Thoughts on Paul

By William Merrifield

Paul wrote at the end of a completed revelation. Jesus himself had declared, "It is finished." That great movement-which began with the call to Abram and concluded with Jesus returning to the Father-was over. Paul could write concerning the completed knowledge of the meaning of human life, as he stood in the full revelation that came to him through Christ Jesus. It does not matter to the church whether Paul directed this process or he simply recorded it in his epistles. Paul speaks to us as one who has stood in the light of the glory of God, as seen in the face of Jesus. He calls to us as we face life in the midst of the terrifying world that is the twenty-first century. Come with me as we consider the thoughts of Paul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781641147606

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William Merrifield

THOUGHTS ON PAUL

ISBN 978-1-64114-759-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64114-760-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2017 by William Merrifield

Scripture quotations marked (kjv) are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge, 1769. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (niv) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, niv®. Copyright © ١٩٧٣, ١٩٧٨, ١٩٨٤ by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. All Scriptures quoted by other sources than Paul will be found in the endnotes. The italics are to draw the reader to the Scriptures and the Italics are mine.

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"While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus receive my spirit…’ and cried out, ‘Lord do not hold this sin against them.’

When he had said this, he fell asleep.

And Saul was there, giving approval to his death."1

—Acts 7:59–8:1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom I owe my eternal soul

To my loving wife, who has so patiently supported my studies at the expense of quality time that should have been spent with her

To Sandra Austin for her willingness to read, edit, correct, and question me on both my research and my conclusions

Introduction

A dear friend asked if I shouldn’t make my next book about Paul, who was responsible for most of the New Testament Epistles. The twenty-seven books, which comprise the New Testament, were written by eight Disciples of Christ during the latter half of the first century. John wrote five, Luke and Peter both wrote two each, and Matthew, Mark, James and Jude, the half brothers of Jesus, each wrote one book. Paul wrote the remaining fourteen books.

More importantly, there are three reasons to write on Paul. First, Paul is writing at the close of an immense passage of time that began with Abram and ended with Jesus. The faith of our fathers was completed. Second, the revelation of God’s salvation completed in Jesus Christ, and the manner of its delivery gave Paul a point of view that was not fully shared by his predecessors. Lastly, Paul was writing to a Christian church1 in the middle of a pagan society. Not unlike America today. The church is seeking how it might adjust itself to the world in which we live and at the same time not lose her relevance.

In order to search out this Apostle whom we simply call Paul, we must be attentive to the Bible, the Gospel, and the early Church, for these constitute the basis of our search. The Gospel is easy enough to comprehend for the soul who honestly searches for the truth. The Bible is altogether different. It does not render itself to so easy a process. The study of Scripture has proven difficult due to humanity’s attempts at reading into the Scriptures that which is not there. This is often due to secular humanity seeking to teach from a source foreign to the Scripture2 The attitude of the social environment to the church should be transparently clear. As long as society can control the wit- ness of the Church, there will be no need for persecution. If the Church in America is willing to standardize its witness so as not to come into conflict with society’s demand for abortion on demand, practicing homosexuals in the pulpit, the forgiveness of sins, and the sanctity of marriage to include any and all who wish to be married in the church, then the church can live at peace with the social order.

The Christian historian Luke, in writing the book of Acts, gives us most of our account of Paul’s life and works. The assumption is made that Luke was of Gentile birth, possibly a Macedonian. Paul’s reference to him as the beloved physician and his frequent use of Greek medical terms points to Luke’s profession as being a doc- tor. Modern attempts to discredit the book of Acts as a later and untrustworthy document have failed due in large part to the research of dedicated and methodical Christian historians.

Luke outlines for us the background of the pagan world during the reign of Claudius and Nero. He was a fellow traveler with Paul. Apart from the book of the Acts’ importance in Christian antiquity, it is without a doubt the most interesting travel narrative of Christian history. On several occasions Luke moves from the third person into the first- person plural, referred to as the We-passages3 Although hard to imagine Luke being absent, with the exception of these passages, we can with certainty state that he was at least present on these occasions.

Other details are gleamed from statements or inferences in the epistles that Paul wrote. Of the four- teen books either penned by Paul personally or written by an associate as Paul dictated them, six may be styled the Missionary Epistles. These are Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, and I and II Thessalonians. Of the three Pastoral Epistles, I Timothy and Titus were written before Paul’s two Roman imprisonments, while II Timothy is written only a short while before the Apostle to the Gentiles was beheaded. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written while Paul was either in house arrest or incarcerated and are as such titled the Prison Epistles.

