The Journy of Paul

Discussing theology I wanted to call this, “Discussing Religion,” but then I knew some would disagree with the term, religion. As part of their training, Christians have been taught to deny that Christianity is a religion because it lumps the faith in with all other faiths. So, they call it a “faith.” I have managed to anger a few Christians over the last few years. All but disowned by a few of them. It angers them that I take exception to some of the Christian Doctrine. The question before us today is, “How do we grow and learn if we are unwilling to examine and discuss our beliefs even when some of the discourse goes against what we believe?” Many people put up barriers when someone espouses a difference in theology, a difference in beliefs about doctrine and the foundations of the faith. It is hard for people to look at the possibility that what they have believed all their lives or more recently come to believe may be wrong, as if the very existence of God and Jesus is at stake....

Tradition vs. Faith in God Tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Theology is the study of God, god, gods goddesses, that is what the word means god study. Christians love to condemn the Jew because they have deep rooted customs built around their faith. They are often blamed for trying to work their way to salvation because if their customs. We often forget that the Lord Himself gave the Jews many of these customs. But let us look at one tradition, the oral passing of the Torah, from generation to generation. Christians don’t do this. Instead, we teach bits and pieces, verses to our children that fit our beliefs. We then expect them to read the bible on their own. Christianity is built upon customs. There are no passages in the bible that tell us what we are to do in church; early church gentile fathers created them for us. Our hymns are traditions, the way ...

To hear and to listen are not synonyms, there is a slight nuance to these words. One is more active then the other. One can be more involuntary while the other is actively natural and must be mastered to communicate effectively. The differences are, hearing is a process of perceiving sound, while listening is more of a thoughtful attention to what is being said. Hearing is passive, you may hear it but not understand, concentration is not necessary. Listening is active and requires concentration. Approaching the subject of Christianity and having ears. There are many references in the New Testament regarding having ears and not hearing, in some cases having eyes and not seeing. When Jesus spoke the parables of the mustard seed and yeast, both are tiny yet spread everywhere, thus the Kingdom of Heaven is like them. A tiny bit will go an exceptionally long way. However, prior to these parables he also spoke of a prophecy of Isaiah, “though seeing, they do not see, though hearing, they...

Fallacy of Christian Doctrine The title alone is probably more than enough to get most people not to read this blog post. I get it. God created man in his own image which means he created us to be like him. We are driven to understand and to create. When we see something or find something new, we are driven to understand what we saw or found. We don’t like not knowing. God is one of those things we will never understand, except, and I do preface it with “maybe” the day we stand in front of him. Try as we might to explain as many aspects of God as we can, we still do not know if we are right. I have heard Christians say, “If this isn’t true, then the whole bible isn’t true.” They are predicating their belief based upon their doctrinal understanding of something in the bible. The Doctrine of the trinity is a fine example. Our so-called early church fathers had to deal with a balance. In Judaism there is but only one God, but now all of a sudden there is Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Two...

This essay goes along with the previous blog, “God in a Box.” This blog is entitled “The Journey of Paul.” It spans 20 years, starting with my missionary journeys to China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Now it is covering my faith journey as in individual. I was telling my wife the other day, “If I had kept all the books I have read, I’d have my own little private library.” I’d have about 1000 non-fiction books, most on theology. So? What’s the point? Let’s see, in Judaism, the religious leaders created what was called the “Oral Torah.” These were spoken commentaries on the first five books of the bible, “The Torah.” These five books were committed to memory and transmitted from generation to generation, complete I might add. The Oral Law was also transmitted orally from generation to generation. However, due to various diasporas, religious leaders began to write the Oral Law down along with other commentaries which would later form what is called the Talmud. In Judaism, the Talmud is con...

I once attended a class entitled, Creation vs. Evolution. I thought it was a given because the class was being taught by a group of Reverends, theologians, doctors, professors. I mean, seriously, thought this was going to be God created the heavens and the earth, hands down, discussion. I was surprised to find out it was not. However, the point of this is a presentation that was made by the eight professors teaching the class. They presented the eight models of God. Each presented a box into which they shoved God. In this case, eight boxes, but boxes, nonetheless. I don’t believe we can put the Lord in one or a million boxes. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Moses goes on, verse 26, Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” There are three points to this. First, the concept that God created everything in six days, or not. Second, the plurality of “Let us, in our image.” Finally, the use of the words, image, and likeness. These are al...

