Dr. Brown Answers Your Questions (including, Was Paul the Chief of Sinners? Where Did the Jews Pick Up Their Views About Satan? And, What Did the Early Nazarenes Believe?)
The reason why Paul said He was the chief of all sinners was because……he was persecuting the body of Christ. When you attack a child of God, you are actually attacking the Lord. That is what Paul did. That is why Jesus said to Paul on the Road to Damascus. Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?>(Acts 9:3-5)
That is why he called himself the chief of all sinners because he was attacking Jesus.
Acts 9:3-5 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Dr. Brown,
If you are checking these posts something worrisome has occurred with one of your links from the interview with Jeff Seifs.
I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but, as soon as I clicked on “An Israeli Perspective on Egypt”, I got an immediate response from Norton that a “high severity” threat of “malicious Java activity” had been instigated on my home pc and blocked. This is very troublesome and I can’t find a way to notify the website you directed us to for that article. Can someone help, please, if you can notify them! The source of the computer attack was this address which I’ll include in brackets so you can’t accidentally click on it. [gavilune.cz.cc 76.76.117.100, 80] with the following source address:
76.76.117.100
I can provide the full URL if you need me to.
Dr Brown
with regards to the supposed crossover in the Hebrew Bible and the other ANE religions would you agree that another option would be the Biblical writers were using these same ideas and even same words as a polemic to these other cultures sort of say “no you dunder heads its not bal that does this, its the God of Israel, who did it” you can see this in Gen one also.
But the more important question and issue here is people get nervous approaching comparative studies and the main bad guy for this was the infamous Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch who was anti semetic and had a huge agenda, very interesting and informative, perhaps you could do a show on him or mention him with regards to comparative studies ?
Is that the same Delitzsch who wrote Bible commentaries? I was given one on the Book of Isaiah. I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
jj,
Sure, that’s a possibility as well, but it would assume that the traditions were known to the people to the point they could be mocked. But yes, a good possibility.
With regard to Friedrich Delitzsch’s famous “Babel und Bibel,” that was certain an influential work, yet there are many other comparative studies that were less polemical. To answer Sheila’s question, he was the son of the great biblical commentator Franz Delitzsch. Franz had a great heart for Israel; his son was an anti-Semite.
Good point Dr Brown, it would assume the people of Israel were aware of the surrounding cultures religions at the time and i would “guse” this was the case what with Israel continually going after other gods in the OT. Just one of many options i suppose I had a interesting paper on Friedrich Delitzsch which is well worth a read but i dont want to presume to post links on this site. is it ok ?
well here it is anyway it can be deleted if its not allowed.
How anti-Semitism distorted Friedrich Delitzsch’s scholarship By Bill T. Arnold and David B. Weisberg
I must have thanked you for your reply on the wrong blog heading, Dr. Brown. So, I’ll thank you again here.
Thanks! 🙂
jj,
Links are always welcome here, unless they violate our basic policies of posting. Thanks for this link.
Great show Dr. Brown.
Here are some transcriptions that tripped my trigger:
“There is no question, that it didn’t dawn on the Jewish followers of Jesus in the first century that they shouldn’t live as Jews, or in the second or third or even the fourth centuries. It didn’t dawn on them. It didn’t dawn on them that now that the Jewish Messiah had come to fulfill what was written in Moses and the Prophets, they should throw out Moses and the Prophets. And the big controversy….I am sure you are aware of this, but I say this for our listeners, in Acts 15 was not, ‘Can Jews believe in Jesus and remain Jews?’ The question was, ‘Can gentiles believe in Jesus without first becoming Jews?’ And the thing has gotten so twisted that I have many of my friends when they got saved, Jewish friends, they were given a ham sandwich to eat to prove if they were really Christians now….So, we’ve gotten things really twisted, little by little. Thankfully those foundations are being restored.” (16:00-17:00)
“If I have a relationship with the Father, I should want to please Him. And the word, over and over, urges us not to grieve the Spirit, not to sin against God. Epistle after epistle, letter after letter, words of Jesus, over and over, warn us about the consequences of sin. Sin’s dangerous. Sin’s deadly….The word is explicit, over and over and over, to strive to be holy. To be holy…. [It} urges us to flee from sin, over and over and over and over in the scriptures. Absolutely undeniable, I mean you cannot get away from that. Strive to be holy, ‘Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.’ ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ Verse after verse after verse, ‘you’ve died to these things, how can you live in them any longer.’
