Speaking of Paul: Using the WCG Experience to Understand The Problem of Paul in the New Testament

In this “compulsively readable exploration of the tangled world of Christian origins” (Publishers Weekly), religious historian James Tabor illuminates the earliest years of Jesus’ teachings before Paul shaped them into the religion we know today.

This fascinating examination of the earliest years of Christianity reveals how the man we call St. Paul shaped Christianity as we know it today.


Historians know almost nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have—the letters of Paul—as well as other early Chris­tian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity. Tabor shows how Paul separated himself from Peter and James to introduce his own version of Christianity, which would continue to develop independently of the message that Jesus, James, and Peter preached.


Paul and Jesus illuminates the fascinating period of history when Christianity was born out of Judaism.

Tabor was born in Texas but lived all over the world as the son of an Air Force officer. He was raised in the Churches of Christ and attended Abilene Christian University, where he earned his B.A. degree in Koine Greek and Bible. While earning his M.A. from Pepperdine University he taught Greek and Hebrew part-time at Ambassador College, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and president of the Worldwide Church of God.
Tabor earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1981 in New Testament and Early Christian literature, with an emphasis on the origins of Christianity and ancient Judaism, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, John the Baptist, Jesus, James the Just, and Paul the Apostle. The author of six books and over 50 articles, Tabor is frequently consulted by the media on these topics and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs.
During the Branch Davidian siege in Waco in 1993, Tabor and fellow religion scholar J. Phillip Arnold "realized that in order to deal with David Koresh, and to have any chance for a peaceful resolution of the Waco situation, one would have to understand and make use of these biblical texts.” After contacting the FBI, they sent Koresh an alternative interpretation of the Book of Revelation which persuaded Koresh to leave the compound, though it was stormed by Federal forces first. 

Major publications and research

His first book was a study of the mysticism of the apostle Paul titled Things Unutterable (1986), based on his University of Chicago dissertation. The Journal of Religion named it one of the ten best scholarly studies on Paul of the 1980s.

In 1992 Tabor turned to an analysis of attitudes toward religious suicide and martyrdom in the ancient world, the results of which appeared as A Noble Death, published by HarperSanFrancisco in 1992 (co-authored with Arthur Droge). Tabor's book has been used as a standard by ethicists, lawyers, and physicians who are participating in the current debate. Tabor has also published a wide variety of scholarly and more popular articles in books, journals, and magazines.
In 1995, he published Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (University of California Press), which he co-authored with Eugene Gallagher, and which was one of the first books to explore what had actually happened during the Waco siege. In 1995 he testified before Congress as an expert witness on the siege.

Things Paul Never Said

Has the COG Shackled and Chained the Freedom We Have?

If there's one thing that Armstrong Apologists tend to bristle their brow about is the "protestant" concept about "Freedom In Christ". In the universe that Herbert Armstrong created, "true Christianity" is militaristic in every sense of the word - a hierarchy from top to bottom set to regulations and rules as derived in the Old Testament - from the fundamental basics as listed in the Ten Commandments to, in some cases, every jot and tittle as can possibly be made applicable in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. These rules and regulations - as critical as they are to understanding the very minimum of what Christianity is all about (Love to God and love to neighbor) - have become the chief cornerstone, on which even every command of Jesus Christ Himself hangs on. This is a highly controversial subject and the core differentiator of what causes Armstrongism to, well, be exactly what it is today. 

The view of the Father - and Jesus - in many Armstrongism circles - is one of a prosecutor. God is sitting in heaven, with the Books of the Commands spread out and opened - judging how well that his servants are doing in their obedience to the Law. In Armstrongism circles, this is primarily: Obedience to the Ten Commandments, Obedience to the Sabbath and Holy Days, Obedience to the Dietary Food Laws, Obedience to the laws of Morality, Observance of Holy Convocations, and Tithing. Anything else that is "questionable" is decided on by the Church Authorities (that is, whoever has decided to take that claim, and convinces followers of their legitimacy) on the Law of Binding and Loosing. This not only absolves the lay member of any personal responsibility (the decision is always up to the Church Authorities), but takes the "protestant" concept about "Freedom in Christ" and buries it under the rug. In Armstrongism, the only "Freedom" one has is whatever is approved by whoever's in charge. Personal responsibility and decisions always fall under the rug of the Authorities. 

