"UFO's" drug culture, and the occult

[jamie]

"I should add that no property of matter may be ascribed to Him. He has no weight, no measurements, no mass, no bulk, no parts, no form, no taste, no smell, no extension in space, and He is invisible. If He were any different He would be confined, and thus a finite being. However, in His infinite love"

Ok but hold one here..if god has no measurments, no mass, no bulk, no parts, no form, no taste, no smell, no extension in space..how can god be a "he"?

You contradict yourself.

 

[jamie]

"So your supposition is that matter is eternal, instead of God?"

No. I said..

fractal enchantment wrote:
"well by your "logic" you can just replace "universe" with "god" and come to the same conlusion, that it cant come from nothing..so then..does "god" believe in god?"

Nowhere did I say "universe" equates to matter..maybe multiverse is a better term here and it implies *everything*..matter or not..

"it is not very reasonable to suppose that man would write a book so damaging to His own pride. Yet, ALL other religions are polar opposites. Christianity stands alone in salvation by grace through faith alone, and not of works. I wonder why this is?"

Uhh..what? ^ that is just so not true..I hardely believe you can even name all other religions since there are soo many.

anyways, this is an interestig topic and we could go on and on but I have gone down this road far too many times..

Il leave the rest of this discussion to others.

 

[Gondrio]

you wouldnt find it in any one place, since it is eveywhere, gleaming within every single thing..there is no end and there is no beginning..there is only something else..something far far beyond this limited human dicotemy, and it's probabily more beautiful and wonderful than we can probly imagine..all this talk of being saved or not saved or born again etc would fall away and we would just be..just be..

Thats why heaven will be so wonderful the Christian. To worship God in heaven will be the fulfillment of our joy. Is it not true that when you admire something you praise it? "Isnt she beautiful!" or "that was amazing!". You are right in saying that He is "more beautiful than we can probably imagine." In fact, John said it first:

John 17:3 - And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

The children of God will spend an eternity of eternities chasing down the beauties of the divine Godhead. The very nature of God will throw us into such ecstasy that unless we were supernaturally strengthened, we would be destroyed by our own joy, unable to contain the beauty revealed. Our joy (and pleasure) while in heaven will be full in Christ, yet deepen for all eternity, even after thousands of revelations, because we are finite creatures.

Psalm 16:11 - You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

 

[Autodidactic]

meh, more or less just another one of those religious debates that will never end. Dropping names of what someone supposedly of some reknown thinks about a certain issue. We are all humans here, we've somewhat the same cognitive abilities, senses and ability to come to our own conclusions on things, IMO we need to all come to our own beliefs on our own. I've been an atheist since about the age of 12, though DMT has given me hope to there being much more to this thing we call life then I had initially and continually thought possible, and I love it for that. As for the UFO connection thing, I've read some interesting theories about it, most profound were the writings of Zecharia Sitchin, which plausibly does relate the whole UFO phenomena to the bible as well as other ancient texts. Are his writings the truth? I don't know but they are fairly plausible. My beliefs have changed many times in the last few years, when you find out everything you have been told is a lie on more then one occasion you start to question everything.

Right now I've been thinking this thing we call life may be just some simulation, a game if you will. Possibly some advanced long living beings playing some sort of game to kill time/boredom or just to experience everything we do. Or some being playing all of us at the same time I really don't know. I have however came to the point in my life where I really can't laugh at or ridicule any one's beliefs, no matter how insane or unlikely it may seem to me. I've realized how ignorant we all really are to the mysteries of the universe. It's become a bit of an obsession of mine, to try to figure out at least some of these mysteries, but as it normally goes, the more answers we get the more questions we have. But I think that is part of the human complex, either search for the truth till you die, probably without ever getting any real explanations of anything, or just accept some absolute truth that you are not positive is real, but it fills some void inside you that you can't fill any other way. In anycase we are all on a journey, and who is anyone to say we are on the right or wrong one?

 

[Enoon]

so... I read the first post and most of the discussion, but it did get a bit long, so forgive me if I mis-read or missed some things.

