Paul's theological turnaround after his conversion is definitely in that he understands that by observing the Law, he rises up against his God. He explains that the conception of Sin has now come from the notion of outward fault to the notion of deep flawed human nature.

The Jewish tradition and the first Christians define Sin as a human transgression of God's will in accordance with how it is recorded in the Law. A sin is understood as a shortcoming, which can be assessed according to how far it has gone from the standard, the Law.

1 John 3:4 - CJB
"Everyone who keeps sinning is violating Torah — indeed, sin is violation of Torah."

Paul says that Sin is so powerful when it uses the Law that even Jesus, who was perfect, who never sinned, ended up cursed by it :

"Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us, because it is written: “Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake." - Gal. 3:13

The scandal of the Cross led Paul to discover that Sin lies elsewhere and deeper; at the very core of the obedience of the believer, in the very possibility that the Law proposes to Man to make himself faithful to God, in the program of obedience edicted by the Law and in the illusion that Man can and even must fulfill it. Is the believer able to do it ? No, he isn't ! It's by implying that obedience fulfills it that the Law deceives Man : it legitimates him to feel justified before God ; it even prescribes it as a duty. The more Man endeavours to practice good, the more he tries to make up through his own forces for the distance between him and the Law, and the more he loses himself by constructing his own worth in God's eyes.

This notion of self-justification is very well explained and illustrated by Paul's use of the Greek word καύχησις :

"Where, then, is the boasting? It is shut out. Through what law? That of works? No indeed, but through the law of faith." - Rom. 3:27

"For we are those with the real circumcision, who are rendering sacred service by God’s spirit and have our boasting in Christ Jesus and do not have our confidence in the flesh" - Ph. 3:3



Philippians 3:1-6

"Evil workers." These men taught that the sinner was saved by faith plus good works, especially the works of the Law. But Paul states that their "good works" are really evil works because they are performed by the flesh (old nature) and not the Spirit, and they glorify the workers and not Jesus Christ. Eph 2:8-10 and Titus 3:3-7 make it clear that nobody can be saved by doing good works, even religious works. A Christian's good works are the result of his faith, not the basis for his salvation.

(from The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing,
and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
​

 

Paul defines this movement of conscience by a Greek term kauchasthai which the Bibles often translate as "to boast over", "to pride oneself on doing something". These translations stress on the moral aspect, whereas the word has more to do with the very nature of said movement. That word means the quest of the individual towards what bases his life, what gives meaning to it. To glorify oneself isn't to give in to the sin of arrogance, but denotes the movement of the conscience towards what justifies it. This quest of meaning is totally ambivalent : it loses its power when Man is looking glorification within himself but is fulfilled when he sees in God the One who makes him live. The alternative is : to position oneself as righteous before God or to let ourselves be received by Him.

The sin is, according to Paul, of wanting to become righteous.

Sin has pervaded our very nature, and because of it, religion can't resort to the own willpower of Man anymore. Said otherwise, the humans must be freed from their own human nature. Something must happen that will break the vicious circle, whose fruit is the latent guilt which is so often at work in the mentality that pertains to moral idealism. That something is the confession, that is the confession of sinfulness even in the individual's speech. The confession is at the same time the acknowledgement without indulgence of one's weakness, of one's ingrained incapability to overcome the primal evil that inhabits us and which expresses itself through our deeds and thoughts but it's above all the call to God to establish relationships anew notwithstanding with said individual.

The Paulinian confession doesn't have as theological horizon a God obsessed by Sin but the certitude of a liberation through faith.

A cursory reading of the Gospel may make believers think that Christians must respect the Law better than Israel did, and be faithful in what the chosen people of God failed. This belief can only be true if the Law is considered at a much higher level than the one Israel did, especially in respect of love.

By affirming that legal perfectionism engenders dramatically the self-justification of the righteous ones, Paul interprets correctly Jesus. Paul saw the Law, not only as a legal code, but as a paragon of a behaviour before God that leads the believer to push his worth forward. The Law is like a benchmark, a yardstick that positions people before God. That's what Paul denounced in his letters. If Christ is the end of the Law, it's because his death marks the end of a relationship with God motivated by the need to push one's worth forward, hence the end of a life latently driven by anxiety and the hatred of God, and welcomes like a liberation the advent of such a time. It frees us from the tyranny of wanting to be acceptable in our own eyes. The sin is the want to become pure. The Law dictates to Man the idolatric desire of making of others the means of his own self-justification.

