Posts by opusdei1972

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

Caleb:

Well, if Marcion did it, so Justin, Irenaeus and Tertullian were deceived by him, because they quoted some of those verses in their apologetic works. Of course, no one knows what happened. But it seems to me that some letters of Paul were already accepted in "orthodox" Christian circles at the end of the first century. For instance, Polycarp knew the letter of Philippians and he lived in the same generation of Marcion. Indeed, as you noted, Paul or whoever who corrupted his text shows gnostic principles. ...Whatever, at the second half of the second century these letters took their final form, so, many ones were deceived. When I started to admit that there were contradictions in the NT I was shocked.

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

So, Paul did not think that his message was inferior to those who knew Jesus face to face, because he thought that his interpretation of the Scriptures came from above, so he believed that his reading of the OT was a spiritual reading that could not be discerned by "common people":

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words (1 Cor. 2:13)

So, I think that these words motivated the gnostic views at the end of the first century.

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

Caleb:

Paul seemed to believe that he had an special insight in reading the scriptures:

we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (1 Cor. 2:7)

So, he also felt to be in a privileged spiritual status in comparison to those who were close to Jesus:

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

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

Hi Caleb:

I appreciate your words and the efforts of the Catholic Church in finishing its past antisemitism. May be the atrocities of Hitler motivated the Church to change its past view. So, though I am no longer a Christian, I think the Roman Church has considerably improved its behavior.

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

This is an example of how Irenaeus had to defend the Septuagint in order to hold the Matthew's view of Isaiah 7:14 to propagate the view that Jesus born from the virgin Mary:

God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, [thus:] "Behold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son," Isaiah 7:14 as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish proselytes. The Ebionites, following these, assert that He was begotten by Joseph; thus destroying, as far as in them lies, such a marvellous dispensation of God, and setting aside the testimony of the prophets which proceeded from God. For truly this prediction was uttered before the removal of the people to Babylon; that is, anterior to the supremacy acquired by the Medes and Persians. But it was interpreted into Greek by the Jews themselves, much before the period of our Lord's advent, that there might remain no suspicion that perchance the Jews, complying with our humour, did put this interpretation upon these words. They indeed, had they been cognizant of our future existence, and that we should use these proofs from the Scriptures, would themselves never have hesitated to burn their own Scriptures, which do declare that all other nations partake of [eternal] life, and show that they who boast themselves as being the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are disinherited from the grace of God. (Against Heresies book III)

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

The theology of the Watchtower is very primitive and two-dimensional. It views the Scriptures as a sort of book of proof-texts to be used as proof-texts.

Read the Church Fathers and you will find the same primitive view. In the literature of the Church of the second century you will find strong fights and loaded language between Christians on account of the interpretation of one text.

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

Caleb:

There is only one simply way to update our understanding of those words: "we have to ignore them". Because, the words that say that "a liar is whoever that denies that Jesus is the Christ" have no other meaning than that. These words by itself produce polarization. Of course, currently, the Christian world is better because many ones note that many verses in the Bible need to be filtered otherwise we would be back in the Middle Ages. The Catholic Church is better now because most of its theologians are accepting the conclusions of the textual criticism. However, Jehovah's Witnesses still believe that the second letter of Peter was written by Peter and the Gospel of John was written by one of the twelve. Nevertheless, it was the Church of the first centuries which propagated these myths. I have read some of the books of Tertullian, Against Heresies of Irenaeus, The Dialogue and the First Apology of Justin, De Trinitate (of Augustine) and so on. By reading them you will find that although they had different views in comparison with the Witnesses, they were as fundamentalists as the Watchtower leaders. All of them saw their religion as the only Truth. Why?, because when people believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then the Bible itself creates these kind of controversies.

4

Legal Representatives of the Society in Peru defend the blood ban in a TV program

by opusdei1972 in

this is an old video in spanish, and excuse me for not being so literal in my translation.

in this video, the peruvian interviewer of a tv program in peru invited two representatives of the jehovah's witnesses in peru (one of them is a witness lawyer,victor, and the other one, freddy farfan, who leads the hospital liaison committee in peru.

) on account of a case in which a baby of two months old has 3.3 of hemoglobin ( a very low level), so the medical doctor strongly suggested a blood transfusion for the baby, but his witness parents do not let it.

opusdei1972

This ban was created and rationalized by Fred Franz as an extension of the stupid ideology of Clayton Woodworth on vaccination.

63

How dishonest was the Apostle Paul?

by opusdei1972 in

may be some of you will be shocked by this question.

however, when i was studying the bible with critical eyes i detected that paul ( or saul of tarsus) misquoted the hebrew bible in order to get false support for his arguments.

of course, this tricky kind of use of the "scriptures" was not only used by him, but others, like the author of the gospel of matthew got unsupported doctrines misquoting verses.

opusdei1972

Hi Caleb :

You say : "Watchtowerism teaches people to live by polarized standards.......The world is not black and white. "

However, the New Testament polarizes people according to their beliefs:

Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son (1 John 2: 22)

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? (2 Cor 6:14)

The above words are clear. This is the true face of the Christian religion, they want a black and white world. So, according to the early Christians if you say that Jesus is not the Christ you are a liar. If you are an unbeliever you are in darkness. These words polarized the world, because when Christians got the support of the Emperors of Rome, there were many people shunned, killed and tortured. Of course, in the Bible there are good advices, but we can't deny that the books of the NT teach a black and white world. So this is food for sectarian religions as the Watchtower.

22

One year of being free

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

one year ago, this thursday, i went to work as usual.

i got home, ate dinner, got myself dressed for the meeting, and helped my kids get ready like i usually did.. my son had a talk that evening, his second one.

many of my family went to support him.

opusdei1972

Be happy !!!