[Danoh;4402003]You are not being "objective" Shasta; compare Galatians 2 with Acts 15 and it becomes obvious why Paul met with the Jerusalem leadership privately first - because he had already had his time wasted by those not in authority and he had no desire for another round of that.
I don't know what you are getting at here. Of course he went privately to those in authority before he talked to anyone else. He wanted the Apostles to hear his side of the story. Once they saw that what the Judaizers had said about Paul's teaching and practice was wrong they joined forces with Paul.
And Paul relates that when he met with their Apostles and elders, they added nothing unto him, rather, that when they perceived the grace that was given unto him, they agreed they were no longer under the "go ye unto all nations" of Matthew 28; Luke 24; Acts 1, but were to now confine their ministry to the circumcision.
Nothing in the text says that the Apostles were released from the Great Commission. Is God so fickle that He gives his orders in one passage only to retract them in another? This is just another example of MAD meta-narrative.
In fact, we know from History that most of the Apostles did leave the Land to preach to the nations, and not just to the Jews but to the Gentiles too. Just because the Bible does not record their deeds and travels does not mean they did not occur. It certainly does not give you literary license to imagine what was and was not on their itinerary.
The Bible itself has Peter preaching to the Church of Corinth, a congregation of mixed Jews and Gentiles located to the west of Athens, Greece. Greece was not the sheltered enclave of Judaism that Judea was. It was a heavily pagan nation. Also since Peter addresses his first letter to
all believers (not just those of Jewish decent) scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia we can safely assume he knew and had preached in those regions (
1 Peter 1:1).
It is a well-known fact of history that the Apostle John the son of Zebedee ministered to the Churches of Asia Minor many of which Paul had started. I think was Ireneus who said his base of operations was in Ephesus (certainly Eusebius mentions it). John lived to an advanced age before writing his Gospel, his letters and the Book of the Revelation. At least 40 years after Peter and Paul had been executed John, was still teaching. I have seen MAD proponents claim that John's letters were among those written "for us not to us" but at the time they were written the Gentiles had become the majority in the Church and John gave no indication whatsoever that he was writing to a specifically Jewish population.
From antiquity it has been said that Thomas evangelized India. The Churches he is supposed to have founded were called “Nasrim” which is Hebrew for Christian (“Nazarene”) That this early name for Christians should be used in India is a sign of very early Christian influence. The "Mar Toma" Churches as they are called now have been in India for thousands of years have always claimed that Thomas was their founder. I suppose that since this is inconsistent with the MAD narrative it must be a myth but what does that say about objectivity?
It is simply not true that all the Apostles "confined" themselves to the Jews because Paul took over the work with the Gentiles. Peter preached to Gentiles just as Paul continued to preach to the Jews. As far as I can tell, the only one of the original leadership who did not go to the nations was James the brother of Jesus. He remained in Jerusalem and continued to reach out to the Jews in Jerusalem until he was killed in 70 AD. Josephus identifies James by name and describes how he was killed.
Sure enough, both before and after Paul's private meeting with their Apostles and elders, he is met with those against his ministry among the Gentiles absent circumcision and the Law twice more.
As for this grace given Paul; he relates what it is in 1 Corinthians 3; in Ephesians 3, and elsewhere, as does Peter in 2 Peter 3.
And it was information that radically changed the course of the Twelve's so called Great Commission.
The word "grace” as it is used here refers to a
supernatural endowment of Divine ability which makes a person able to achieve results in a particular ministry. After Paul explained the fruit of his ministry among the Gentiles the Apostles saw that God had granted him the grace (or divine ability) to work in that sphere.
Grace is by no means synonymous with "knowledge"if that is what you are trying to say. Looking at the word in other contexts makes that clear.
“And God is able to make all
grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an
abundance for every
good work.” (
2 Corinthians 9:8)
The verse does not mean “God is able to grant all
information to you.” Rather, God’s gracious enabling makes one sufficient to meet any challenge and produce good results.
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” (
Ephesians 4:7)
Not “to each one
information was given”
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith …” (
Romans 12:6)
Not “having gifts differing according to the information, given to us…”
In these verses grace is the endowment of divine “abilities”
“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (
1 Peter 4:10)
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith (
Romans 12:6)
Our "gifts" differ not merely in kind but in accordance with the apportionment of God's power. Two people who teach may have different levels of power according to God's purpose.
The Twelve saw that Paul had an anointing to work with the Gentiles. His "grace" to do that work was demonstrated by the results.
A commission you and yours have yet to show you have ever properly understood.
By “proper understanding” you mean accepting the tenuous inferences of MAD instead of believing in solid exegetical proof.
Fact is Paul was not needed for that commission; the Twelve had been empowered from on High. There is another dynamic at work you and yours have never looked into - all you and yours do is parrot the same old off-base conclusions as to these issues.
First of all, the Great Commission was never about converting all
Jewish people but about reaching out to all men in every nation not just Israel. I cannot see any way to emphasize universality of this call any more than Jesus did. Do you believe the Twelve had the power to accomplish this mission by themselves? The scope of the call was so broad that multiple generations and the countless sacrifices would be required and on an ongoing basis. Perhaps Jesus, after He went to the Father saw this was too much and he changed their orders. This rather diminishes His statement that He always spoke what the Father did. Maybe God changed His mind.
Where exactly does the Bible actually say that Paul’s assistance was not needed" in the Great Commission? Again, the meta-narrative intrudes on the Biblical narrative. Was Paul not also called to go into all the world making disciples of all nations? Is that not exactly what he did?
"Parroting" means repeating what someone else says without thinking about it or, perhaps, plagiarizing from the writings of others but I have done neither. Even if I had I done so it would not disqualify me from the discussion for few people have totally original thoughts. I cite sources usually when trying to arrive at the clearest meaning of scripture in the original language. I think understanding the scriptures as they were originally written should be the goal of every student.
If “parroting" means simply that my view is like the historical view of thousands of years then I plead guilty but I would rather be a “parrot” of ancient truths than to be a Mockingbird of new and exciting errors.
Your primary error is that you have become convinced of the verity of the MAD paradigm in the absence of explicit textual references. Once convinced you assume it everywhere so that the meta-narrative takes the place of the stated narrative.