Last Sunday morning we began a short three part series on Paul’s Teaching about the Incarnation. We looked at Galatians 4:4-7 – The Right Time
“Its always good to have this sweet and comfortable sentence before us – it sets out Christ truly and lively, that in our whole life, in all dangers, in the confession of our faith before tyrants, and in the hour of death we may boldly say “O law, you have no power over me, therefore you accuse and condemn me in vain. For I believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who the Father sent into the world to redeem us miserable sinners oppressed with the tyranny of the Law He gave his life and shed his blood for me. Therefore, feeling your terrors and threatenings, O law, I plunge my conscience in the wounds, blood, death, resurrection and victory of Christ. Besides him I will see nothing, I will hear nothing” Luther
In the evening we had our nativity – this recording is of the message and singing…
What an awful piece of writing.
You may consider yourself a miserable sinner who goes in some state of ecstasy at the thought of a human blood sacrifice, but I most certainly do not , and to foist such revolting filth onto kids is tantamount to child abuse.
It was a sermon rather than a piece of writing…I suggest you listen to it….And yes the Cross has always caused offence….and yes you are a miserable sinner….no matter how much you hide that from yourself…..I always think telling the truth is the opposite of abuse…but I guess in the fantasy Disneyland world of the atheists you don’t share that passion for truth?!
Ark, if the New Testament is an embellished myth, why on earth would the Apostle Paul write these words:
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Any thoughts?
First, you have no evidence that someone called Paul wrote these words.
Second, if we are all your god’s ”children” what was so special about Jesus?
And third, if he loved everyone so much why in Hades did he ensure his son, Jesus was executed?
Ok Ark – have a good Christmas but this is your last post for a while….
And yes we have plenty evidence that Paul wrote these words – but you of course won’t accept such evidence because its not by ‘proper’ scholars (ie. those who agree with you and you are able to Google!)..
Jesus is the eternal Son of God, He is God. We are not.
God gave his Son to be executed, because he so loved the world that he wanted to save us…Happy Christmas!
I’m here in Australia, enjoying this sermon so much sitting outside on my verandah this very warm Christmas-Eve morning. These words are life, truth and healing! Christ’s birth is life-giving liberty. As a minister myself, I really appreciated you dealing with the anti-Christmas objections and saccharine liberal Christian non-message too. Thanks so much for sharing those rich, beautiful words of Luther too.
Happy Christmas to all.
-mike
Arkenaten,
If you got a letter which had ‘Yours sincerely, John Smith’ at the end you would take it that it came from John Smith unless you had good reasons to think otherwise. Similarly, if a letter starts off by saying, ‘Paul an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia..” then it would be reasonable to assume that the letter was sent by Paul the Apostle, unless there were strong reasons for thinking otherwise. In addition, Paul’s letters were read out, in the churches he sent them to, as being from Paul. And they were read out in other churches on the same basis. It would take a mightily suspicious mind to question the authorship of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. But then, is there any evidence that someone called Arkenaten wrote the words next to his name on this blog?
Yes, reasonable. However, textual analysis has shown that many of the so-called letters are pseudo epigraphic. (forgeries)
The fact that there are at least two different ”Pauls” in the bible is cause to wonder at the motivations behind such writings, don’t you think?
Acts, of course, is now considered to be historical fiction.
Therefore, when one includes every other interpolation, gloss and outright forgery one can surely be forgiven for doubting claims of authenticity?
Ark – you know nothing about textual analysis (which has shown nothing of the sort),nor about Paul (there are not two different ones) and you know nothing about Acts (which is not considered to be historical fiction)…none of this ignorance stops you pontificating about what you do not know – but in so doing all you are showing is your prejudice, ignorance and ability to use Google to find some confirmation bias articles which only confirm what you already ‘know’! Please don’t waste any more time on this blog until you learn something!
So you consider that all the Letters attributed to the character Paul are genuine?
How interesting.
A view that flies directly in the face of biblical scholarship.
The Acts Seminar has demonstrated through analysis that Acts is Historical Fiction.
Ark – Im sorry but you are just embarrassing yourself. You know nothing of biblical scholarship and the Acts Seminar has not demonstrated through analysis that Acts is historical fiction….Can I suggest you start reading whole books and not just google whatever you can find to suit what you already believe…if you come up with any serious evidence I will let you post it here – but until then you can expect that if your posts are just prejudiced rants they won’t be appearing!