In the forsaken weakness of that man who was totally on his own, Jesus of Nazareth, Paul saw the condemnation of the foolishness of those who preach self-justification.

 

Please read :

"Come to me, all YOU who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh YOU. Take my yoke upon YOU and learn from me, for I am mild-tempered and lowly in heart, and YOU will find refreshment for YOUR souls. For my yoke is kindly and my load is light.â€￾" - Mat. 11:28-30

Here, the terminology is rabbinical. To take the yoke of the Torah upon oneself is to be faithful to it...

 

Ah ? I'll have to watch a few episodes of it...

I checked on Wiki and I'm reassured... Jim doesn't look like Shreck...

 

Yes, absolutely !

That's what I'm denouncing through this thread. I'll write a few personal comments more a bit later about what is explained in the latest posts and about my conception of the whole thing.

Works are the fruits of a living and healthy faith but works shouldn't be the yardstick according to which someone is deemed spiritual and faithful, especially when said works are very precisely calibrated and systematically expected, like in a factory.

The spiritual paradise is very fleshly in the way it works. Much of it is based and assessed on what can be seen. There is no real desire to peer deeper than what meets the eye.

Many of the spiritual policies used are infantilising the b/s (they must like it, being cocooned like this) and the elders too... They don't teach people how to become spiritual adults...

Boasting is not grounded in what is seen but in what is not seen...

 

I've been reading lately the forewords of the letter to the Romans in one of my Bibles and wished to share some excerpts with you all because they were deep, encouraging and related to the purpose of this thread. My favorite sentences are in bold.

Paul's argumentation is destined to convince and motivate the Romans to live in unity with Christ.

His figurative look is directed first off towards the background of his readers. If salvation is through the Gospel, it is because everyone, the Jews and the Gentiles, are lost in God's eyes. Despite the special relationship between the Lord and his people throughout the centuries, the Jews aren't favoured concerning judgment, they don't have any reason to boast or to glorify themselves about it (1:18-3:20). Before being Christians, all of Paul's readers were in an identical situation before God, that is guilty.

The apostle founds later on the second theological basis of his demonstration : the new situation of the Jew and of the Gentile before God, brought by Jesus Christ. Their identical situation regarding divine judgment allows the Lord to offer them the same means of salvation : faith in Jesus Christ, which is a message that the OT was already giving a glimpse (3:21-4:25). In front of such a unique way of salvation, there is no, once again, reason to boast, to glorify oneself or to despise others.

Once those truths established, Paul broaches again the present situation of his readers. The Roman Christians are assured of their salvation, freed from divine wrath, in peace with God, thanks to Jesus Christ's work which reconcilied them with God through Holy Spirit and which creates a new humanity of which he is the first representant. The new life, given without the Law which led to death, does not impede humans from sinning, which would stand in opposition to the identification of the believer to Jesus' death and resurrection. On the contrary, thanks to the Spirit, the believers can henceforth live the fundamental requirements of the Law without having to follow its regulations.

(...)

But beyond those themes which form the constituants of the letter, whereas the contemporaneous Church, like the one of old, is overly caracterised by division, contempt, pride and judgment, by its stress on unity, Romans keeps all its force and value. Despite the tensions and the disagreements that this letter give glimpses of and the reproaches that Paul utters against the Romans, the apostle advises to avoid only one category of person : those who cause division (16:17). Because God's plan throughout the centuries is to create one people united in Christ. (...) However, it is noteworthy that Paul's first goal is not to solve the problem that divides the strong and the weak ones but to encourage them both to live their situation in mutual respect and brotherly love.

 

Here is another way of explaining what is quoted above :

In psychopathology, we talk about inhibition when certain drives arouse immediately reactions of fear to the point that, as soon as they begin to surface and even before we are conscious of them and thus later on put them into action, we hold back even the thought of it. Consciously, we may thus believe that we are totally preserved from these tendencies and desires. Our conscious mind may even ignore how such drives were repressed and generally speaking may ignore the mechanism of inhibition. It may even feel outraged against the way, dangerous and wicked in its eyes, people around may indulge in these drives ; being able to repress them, our conscious mind may impell us to feel superior to others. Because of these inhibitions, a feeling of vertue appears and the conscious mind thinks that it is entitled to despise, at least in secret, the behaviour of others. This misunderstanding and the tensions that stem from it can end up in a tragic outcome.