Two things I would like to say first, and then see where that takes me. First, from a physical/cosmological standpoint something can come of nothing. In fact, and I've posted this somewhere else, cosmologists believe that the big bang is more of a local phenomena which seems to happen when a perfect vacuum is reached. Vacuum energy. I'm a physicist, but by no means studied cosmology so I can't give you the details. In essence, as I#ve understood it though, they believe that when space becomes vast and the fields/radiation and particles per volume are low enough, energy just bubbles up. And since Einstein we understand that E=mc^2, meaning matter is just another form of energy. With this bubbling up, we get a big bang (lots of energy). One of many possible ones. Space being warped by matter, no information can escape these bubbles; at least not by means that we as physicists know about. Which doesn't mean there aren't means that we don't know about. Possibly there are many bubbles that exist side by side. From the statistical point of view it seems likely that there are actually an infinite amount of these bubbles.
Now given that our bubble-universe is expanding and even accelerating at this expansion, as it is believed by cosmologists, at some point all matter in this universe will be so far apart that it will again form a near-perfect vacuum and new bubbles can emerge.
So it seems almost - to me at least - that existence is inherent in even the nothingness. And following the logic of one of my favorite books Goedel Escher Bach, it seems that consciousness is inherent in existence (I'll not go into why, if you're interested, read the book, though it's not what it seems to be about at all in the beginning).

God for me, is the ultimate consciousness.

The second thing I wanted to say, or rather ask is - what do you think of the gnostic texts?
I've been reading up on gonsticism lately and how they originally belonged to christianity but were later persecuted and called heretics because they challenged the authoritarian views of the institutionalized churches. Meaning they were rather inconvenient, especially in terms of controlling the followers. Also in gnosticism there seems to be more ballance between women and men, which it seem historically existed for a short period of time, before men decided they needed to put a stop to it and therefore wrote that women should be obedient and listen to their husbands about all matters.
In gnosticism it seems everyone has authority on religious matters, who has had direct religious experiences. This of course stands in direct opposition to the institutions that seem to claim only the chose leaders who are descendants of the apostolic tradition are in communication with god. Gnostics believed in Christ. I'd like to know your take on this topic. Gnostics also believed that God could be experienced through self-reflection and that god was the true self.

I haven't studied this to the extend that I would like to, so please forgive me if I got something wrong.

Now personally I have a few problems with the idea of God and Satan etc as it is stated in the old Testament. From personal experiences I can state that the God that I experience is not wrathfull. Rather it is the stage before I reach communication with the divine that seems wrathful and judgemental. Once divinity is accessed though, I find there is nothing I can do to offend it. It is invulnerable to my failings, it is infinitely forgiving and loving, and it misses me, when I turn away from it.
Also the more I think about the more I have to agree with the idea that all evil is just a cognitive disturbance -> you not recognising yourself. God not recognizing itself (sorry I just can't use the masculine term, it is not the way I experience it). The life that we live we experience seperation - from one another and even from ourselves. This is the ground upon which what we perceive as evil exists. We find we are being controlled by forces we do not understand, but perhaps these are just drives within ourselves that we have not yet fully brought to light. And when we glimpse them they seem alien. I propose that they are not, they only seem to be wholly other. It is the nature of our kind after all to perceive things as other, when they are in fact one...

As for the aliens and the evil - I do believe in some of these ideas to an extent: I believe that we have created over centuries a very hostile world for ourselves. I'm talking about thought-prisons. Prisons that keep us from ever finding our true self, from ever experiencing true freedom and God. I don't think that there is an extradimensional conspiracy at work, or at least that it was not so from the beginning. It could be that in a way what we have created has gained its own life now, and operates like a machine fuled by us, and we can meet its minions as evil entities.
I'm talking about the machinery of our society. This includes institutionalized religions, our economy, slavery, punishment, power-structures, hierarchical thinking, the usage of Aristotelian logic, the idea of yielding authority to another for something we shouldn't etc.
For me this is a matter of mass psychology, perhaps mass pathology. This is not to say the energies are not real. They are real, IMO. But fighting them, rebelling against them, would have to begin in the same place where the problem is situated. In the self. In your prison cell. First you have be break out. Pull the veil from your eyes, unplug your ears and walk out of the cell. The door is open by the way...

oh well. that's just my take on the whole matter. nice thread btw. A little too much dogma for my taste but some interesting thoughts. maybe a little heavy on the quotes there too.