It’s a toughie I don’t know how to say it then just being blunt! I know of God. I believe in God. I worship Him, love Him, and praise Him. But I don’t know God. I’ve heard that small voice speaks to me several times, had prayers answered. I’ve studied Him, read His word, taught His word but there is one thing that keeps nagging at me. The more I know, the less I know. Knowing the Lord is like understanding not only the universe and Einstein his theory of relativity vs. quantum mechanics. Ain’t gonna happen. In other words, our intelligence and brain capacity are miniscule regarding what is needed to have the capacity to understand the Universe and the theories of how it operates. I have resigned myself to trying to understand what the Lord wants me to do. Nothing more. Having said that, man, since the beginning of dawn and believing in a God or gods, has tried to understand that higher power. In doing so, they have defined God/gods ad-infinitum. As it pertains to Judaism and Christi...

I spent a good part of my life chasing titles, money, earthly things; even though, at some point in my life, I came to the understand that love and family is more important, I still chased those earthly things. Even after becoming a follower of Jesus, I still chased those earthly things. I am 64 as of this writing. It is a sad situation that we need to make a certain quantity of money to live. The question is, of course, to what level of living? To be truthful, I’d love to own a large house on about 10 acres or more. The house would not many rooms, instead, bigger rooms. I like big rooms. I would live to have a dining room big enough for a table that would comfortably seat ten people. This is an Earthly thing. What I own is a 1300 square foot manufactured home in a very nice park. I am thankful for my home. If we pin our happiness on our desires, on our grandiose expectations, then we are seeking earthly things. I help led a church teen group to Mexico where we built a house for a ...

Great quotes taken from Warren W. Wierrsbe about ministering to others. “No matter how difficult the work or how many times we feel like quitting, we can keep going and growing if we minister the way God tells us to in His Word.” And, “Being a servant takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God’. In Matthew 14, Jesus feeds the 5000 plus. When presented with the problem of all the people and being away from home, the disciples first instinct was to send them home. They were making their own solution. Jesus on the other hand saw the possibilities and channeled the Lords resources, and the disciples handed out the food. Jesus had compassion for the crowd and allowed himself to be God’s resource channel and of course gave glory to God. When we try and supplant God’s will with our methods and strategies, we may not be following God’s lead. Let us consider the following quotes. “Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human need...

Faith is a big issue to me. It is the core of belief. Everything else doesn’t matter if your faith is not at the center of who you are. Faith drives you; it is an internal motivation from which your daily life springs from. Christians will say, “Even the Devil knows scripture.” This is true. Reading the bible is not going to give you faith, your faith is going to drive you to read it. Your faith is going to drive you to prayer. Your faith is going to drive you to hurting, feeling the weight of your sin so that you will repent from them. Faith will drive you to obedience to the Lord. My first pastor drew an analogy of God as an earthly father. When we are hurt, we can crawl up onto our father’s lap for comfort. His use of this was from a different concept, but I developed my belief from it as follows. God as an Earthly father. As a child, I may fear him and thus obey him. As a teen I become rebellious and disobedient. As an adult, I realize how right my father and his rules were ...

Truth and Dare I was speaking with my wife today, telling her about a concept I developed about 15 years ago. It’s quite simple. People come to God with their baggage, whatever that may be. What I mean is this. If they are broken, they bring it with them. It shapes their faith. Whatever it was that broke them in the first place, continues to shape their lives, even their newfound faith. It may be their political points of views, their sociological points views that shape their faith. A good example is the encroaching and dreadfully wrong ideas of social justice that is creeping into the churches. The bottom line, people’s philosophy is a filter through which people see and then shape their religious faith. Let’s examine one, the division between Jews and Christians. Christians use Paul’s writings to accuse the Jews, to show how they are wrong and got it all mixed up. Well, Jewish Rabbis and theologians use the same writings to show how Paul and others, while Jews, were anti-Jewi...