I mean, if I had 20 minutes, I’d just quote verse after verse through the scripture, read passages dealing with this. So my daily motivation should be, because of the forgiveness of God, because of the justification I’ve experienced, therefore with all my might I seek to please my Father. And look, why should I say, ‘Well I’m not going to worry about the poison. I’m not going to worry about the corruption. I’m no going to worry about the fact that this can destroy my life. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this brings reproach to the name of Jesus. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this grieves the heart of my father. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this lessens my testimony of Jesus to the world. I’m not going to worry about the fact that I can destroy other lives, and my own life because of my sin.
I’m not going to worry about the fact that I have to throw out the words of Jesus that says, cut off your hand and throw it away if it causes you to sin, in a statement of hyperbole, telling us about the ugliness of sin, because it’s better, he says, to enter heaven maimed, than into hell with two hands, two feet, two eyes. You better believe this is serious. And more seriously, if we reject the grace of God, we will, according to the scripture, suffer the consequence. Oh yeah.” (32:36-34:49)
“I know that Jesus died to save me from my sins, not in my sins. Therefore, I will avail myself to the power of the blood of Jesus, and the power of the Spirit to live a holy life, to live a godly life, to live a pure life, because I know holiness is good, and sin and unholiness is bad.” (38:58-39:15)
This is my main message to believers, but as you know I add that we cannot know what righteousness and holiness is without subjecting our minds to YHWH’s law.
Romans 8 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
1 John 3 4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Romans 6 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Romans 7 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid….
Romans 7 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid….
Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid:…
2 Timothy 3 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Shalom
Very touching, precious personal story Dr. Brown, thank you very much for sharing about your parents.
The reason why Paul said He was the chief of all sinners was because……he was persecuting the body of Christ. When you attack a child of God, you are actually attacking the Lord. That is what Paul did. That is why Jesus said to Paul on the Road to Damascus. Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?>(Acts 9:3-5)
That is why he called himself the chief of all sinners because he was attacking Jesus.
Acts 9:3-5
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Dr. Brown,
If you are checking these posts something worrisome has occurred with one of your links from the interview with Jeff Seifs.
I don’t mean to be an alarmist, but, as soon as I clicked on “An Israeli Perspective on Egypt”, I got an immediate response from Norton that a “high severity” threat of “malicious Java activity” had been instigated on my home pc and blocked. This is very troublesome and I can’t find a way to notify the website you directed us to for that article. Can someone help, please, if you can notify them! The source of the computer attack was this address which I’ll include in brackets so you can’t accidentally click on it. [gavilune.cz.cc 76.76.117.100, 80] with the following source address:
76.76.117.100
I can provide the full URL if you need me to.
Dr Brown
with regards to the supposed crossover in the Hebrew Bible and the other ANE religions would you agree that another option would be the Biblical writers were using these same ideas and even same words as a polemic to these other cultures sort of say “no you dunder heads its not bal that does this, its the God of Israel, who did it” you can see this in Gen one also.
But the more important question and issue here is people get nervous approaching comparative studies and the main bad guy for this was the infamous Assyriologist Friedrich Delitzsch who was anti semetic and had a huge agenda, very interesting and informative, perhaps you could do a show on him or mention him with regards to comparative studies ?
Is that the same Delitzsch who wrote Bible commentaries? I was given one on the Book of Isaiah. I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
jj,
Sure, that’s a possibility as well, but it would assume that the traditions were known to the people to the point they could be mocked. But yes, a good possibility.
With regard to Friedrich Delitzsch’s famous “Babel und Bibel,” that was certain an influential work, yet there are many other comparative studies that were less polemical. To answer Sheila’s question, he was the son of the great biblical commentator Franz Delitzsch. Franz had a great heart for Israel; his son was an anti-Semite.
