Hint #08: recalling Revelation … (10/17/18)
Ephesians 1:1 has Paul telling the church there that he is “an apostle of Christ Jesus.” And this claim is much more than a mere Paulinist boast. For of the 7 churches noted in the book of Revelation, the one in Ephesus is the only one cited for having dealt with false apostles (stating in Revelation 2:2 that “you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false”). This fact is made all the more potent when we realize that the biblical record makes it equally clear that Paul had a great deal of trouble with the Ephesian congregation during his ministry (see Acts 19:8-9). In addition, the letter of 2 Timothy (admittedly probably written by a follower of Paul, not by Paul himself) has Paul admitting that “all those in Asia have turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1:15). As such, when we remember that Paul is the only person in the Bible (other than the original 12 disciples) who ever claimed to have been an apostle, what we have here is A] Paul falsely claiming to be an apostle of Christ (while preaching his own unique religious doctrine to the contrary), B] the Ephesian Church vehemently rejecting the same, and C] a “returned Christ” thereafter applauding the Ephesian Church for doing so!
“Paul avoids quoting the teaching of Jesus, in fact even mentioning the same. In truth, if we had to rely on Paul, we would not know that Jesus taught in parables, we would not know that Jesus had ever delivered the Sermon on the Mount, nor that he had taught his disciples the ‘Our Father.’ Indeed, even where they are specially relevant, Paul blatantly ignores the words of his Lord … Paul obviously did not desire to truly know Christ. And the fateful thing is that the Greek, the Catholic, and the Protestant theologies all contain the Gospel of Paul in a form which does not continue the Gospel of Jesus, but rather wholly displaces it.” ~ via Albert Schweitzer
“Fundamentalism is nothing more than the triumph of Paul over Jesus … Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ; a theology about the man instead of his teachings – a man who Paul never even knew and a theology written some 50 or more years after the death of that same man … Paul replaced moral conduct with mere creed as the test of Virtue. It is in no way an understatement to say that this was quite the tragic shift.” ~ via Will Durant
“The name ‘disciple of Jesus’ has little applicability to Paul, with the obvious contradictions in the three accounts given by him in regard to his Road to Damascus conversion being more than enough to arouse a palpable distrust in the man … The moral majesty of Jesus — his purity and piety, his ministry among the people, his manner as a prophet, the concrete ethical-religious content of his earthly life – signifies very little whatsoever for Paul’s Christology. As such we are confronted with Jesus or Paul: the fundamental choice that all are required to make; the choice that embodies the primary spiritual battleground of our present day.” ~ via William Wrede
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