Do Paul's Letters Really Count?

by almostbitten 51 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  yknot

  I think I prefer Peter personally!
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  Mysterious

  Interesting thought, I plan to use that the next time someone whips out those books to use against me.
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  steve2

  Imagine if it were Paul who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. That spontaneous,meaningful message would have the life sucked out of it. The sermon would have definite start and end times; it would start with leaden singing of a tuneless kingdom song, followed by an earnestly detached prayer and he'd insist the ushers double count the number in attendance. Oh, he'd also drone on about the need to follow what he says without question. Paul's mindset was very compatible with the Watchtower's: Control, control, control.
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  BurnTheShips

  Gosh, what a way to trash the dead from a society from 2000 years ago? May the people of the future think of us more chariably!

  Seriously, has anyone herer actually read Romans?

  BTS
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  hillary_step

  Burn,

  Seriously, has anyone herer actually read Romans?

  Yeah, I have. Paul was a boring old git.

  HS
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  beksbks

  I would hope the people of the future would not think charitably but rather clearly of David Koresh, Jim Jones, Rutherford or Russell.
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  journey-on

  Yes, I have read it. Put Paul's words right up to the simplicity of Jesus' teachings and you will see. He spins the

  teachings and adds to them his own little twists. He turns the words of Jesus into a bunch of do's and don'ts.
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  BurnTheShips

  He turns the words of Jesus into a bunch of do's and don'ts.

  And we know for a fact that Christ never had a list of do's and dont's?
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  BurnTheShips

  I would hope the people of the future would not think charitably but rather clearly of David Koresh, Jim Jones, Rutherford or Russell.

  And was Paul ever a sole charismatic leader of a religious movement like any of these? In Acts 15 we see he had to submit to the decision made by the rest of the Apostles. He only seems to have greater prominence today because he was a more prolific writer. BTS
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  myelaine

  dear almostbitten...

  Jesus and paul were reading from the same "book". The conversion of paul was, in one sense, a conversion of the heart...from a spirit of legalism to a spirit of love. the law still counted as Jesus said, " I did not come to abolish the law but to fullfill it".

  Though Jesus did seem to make everything sound pretty free-flowing while speaking to the crowds(who split once they were fed) that isn't the case as far as the "church" was concerned. The "church" is the instrument which Jesus uses to spread THE GOSPEL and therefore it would need to maintain its stance on such things that were taught in the "OT", (matthew 16:18). Things that Jesus didn't abolish.

  Jesus called paul a chosen vessel of His...Acts 9:15...chosen to teach gentiles, kings and the children of israel...to say that what he taught through his letters is of no account is to say that Jesus was somehow mistaken in His selection.

  love michelle

  p.s. acts 18:26 shows that paul was not against being taught by a woman at all...but within a church setting it only makes sense to recognise the man as the spiritual head of the family...submissive to God as the wife is submissive to the husband.