Caledvwlch said:
Exactly. So to bring this back around to the point... Paul wasn't writing scriptures. He was writing letters. He also added things to the teachings of Jesus that simply weren't there. It was committees of men, much later on (centuries later) who decided to include Paul's letters in the Scriptures and label them infallible. Shady...
The first part of your post is true. The last is just plain silly.
He may not have been knowingly writing scripture just as John the Baptist did not know he was the forerunner of the Messiah promised by Malachi. But Jesus said, after John's death, that he had been just that. God can use people in ways unbeknownst to them. For example his use of Cyrus in the return from exile as mentioned in Isaiah. So while Paul may have been writing letters and may not have claimed they were inspired, that does not preclude them from being inspired and therefore being scripture, as Peter very soon recognized.
The second part of your post is just silly. That would mean no one could add anything to anyone's thoughts without it being some huge violation. The US Constitiution, The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or any such document should remain inviolate even to ammendments and addenda. It would be like saying all communist writings are bogus if not written by Marx himself. Therefore Lenin wasn't a communist. You see it gets silly after a while.
Paul never made any sort of claim for this "Paulism" you are promoting. He was a radical committed follower of Jesus Christ and just wrote how following him was lived out (or ought to be) in daily life. He was certainly not trying to replace Jesus with anything. Read this from Paul and tell me how on earth you can think he was undermining Jesus:
Colossians 1:
The Supremacy of Christ
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Or what about this where Paul clearly dismisses the importance of himself or any other messenger from 1 Corinthians 1:
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Seems to me Paul had no interest in promoting himself, rather Jesus: crucified, risen and coming again. That is the same thing Jesus did. He proclaimed that he would be crucuified, that he would rise and that he would return. Seems to me they were pretty much on the same page. Paul was the average Joe living out his relationship to the almighty Jesus
