And what about those “Judaizers” who came from James to bewitch Gentile believers in Christ with requirements from the law and Jewish ceremonial customs? It caused even Peter to play the hypocrite as he feared the peer pressure, which led to “not being straightforward about the truth of the gospel.” Ultimately, Paul’s message was that justification was purely by grace through faith, apart from works. But this would be a battle he would fight even with those who were considered of high reputation and pillars of the church.
I don't think inerrancy leaves Tim for Paul and James to have come to different conclusions. I believe they were speaking to different audiences and fighting different heresies. Oil jump back on your podcast when you've moved to another topic as your thoughts have been quite helpful to me re many other aspects of Grace! Good bless!
ReplyDeleteIf you stay with us for the next few weeks (and perhaps catch the first few episodes on this, if you haven't already, you'll see even more evidence from other scriptures and Paul and James really did believe differently regarding justification and salvation. And you'll hear us talk about how our mindsets in the church today are programmed with an idea of inerrancy that doesn't allow for us to see these differences, even though they're right in front of us. And yet even with these differences, it's OK, and the New Testament epistles still point us to Jesus, our Savior.
DeleteYou must not believe in the doctrine of verbal, plenary inspiration and if do how do you square that with your teaching brothers?
DeleteHappy 2021 ;)
Perhaps you have not actually listened to the series, as we've explained what we believe.
Delete@Unknown, with the assumed mindset that God was directly speaking every word written by the apostles and other writers as perfect truth, how do you square the facts we've presented in this series over the past 3 months? James believed the law was still in place for the Jews until at least 30 years after the cross ... long after he wrote his Bible letter. From his perspective at that time, faith alone could not justify. James believed there was a different gospel and separate set of rules for Gentiles. James and his council admonished Paul to stop what he was teaching about grace alone and publicly declare he believed in keeping the law, including circumcision, purification sacrifices, and all of the other law-based traditions the Jews had pursued from the Old Covenant. The New Testament pages are filled with these challenges and reveal disagreements in the early decades of the church regarding law and grace, Jew and Gentile. Paul's teachings brought a greater revelation of grace that many in the Jewish community had not yet been able to receive. I would encourage you to listen to all of the programs in the series with an open mind starting with program #778 through at least 788 and beyond. The bottom line on the Bible writings from witnesses is that Jesus is the only way to God and that salvation is meant to be received as a gift of God's grace. Having different doctrinal opinions and varied theologies doesn't change that ... not then and not now.
ReplyDelete