Are You A Paulician?
Allow me to clarify my title. I do not refer to the Medieval heretics of the 17th Century nor the cultic Christians at Corinth; neither today’s sect known as hyper-Dispensationalist.
I mean do you spend a lot of time in the Pauline Epistles? Do you give them the credit due to them? Paul was distinctively chosen by our Lord to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. All his writings were and are (exceptions) to Gentile Believers. Apart from Christ we are told all his sufferings were for us Gentiles!
There is today, and throughout history (I think) much preaching, singing, and writings about the historical Christ, but little in proportion to the risen Christ Paul presents. Interestingly he mentions our Lord’s earthly life and ministry very few times. He majors on the Risen Christ!
It is not the earthly Historic Christ we are to focus our attention on, as important and necessary as this is, (1 Tim. 6:3-4); but the Heavenly Risen Christ is to be the center of our attention. Most, I find, spend all their time on the wrong side of the Tomb.
It is in Paul’s writings we see: we are In Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit, seated with Him in the heavenlies, triumphant-conqueror’s-victors, the full meaning of the resurrection, have access to the Father through His Blood, the Whole Armour of God, etc.
I often read Revelation chapters four and five, about the risen Christ in heaven. What a lifter-upper!
by an Aged Saint
Thank you, Bro. Sandlin. You always challenge me as I settle down into my comfortable "Christian" zone. You have reminded me many times of my godly Daddy. He was a young Christian, to my knowledge, about 20 years, my age when he went home to be with our Saviour. I was told he got saved about the time I was born. He was called to Preach maybe eight or ten years before he passed away at the age of 46. I know you don't need the history lesson, especially since you didn't even know of him. He loved studying about Paul. He had several books about Paul that I wish I had been smart enough to have collected. I used to travel with him when he would preach at other churches, filling in from time to time. My Daddy pastored a few years before he passed away. He started a church in nearby Crestview, Florida, and there were several services when it would be just him and me. He preached like there was a full house. I learned a lot about the Apostle Paul, and of course, the risen Saviour. I am sorry you had to suffer through what my wife calls "one of my stories". Thank you for your wisdom and sharing about Paul.
Most of the New Testament was written by two sidekicks, outsiders. The rest by a half-dozen or so insiders. One of the outsiders was an itinerate rabbi who’d been schooled in Jerusalem – but his peers never let him forget that he was actually a native of Cilicia. The other, a physician, scholar, and professional writer, came from Troas. While Paul documented the emerging new order, Luke penned the definitive description of an obsolete order’s suicide. The liberal ruling elite (Sadducees) and its media and entertainment outlets (Scribes and Pharisees) valued their own comfort over the survival of their nation, and made some inexcusable bad calls.