- Apr 18, 2020
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Just a comment and not looking to create discord in this.
One of the best ways I found over the years to learn from the Text is to do word studies in the Text. It seems a very basic thing to do, but I can tell you from first-hand experience that once the halls of education start teaching things like hermeneutics, they quickly leave out any concepts of also working at such basic levels in the Text.
When I left organized religion in 1996, the first thing I did was word studies. I would pick a word like "water", or "Turn" or "Redeem" etc., (there were a bunch of them) and find the Greek and Hebrew meaning and study every time the word was used in Scripture, and this was a very good practice that I still use today. "Water" was actually one of the most eye-opening studies I did early on.
But the point I was trying to make, that perhaps I wasn't able to clearly articulate, is that there are some undeniable biblical Facts that can be understood, simply by reading the text. One such undeniable biblical Truth, is that the Pharisees were not promoting God's Laws. They didn't walk in God's Laws. They were not trying to be justified by keeping God's Commandments. They didn't strive to obey the "Letter of the Law".
This is undeniable Biblical Truth that cannot be broken with word studies, or Greek and Hebrew classes, etc.
And yet to this day, this world's religions who "come in Christ's Name" preach that the Pharisees were trying to earn Salvation by obeying God's Laws "to the letter". That they were trying to be justified by obedience to God. But they were not.
Now if I ignore this undeniable biblical Fact regarding the mainstream preachers of Jesus and Paul's Time, who "profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.", and go into Galatians with the deception, "the pharisees were trying to be justified by obedience to the Letter of God's Law," in my mind and heart, how then, can I find the Truth of Paul's words? No amount of Greek and Hebrew breakdowns in Gal. words is going to help me if I refuse to accept what Jesus has already made clear about the religious sect of the Pharisees, in favor of popular established religious philosophies promoted by this world's religions since we were kids.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump, Yes?
So the reason why we differ in our understanding, according to your posts that I have read, and they are many, is you are coming into Galatians with the pre-conceived belief that the Pharisees were trying to earn salvation by obeying God's Laws and promoting the same to others.
While I am convinced that the Pharisees rejected God's Laws and created their own. They despised God's Judgments, was ignorant of God righteousness, and set about to establish their own. But continued in the religious practice of gathering on God's Sabbaths, in manmade shrines of worship promoting sacrifices and offerings "of the law" for justification.
For example, I came to understand more about the topic of Biblical Salvation through studying every use of the word "save" in every form it is used in the Text, than I ever did in sitting in the pews or in classes being "educated". I also found that many of those teaching salvation were wrong in some to much of what they taught.
That's great, and certainly there is a lot of wrong teaching out there, as Jesus warned.
Remaining with this example, that study required me to study several 100's of passages of Scripture in context (so probably a few thousand verses) and to pursue many, many rabbit trails connected to the topic of "salvation'. It took me a year+ to get near accomplishing it and I study like a full-time job in Greek and some Hebrew.
No doubt you have put a lot of time in as have I. But to be fair, so did the Philosophers the Pharisees were influenced by. And the council of Nicea, and Calvin and Miller and Wesley, Smith and Russell. So then are you more Spiritually enlightened because you were trained by professional theologians, like many of those I just named? Or because I avoid all influence of this world's professional theologians, am I better suited to understand scriptures?
Who can know, I certainly don't? But one thing I do know for absolute certainty, the Pharisees who were bewitching the Galatians were not trying to promote the Commandments, Judgments or Statutes of God. And when I read Galatians, my understanding is different than those who promote the deception that the Pharisees were trying to earn salvation by obeying God's Laws to the letter.
Therefore, could it be that what a man brings into Galatians directly influences much of what he gets out of Galatians?
So, I say this just to say that although some of this discussion may seem like minutia and too narrowly focused, in speaking of myself, my mind at this level of narrow focus has much Scripture attached in the wings ready to go to. From what I've read of @HIM I'm pretty sure it's the same for him.
This narrow focus will attach to many other points in the Text, and it does tend to alter how we might then read them and interpret them.
I agree. Consider the Pharisees who were convinced Jesus was from Galilee. With this Leaven firmly planted in their heart, did this not influence everything they saw, heard and studied? Consider Peters words.
Acts 10: 28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
What Law of God forbids keeping company with a stranger who dwells among them?
Lev. 19: 33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Imagine the difference between the understanding of one man who believes what Moses wrote concerning the Stranger, and a man who believes what the Jews taught for doctrine, concerning the stranger? All the text breakdown, Hebrew and Greek would be useless, if the foundation of our belief is a deception. Consider Rehab? The woman whose son Elisha raised, why didn't Peter consider them? See how powerful and lasting these religious traditions of this world were for the Apostles? Will it not also be the same for men today?
Also, faith in vs. faith of is no small matter in the view of many. There has been too much incorrect focus on our faith in Christ when the Text is actually speaking of His faith and telling us more about what He did and how and what He does and what He provides to us.
I agree, as my reply posted. It is the Faith "OF" Jesus, the Faith which was "In Jesus" that is the "mark for the prize of the high calling of God".
I didn't come to this understanding because of Hebrew or Greek word breakdowns. It was much simpler than that for me. Jesus said, "Now go and Sin no more". He didn't "go and sin no more" for this guy. As in "Faith in Jesus". He told him to "Go and Sin no more" which is only possible by having the Faith "of Jesus".
As it is written. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Just as it was the whole duty of the Lord's Christ. Paul understood this, in my understanding.
1 Cor. 7: 19 Circumcision (Jew) is nothing, and uncircumcision (Gentile) is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
It's all important, every verse, every detail, every word, every letter, every man inserted punctuation. The entirety. I just read through a few pages of thinking and reasoning in context and associated Scripture about the placement of a comma in Rom2.
Good luck with the comma.
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