September 24

SABBATH AFTERNOON
Read for This Week's Study:
Acts 6:9–15, 9:1–9, 1 Sam. 16:7, Matt. 7:1, Acts 11:19–21, 15:1–5.

Memory Text:
“When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, ‘Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life’” (Acts 11:18, NKJV).

It’s not that hard to understand Saul of Tarsus (also known as the apostle Paul after his conversion), and why he did what he did. As a devout Jew who was taught all his life about the importance of the law and about the soon-coming political redemption of Israel, the idea of the long-awaited Messiah being ignominiously executed like the worst of criminals was just too much for him to tolerate.
No wonder, then, he was convinced that the followers of Jesus were being disloyal to the Torah and, thus, hindering God’s plan for Israel. Their claims that the crucified Jesus was the Messiah and that He had risen from the dead were, he believed, rank apostasy. There could be no tolerance for such nonsense or for anyone who refused to give up those notions. Saul was determined to be God’s agent to rid Israel of these beliefs. Hence, he first appears in the pages of Scripture as a violent persecutor of his fellow Jews, those who believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
God, however, had far different plans for Saul, plans that he never could have anticipated for himself: not only was this Jew going to preach Jesus as the Messiah, he was going to do it among the Gentiles!

*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 1.

What Paul did shocked the Christian (during his time). Today..muslim claims it was Paul who mislead the Christian.
Even among Christians today their interpretation on Paul writings were various. Some interpret it literally..as a result they do away the seventh-day sabbath observance and the prohibited meat. And I think the most misleading doctrine was the OSAS (once saved always save).

Saulus benci Kristian sebab mereka mengajar bahawa keselamatan itu adalah melalui Yesus. Kalau tidak silap Saulus adalah Farisi--yang kuat dengan penurutan hukum dan tradisi.

Kebenciannya terhadap org Kristian meluap-luap sehingga bukan saja menganiaya dan membunuh Kristian di Yerusalem tapi sehingga ke Damaskus, yang jaraknya antara sekitar 200km (± 50km)

Perlu juga diingat bahawa orang Yahudi tidak membenci Kristian waktu itu, Saulus bertindak atas pendiriannya sendiri. Mungkin juga dia fikir akidah Kristian waktu itu adalah ajaran sesat.

Istilah Kristian tidak wujud waktu itu tapi maksud Kristian disini ialah 'pengikut Yesus'.

Olumisti...Apa yang saya maksudkan ialah apa yang Paulus lakukan setelah dia bergelar 'Paulus', bukan apa yang dia buat ketika masih 'Saulus'.

Ajaran Paulus menggemparkan Kristian berketurunan Yahudi pada zamannya (Paulus). Namun sedikit demi sedikit mereka memahami mesej Paulus.

Masalah timbul apabila ajaran Paulus disalahtafsir oleh mereka yang tidak memahami ajaran itu. Sebahagian besar protestant sekarang percaya kepada ajaran "sekali selamat, terus selamat".

Ya saya faham juga post kau itu cuma saya bagi komen mengenai dengan kehidupannya sewaktu dia Saulus.

Saya percaya ada kesan itu perbuatan dia dahulu terhadap usahanya untuk meyakinkan pengikut Yesus bahawa dia sudah berubah.

MUNGKIN bukan saja kuncu-kuncunya yang dahulu yang bingung dan kecewa dengan perubahan itu tapi pengikut Yesus sendiri pun mungkin was-was.

He was robust in travelling from place to place as penganiaya so later he had to travel extensively to convince people.

Personal reflection: How many of us are as willing to face our black past and attempt to show sincere conversion? We're so good at 'past is past' but actually we have a moral responsibility to correct the wrong we had done in the past. Paul did that!

Ya..betul tu olumisti.. Kita cendrung mengatakan, "Yg berlalu biarlah berlalu" dengan harapan hal itu dilupai begitu sahaja tanpa usaha untuk memperbetulkan keadaan.

Pertobatan Paulus benar-benar sejati. Dia tidak risau dianggap murtad oleh kawan lamanya. Dia juga berani memperbetulkan sikap Kristian Yahudi yang cuba impose amalan hukum taurat kepada bangsa lain.