- I have been quoting and talking about your NT and about the person whose books (letters) are dominant in the whole NT.
- To re-check, you will/have to go back and read again (if you haven’t before) to see whether it was Paul or that Commander who bought his citizenship by paying lot of money.
- Lastly, this is a forum where I and you and other have a chance to come back and answer further doubts/questions/accusations. So I was going to reveal it myself later, incase if you somehow skipped/overlooked it, but my intention was to show what? To show that it was not easy to punish a Roman national (such as Paul, an early persecutor of followers of the Way) who was a citizen by birth. Moreover Paul has been working for Roman authorities.
Now consider this scenario:
On the one hand Jesus says this:
Mark 4:10-13**
10 - And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables.
11 - He [Jesus] answered them, "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables,
12 - so that ‘they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.’"
13 - Jesus said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
Then later Mark is telling us:
34 - Without parables he [Jesus] did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
But when:
19 The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine.
20 Jesus answered him, "I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing.
21 Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said." —John 18:19-21
But as per Mark 4:10, Jesus did teach in private when he was alone with his disciples. No? Yes, ofcourse. Now how do you reconcile these two clear seeming contradictions? This appears as a lie, no? Especially if you have found this kind of stuff in Islamic scriptures, do you think you would have tolerate it?
Are you going to blame Jesus that he lied to the High Priest? And here an another funny thing I want you to keep in mind that it was this same office of High Priest who later “prophecised” that Jesus will die to"save" his nation, otherwise the whole nation will perish through the hands of Romans and from that day on Jews planned to kill him, otherwise Jesus had no plan to die willfully for you or me or any Japanese/Chinease. His own life was in danger why shoudl he die for you who were not even born yet? ]
Lastly, what your beloved Paul used to do? Paul was free in regard to all kinds of people. He makes himself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the Jews he wants to became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those under the law he becames like one under the law–though he himself not under the law–to win over those under the law. To those outside the law he becames like one outside the law to win over those outside the law. To the weak he becames weak, to win over the weakand he does all this for what? Just for the sake of his own gospel. Right? Ofcourse that is what he did . This is a real issue/problem. Do you have a problem with him?
