Paul Vs. Religion

Last night I was reading in Galatians. I was reading the very first portion of the first chapter and Paul was REALLY upset with the church of Galatia for rejecting grace and reverting to Religion (The Law). It was really interesting to see how exasperated he was about the whole ordeal.

I think Paul would have a conniption fit if he saw Christianity today. I can totally see him smacking his forehead with his palm and shaking his head. "That's completely opposite of what I tried to convey to you," he would say. "Can't you get it through your heads? Why are you still bound by Religion when I've tried to stress to you how important grace is? Why are you still trying to uphold the traditions of men, the law, when freedom is right in front of you?" Yeah, I can see that Paul would be royally miffed at the Church today.

It's astonishing how the IC will praise Paul and idolize him, but completely reject his message. Sure, they'll say, "oh, we live by grace." But do they really? Or are they still trying to get by on works? Are they doing God's will or following the traditions of men? I love how Paul specifically addresses the following of men's traditions. He says that he doesn't do it. The kicker is in the first portion of the first chapter, he says that what he preaches was not taught to him. (GASP you mean a preacher didn't sit down and give him the steps of salvation? You mean he didn't go through ministerial training?) That's right! He says that what he preaches was given to him by revelation. WOW! That totally blows religion out of the water. That defeats the idea that we have to have preachers hear from God for us. Or for that matter, we have to find it in the Bible. Paul didn't say he searched scripture for the message. He says it was given him by revelation. How can that be? RELATIONSHIP!!!!!!!!

I love how Paul just blows religion out of the water. He preaches against it. How do people not see that? Or maybe they just want to see it as him preaching against Judaism... but isn't that essentially what Christianity today is, just with a Messianic twist? You've got to tithe; you've got to volunteer at the church so many hours a week in addition to the 60+ hours you work; you've got to attend church weekly (never mind that you're neglecting family time. it's your duty as a "faithful christian.") You've got to show your devotion to the church or you're a heathen. Really? Is that what Paul preached? EMPHATICALLY NO! Paul would be appalled (excuse the pun) at the church today!

And people wonder why there are those of us who are breaking the chains of religion and backtracking to what the New Testament teaches...