The Father of Christianity

There is no other person in the Bible so extolled, appreciated, and quoted as much as Paul of Tarsus. Hundreds of books have been written about his life. Thousands more have been written exploring his writings. Entire doctrines have evolved because of the counsel set forth in his letters. His influence has been so strong that he might rightly be called the Father of Christianity.

Like any strong personality, Paul has also had his share of critics. He is a very polarizing character and while the majority of Christians consider his writings to be sacred, many believers quietly cringe when certain passages in his letters are brought up. In fact, his writings alone have been responsible for splitting entire Christian churches and denominations.

Adventism itself has something of a love/hate relationship with Paul. He is a huge force in the New Testament, and his letters are lauded and memorized. Yet there are some singular incongruities in Paul’s writings that traditional Adventism attempts to discretely ignore. Interestingly, these problem passages are the first texts quoted by someone who has left Adventism; in fact, they are generally cited as the single reason for their exit from Adventism! I have personally seen multiple friends leave the Adventist church, basing their actions and beliefs  exclusively on Paul’s writings.

As soon as we discovered that there were some discrepancies in the Scriptures, Beau and I began an intensive study of Paul’s writings in search of answers to our ever-increasing list of doctrinal questions. Our study and investigation of Paul was uneventful until one day when Beau began combing through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Beau typically couldn’t get enough of Galatians, but oddly enough on this particular day, instead of sharing inspirational nuggets of his reading with me he turned and said with a frown, “This book is making me really uncomfortable.”

“Why?” I asked, puzzled. I couldn’t comprehend his remark. Galatians was part of the Bible! How can you be uncomfortable with part of the Bible? Furthermore, Beau was a former Bapticostal. He was well aware that Galatians contains the most important and definitive chapters of Paul’s counsel. What could possibly make him uncomfortable about Galatians? After all, nowhere else in Paul’s letters do you see him so passionate, so vehement, and so on fire for his beliefs!

“Well,” Beau began, “Galatians 1:8 is making me uncomfortable. Listen.”

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”[1]

I had heard this verse a hundred times, and it had never bothered me. To the contrary, I just figured it meant Paul was super-passionate and confident about his beliefs. I just wished I were that sure of my beliefs myself! Why was Beau not in agreement?

“I’ve just been reading the book of Jude,” he continued. “Jude says,

‘In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings.’[2]

“In saying what he does in Galatians 1, Paul seems to be slandering God’s celestial beings, God’s angels,” Beau stated worriedly. “I think this might be what Jude was talking about when he warned against those who slander celestial beings.”[3]

Slandering Celestial Beings

Additional study into Hebraic culture and beliefs revealed that the above passage is indeed deeply alarming to the Hebraic mindset. Such a comment within the Hebrew culture exhibits a real lack of consideration and carelessness in one’s core understanding of God’s Character and the Nature of God’s Holiness.

Having been immersed in Jewish culture, Paul knew that among the Jewish Christians such a comment would be highly inflammatory if not outright sacrilegious. Why? Because in Jewish understanding, the Law of God was delivered through the mediation or agency of Heavenly messengers—messengers that we in the modern world of the English language mistakenly all lump into the category of “angels”, or God’s created Heavenly beings. But “Heavenly messengers” as the Hebrews understood this concept (of what we call “angels”, an “angel”) could be any of the various Heavenly beings—including a manifestation of God Himself!

The “angel of the Lord” as translated in our modern English Bible versions was many times God Himself appearing in “angelic (Heavenly messenger) form” to man! We often refer to God in this form as “the Theophanic Angel” who appeared to Moses, Gideon, David, and many other patriarchs of faith.

The Hebrews had an understanding that the Law of God was indeed delivered through an angel—or the Angel—of AHYH—meaning God Himself appearing as a form that was understandable by the senses of human beings. We see this Hebraic understanding being communicated by the Apostles, the unknown author of the book of Hebrews, the historian Josephus, and even Paul himself.

Stephen’s speech affirms this Hebrew understanding of our heavenly Father. It says:

“This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. …

“He (Moses) was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words (from the angel) to pass on to us.[4]

“Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”[5]

This understanding helps cast the message found in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2:2-3 in an entirely different light. This very Pauline author states,

“For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?”

Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, is another witness that clarifies the period understanding of God’s Law being delivered through the mediation of angels. He states,

“And for ourselves, we have learned from God the most excellent of our doctrines, and the most holy part of our law, by angels or ambassadors”. [6]

Paul’s own words verifying this understanding are found in Galatians 3:19. He preached and taught that,

“The law was put into effect through angels (or an angel) by a mediator.”

How could Paul write Galatians 3:19 and still say what he said in Galatians 1:8?

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”[7]

 

I was very troubled to realize that either Paul really didn’t understand this Hebraic concept or he simply felt free to condemn and slander the celestial beings that were and are commissioned by God to bring vital messages to His children.

The interaction with God via a heavenly messenger is a solemn and holy circumstance and event when it happens. It is nothing to be trifled with lightly. Yet Paul was in effect saying, ‘even if an angel of AHEYEH, God Himself, were to come down from Heaven and give you a Gospel different that the one I am preaching to you may this Godly being, God Himself, be eternally damned!’ (Or, “May this angel of God ‘go to hell!’” in our vernacular.) In making this comment, Paul categorically sets himself and “his gospel” as being above that of  God Almighty and His Heaven. Not only does Paul take a stand against the Law of God but the One who delivered it as well!

This was beyond discouraging. How had I never noticed this before? I realized that some further study of Galatians was needed – maybe I could find something else to help encourage me in my quest for Truth. Yet as I pondered these things in my heart and mind, I had no idea of the much darker discovery that awaited me.