What Was Paul Chosen To Do?

[whirlwind]

Christ sent His disciples, as He also was sent, to....

• Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
  
• Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

He found us and we are today's Christians. What of Paul? What was he chosen for?

• Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

The Gentiles are the ethnic nations. The children of Israel, all twelve tribes, are Jew and Christian and then there are the....kings.

• Jeremiah 17:25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.

• Revelation 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

• Revelation 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

The kings Paul was chosen to teach, along with Gentiles and the children of Israel, are the very elect, the man child, who are...the "kings and priests unto God."

• Revelation 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.

In teaching these three groups Paul teaches on three levels. About those levels Peter tells us....

• 2 Peter 3:15-17 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

Paul himself wrote...

• 
  2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

Two of the subjects that come to mind in Pauls teaching, that I believe are "hard to be understood" by some are....Rapture and women teaching. Why did Paul write things in the manner he did? Was it purposeful? Are they stumblingblocks placed to prove us? Are they to test us to see if we follow man's teaching or if we will "love the truth" enough to replace our carnal pride and ego? I know that in this maturing process I find I have to replace it each day as I learn on many different subjects.

 

[Guestman]

The apostle Paul was chosen to minister to the "nations", for in his letter to the Romans, he told them that "I speak to you who are people of the nations. Foreasmuch as I am, in reality, an apostle to the nations, I glorify my ministry."(Rom 11:13) He was selected by Jesus as "a chosen vessel to me to bear my name to the nations as well as kings and the sons of Israel."(Acts 9:15) His first missionary trip took him through Cyprus and into Asia Minor.(Acts 13:4) He was thrown out of cities by angry mobs, even stoned and left for dead. But he returned to strengthen those who had become disciples.

It was not until 36 C.E. that the door was opened for the "nations" or Gentiles to be partakers of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 22:18), in order for Daniel 9:27 to be fulfilled, whereby it said that "he (Jesus) must keep the (Abrahamic) covenant in force for the many for one week (of years); at the half of the week (of years) he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease." At the "half of the week" or in 33 C.E., when Jesus was put to death on Nisan 14, the Mosaic Law covenant was fulfilled and thus removed, no longer having any hold on fleshly Israel. Three and a half years later, in 36 C.E., the "seventy weeks" of years came to an end (Dan 9:24), and in which the Abrahamic covenant was now extended to "people of the nations" or Gentiles.

Hence, the apostle Paul was sent as an "ambassador" for Christ to "people of the nations,"(Eph 6:20) to "nations far off."(Acts 22:21) Paul told King Agrippa that Jesus had commissioned him, with Jesus saying to him that he had chosen Paul "as an attendant and a witness both of things you have seen and things I shall make you see respecting me; while I deliver you from this people and from the nations, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, in order for them to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance (as partakers of the Abrahamic covenant) among those sanctifed by their faith in me."(Acts 26:16-18)

 

[Irish]

Hi guys,

I guess I disagree with your assessment of the 70 weeks. The last seven weeks are mentioned as happening after the cutting off. There is a fairly large structure break in the middle of Daniel 9:26. This places the last seven weeks in the last days. In the midst of the week the "he" cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. In Isaiah 61:2 you have a peek at this; "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and and the day of vengeance of our Lord. Now in Luke 4:18 He quit reading after acceptable year of the Lord, as to not read into one dispensation that which belongs in another.


Irish