About this topic, I have no answers, only questions right now.
I've always struggled with James 2 and how it seems to directly contradict what Paul teaches. I've heard a number of different explanations and some that I think have alot of merit.
Here's my issue.
Galatians 2 11-14
When certain men came from who? James. Peter stopped eating with gentiles and moved to the "Jew" side of the table if you will. Why does Paul include that they came from James? Did he (James) send them to make sure Peter was still "acting a Jew"? Or was he just warning them about the circumcision party?
Acts 15:19-21
In the council James says basically "OK, we won't make the gentiles get circumcised, but they still have to not eat foods polluted by idols, strangled, or blood - and no sexual immorality. And what's verse 21 about? It would seem that James is having a hard time letting go of the law of Moses.
James 2
James specifically says that you are justified by faith and works.
Am I missing something? It almost sounds like Paul is specifically defending the Gospel he received directly from the mouth of Jesus against the kind of things James says.
Was James a judaizer?
I'm not saying he wasn't an apostle and I'm not saying we can't rely on his epistle as the word of God. I'm just saying...
I'll work on it some more. Any input?
I've always struggled with James 2 and how it seems to directly contradict what Paul teaches. I've heard a number of different explanations and some that I think have alot of merit.
Here's my issue.
Galatians 2 11-14
When certain men came from who? James. Peter stopped eating with gentiles and moved to the "Jew" side of the table if you will. Why does Paul include that they came from James? Did he (James) send them to make sure Peter was still "acting a Jew"? Or was he just warning them about the circumcision party?
Acts 15:19-21
In the council James says basically "OK, we won't make the gentiles get circumcised, but they still have to not eat foods polluted by idols, strangled, or blood - and no sexual immorality. And what's verse 21 about? It would seem that James is having a hard time letting go of the law of Moses.
James 2
James specifically says that you are justified by faith and works.
Am I missing something? It almost sounds like Paul is specifically defending the Gospel he received directly from the mouth of Jesus against the kind of things James says.
Was James a judaizer?
I'm not saying he wasn't an apostle and I'm not saying we can't rely on his epistle as the word of God. I'm just saying...
I'll work on it some more. Any input?
1 comment:
I deal with this key question in my book "Is There An Elephant In YOUR Church?" (It is at Amazon - print and Kindle ($.99).
Bottom line: Based on 4 years of research into the early church, all early Jewish Christians were "Judaizers" - mixing law with grace - because they just put what Jesus taught on top of their Jewish belief system - like Jesus SEEMED to do. They knew He was the Messiah but not all of the implications of that reality - such as "being in Him."
The issue became clear to Paul in about 42 AD. He received a major download directly from Jesus (as he described in 2 Cor. 12:1-6.) We know he wrote that book in 56 AD and he says the revelation came 14 years before. This when he was taken up and "saw" the finished work of Jesus' divine exchange with believers. From then on he counted all as rubbish for the sake of KNOWING Jesus personally. He then began to teach Jesus whole Gospel of His finished work. He gave all believers a new spiritual identity and position and the power to walk according the the Holy Spirit living inside - or according to the flesh.
This is the "law" of the Spirit of LIFE that set believers free from the Mosaic Law of sin and death (which Gentiles were never given.) It was the Jerusalem church under James that held on to the Law and circumcision - despite what he agreed to at the council. He was the first of 14 Hebrew bishops that enforced the law in the Jerusalem until Rome again destroyed what was left of Jerusalem and exiled all Jews.
All this and much more is in my very large (434 page) study book.
Lenny
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