But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Galations 1:8
Ahem...that's "Galatians." That is, a rather stern letter of Paul directed to the church in Galatia (part of present day Turkey).
Aside from the fact that someone appears to have pinched your Prozac supply again, you are basically taking Paul's statement entirely out of context for your own sanctimonious purposes.
Basically, Paul's letter was directed against syncretism in the early church, the combination of different practices in a religion. Specifically, he was addressing the issue of the Judaizer movement, those Jewish Christians of the early church who insisted that only one who agreed to convert to Judaism and to follow the Jewish law could rightfully be a Christian. In Galatians, for example, he speaks against the principle that male Gentile converts to Christianity would need to be circumsized. The basic undergirding message of Galatians as a whole is that salvation is through faith, not adherence to the law of the Jews or any other.
This movement to subsume Christianity into basically a sideshow of pharisaical Judaism threatened to foment an early schism in the church, to basically split the church into a fundamentally Jewish Christianity and an entirely separate one for Gentiles. His admonition against other gospels was specifically directed at those who were using various statements in the four gospels taken in isolation to support the position of a Jewish-centered Christianity. Even within the apostles, there was considerable disagreement about this issue. Paul was the strictest about it, whereas Peter for example was a bit more easygoing.
And with all due respect, the idea of Jesus being ashamed of anyone before the Father seems somewhat syncretic in itself (and rather nauseating to be frank). Would you care to elucidate upon why Jesus would be ashamed of anything or anyone? He is not responsible for our decisions. |