The Fear and the Fault, p.16-17
​

A bit later in the book, the author says that an inconscious drive is like flooding waters. Despite the dikes built here and there in our mind and conscience, water always makes its way in one way or the other. For example, a married brother may feel romantically attracted by a married sister in his congregation but doesn't want to admit to it in his conscious mind. As a result and because of the sufferings induced, his drive (love in this case) will make its way out anyway through nevrotic means, for instance, by being harsch when talking about her or by giving her the cold shoulder when her husband is around.

 

"Paul defines this movement of conscience by a Greek term kauchasthai which the Bibles often translate as "to boast over", "to pride oneself on doing something". These translations stress on the moral aspect, whereas the word has more to do with the very nature of said movement. That word means the quest of the individual towards what bases his life, what gives meaning to it. To glorify oneself isn't to give in to the sin of arrogance, but denotes the movement of the conscience towards what justifies it. This quest of meaning is totally ambivalent : it loses its power when Man is looking glorification within himself but is fulfilled when he sees in God the One who makes him live. The alternative is : to position oneself as righteous before God or to let ourselves be received by Him"



Utuna thank you for such a beautiful peice of heart felt writings. You clearly made known that which too many in the truth fail to see. You expressed much of what I feel but could never explain to such depth and accuracy.
A perfect example was the Watch Tower study on Sunday, when two sisters answered up by saying how single mothers today arn't as ashamed as they should be, and how years ago they would have had to go into hiding and were rejected by society. Yes Jehovah has standards, but he also has compassion for the fatherless boy. It's the sin which Jehovah hates not the person. How would those comments make a single mother and her child visiting the hall for the first time feel? It would be enough to make them feel guilt and ashamed to never return again.
Many have really forgotten the teachings of our Lord Jesus, they have become a modern day Pharisee instead of a good Samaritan.

 

Yes, that reminds an illustration. Right now, I don't remember where I read it first.

We're all on the Titanic, that is our sinful human nature, and as expected, the ship is sinking. We all feel desperate, struggling for our lives in a cold, dark water and about to die therein when unexpectedly, another ship comes out of the dark fog and begins saving the shipwrecked people one by one. At some point, after a while, one of the first persons saved appears on the deck, dried up and wrapped in a hot and woolly blanket, and starts feeling superior, scorning those down below still struggling in the cold water, making fun of them and talking down to them as if they were mere losers and deserved their gloomy fate...

"For who makes you to differ from another? Indeed, what do you have that you did not receive? If, now, you did indeed receive [it], why do you boast as though you did not receive [it]?" - 1 Cor.4:7

 

I always heard, and even witnessed it, that children who had lacked parental authority during their childhood (because they were orphans, because of "absent" parents struggling with psychological problems or with alcohol, etc) were more likely to end up in jobs wherein authority and rules are paramount, like soldiers, cops, teachers, etc. for themselves and for others. They then live in an environment which they lacked during their childhood and unconsciously, they feel reassured. The little child deep inside of them is thus reassured.

This often rang a bell to me with the call of the WT to people who never had a family and who may find one in the org :

"No one has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not get a hundredfold now in this period of time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the coming system of things everlasting life." - Mark 10:29-30

"As an answer he said to the one telling him: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?â€￾ And extending his hand toward his disciples, he said: “Look! My mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.â€￾" - Mat. 12:48-50

This call certainly must fill psychological wounds and deficiencies. This kind of person must certainly be very faithful and loyal to the organisation. The org is the one and only family that they have. Furthermore, the WT's boasting of being God's organisation, of being truthful in everything, of constituting a paradise, of a sort, may well fill some psychological holes here and there. Uncertainty is hard to deal with for many psychologically wounded people. Everything must be clear-cut, black and white, all or nothing.

But what if something serious happens, when a terrible disappointment cuts the umbilical cord* ?