 

[divineyes]

John Lash, an eminent gnostic scholar and Mythologist, suggests that we are dealing with inorganic, adversarial entities that the Gnostics referred to in their writings as Archons. In their writings, the Gnostics give detailed instruction on how to deal with and overcome these Archons. He (Lash) suggests that they are masters of simulation and insinuate their influence into society thru institutionalized religion and politics. I think that much of this phenomena (ufo's, faeries, will 'o wisps) are simply the Archons at work trying to throw us off base- as they are insanely jealous of the fact that we are bearers of the luminous epinoia (self-determination with power to actualize). I highly recommend you read Daniel Pinchbeck's review of this book at Amazon- he is the 2nd reviewer.

Here's the link: Amazon.com

And a link to the book itself at Google Books: Not in His Image

 

[Gondrio]

"I should add that no property of matter may be ascribed to Him. He has no weight, no measurements, no mass, no bulk, no parts, no form, no taste, no smell, no extension in space, and He is invisible. If He were any different He would be confined, and thus a finite being. However, in His infinite love"

Ok but hold one here..if god has no measurments, no mass, no bulk, no parts, no form, no taste, no smell, no extension in space..how can god be a "he"?

You contradict yourself.

God is neither male or female. God is God. He is lofty and high above. Like no other. When He said to Moses "I am who I am", It was because He could not point outside Himself and say "I am like Him". He is completely other. Question: What would be more like God... a bacteria or a flaming archangel? Answer: Neither, because there is none like God!

Is God a man that He should repent? God is masculine, but He's not a man.The divine nature has no body. Authority is the main characteristic of masculinity. He has likened himself to a father, but that does not mean He must be male. He created man to teach us a spiritual principle about himself. When his care is likened to a mother hen, we do not anticipate that he is a holy chicken (no blasphemy intended).

 

[Enoon]

John Lash, an eminent gnostic scholar and Mythologist, suggests that we are dealing with inorganic, adversarial entities that the Gnostics referred to in their writings as Archons. In their writings, the Gnostics give detailed instruction on how to deal with and overcome these Archons. He (Lash) suggests that they are masters of simulation and insinuate their influence into society thru institutionalized religion and politics. I think that much of this phenomena (ufo's, faeries, will 'o wisps) are simply the Archons at work trying to throw us off base- as they are insanely jealous of the fact that we are bearers of the luminous epinoia (self-determination with power to actualize). I highly recommend you read Daniel Pinchbeck's review of this book at Amazon- he is the 2nd reviewer.

Here's the link: Amazon.com

And a link to the book itself at Google Books: Not in His Image

Yet another book I need to read apparently... I'm gonna go bankrupt if this keeps up... thanks though!
I did hear the term Archons referred to in a similar sense in Neil Kramer's talk. I still believe that the inorganic entities actually refer to psychological phenomenon which manifests itself as such. That they have a life of their own is simply because these energies have been repressed, ignored and neglected for so long that we don't understand their motions consciously any longer. In essence I want to say that I do not believe that they are truly separate from us. But then again, nothing really is, now is it?

 

[unansweredquestions]

im sorry to take up the role of the typical antagonist, but i just cant resist.
so you'v stated the bible is the word of god and perfectly logical; god is eternal, infinite, transcendent, all loving, just and so on.
so lets start with the obvious and adress this logical bible.
the inconsistant triad anyone? God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient. so why is there evil? these three charectoristics do not logicaly allow it. god loves all creations, knows the pain that will be caused and has the power to stop them.
at the risk of sounding childish, if god is all powerful, can he create a rock too large for him to throw? of course, he may be out of time so this wouldnt apply....but he is transcendent. suppose he comes to the physical plain to prove a point?
we are attributed with free will throughout the bible, but god is omniscient, transcendent and omnipotent. he knows what we will do, all that we will do in our life. but yet, that clearly implies a destiny, he knew what id do at 30 befor my mother knew she was pregnant....furthering that point, a god who knows what someone will do when created, but still creates them in the knowledge that they will be evil; only to condemn them to an eternity of punsihment and allow pain to the good seems certainly pointless, as well as far from bonevelant.
gods omniscience, does god know what its like to learn? if he does, he certainly isnt omniscient, if not, theres something right there he doesnt know.

to move away from philosophical diggs at your diety, what about some of these stories in the bible?
God ordered abraham to sacrifice his son, yes, in hindsight we know god was testing. but god is all knowing, he didnt need to test at all; what was he finding out? however, we know from studies today, the kind of anguish caused by making such a decision and having to carry it out would almost certainly cause some serious pyschological damage....not so benevolant.
have you read judges 19:1? the story goes, a guest comes to an old mans house, evil men come to the door and demand the guest for the night. the old man replies

No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”

seriously, this si the word of god, why would he say that and what was he teaching?

i dont mean to bash, but you seem like a logical fella and im yet to hear a reasoned reply to these issues. i welcome yours.

