Ken,
Jesus of Nazareth was the epitome of a good, sound, reliable teacher. Saul of Tarsus was no slouch. If acceptance and rejection by their hearers and peers had been the indices of their legitimacy, they'd have been miserable failures.
I am not sure if you had a specific post of mind when you made the above post, because I didn't specifically address peer acceptance on this thread. However, I do lean toward the idea of "peer acceptance". Also, I am not sure we have any disagreement here.
First off, Jesus is God. He has no peers...........
Secondly, Paul was an apostle, one of a very select group, and used in a special way in a special time. Paul received a special revelation of Jesus, from God, so that he might preach to the Gentiles. (Gal Ch 1)
Even though Paul had a direct, physical revelation, he was called to his first missionary journey while he was in Antioch with the church leaders. The Holy Spirit directed this group to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work God was calling them to. (Acts 13)
To me, those church leaders were Paul's peers, and their acceptance of Paul and sending him out as a missionary is type of accountability that prevents folks from "going out in left field".
I don't know if anyone living today has had a special revelation from God of the magnitude Paul had. Some have certainly claimed so and many have started cults. Today, we have a very solid body of knowledge concerning Biblical, Evangelical, orthodoxy. Given all that, we need to be very careful if we seem to have a thought, idea, or "revelation" that runs counter to our present, orthodox, evangelical understanding of the Bible.
I am certainly not saying God
won't give such revelations any more. However, any such revelation will be grounded in the Word and very likely be confirmed by conservative Evangelicals as they are sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