What’s your eschatology? Everyone seems to have the keys to the Kingdom. The Catholics say they have the keys. Others say you must profess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and Saviors. Others say you must be baptized and still others say you must have been slayed in the spirit. This is, had a sanctifying moment or speak in tongues. These are all prerequisites to belonging. One that I heard from a firm, longtime believer, he asked, “What’s your eschatology?” Lucky for me, I know what he meant. I say lucky for me because he went on to say if you don’t have an eschatological belief you aren’t saved. Let’s ask the question, shall we? Okay, I will. No, I am not asking what’s your eschatology, the expectations of end times. I would ask you this question which I have asked on social media a dozen times and have received zero response, “if Christians have it so right, they have the keys, and are doing what God wants them to do, why than does God feel it necessary to give John the pr...

How do Jews factor into Christianity? During my 28-year journey so far, I had to take a fork in the road. Things didn’t make sense to me. Jews are going to hell, Jews are no longer God’s people, Christians are, Jews thought and still do think, salvation comes from works. I was confused as to way all of this was. I mean, if they were God’s chosen people, you’d think they’d know better, right? Maybe we are the ones mixed up! Let’s go to the beginning of time. God created Adam and Eve. They were not Jews, not Israelites, not even Hebrews. They just were people. They had kids and on and on until Abraham. Not even he was a Jew, but in Genesis 14:13, Abram is called a Hebrew. We don’t get Israel until Jacob, when his name was changed to Israel do you end up with the children of Israel, the 12 tribes. Genesis 32:24-28. Some scholars do say the Hebrews came from Shem, Noah’s son. In fact, biblically, all people stem from the sons of Noah, Shem Hem and Japheth. It is fair to say the cult...

The Common Christian Pastor and many followers pin salvation on one thing, Original Sin. If we didn’t sin, well then, we’d have nothing to be saved from. I must ask, is the doctrine of original sin correct or not, and is everything beyond that, pinned to this one doctrine? I say, no. Original sin is an idea that was kicked around by a few back in the day. Back in the day being the 2nd through the 4th century. People like Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and others had proposed the idea, but it never stuck. That is until Augustine of Hippo began to push the idea. He was the first to suggest that the guilt of Adam’s sin was inherited. They suggest that we are dirty from birth and thus we need salvation. Let us go back in time and ask our founders what their idea about sin. I speak of course of the Hebrews or Israelites. Let us stop for a moment and recall Romans 11:17, some of the branches, Jews, have been broken off. WHY? So that the wild olive branches, Gentiles,...

The Nasty Truth Daniel 9:24 mentions “…to put an end to sin,” The Lord can put an end to sin, but I have to ask you, and answer this question truthfully. Jesus came and was crucified. Has sin ended, and better asked, has sin ended in those who proclaim to be believers? The answer to this question is a big fat resounding ‘NO!” I don’t know about you, but I have witnessed folks who seemed to be very devote believers fail. Mostly around adultery, some around greed, and addiction. The standard pat answer from believers is, “They are just human and given to human failings.” Well, if Sin was truly ended then they would not have that failed, would they? So, the truth is, the Jewish concept of sin is 100% correct. We have free will and must battle daily between good desires and bad desires. Sin has not ended and still resides within us. Jesus’ time on earth was spent battling hypocrisy and a lack of faith. The Lord spoke of returning to the Lord, repentance, believing, loving, and livin...

Christianity and Antisemite roots How does one write about such a topic and keep it short enough to keep the reader’s attention? I implore you to read this and to check out everything I am saying. As my professor used to say, always check to make sure the professor is telling you the truth! The Early Church For nearly 300 years, the church, all believers, met in homes. Small groups of believers met in a person’s home, forming a very homogeneous group. All those letters Paul wrote where to home based churches. There was no over arching formal organization that kept each church in check. Hence, Paul had to address issues. The church leadership was made up of Elders, note it was plural, more than one. Sometimes there was an overseer, which would later become known as a bishop. And then the helpers, the deacons. First Corinthians gives us the only look into a home meeting. We must face the reality that most of the followers of the way, as this new sect of Judaism was called, was mai...