"The Apostle" Paul & "The governing body" He paid not attention to them

by LAWHFol 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  LAWHFol

  Many witnesses view the structure of the organization, and the authority of the governing body , as a model of the first century congregation..If the governing body is, indeed structured similarly to the 12 apostles. Paul provides a good example of how we need to view men such as these.

  He admonishes Christians to reject any teaching that is different from God's word Gal 1:8 "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."

  He shows by his words that the first century leaders, meant little to him.

  2 Cor 11:5 "Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles."

  Galatians 2:6 "As for those who were held in high esteem--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism--they added nothing to my message."

  He showed by his actions that the leaders meant little to him.

  After he said, that he received his commission, he did not consult with the Apostles, "nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me," Gal 1:17

  After he began preaching to the Gentiles, he waited more than 14 Years To report his Time and Bible Study Information! "Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem" Gal 2:1

  And the Most Shocking, is at Gal 2:11 .. Paul Confronted Peter to his Face, and made him aware of the fact, that what Peter was doing was very wrong! "But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong."

  Imagine if a JW publisher, made comments, to the effect that the gb is not of any consequence to them, and that they have not learned anything from the gb, everything that they learned was from the bible? Or what if a witness, were to confront a gb member directly and tell them, that they stood condemned, because of their wrong ways?? Oh My.

  But those were only Bible Times, we don't worry about such details now.. We're only concerned with following the governing body, so we can be declared sheep.
  
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  nelim

  Why would those "super apostles" be the "first century leaders"? (I assume you mean the apostles in Jerusalem?)
  

  In the first few centuries there were many jewish/christian sects that were competing about what was "true". (Just like now?? lol)
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  Vidiot

  LAWHFol - "Imagine if a JW publisher, made comments, to the effect that the gb is not of any consequence to them, and that they have not learned anything from the gb, everything that they learned was from the bible? Or what if a witness, were to confront a gb member directly and tell them, that they stood condemned, because of their wrong ways?"

  Pretty sure the response would be something like this:

  
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  cappytan

  Vidiot: where did you get that flattering gif of Brother Morris?
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  problemaddict 2

  I've been wondering something.

  Was Paul even aware at the time he wrote his letters to congregations and his brethren, that his letters were going to be part of some cannonized holy scripture in the future? It doesn't seem like it does it? No prophetic statements really, just management of the primitive Christians.

  What reason is there for Pauls letters to be deemed as somehow coming from God, rather than just a (maybe) historical narrative of the early congregation?
  
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  Magnum

  LAWHFol, I often wonder about that.

  problemaddict2, good questions.
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  peacefulpete

  A lively discussion is expanding on this topic in scholarly circles. Just how to read Paul without being colored by the later Gospel and Acts version of Christian origins. Paul travels and refers to other traveling and often rival "apostles" that had a different message about "Christ". Paul introduces these "saints" and "holy ones" to the new teaching he received by personal revelation of Christ having been crucified and subsequently resurrected (inferred because of being now active in the revelation dream) . He is adamant that his message was not learned from any other source. After 3 years Paul reachs out to a couple of those who appeared to be leaders of a Jesus cult in Jerusalem but they do not have much in common and separate.
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  Magnum

  peacefulpete, thanks for that info. That enlightened me. I'd like to do some reading on that.
  
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  Doug Mason

  The primitive church was split - Paul (from the Diaspora and unknown in Jerusalem - he says so) was based in Antioch while the group at Jerusalem, headed by James, Peter and John, focused on the Jews. Indeed, the Jerusalem Church saw themselves as part of Judaism.

  The Jerusalem Church morphed into the Ebionites whereas Paul's sect ultimately gained the political ascendancy, helped along in no small measure by the Roman emperors. The majority of the Christian Scriptures come from Paul or from his disciples, because they were selected - fundamentally from the 2nd century on but dominantly from the 4th to 7th centuries - by those whose allegiance was to Paul, not to the other sects, such as the Ebionites or with Marcion, for example.

  The sequence of the letters attributed by Paul is dictated by their length. Scholars say that only 7 of the letters attributed to Paul were actually by him. Many of those those that were by Paul is a collection of several letters, stitched together to make them appear as it was a single letter.

  As with any part of the Scriptures, the writer was concerned with his own immediate time, with his own immediate community, trying to influence them, using idioms, terminology, and illustrations that had meaning to them at that time, according to their cultures.
  

  Even the epistles attributed to Peter were written by a follower of Paul -- 2 Peter was written about 100 years after Peter's and Paul's deaths.

  http://www.jwstudies.com/2013_-_Did_a__Governing_Body__govern_Paul.pdf

  http://www.jwstudies.com/The_Watchtower_s_Achilles__Heel.pdf

  http://www.jwstudies.com/Why_Does_WTS_Accept_Christendoms_Scriptures.pdf
  

  Doug
  
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  Magnum

  Thanks, Doug.