IW wrote:
Paul was charged with organizing congregations, congregations in which Gentiles and Jews were to be amalgamated. This is far different than Jesus' task of gathering Jewish disciples and sending them forth to preach the Gospel.
Indeed. Paul in fact says that he was to be the apostle to the nations; he did organize congregations, patterned after the jewish congregations.
Is it right? Should what Paul says have the same weight as what Jesus says? If the two conflict, which they do very often, who should we listen to? The WT has always listened to Paul, because Paul brought with him the high need for control and rules that he was used to from his previous religion. Is it right? Should the Christian congregation today be run with the same rigid control that the Pharisees employed in the first century? (Could Paul be wrong about some things? Witnesses can't even think this thought, much less puzzle out what he might have been wrong about and resolve it, because we are not taught to think for ourself or even think critically about anything.)
OR: Is that not what Jesus got rid of? NO longer would worshipers have to be concerned with what a group of men thought was important to please God; Jesus set the standard, just 2 laws: love God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Christians would make mistakes and struggle to know what God's will was for them, but it was THEIR place to find it.
And it was not Jesus' intention for Paul to replace one high control religion with another. That, in fact, is what Jehovah's Witnesses, my lifelong religion, has done. The result is what we see today: a group that is elitist, dictatorial and deadly to members who cannot tolerate the high control.