The focus that made Armstrongism so appealing to so many in the 20th Century was on a "revival" of the neglected laws that a "great, false Church" buried away. The claim that many adopted so enthusiastically is that the "great, false church" traded in God's appointed times and seasons for man-made traditions and festivals, with the charge that they were not licensed or authorized to do so. The charge has been that paganism had infiltrated the Church, and those that think they are worshiping Jesus Christ in "Protestantism" have been hoodwinked into pagan and even "satanic" rituals and observances - and aren't really worshipping Christ at all. The claim that Armstrong Apologists make is that they have absolutely no freedom of worship or observance, regardless of what and how their heart is. 

In fact, "the heart" has historically in Armstrongism been the most mocked and - for lack of a better term - sissified - emotional aspect of Christianity in it's dogmatic history. "the heart" - the true intent and purpose of a person's actions and thoughts - was the one aspect of spirituality that was continuously dogged and beaten out in favor of militaristic obedience. One could even say that the "heart" was beaten out of a person in favor of chains and shackles. And those who - in protestant and in "Worldly" circles had their hearts in the "right place" - that is, worship of Jesus Christ and the obedience of the commands of Jesus Christ - were simply "Deceived", could not get it, and would not get it - they'd get their chance "later". For those in the Church who "knew better"? Everyone else in the "world" was simply uncalled, unsaved, cut-off, pagan, heathen, un-Christian charlatans with absolutely no knowledge of what Christ - and freedom in Christ - was all about. 

The reality is that the greater sin was not on those in what we termed "the world". The greater sin was that of judgment by the adherents of Armstrongism to every member and denomination of mainstream Christianity. Every catholic, every protestant, every man, woman, and child who faithfully and, with full belief in Jesus Christ, went to Church on Sunday mornings, on Easter, and on Christmas, who lived lives of love and exhibited the fruits of the Spirit in their walk of life, who lived lives according to the Code of Morality - judged as lost and deceived and "2nd Res" people because they didn't subscribe to the "Faith once delivered". Every one of these people were judged as "the world" to be avoided. Every person who loved God and loved neighbor was judged, and judged severely, while at the same time all of the carnality, deception, lies, and evils within Armstrongism were somehow not as bad because Armstrong Adherents were keeping the Sabbath, the Holy Days, and had the name "the Church of God". The stench of hypocrisy was stronger than the stench of a year-old tuna salad sandwich. Their hearts were not considered. Their hearts were judged and trampled on. 

Freedom in Christ is a level and a standard of maturity for those who have grown in wisdom, and in mind, and in actions. With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the mind and in the hearts of a true Christian, there is freedom. (2 Cor. 3:17). But for those in Armstrongism," for to this day, the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away." 

That freedom allows choice. That freedom allows responsibility. That freedom allows options. That freedom allows thought and thinking. That freedom allows opportunity. That freedom allows ways and methods - whatever is needed or necessary as an Ambassador of Jesus Christ to show Christ and to be the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ. It is that freedom that allows interaction with others - to show and even for many - introduce - what love is and who Christ is through the power of the Spirit. 

You cannot show and introduce what love is and who Christ is through the Spirit by avoidance. You miss opportunities by holding on to the obsolete writings of stone of the old Covenant. You miss opportunities to share Christ when, in self-righteous arrogance, one in great pious conviction stays away from "worldly people" in "worldly celebrations". When you are filled with the spirit, when your heart is in the right place, the spirit will transcend the physical every time. You are enacting and using the freedom of Christ in you and through God's spirit to do God's will whether you are attending The Feast, or Trumpets, or Atonement, or stretching your freedom to Christmas, to Easter, or Sunday, or any other day. Your heart - their heart - your fruits - can make a difference, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, no matter where you are or what you are doing so long as you are doing it in Christ and in the Lord - for his glory. 

Armstrongism was, and is, shackles and chains on the freedom of Christ available to a believer. It is a hindrance to the power of the Spirit. It is a quencher of the works of God, and a disabler of the heart. It is a doorstop on opportunity to serve and to honor God and love to man. God is not confined by time, nor by the calendar, nor by the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars. God's spirit transcends these things, as a servant of Christ is focused not on the physical, or on times and seasons, but on the permanence and timelessness of the spiritual. Once one looks beyond denominations and earthly religious and non-religious empires and begins to see the transcendence of the spiritual, and the omnipresence of the new Covenant, and the width and height and depth of the grace of God in all his people - then the veil is lifted, and freedom - true freedom in Christ, can set a person free - at last. 

Submitted by SHT