The whole world of these brothers and sisters collapses, the religious one and the psychological one. The psychological crutch is gone, broken in pieces. The old wounds which were healed the wrong way are now open and bleeding hard again. A decades-old volcano erupts and feelings of anger, bitterness and worthlessness start bursting...

Even though feeling secure and guided is comforting and not wrong in itself, it isn't real faith and shouldn't be the main basis of it.

The book F&F talks about that as well, even though I apply it here to the JWs. It talks about someone who may have pent-up psychological needs and who compensates said needs by being overly righteous/obsequious/fussy/etc, like putting on a show. As long as the environment allows such a house of cards to stand, things may keep being the same for long. However, once something unsettling takes place, the house of cards collapses and said person may be carried away by a torrent of angry feelings and reactions, of which they may not even know the origin.

I know, like many of you must know as well, people who were "little saints" in their lives, pioneers, elders, exemplary Christians and who, all of a sudden and unexpectedly, ended up turning everything upside down in their lives and doing unthinkable things. An earthquake broke the dykes open and the flood that had been contained for years carries everything away...

My point here is that our faith and our determination to please Jehovah shouldn't be based on psychological foundations because as Paul said, we can't fight our sinful nature through fleshly ways. It's not because we want that we will... Maybe because we may want for the wrong reasons. The help needed must be deeper and/or higher...

*Just like when spouses are married because their mate makes them feel whole, happy and radiant. If the mate ever fails in some way, or just looks failing in the spouse's eyes, afterwards said mate will not even be worth the dirt under the shoes of their spouses... The psychological crutch is gone...

 

That's a very good analogy that is how it appears to be.

 

Great work Utuna, reading this feels like I'm having some form of spiritual counselling. When we knock on the doors of potential studies, it's not just a face that we offer the truth to, it is a person with a life time legacy which makes them who they are today.
It's a blessing to present the truth and help a person learn Gods word, but this is not a numbers game, it is for the preservation of souls through Jesus Christs sacrifice.
We are living in a warped world with emotional injuries, broken hearts and minds, when we accept the Love of the truth, we may trust again for the first time in years. We open ourselves up to trusting those who claim to be our spiritual family, we are taught that you know gods people by the love they have for one another.
But when problems set in from past learnt behaviour or not progressing as fast as expected, the pressure then leaves the person feeling un worthy or not good enough feeling that the hights
they have to acheive is like everest. Then the competitveness within the congregation in reaching targets in the form of pioneering is yet more pressure. Jesus is LOVE and love is long suffering, Jesus was humble, he said "my burden is light", "come to me all you who are weighed down"
Only when you stop fearing men can we truly be free to worship in spirit and truth.

 

Have seen examples of this also.

Spot on!


Wallflower

 

When I read the Gospel and the book of Acts, I often wonder why things aren't the same as they were back in the first century CE, why the most patent and conspicuous gifts aren't there anymore. I also think about what Jesus' miracles, and those his disciples performed, meant in the grand scheme of things, given that nothing as such exists anymore. Such a huge outpouring of Holy Spirit and then... nothing anymore a few decades later ?

That's why I do think that, in keeping with what is explained in the post above about parables, Jesus' ministry, through his words and deeds, was a huge parable, a foretaste of what will take place when he comes back. Jesus' miracles towards the deaf and blind ones, as well as the resurrections from the dead that he performed, were a type of what God's kingdom was about to achieve on spiritual grounds at first, before such things become true on physical grounds when God's purpose is carried out. Christ's spiritual body on earth, his anointed brothers, would fulfill the type left by their counterparts of old, walking thus also in their Master's footsteps and finally meeting the same fate. Robert broached that idea in his book (chapter 5) when he talked about Stephen :

With that in mind, Stephen is said to have been full of holy spirit in performing powerful works and portents and that none of the Jews in opposition to Christianity could hold their own against him in debate. In that respect he typifies the glorified sons of the kingdom. Significantly, as a result of his powerful witness before the disbelieving Jews, Stephen was hauled before the Sanhedrin—the same court that had earlier condemned Jesus to death. The account says: “And as all those sitting in the Sanhedrin gazed at him, they saw that his face was as an angel’s face.â€

(...)

