If you have read all of the Apostle Paul's letters and epistles, you may have noticed one startling thing after his opening salutations. Read on to see Paul's righteous anger on display.
Contrary to popular belief, the Apostle Paul was no weakling. Not only was he a strong man and a staunch defender of the Christian faith, he was also strong-willed and far from fragile when it came to physical strength. Do not be mistaken: he was repeatedly beaten and once stoned and left for dead. But he preached right away despite this!
Letters and epistles
Paul is credited for authoring more letters and epistles than any other writer of the New Testament. He wrote 13 books including the following: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Galatians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, and the book of Colossians.
Here is an interesting fact: in all of these letters and epistles (there is a big difference) after the salutation or greeting, Paul always commended or praised the church community. He did this with 12 of the 13. In Galatians he did not, but rather he came out immediately angry and did not commend the churches in Galatia.
Churches? Yes. Galatia was a province in Asia Minor, what is now Turkey. Galatia was the epicenter of Paul's missionary work where churches (plural) were established.
Cities of Galatia consisted of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Paul was from Tarsus and was a Roman citizen. In fact, Galatia was a Roman province.
Book of Galatians
The book of Galatians was written around AD 50. Some scholars put it as late as AD 54. Pinpointing the exact date is difficult and not the issue. We cannot be dogmatic about it.
Paul wrote this book because there were severe problems in Galatia among all the churches. The circumcision party of the Jews were misleading the Galatian Christians. They were preaching that nobody could be saved unless the following conditions were met: 1. believers had to undergo circumcision; 2. believers had to keep the law; and 3. believers had to keep the Jewish feasts.
In short, and without going into detail for the sake of brevity, what these Jews were teaching and preaching was a faith plus works salvation. This is the opposite of the true gospel of Christ. Paul was highly ticked off over it all.
Ad hominem attacks
Ad hominem attacks are logical fallacies. A logical fallacy is an error in a person's reasoning that renders an argument invalid. An ad hominem is an attack on a person (or persons) making the argument rather than addressing the argument itself. You might want to read that again.
Here is an example. Let's say a person says to me, "Hey, Scotty, the earth is flat!"
Instead of arguing for a round earth I could instead say, "Yeah, well you smell like dog poop!"
You smell me, I mean, you get the point?
Anyway, the Jews had travelled up to Galatia, a Gentile (Greek) stronghold and had attacked Paul's credibility, stating he was not a true apostle (but he was). Paul has a lot of fire in his belly as we will see next.
Paul's retorts
Look what Paul says to the Galatians right off the bat!
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-9, NIV).
The Galatian readers and hearers of this were certainly not expecting this. They were expecting to be praised. But Paul went on and said, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!" (Galatians 1:8, NIV).
Paul. Was. Angry.
Apparently, since the Galatians were a hardheaded bunch, Paul repeated himself and said, "As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!" (Galatians 1:9).
Now here is the interesting part. The Greek word curse or accursed in these passages is anathema. Anathema means "go to hell." Paul was saying, Yo, listen up, if anybody teaches you anything besides faith alone in Christ alone, they can go straight to hell. That is righteous and justified anger.
Paul summed up his letter to the Galatians thus: "From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17, NIV).
That's a wrap
There are many preachers and teachers among us today who are wolves in sheep's clothing. They, like the Jews of old, state that there are other requirements to be saved other than faith alone in Christ alone. This is a damnable lie straight from the pit of hell itself.
Do not be misled, salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Period.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV).
We cannot earn a gift. Get it?
Dear readers, if anyone teaches differently, find another church straightaway and do not be led to hell by "another gospel."
All images (except one) are courtesy of https://pixabay.com/
We cannot earn a gift becaue it is freely given. There's nothing we can do that can save us from the fire of hell. It is only through Jesus. Through faith an His grace .