to keep up with what he thought others, who simply may have been speaking more truth than himself were doing.

"I must go on boasting." II Cor 12:1

Paul was prone to believing that his having the final say was his right in the lives of others.

"On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others," II Cor 13:2 B

Paul, in his twisted view, knew he was conceited and a boaster.

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surprisingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." II Cor 12:7

Paul tells us the alone went to the Third Heaven , saw and heard things that no man can utter.  This sheer invention to make himself more special.  At best it is manipulation much like a Dave Pack who tells his congregants, "Great things are happening, but I can't share them with you at this time," and at worst, it is mental illness.  I dare any COG pastor to stand up this next week and tell the church that they were taken to the third heaven but can't report on what was seen or heard. 

When it comes down to it, it is Paul and not any Gospel Jesus that is the founder and author of Christianity.  This is a man who was not chosen as one of the 12 by Gospel Jesus.  This is man who brags in Galatians 1-2 that Peter, James and John were "so called pillars" and that who they are made no difference to him.  He says that they "added NOTHING to his Gospel."  He curses those that don't abide by his "Gospel" and that , contrary to the story in Acts, was called from the womb and NEVER had to bother conferring with the Jerusalem leadership. This is probably true because the Gospel of the Jewish Christians was vastly different from the view of Paul the Pretender.   

Paul was no team player.  He was a lone wolf and could not stand not to be in charge of it all.  He, like so many COG gurus simply will not and cannot work in cooperation with others in a common view.  His views were THE views and his Gospel was THE Gospel.

Paul always played the martyr role.  He was the both the worst and the best.  The least and the most.  The liar who told the truth.  The weakest yet the strongest.  The Pharisee of Pharisees and the Apostle.  The smartest pencil in the box, above his fellows and a fool. He was a man given to exaggeration and self promotion.  He admitted to being big of mouth and small in actual presence. 

In short, he was the perfect prototype of a COG Apostle.....so called.

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com