After Stephen gave his final witness to the killers of Christ he then beheld in vision the very glory of Jehovah in heaven and Jesus at his right hand. In other words, he had an epiphany. He saw the manifestation (epiphaneia) of both Jehovah and Christ. The Jews before him, however, did not see the appearance. Although the glorious revelation came after Stephen’s face had already taken on the radiance of an angel’s face, it still serves as a portent in connection with the glorification of the sons of God after they become eyewitnesses* to the manifestation of Christ.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

KINGDOM OF GOD

The present fulfillment of the OT hope short of its consummation can be understood in light of the basic meaning of the kingdom of God as the divine reign or rule. In the mission of Jesus, God has entered into history in His kingly power to defeat the powers of evil and to bring to people a foretaste of the blessings of the eschatological kingdom while they still live in the old age. This is explicitly affirmed in Matt 12:28. One of the most characteristic works of Jesus was freeing people from demonic bondage. When accused of employing satanic power, Jesus replied that He cast out demons by the Spirit of God (Lk. 11:20, "the finger of God"), and this was a sign that the kingdom of God had come upon them. Here is an unambiguous statement as to the presence of the kingdom of God, and it is entirely intelligible if the kingdom of God is His kingly power. God's power has come among people in the mission of Jesus to free them from satanic bondage. This is clearly affirmed in v. 29. Jesus has come from God into this age (the strong man's house) to deliver people from Satan's power (plunder his goods), and this He can do because by the power of God's kingly rule in His own person He has defeated Satan (bound the strong man). Before the eschatological destruction of Satan, God in Jesus rendered him a preliminary defeat.

This present defeat of Satan is also seen in the mission of Jesus' disciples, who also proclaimed the kingdom of God and cast out demons (Luke 10:9,17). Interpreting their experience, Jesus said in symbolic, mythological language that He saw Satan fallen from his position of power. Such a saying must be taken metaphorically rather than literally; it means simply the defeat of satanic power.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus to give them a time-table for the approach of the eschatological kingdom, Jesus replied that the kingdom of God was already in their midst (Luke 17:20), but in an unexpected form. It was not accompanied by the signs and outward display that the Pharisees expected and without which they would not have been satisfied. They were blind to the fact that the inbreaking of God's rule, expected at the end of the age, was already occurring in the mission of Jesus.

(from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition,
Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)
​

*What Robert says here is in accordance with the two witnesses required for the start of the feast of Rosh Hashanah, the feast of Trumpets, whose first day was the one which nobody knew the day or hour (Mat. 24:36). The faithful anointed will be rewarded and the morning star in their hearts (Rv2:28, 2Pe 1:19) will serve as a portent similar to the new thin crescent of the moon during the feast of Rosh Hoshanah. They'll be the eyewitnesses of Jesus' return... a collective "two witnesses" of his return...

 

love this thread ...I would love to have that book ...
and the above things are too close to home ...but I bash
it in poetry , it's the only way I can get a good clear
view of what's truly going thru my mind and cements
it where I can see it enough to act in accord with either
correction or rejection of life's experiences ...

OK OK just translate the whole book

 

When we see a beautifully designed home, or automobile, or other product, we don’t see the maker of that product. We also do not see the designer. But we see the beauty of the design and know the designer must be very talented and intelligent. Paul said it best. “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but the one who constructed all things is God.â€￾ (Heb. 3:4 NWT) “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.â€￾ (Rom. 1:20 NASB )

Yes, all we have to do is look around us to see the wonderful beauty of the creator. What wonderful artists He and His Son are. There is more to come! Hopefully we will be around to see and experience that new world.

 

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.â€￾ (Lu. 21:1-4 ESV)

Sometimes that’s all you’ve got to give.

I'm loving what you are doing Utuna.
Tsaphah

 

Absolutely, the Law was a shadow of the things to come and what happened in the first century a foretaste of them.

John calls it the night, but it is also symbolised by the heat of the summer according to the calendar based on the Jewish festivals or the crossing of the desert (after Jesus' sacrifice as a lamb).

 

I'm afraid you wouldn't like that book so much, unless you like psychoanalysis. This book is first and foremost about it. My posts here are only a synthesis of the book, of which I also removed the most technical passages. After having taken a few weeks off the forum and many other things, I'm going to resume fleshing out this thread.