Charades in the Pulpits
Most people know beyond doubt that politicians are charade masters. Their promises while campaigning for election, almost always are meaningless once elected. Many pastors in the pulpits of churches also play games with church goers. The endless charade in the pulpit is that the "senior pastor" is "God approved" and has a stamp of authenticity. The pastor may have a bachelors degree, a masters degree or even a doctorate degree in theology and supposedly that "education" makes that individual person of great Biblical knowledge and understanding, and therefore an "authority" on truth.
Odd indeed is that Jesus Christ never promoted Bible schools or colleges as reflected in the four Gospels. In fact Jesus Christ bypassed the elite religious senior pastors and selected uneducated fishermen as disciples.
We also read in the New Testament that the things of God are ONLY understood by the Spirit of God, and the correlation between man-made Biblical education and the Spirit of God are worlds apart. We read that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings comes wisdom, which is a slam to the "highly educated" who think they have all the answers. We can learn a great deal from children and their inquiring minds that often astound adults.
The hard core fact is that Bible schools and colleges are rubber stamp mills and they turn out clones, not thinkers. The pastors who stand in pulpits are parrots of their mentors and teachers. There are groups that parrot Herbert W. Armstrong, as if HWA is the source of light and truth. Wrong! In fact no preacher, pastor, senior pastor, bishop or religious leader is the source of the Way, the Truth and the Life, which is exclusive to Jesus Christ. For as long as people think "truth" is owned by preachers, religions or pastors and priests, humans will always be slaves to those who pretend to be God in the pulpits.
The charades in the pulpits have been going on for centuries of time and dates back even thousands of years. Seemingly people are easily hoodwinked, lack discernment and are fooled by the self-deceived, self-appointed pulpit masters. One of the greatest charade players in the church world, was a man called the "apostle" Paul. Millions think he was God in the flesh and that he was infallible and inerrant, and that every word he ever spoke was God breathed, even though he contradicted Jesus Christ. Some today place the deceased Herbert W. Armstrong in the same category as the fake "apostle" Paul and they live and die by it.
Those who love power, control and the never ending flow of free $money always seem to gravitate to controlling the minds and thinking of church goers and it hinges upon causing church goers to live in lifelong FEAR.
Van Robison
Van, your recognition of the Apostle Paul as part of the problem is a rare admission and congrats for doing your homework.
ReplyDeleteTHE reason we see this law vs grace, or law/works problem in the NT is because of Paul. The Book of James was included to refute Paul's Book of Romans. It is Paul who is the author of the Christianity we have today. No Jesus would have understood Paul. If he was a Pharisee of Pharisees he was one unlike most. He doesn't argue like a Pharisee and seems to not even know the original meanings of the OT he quotes to weave his tale. He also gives no hint of Hebrew roots doing all this is great Greek.
Paul may not have existed as presented. He may be a composit character written to make the theological points desired by the NT writers. He alone comes up with the theology of Jesus and often screws up his analogies over reaching to make Abraham, the father of the Circumcision the father of the uncircumcised etc.
He was as self appointed as any Dave Pack or Ron Weinland. NO ONE besides himself called him an Apostle. His first two chapters of Galatians, as presented, show him to be a lone wolf, caring nothing for Peter James or John and learning nothing from them. The man never heard of or met any earthly Jesus and never quotes the Gospel version of Jesus.
Good on you that you have come to see what not one in 10,000 Christians would notice or consider.
Whatever the real story of any Apostle Paul or even Jesus, we don't have it captured accurately in the NT.
The Gospels, written after Paul had written, lived and died read like a passion play and the writings of Paul are laced with Gnostic teachings and pagan god/man concepts that his home town of Tarsus would have provided him with growing up.
This latest posting of yours is beyond the pale, Dennis.
ReplyDeleteYou have been BEYOND naughty!
At Bob Jones University's Thurston Howell Memorial Science Building, the walls are now bursting at the seams with the dinosaurs they have within it's walls, ready to attack you next Tuesday.
Pterodactyls will attack you from above, while Tyrannosaurus Rexes will attack you from the ground.
YOU WILL BE SORRY!!!
Norm
In fact Jesus Christ bypassed the elite religious senior pastors and selected uneducated fishermen as disciples
ReplyDeleteI only learned how "uneducated" Christ's disciples really were the other day when I read of Peter and John's interrogation in Acts 4:13: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." The Greek words translated "unlearned" and "ignorant" are (Strongs #62) agrammatos meaning "illiterate" and (Strongs #2399) idiotes meaning "ignoramus" or "idiot"!
"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty" (1 Cor. 1:27)--literally!