 

[dpwishy]

God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient. so why is there evil? these three charectoristics do not logicaly allow it. god loves all creations, knows the pain that will be caused and has the power to stop them.

Evil is God, God created the evil just as he created the good. Its a tool used to teach. This is all a giant play, written and directed by the one. You wouldn't want to watch the same happy movie over and over again would you? This is all a giant movie for entertainment, people just get lost in the illusions some times. If you can step back and not be so tied into a character in the movie, and watch the movie as a whole from a step back, you begin to see how epic and amazing this movie is. Its all for entertainment, with the purpose to teach...

Sometimes I feel its more a video game than a play, but thats for another discussion

 

[unansweredquestions]

Evil is God, God created the evil just as he created the good. Its a tool used to teach. This is all a giant play, written and directed by the one. You wouldn't want to watch the same happy movie over and over again would you?

so your explanation is that without pain and torement, God wouldnt be as entertained?
granted, an interesting reply, but what fun would watching any movie be if you already knew it inside out, step for step, word for word?
but also, even we in society today have generaly moved passed the entertainment of the colleseums, what amusement is god finding in it?....im yet to find someone who finds seeing the ones they genuinly love in pain entertaining.
or do you just believe that god is that we would interperate as evil? because in such a case, you surley wouldnt be defending from a religious stance?

 

[dpwishy]

so your explanation is that without pain and torement, God wouldnt be as entertained? granted, an interesting reply, but what fun would watching any movie be if you already knew it inside out, step for step, word for word?

The purpose of the movie is to teach. You were already love, you were already god, you were already the source before creation. But you were that, it wasn't an acquired love or devotion, it was force. It is in my opinion that you are sent here to relearn what you really are. You can't understand love fully, until you have seen hate, so on and so forth. You will be put in this movie for many many lives, taking on infinite roles. Everyone will play the part of a beggar, of a king, of a peasant, of a grieving mother, of a widow, a student, a business man, a rapist, a murderer. Everyone will take on every "part" in this play, and by doing this, in the end you will learn why its better to give love, rather than hate. Why its better to befriend than kill, why its better to be honest and not steal. This isn't something that is forced upon us, this is something we will all learn through experience by taking different roles in this giant play. Then once the goal is reached, and you realize what you really are, its because you have learned it through experience, not because someone forced you to learn it. God will wait patiently for all his children to come back, time will exist until the sonship is whole again, this is the purpose of life. And once you find the source, the one, this love. It will be something that you found yourself, it is a love that you formed, that you acquired, that you desire with your free will...

 

[unansweredquestions]

so then you believe in a certain structure of my life? do i have free will, the choice to choose? or then, is this life set up just as a movie, that i am to experience merley to know?
but also, why is it then that god, in his infinite power, could not just impart this knowledge upon me? having to experience something to know, to me atleast, seems like a very human conception. out of the laws of pysics and reality, what is the need?

 

[dpwishy]

so then you believe in a certain structure of my life? do i have free will, the choice to choose? or then, is this life set up just as a movie, that i am to experience merley to know?
but also, why is it then that god, in his infinite power, could not just impart this knowledge upon me? having to experience something to know, to me atleast, seems like a very human conception. out of the laws of pysics and reality, what is the need?

Because in this movie you have the illusion of free will. The whole purpose of the movie is for you to do all the searching/finding/discovering yourself. If knowledge was just given to you, then you don't really learn. You learn through experience, not by words.

In Pali which was the language at the time of the Buddha, he taught there were 3 types of wisdom; suta-maya panna: which is widsom gained by listening to others. Cinta-maya panna: which is intellectual and analytical understanding using reason. And Bhavana-maya panna: which is wisdom based on direct personal experience. Knowing something because it was told, or even believing something that you learned because it sounds right when you use your reason and intellect is not enough. This is something that has to be touched and tasted yourself, through personal experience.

Ex: You can go to a restaurant because you heard it was a good place to eat from others. When you go inside the restaurant you can see that the food looks good and that every one looks happy eating it. So by your powers of analytical understanding, intellect, and reason, you can come to the conclusion that the food is pretty good. But do you really know that the food is good until you eat it? Even though you were told it was good, and that using your intellect and reason you can see that it seems "good", do you really know its good until you try it yourself?

