|
||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||
Commentary on "Paul's Authority and Gospel"
Day 3: Monday, October 3, 2011 - Paul's Calling
Overview
Today’s lesson merely discusses the likely sorts of subtle attack on Paul’s apostleship that he defended against in the book of Galatians. The lesson asks the reader to compare the salutations in Galatians with those in Ephesians, Philippians, and 2 Thessalonians. The lesson ends with questions about how the authority of Scripture is subtly attacked “within the confines of our church”, and how the reader has been influenced by those.
Observations
Once again it is astonishing to look at the lesson and see that, with the richness and depth of content in the book of Galatians, the author spends a whole day discussing Paul’s “calling”, spending most of the space in the lesson conjecturing what sorts of opposition Paul was facing.
The opening of the book of Galatians is one of the strongest anywhere in the epistles. Galatians 1:6-10 are especially powerful, indicting anyone who dares to preach a gospel other than the one he preached: that Christ died according to Scripture, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
Here is what Galatians 1:6-10 say:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Adventism teaches a gospel that is completely other than the one Paul preached. In fact, the heresy being promoted in Galatia, that of Judaizing and the insistence that believers needed to be circumcised and thus ushered into keep the law, is almost identical to the requirements touted by Adventism. They insist that “Christians” are not truly and fully biblical until they embrace the 10 Commandments and keep them, especially the fourth, as their “proof” of loving God.
Paul, however, said twice that anyone who preached “a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you” was to be accursed. “Accursed” is not a moderate or halfway word. It is powerful and means those who preach a different gospel are leading people away from the Lord Jesus, and they are cursed in the same way false prophets are accursed.
Adventism teaches a a false gospel, and the verses in chapter 1 that indict Adventism are simply not discussed. They are ignored completely.
Meanwhile, many within Adventism argue about Paul’s legitimacy as a Bible writer at all. They insist he is hard to understand, and some go so far as to say he preached a different gospel from the one John preached.
Nothing could be further from the truth. “Paul’s gospel” and “John’s gospel” are exactly the same thing—but this identity cannot be understood unless a person understands and believes that humans have immaterial spirits.
I urge you, reader of this commentary—sit down and read through the entire six chapters of Galatians every day for a month. Ask God what He wants you to learn, and allow the words of God articulated through Paul teach you God’s will and God’s truth.
This lesson, again, is a poorly hidden attempt to keep the reader placated and kept away from the meat of the word embedded in this earliest of Paul’s epistles.
Summary
- This lesson ignores the potent indictment against anything other than the gospel Paul preached.
- Verses 6-10 call for anyone preaching anything other than Paul preached, Christ dead, buried, and resurrected, to be accursed.
- Adventism teaches a false gospel very similar to the Galatians heresy.
- Adventism insists that true Christians will keep the seventh-day Sabbath as an evidence of their love for God.
- Sabbath-keeping is not part of the gospel; it is added on.
- This lesson keeps the reader from studying the real meat of this epistle, conjecturing instead on the peripheral issues of what people might have said to try to discredit Paul’s apostleship.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised October 2, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 2
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 2
Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 2
Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings
Please Support This Project
