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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RMF who wrote (39306)	5/26/2006 2:39:49 PM
From: Stan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

RMF: there are NO known writings that were done during his actual lifetime Granted, but there were eyewitnesses. Take for example Luke's Gospel (not written by an eyewitness). His own method of writing his account is stated in Chapter 1, verse 1-4 "In as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." The Gospels of Matthew and John are written by eyewitnesses. It is commonly held that Mark's Gospel is taken from Peter, another eyewitness; for Mark was his companion later in life as stated in 1 Peter 5:13. a sect of Judaism and might very well have remained so if Paul had not recruited Gentiles and eliminated the rules that kept the two religions so tightly bound. Your conclusion is based on sketchy information. It was Peter and John who acknowledged the Samaritans (half-breed Jews) in Acts 8:14-15 "Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit." Then in Acts 10, Peter is sent to a Genitle, a Roman Centurion, Cornelius, by God Himself; and God visits them with the outpouring of the Spirit experienced in Acts 2 in Jerusalem where then there were only 120 Jews. In Acts 12:19-21 we have the following: So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. So, in Antioch of Syria, Greeks were coming in in large numbers. It is not until Acts 13 that Barnabas and Paul are sent forth to their work. Now, wherever they went, they always resorted first to the synagogues of the Jews to preach Jesus. It was only after the Jewish rejection in Antioch of Pisidia that Paul states that they would turn to the Gentiles. However, they still went to synagogues first to preach as they traveled from there. Antioch of Pisidia marked though, a change in emphasis to include Gentiles deliberately in the effort. pretty much a sect of Judaism and might very well have remained so if Paul had not recruited Gentiles and eliminated the rules that kept the two religions so tightly bound. Not so. For in Acts 15 a controversy erupted back in the Syrian Antioch over some saying that circumcision was required for the Gentiles to be saved. It was Peter and James and the Jerusalem elders that all but freed the Gentiles from observance of the Mosaic law by an official letter. There were four requirements, two of which were dietary, which themselves were in order to accommodate the great Jewish congregation that fellowshiped and ate with the Gentiles believers. Paul, who was present, later wrote his letters, such as Galatians, in agreement with this Jewish directive freeing Gentiles from Jewish observances. He did expand the doctrine fully, but in no way invented it. Paul "says" he met Jesus, how do we verify something like that? An excellent question. (I wish many Christians who believe modern so-called visions would ask the same thing, but I digress.) We look to three things right off the bat in the record of Acts 9: the sudden and otherwise unexplained conversion of this self-motivated, virulent opponent of Christians; that he (unlike John Smith in his "vision") was not alone, for there were other men with him who although they did not see anyone, did hear the voice; and the testimony of a Jewish disciple, Ananias of Acts 9:10, who was reluctant to believe the Lord about Saul, who appeared to him to tell him to go and pray for him who was still blinded and currently in Damascus waiting for him. And when Ananias did go, he found Saul just as it was told to him. If we add to all this that Paul lived in defiance of his own people over the circumcision thing and that he died indirectly over it, we can believe him about the appearance of Jesus directly to him as well.