Mike,
I really appreciated your letter on The epistles of Paul, and that he is "our '' Apostle and we should heed the Lord's establishment of him as such. Doug Stauffer's " One book rightly divided " is an excellent read, simple and tedious at first IMO, but get's very meaty and arduous  as you go. Doug does stress that Paul's Missionary epistles differ from his prison epistles in that there was a transitionary period where signs, wonders and miracles were fading and only lingered as a divine courtesy and grace period for Paul to solicit as many Jews( the Jews require a sign) as possible before they were to become " male nor female, Jew nor Greek ".   We must not be too proud of our " right living" and " abstaining from sin" to the point that it is "us " that is doing it, and not the Lord's time consuming and inner working within us that changes the " man" himself, and not the man changing his actions out of self gratification and dutiful watchdogging.
For some, probably most of us, it takes a good while for the Lord to chasten out the rebellion in us through trials, experience and self-failure, until we can finally learn through maturity of the spirit through the Spirit. It is a learning experience. Combined with the proper right division without self condemnation, of course.
Co. 3 : 7-11

7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

10 And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all.


Scrutinizing yourself under the bondage of self-loathing and fear believing that you will be damned if you mess up and may not make it in the rapture is a self-defeating misconception that comes from improperly dividing the divisions between what Paul taught, and what peter and the Jewish Apostles were unwittingly laying away for a future time of Jacob's trouble and coming Kingdom.


Ga. 2: 9

9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we [should go] unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.


2 Pe. 3: 16

15 And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

16 As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.


Peter didn't understand all that Paul taught, because it was not his ministry to understand. We must have people smarter that us to show us what was in front of us all the time..true common sense doctrinal truths that we need our spiritual blinders removed to see, and the willingness to start anew with eagerness to un-learn all the religious indoctrination that has set up strongholds in our minds.


Thanks Mike,

Yep, still watchin'


Alan T