Todd
Star
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2017
- Messages
- 2,525
To clarify, I don't hate Paul. I just don't care to put him on pedestal like most of Christianity does. Paul was the greatest evangelist of the early church, but he was not one of the 12 apostles that Jesus put in place to establish the true doctrines of Christ. By the third century the teachings of the 12 apostles, that they received directly from Christ, were abandoned in favor of a interpretation of Paul's writings that were blended with many pagan ideas and concepts to slowly evolve into what would now be considered modern mainstream Christian dogma.Hmm.. perhaps I'm confusing you with a user named @Todd that I've seen posting on old forums too. Unless you are him, lol.
If not.. I apologize for the confusion. Your posts just remind me a lot of his.. and he certainly does have 'Pauline hate'.
Peter never directly rebuked Paul in his writings, though you can easily make a claim that the book of James is a rebuke or rebuttal of some of Paul's writings and Peter and Paul certainly were at odds at times in the book of Acts. Neither did Peter affirm Paul as one of the Apostles of Christ. He warned that though Paul's writings contained much wisdom, they were difficult to understand and that many would be led astray and brought to destruction by the misinterpretation of Paul's writings. I simply believe Peter's warning about Paul's writings applies to most of Christianity, not just those on the fringes of Christianity.
I have absolutely no hatred for the actual historic person that was Paul. However when it comes to his writings, if any intrepretation seems contradictory with the simple face value interpretation of the words of Jesus, I choose not to accept it. Modern mainstream Christian dogma will often resort to all kinds of reasons and arguments why we should embrace a convoluted or confusing interpretation of Paul's writings over a simple interpretation of Jesus' words. I was guilty of doing the same for the first 20+ years of my walk with Christ. So, though I have moved on, I don't judge or condemn any Christian who still holds to Pauline based dogma and doctrine.
I come across much more passionate and confrontational about it here in this forum than I do with the Christians that I interact with in the real world.