Glad you had a good day and hope for a better evening...
I appreciate Paul's letters and understand the context of them, I doubt he ever believed there would be a new testament and that his letters would be taken by some as gospel. The issue is the Rapture, which Paul introduced because the Thessalonians were concerned about their dead and Jesus's second coming. I have no problem what he wrote, just the interpretation by the church, it has made his words prophetic and I don't believe Jesus needed to talk through Paul about these issues every time the new churches were concerned.
Paul also wrote things that conflicted with Jesus's word, again we are all human and it's not an issue until we are told Paul's words are gospel or Jesus's words.
I believe Jesus came and gave his message, he lived it, didn't write it and he could have, there was a reason and a lesson. I trust the words of his personal disciples first, though much of the gospels were written by assistants/confidants well after.
My overall issue is the exclusionary prophetic mention of the Rapture in this thread... When Jesus spoke of the end times he said something to the effect of gathering his chosen from the 'heavens' and the four winds of the earth... My mention of the criminal also references the criminal as being with Jesus in paradise immediately after death... the faith issue isn't stated and just something I found interesting, but I said it could be in translation, though Jesus didn't reference faith either in that instance, just acceptance, don't try to insinuate I was denying faith overall... So why raise the dead if they are already in heaven?
I don't know why you guys bring this kind of stuff up on the open forum, Jesus isn't offended about talk of dogs in heaven, he may enjoy the levity... but I imagine he is offended every time someone undecided gets turned off by bible thumpers when the message isn't even his.
Kent