Free will is a variable in this existence, it does not exist outside of this movie. You have the illusion of free will in this existence, but in the end it was written, "maktub". So do you really have free will? That's a whole different discussion right there..

 

[Enoon]

you seem terribly sure of your theories dpwishy!
Personally I dislike the theories/philosophies in which it is said we are here to learn something. I realize that thinking in those terms makes a lot of things easier to endure, but it also places emphasis on something that comes here-after. And this I find in a way very life-negating. This I also think of a lot of the christian philosophy - by proclaiming 'life after death' as a reward for the obedient followers. It also makes every good deed you do a very selfish thing, since all you're doing is buying your way into heaven.
Christians believe in suffering as a means to buy their way into heaven as well - or at least there were many who did, during the roman prosecution. But with that kind of mindset, there seems to be no room for compassion and empathy. I don't like this idea at all.

Compassion and empathy (I know using both is kind of redundant but I like the sound of both words...) are important for us a species to live together and survive together. But by turning altruism and goodness into a selfish act, we've kind of cut ourselves off from this.
Life itself is important, not as a stepping stone, but in itself.

Perhaps we are here so that God can experience itself, because it got lonely, being the only one out there. So our experience isn't for some afterlife but for the moment. To experience god as other, but also as ourselves. God used 'double think', making itself forget that it is all.

love

 

[unansweredquestions]

but if i dont have free will, am i searching,finding and discovering? surley im just watching as it unfolds? in this following of the buddha's understanding of wisdom; surley im adhering to suta-maya panna coupled with Cinta-maya panna? understanding through witnessing, allowing my analitical abilities to derive a lesson from what i see. surley wisdom based on personal experience neccesitates a personal choice? otherwise, what is it that I, personaly, am giving to this life.
my previous point being, learning from experience is a necessity in the realm that we live, granted.
but beyond this, past time, space and really, our understanding. why do we need to regress to a human state and contraints to know? what is stopping god from enabling us to know, not as humans, but before we are brought to this?

 

[dpwishy]

Perhaps we are here so that God can experience itself, because it got lonely, being the only one out there. So our experience isn't for some afterlife but for the moment. To experience god as other, but also as ourselves. God used 'double think', making itself forget that it is all.

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we...kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok... But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."
-Bill Hicks

I couldnt agree more Enoon;

Its a movie, a ride, god experiencing itself, what ever you want to call it. There is some kind of entertainment value that the creator gets from it for sure. Sometimes I like to think of it as gods hobby, some play guitar, others dance. God creates creation for entertainment, to play with itself if you will. And I think learning is necessary, as its part of our evolution. The first part of the evolutionary sequence imo, was to set up a vehicle able to awaken and hold an awaken consciousness. That has been completed, we are now in a process in the awakening of the universe that we can use these vehicles to gain experience and to learn what and who we are. This new steps in our evolution, consciousness wise, come from learning and from experience watching the movie, riding the ride, or how ever you want to put it....

 

[Enoon]

I love the bill hicks quote. However I don't think it's about entertainment. it's about abysmal loneliness, ultimate loneliness. and it is not a hobby, imo. IMHO, god does not do other things on the side. god is existence. god is our existence. we are not a side-project. We are God. Reflections of, the source of, both. God is evolving with us.
I still believe that our purpose is to experience God the fullest, meaning seeking out the fullest self-knowledge of gnosis, thereby finding God within. I also think that we are messengers of God for God, to God, to ourselves. To infuse this world with divinity, to remind ourselves of our divinity.

Still doesn't explain the UFOs though...

 

[The Centre]

I am a Christian, and I think much of what you say is very flawed. I say, if someone hasn't accepted Christ, or hasn't understood that God saved him, regardless of what he calls God, he is judged by his actions. The actions of an human being is sadly always flawed, thus accepting that God has saved you and understands you, is the only way to be redeemed. Christ came to tell us this. I am always sad when I see so many judgemental Christians who put to much meaning to words. Words are nothing but signposts, pointing you in the right direction. Psychedelics are also signposts, pointing you in the right direction. But if you focus to much on the sign, and not what it is saying, then you are going to end up worshipping a sign, while it is pointing to Divine Insight.

