(April 11, 2018 at 4:06 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:(April 11, 2018 at 10:46 am)alpha male Wrote: Pick one of them and we can discuss.
I can't back down from challenge, especially if I have advanced claims concerning it. I didn't say that I could defend the arguments in the link, but you said you could refute them. I put it in the spoiler box below. It does appear to contain a contradiction.
It's important to recognize, however that even the Bible says that Paul never knew the living Jesus.
Yes, and? From the Christian perspective which allows revelation, how is that important?
BTW, right clicking and choosing paste as plain text is your friend.
Quote:Jesus Says Merciful Receive Mercy, But Paul Says Only Those God Chooses Arbitrarily Will Receive Mercy
(From Edgar Jones' Paul v. Jesus: A List of Incompatible Statements)
On whom God has mercy:
Paul says:
Rom.9
[15] For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
[16] So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy.
[18] So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.
Jesus says:
Matt.5
[7] Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Paul says that God has mercy on those whom he wills. He doesn't say that God does so arbitrarily - the commentator reads that in unnecessarily.
Jesus says that the merciful obtain mercy. He doesn't say that they are the only ones who obtain mercy. Again, the commentator reads that in unnecessarily.
So, God shows mercy to a group of people - Paul doesn't say what criteria are used. We know from Jesus that one such subset of that group is people who are themselves merciful.
There's no contradiction in the text itself. It's the reader's additional and unwarranted assumptions that create a contradiction.
Quote:So those are two points made in the link that I understand and we can discuss. But rather than parse through scripture (not my style) why not look at what theologians have to say on the matter? That is what I was referring to when I said that Paul was unfamiliar with Jesus.
That Paul didn't know as much about the earthly life of Jesus as other people did isn't a point of contention.