The last book attributed to Paul or to one of his close associates is the Epistle to the Hebrews. This letter was addressed to Jewish Christians who were most likely in Palestine Syria. The epistle was intended to stimulate them to remain steadfast amid the taunts and persecutions of their Jewish kinsmen. While there is noteworthy debate on both sides as to the author of Hebrews, I am satisfied that Paul is the author, and at the same time I can acknowledge that it was written in the style of whomever he was dictating it to. In either of these hypotheses, neither violates other scriptures or disallows for guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Before one can begin to write about the thoughts of Paul, one must set the background from which will come the foundation. Here in lies my problem. The sequence of events from the day of Pentecost to John’s exile at Patmos, or better still from the book of Acts to the book of Revelation, tells the events and spread of Christianity throughout the then-known world. There are a multitude of excellent books delineating the missionary journeys of Paul, written by great scholars. I am content to leave that in their most capable hands. However, some background must be laid before seeking the man himself. The problem is, how much background is required? I shall endeavor to lay a firm foundation, and no more. So come with me as we go in search of Paul the Apostle.

Chapter One

Saul of Tarsus

A New Church, a New Faith

Some scholars have elected to dispute the matter, but the truth is Jesus left no details as to what the church would look like, and only the barest of patterns with which the apostles and disciples were to build a world-changing, life-saving religion that we call Christianity. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

For approximately ten days, the apostles and disciples have waited. The masses are gone now; those who were weak of faith and short of spiritual endurance have all deserted the assembly. Gone are the straphangers and the miracle seekers, those frail souls on the peripheral edge who cared little but for their own needs, wants, and desires. Their numbers, once counted in the hundreds if not thousands, are reduced to about a hundred and twenty.

They had joined themselves together in prayer and calm assurance that the Holy Spirit would soon give them power. It was on the day of Shavuot, meaning Weeks, that the Holy Spirit came. Shavuot falls seven weeks after the second day of Passover, on the sixth and seventh days of the month of Sivan (May-June). We know it as Pentecost, which in the Greek means fiftieth, because it takes place on the fiftieth day after the beginning of Passover.

Shavuot is a three-fold holiday commemorating the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, the harvesting of wheat in Israel, and the ripening of the first fruits. To Christians this has come to be known as the festival of first fruits because this was the day that marked the start of the Christian Church. Luke tells us that on this day, Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house…They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who had visited Jerusalem during the Crucifixion and returned to the city a few months later would have seen no real outward change. Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, was still Rome’s pawn and still hated by the people and the religious leaders. Pontius Pilate was still Procurator over Judea. Temple worship was still the heart and soul of Jerusalem. The fire on the altar, centered before the Holy of Holies, still sent forth its inexhaustible spherical cloud of smoke. Jerusalem’s busy day was still awakened to the sound of blaring trumpets and singing priest as the first streaks of dawn filled the Jerusalem sky.

The aroma of incense and roasting animal flesh still drifted over the city and often carried by a westward wind could be smelled as far as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. The same vendors, where once an itinerate teacher and prophet had made a whip and drove them out of the Temple still plied their lucrative commerce against the wall in the Court of the Gentiles. There, just outside the large doors, which guarded the Temple grounds, still sat the accursed moneychangers converting foreign currency for Temple Shekels.

Events had moved quickly after the Resurrection of Jesus, followed later by His glorious Ascension from the Mount of Olives. Fifty days after the Resurrection came Pentecost, that marvelous descent of the Holy Spirit. The confusion and bewilderment that accompanied this miraculous experience amazed all who saw and heard the sub- sequent sermon. The message hit like a bolt of lightning sending forth an electronic pulse surging through all who stood near. These people now cut to the heart at what they were hearing entreated the Apostles to divulge how they might be released from their sins. Those who heard the evangelistic pronouncements responded, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

The descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was only the beginning. From this captivating message, Peter stood forth for many years as the most commanding figure among Christians. However, since human tradition is not always totally trustworthy and history is far too often silent on what antiquity considers trivial, we are required to diligently search the silent and dusty halls of worldly and biblical history in the hope of giving some authentic glimpses of the individual whom the world sim- ply calls Paul.

Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles, most especially the acts of Peter and Paul. This eloquent treatise is the story of the early church down to somewhere near the close of the first Roman imprisonment of Paul. Because it ends so abruptly, the Acts of the Apostles gives us speculation that Luke may have intended to write a third volume. It is equally possible that at the death of Paul, Luke was so traumatized that he could not bring himself to write of this travesty of justice, and the persecution of believers that followed.

Luke the physician traveled with Paul, caring for his health, which can be considered poor due to an affliction of the flesh (II Corinthians 12:7) and the beatings and stonings he endured for the sake of the Gospel. Luke also aided Paul in his evangelist endeavors. Having been in such close proximity and for so long a time, Luke had more than just a casual opportunity to learn about Paul, his work, and those few whom he considered his closest companions. I believe, save for our Lord and Savior Jesus, we can be certain that we are as close to the greatest character in the New Testament as we can be.

Perhaps such a visitor happened upon a street revival and paused to listen as a man called the crowd to repentance? Maybe at the Temple gates he would have been privileged to watch as a man lame from birth received healing by the voice of a fisherman?9 What the visitor could not see, and may well have passed by, were Palestinian and Jews of the world who were conscious of the divinity of Jesus called the Christ. These same Jews now comprised a new faith in the world that called all sinners to salvation in the name of Jesus.

There was in the undercurrent of Jerusalem’s teaming masses a new, pulsating society of Messianic Jews who believed with all their heart and all their soul that God had at last fulfilled