If you believed Paul you would quote much more of him, as I do, (and many others here), and you would stop cherry picking from his writings and taking from them only those things which you think support your religion after you have ripped them out of their contexts. And yes, you do serve a religion, the religion of the supreme Robert Pate who tells God which passages and verses are allowed and which are abolished in the mind of Robert Pate and the Robert Pate religion to end all religions, (lol).
Once upon a little space in time a long time ago there was a certain critter named Roberto Pateo, and as he walked along his merry way a fiery hellfire wild man of a preacher jumped out of the bushes and screamed "the Gospel" at him, saying, "God died for your sins, just belieeeeve it, and confesssss it, and all of the righteousness of God will automatically be imputed unto you: and you therefore shall be "saved" for all eternity from the fiery everlasting hellfire of Gehenna! Do you "belieeeeve"? Just assent, all you need to do is say yessss!" So Roberto Pateo, scared out of his wits, and his knees knocking like Belshazzar, quickly assented, for it was the easy and fast thing to do, and he answered, "Yes!", and the wild beast of a preacher man faded away into the bushes of Roberto Pateo's distant memory, (lol). And now, after even many years of drifting with the wind of every doctrine and religion that ever came along, one may still find Roberto Pateo roaming around on internet forum boards, jumping out of the bushes and screaming "the Gospel" at passersby, believing that a simple assent, just saying "yes", is the same as "true belief", even though he denies that the teachings of the Messiah in the Gospel accounts apply to himself, and even though he denies that most of the New Testament, and the admonishments and commandments contained therein, apply to himself: for instead he prefers in the face of all the scripture that refutes his dogma to continuing believing that because he merely assented, and said that one little word, "Yes!", it equates to a lifelong walk of "true belief" according to the scripture, and therefore that he is eternally "saved" from the eternal conscious torment of the fiery flames of the everlasting hellfire of the wild beast of the preacher man from the tumbleweeds and thorn-bushes of his faded memory.
Moreover, at the same time, and all of the time, he continues to this day to pride himself in being "chief of sinners", and apparently has no clue that Paul said those words because he had persecuted the congregation of Elohim, for Paul says, "I thank him that enabled me, even Messiah Yeshua our Master, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to his service; though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Master abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Messiah Yeshua. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Messiah Yeshua came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief, Messiah Yeshua might show forth all his long-suffering, for an example of them that should thereafter believe on him unto life eternal."
So while the grace of Elohim dramatically changed Paul, who calls himself chief of sinners, and who makes of himself an example of how the Word of Elohim can bring about true redemption, salvation, and a dramatic and permanent metamorphosis out from the clutches of darkness and into the brilliant white light of Messiah: apparently the grace of Elohim has had no affect whatsoever on Roberto Pateo. Nope, Roberto Pateo intends to be chief of sinners until the day he and his carcass die. :chuckle:
Disclaimer: any similarity in the names of this story to a real person is purely intentional.
