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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Galatians

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The following is reprinted from the Bible main-page collection of articles:

The apostles Peter and James did not think
that Paul and his writings were divinely
inspired and infallible - anything but.

Preview and Summary: Peter and James attempted to undermine the work of Paul, viewed as too liberal, straying from the Old-Testament laws. Paul, in kind, blasted them. Clearly, these apostles did not consider each other's writings to be "infallible".

There are certain verses in the New Testament that Big Religion never speaks of. It is not generally known that Paul, in a public way, before the whole church, called Peter out as a racial bigot and a hypocrite.

Few, even among those who read the Bible, understand that there was a doctrinal war going on between Peter, but especially James, in Jerusalem and Paul out in the missionary field.

The Jerusalem-party was preaching that it was necessary to become a Jew first in order to become a Christian; that one still needed to observe many of the old Jewish laws.

Paul would have none of this legalism and blasted the emissaries of James when they came to evaluate him. He called them "spies". In Galatians 2:12 we learn that "certain came from James" to investigate what Paul was doing in the outlying churches.

James, a strict Old-Testament legalist, was fond of sending out "spies" (Galatians 2:4) to check up on this free-wheeling "apostle to the Gentiles."

In several of his letters, Paul harshly references these traveling Jewish bureaucrats from Jerusalem who would try to undo and undermine his work. They would publicly call Paul "second-class," a "johnny-come-lately" apostle.

Clearly, the Jerusalem-party did not harbor sanctimonious opinions of Paul as divinely inspired or his works as "infallible"! Quite the contrary.

And Paul, in response, eviscerates the "infallible" teachings of the Jerusalem crew. Paul's Galatians has a hidden focal point and target to which it is addressed. It is the leader James, who was attacking the teachings of Paul - and Paul, personally.

More and more, these two philosophical camps divided company on one primary issue: those in Jerusalem held fast to the old scriptures of Jewish law and ritual, while, increasingly, Paul would emphasize the new way of "living in the Spirit" and being led by "the Spirit of truth."

Postscript

The following is being added many years after the completion of the above writing and the Galatians commentary.

There is no such thing as “consensus science” or “consensus religion.” These are propaganda terms designed to shut down debate, protect a status quo, and censure dissenting views.

The majority is often, maybe usually, wrong.

The following is reprinted from the WG home-page:

insights from humble reasonings, laboring alone, searching in the dark

New scientific ideas never spring from a communal body, but from an inspired researcher, struggling [if need be, for years] in lonely thought on one single point. Max Planck

What do you [Kepler] think of the foremost philosophers of this university? … they have refused to look at the planets or moon or my telescope ... the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo

There is light within an enlightened person, and it shines on the whole world. Jesus of Nazareth, The Gospel of Thomas

truth is not fragile, eventually rises to the top of competing ideas Tom Campbell

The years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels but cannot express, the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgiving until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are known only to those who have themselves experienced them. Einstein

The mega-institutions of Earth, religious and secular, do not exist as protectors or producers of the Truth. But, instead, safeguard the power-and-control interests of their respective “deep states”; also, as we’ve learned in recent times, part of their coveted largesse often includes the trafficking and sex-slavery of women and children.

They present themselves, to borrow Jesus' term, as “benefactors.” They wear a mask of piety, hide behind service organizations, with high-sounding names, all crafted to launder ill-gotten riches for their worldwide criminal activities.

Well, we’ve discussed much of this at length in many WG writing, but the issue I would put forward here , as it relates to Paul and Galatians, is that:

Any organization, if indeed an organization should exist, must be decentralized, in terms of authority and leadership.

No top-down, command-styles hierarchies. What does this mean in practical terms?

It means that:

Protocol and standards should be implemented to allow even the newest member of the group to instruct the entire group, if that new member has been given an insight from God.

Elizabeth Fry, from the afterlife, provided the model:

There are no actual leaders here… no one glories in being a leader… we don’t recognize leaders, in the sense that you do…

The first thing a person must learn here, if they are to progress, is to lose this idea of self-importance…

Those who are really progressed on this side never, never, give that impression -- because it is not even in their nature to appear, or want to appear, important...

I would say to you, above all things, if you want to discover truth, avoid men of power and position.

"There is, in a sense, organization here [on her side of life] -- there is a feeling that everything is in its place, but there is no conscious organization here… there is always the realization of greater possibilities… because nothing is static here, everything has the opportunity for change; and when a person begins to seek, begins to change in themselves, begins to desire things of a better order, so, automatically, gradually, they will find those things – it’s all a state of being, a state of mind. Every existence in which one might find himself is a state of mind, a state of awareness, a consciousness…

 

"There are no actual  leaders [here] as such – we have an organization which is so subtle and yet so natural – because, a person here, for instance, does not, in a sense, ‘give orders’; we have groups of souls who do special work – but we all realize, automatically, within ourselves, what our part is, what work we have to do; and we realize that we are all interwoven, one with another – I think it is [that] we are all very conscious of this oneness of spirit. Here, no one glories in being a leader – whereas in your world [in various organizations] you do get this sort of glorification of the individual [leader]; the first thing a person must learn here, if they are to progress, is to lose this idea of self-importance.

 

"Those who are really progressed on this side never, never, give that impression -- because it is not even in their nature to appear, or want to appear, important. Everything that we talk about, everything that we do, is done in a complete love, in a complete harmony, one with another. No one wants to override another person; all of our influences for good are [done] in love; and therefore we don’t have, on this side, organization, as such. We don’t recognize leaders, in the sense that you do…

 

"Christ himself had no intention, no desire, to found any religious organization. This is completely, absolutely, a man-made thing - which over the centuries has misled mankind; and, indeed, I think it is pretty obvious, that if you analyze the whole of Christ’s teaching, you will find that he was the most humble of souls; that he had no desire to form any kind of an organization; he chose his disciples among the most ordinary of men; he did not try to dictate; he did not suggest, in the sense that some people assume that he dictated that they should do this or do that – he gave them, completely and absolutely, free will -- free will to choose the path that they should follow.

 

"I think that people will only recognize … what Christ really was, when they begin to discount a lot of untoward creeds and dogmas, tacked on over the centuries by men who desired power and position – I would say to you, above all things, if you want to discover truth, avoid men of power and position, because … [they desire] power and position because of their material perception of things - you cannot, surely, build a truly spiritual realization of God on something which is of a material conception – God is not found, in a sense, in buildings or places … God is found within one’s soul, within one’s inner consciousness”

The apostle Paul represented an “outlier,” a lone dissenting voice in the early church. He emphasized “life in the Spirit,” accessing Universal Consciousness, the mind of God, as opposed to Old Testament law.

He was correct, and the institutionalized smart-money in Jerusalem got it wrong. And they, the lobbyists of “consensus religion,” tried to shut Paul down as a purveyor of “misinformation.”

This untoward dynamic exists in certain sectors of the next life, as well. I would invite you to further investigate these issues in another writing.

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