"THE writings of the Apostle Paul have met with a singular fate. They were intended to reveal the Father's universal and impartial love ; and they have been used to represent Him as an exclusive and arbitrary Sovereign. They were designed to open the Kingdom of God to all men; and they have been so distorted as to shut it on the many and confine it to the few. They breathe the most liberal spirit; and yet from them have been drawn the main arguments for intolerant bigotry. Nothing stranger ever happened in the history of human thought...From the history of Paul's Epistles, we learn how fatal it is to substitute the letter for the spirit of Divine Revelation, and how dangerous it is to read the Scriptures, without carrying into their interpretation our Reason, and the light of Conscience...
The great design of Paul's Epistles was to vindicate the spiritual right of the Human Race...to manifest God as the Father of all... " to gather together in One" the whole Human Family under Jesus Christ, to break down all divisions between nations and classes, and to unite men of every kindred and condition in one Spiritual Worship of the Universal Father. Take with you this great truth, and you have the key to Paul's writings. Without it, the rich treasures of that noble teacher will be a sealed book...
We read scripture to little profit, if in passages relating to local or temporary events, we do not discover Universal Truths, equally applicable to all places and times. The language of the text admits of a spiritual translation. It contains an immutable truth for all ages. This truth is that God loves equally all human beings, of all ranks, nations, conditions and characters ; that the Father has no favourites and makes no selections; that, in His very being,.He is Impartial and Universal Love. This is the fundamental Truth of the Christian Religion, entering into and glorifying all its other truths."
Blessings
1 comment:
Dear BU:
WEC has it right, I think.
If the Bible is the revealed word of God, then it must be assumed that it talks about spiritual reality, not worldly reality. If this is true, the words cannot be taken literally to refer to worldly events and situations, but rather they are to be read metaphorically and symbolically to refer to the spiritual kingdom.
Paul opened the Jewish religion to the gentiles and gave birth to Christianity. Without him, the stories about Jesus of Nazareth would have remained a smaller sect of Judaism. Paul might be thought of as the first Universalist don't you think?
All the best,
David Markham
Post a Comment