Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Paul, Mission and the End of the World Part II

When I checked the article on "mission" in the Dictionary of Paul and His Letters this morning, I was happy to see that Paul Bowers agrees with me:
[F]or Paul the most decisive event of the End had already taken place in Jesus Christ....Throughout his letters the references and allusions to his sense of mission habitually take orientation from this consciousness. For him the End had already arrived, eschatological expectation had given way to eschatological experience, and the long-expected ingathering of the nations was now being fulfilled. He conceived of his Gentile mission as eschatological in nature principally not by virtue of some connection with a yet future event but by virtue of its evident connections with a past one.

That Paul did see a link between the Gentile mission and the Parousia is evident from Romans 11, but the exact nature of the relationship is left unemphasized and obscure in Paul's treatment, and no other Pauline texts clearly take up this particular theme. - W. Paul Bowers, "Mission," Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (InterVarsity, 1993), 617-618.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello!

Regarding Paul this information is essential:
The earliest extant Church historian, Eusebius further documented (EH III.xxvii.4-6) that the original Nәtzarim accepted only the Jewish Tana"kh as Bible and onlyThe Netzarim ("their own") Hebrew Matityahu (NHM) as an authentic account of the life and teachings of Ribi Yәhoshua, never accepting the the 2nd-4th century, heavily gentile-redacted (Greek), NT.

For all Christians/Messianics: I think that the website Netzarim will be of interest to you. It contains logical and scientific research, previously unknown to most Christians, about the first century Ribi Yehoshua (ha-Mashiakh, the Messiah) from Nazareth and what he and his followers taught. His teachings are in accordance with Torah, the instruction manual, of the Creator to humankind. It is an essential read to learn about his teachings!

Anders Branderud

d. miller said...

Hello Anders. What does your post have to do with mine? In other words, how does it differ from SPAM?

Unknown said...

Hello D. miller,
You are quoting Paul as an authority. My quote shows that the followers of Ribi Yehoshua ha-Mashiakh from Nazareth didn’t regard Paul as an authority. In fact according to the historical record (see the website I gave you) he was excised from the Netzarim.

How could that not be relevant to you?

Anders Branderud