Good point Dr Brown, it would assume the people of Israel were aware of the surrounding cultures religions at the time and i would “guse” this was the case what with Israel continually going after other gods in the OT. Just one of many options i suppose I had a interesting paper on Friedrich Delitzsch which is well worth a read but i dont want to presume to post links on this site. is it ok ?
well here it is anyway it can be deleted if its not allowed.
How anti-Semitism distorted Friedrich Delitzsch’s scholarship By Bill T. Arnold and David B. Weisberg
http://www.michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/BabelBibelBias.pdf
I must have thanked you for your reply on the wrong blog heading, Dr. Brown. So, I’ll thank you again here.
Thanks! 🙂
jj,
Links are always welcome here, unless they violate our basic policies of posting. Thanks for this link.
Great show Dr. Brown.
Here are some transcriptions that tripped my trigger:
“There is no question, that it didn’t dawn on the Jewish followers of Jesus in the first century that they shouldn’t live as Jews, or in the second or third or even the fourth centuries. It didn’t dawn on them. It didn’t dawn on them that now that the Jewish Messiah had come to fulfill what was written in Moses and the Prophets, they should throw out Moses and the Prophets. And the big controversy….I am sure you are aware of this, but I say this for our listeners, in Acts 15 was not, ‘Can Jews believe in Jesus and remain Jews?’ The question was, ‘Can gentiles believe in Jesus without first becoming Jews?’ And the thing has gotten so twisted that I have many of my friends when they got saved, Jewish friends, they were given a ham sandwich to eat to prove if they were really Christians now….So, we’ve gotten things really twisted, little by little. Thankfully those foundations are being restored.” (16:00-17:00)
“If I have a relationship with the Father, I should want to please Him. And the word, over and over, urges us not to grieve the Spirit, not to sin against God. Epistle after epistle, letter after letter, words of Jesus, over and over, warn us about the consequences of sin. Sin’s dangerous. Sin’s deadly….The word is explicit, over and over and over, to strive to be holy. To be holy…. [It} urges us to flee from sin, over and over and over and over in the scriptures. Absolutely undeniable, I mean you cannot get away from that. Strive to be holy, ‘Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.’ ‘Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ Verse after verse after verse, ‘you’ve died to these things, how can you live in them any longer.’
I mean, if I had 20 minutes, I’d just quote verse after verse through the scripture, read passages dealing with this. So my daily motivation should be, because of the forgiveness of God, because of the justification I’ve experienced, therefore with all my might I seek to please my Father. And look, why should I say, ‘Well I’m not going to worry about the poison. I’m not going to worry about the corruption. I’m no going to worry about the fact that this can destroy my life. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this brings reproach to the name of Jesus. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this grieves the heart of my father. I’m not going to worry about the fact that this lessens my testimony of Jesus to the world. I’m not going to worry about the fact that I can destroy other lives, and my own life because of my sin.
I’m not going to worry about the fact that I have to throw out the words of Jesus that says, cut off your hand and throw it away if it causes you to sin, in a statement of hyperbole, telling us about the ugliness of sin, because it’s better, he says, to enter heaven maimed, than into hell with two hands, two feet, two eyes. You better believe this is serious. And more seriously, if we reject the grace of God, we will, according to the scripture, suffer the consequence. Oh yeah.” (32:36-34:49)
“I know that Jesus died to save me from my sins, not in my sins. Therefore, I will avail myself to the power of the blood of Jesus, and the power of the Spirit to live a holy life, to live a godly life, to live a pure life, because I know holiness is good, and sin and unholiness is bad.” (38:58-39:15)
This is my main message to believers, but as you know I add that we cannot know what righteousness and holiness is without subjecting our minds to YHWH’s law.
Romans 8
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
1 John 3
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Romans 6
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Romans 7
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid….
Romans 7
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid….
Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid:…
2 Timothy 3
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Shalom
Very touching, precious personal story Dr. Brown, thank you very much for sharing about your parents.
Blessings and peace.