Imagine someone saw a sign point left that says: God.
The sign points left, but because it says "God" he decides to throw away rationality and start worshipping the sign. He forever worships the sign, begging the sign for love and redemption, but never gets this. He now gets angry and wonders why "God" has forsaken him. He blames himself for not having enough faith. Now, if he used some sense, and turned left and started walking, and ended up finding God, then he wouldn't see the sign any more, but he will see God. Instead, he bashes his head, starts wars over which sign is God, as there is many signs saying "God", and basically goes insane. Where is the sense in this?

 

[Gondrio]

I'd like to know your take on this topic.

Why do I believe in the gospel of Paul and not the Gnostic gospel? Well, Paul actually raises that question in the letter to the Galatians.

There are 5 pieces of evidence that Paul’s gospel is Gods gospel

Basically, when Paul (who was actually Saul at the time) was persecuting the Christians, he thought himself to be purifying the very assembly he was actually attacking. Paul had a die hard devotion to Judaism (the religion of the pharisees), and this was his reason for the persecution of Christs followers. Just as the pharisees hated the teachings of Christ, and killed him for it, so did Paul hate the teachings of Christ and seek to kill his followers. Paul was a trained pharisee, who knew the scriptures well, and he thought that his zealous devotion to what he believed was the “true religion”, and would earn him great honor, in the sight of God, and man.

Acts 22:3 (Paul speaking) - “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting."

In Pauls biography (the book of Galations) Paul further tells us the story of his miraculous encounter with the living God. Below is a brief outline of Paul’s argument for why His gospel is the true gospel given to him not by man, but from God.

Thesis – my Gospel comes through God and not man

Chapter one:

verse 10 - “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

If Paul was seeking the approval of man he would not have called the Galatians “accursed” in verse 9.

Verse 11 - “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel.”

Verse 12 - “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

He then goes onto support this statement in the following chapters.

Verse 13 -14 – Paul’s Past - “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

When Paul says that he was so extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers he is referring back to the Old Testament, one example is Psalm 139:21-22 - “David burns with a zeal and love for the Lord and the things of the Lord. The Lord's enemies are his enemies. He hates those who hates the Lord”.

Paul/Saul thought he was defending the honor of God, but he ended up doing the exact opposite!

Verse 15-17 – His call - “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles”

Verse 18-24 – His obscurity - "nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus."

So yet again, we see that Paul was not seeking the approval of man. He did not “go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles”, but “went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus”. What was he doing there? He was faithfully preaching the gospel (v.16) which God had given him by revelation.

Verse 18 – 20 His other recognition by James and Peter as an apostle by apostles - “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.” But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)”

We can only re-declare what Christ, by his apostles (who being dead, still speak, Heb. 11:4) because they spoke the Word of Christ they had from him, as well as the permission, and inspiration of his Spirit. This kind of authority is nowhere transferable (Luke 10:16)

Chapter two:

Verse 9 - “and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas [Cephas = Peter] and John [who were all apostles of Christ], who were reputed to be pillars [of the church], gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. “

Verse 11-22 – His boldness when he rebukes Peter shows his authority - But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

What is Pauls Gospel? In Galatians 2:16 he tells us: “man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

To be justified means to be declared righteous before God.

The message of Paul is utterly consistent with the rest of scripture in more aspects seen at face value. God chose to use Paul because the gospel is a message of grace for the enemies of God, and the messenger must be a picture of the message.

I suggest you read the gospel, because "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) God has spoken to man. The canon of scripture is closed, and you will not hear the voice of God through any other manner other than the reading of Gods word. Its like this... the great God before whom the nations are as a drop in a bucket, comes to you and begins to talk to you through the words and truths of Holy Scripture. Maybe you have been familiar with the Bible and Christian truth for many years, and it has meant little to you, but one day you wake up to the fact that God is actually speaking to you through the biblical message. As you listen to what God is saying, you find yourself brought very low, for God talks to you about your sin, and guilt, and weakness, and blindness, and folly, and compels you to judge yourself hopeless and helpless, and to cry out for forgiveness. But this is not all. You come to realize as you listen that God is actually opening his heart to you, making friends with you and enlisting you as a disciple. Hes done it the same way for 2000 years. So its not mere intellectual arguments that drive one to to God (many believers in God do not know Jesus Christ), but rather the work of the Holy spirit in the life of that person, driving him to see the reality of his depraved condition. It is then and only then which Jesus Christ can be embraced as savior and Lord.