The Apostle Paul vs The Oracle at Delphi

 I will admit that I tried to title this blogpost with a title that would promote people into checking this post out; however, also while I was studying though the book of Acts these past few weeks and paying attention to the surroundings of Paul's journeys, i came across this tidbit of information. Most Preachers seem to gloss over the Greek Mythos and history of the events in the New Testament and that is something that has caught my attention these past few months. From Jesus's road trip with the Disciples to Caesarea Philippi, to the end of the New Testament there are a lot of references. In the Book of Acts, Paul is constantly coming across Worshippers of the Greek Myths and Gods. 

That brings us to today's blog. In Acts 16;12-40, we see Paul's first trip to the city of Philippi. Phillippi is a city in Macedonia and a separate city from Delphi. The connection between the two places that I found comes from verse 16: As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling."

The first thing that I want to point out is that she was a slave and her owners used her to make money. The reason that they could make money off of her comes from the spirit of Divination. I want to point out that I believe that this is a good translation and it points out that she was doing this because of a demon inside of her. Now for the Delphi part. In the Greek, the word for divination is Python. Python is the region where Delphi is located. In Greek Mythology, Python was the dragon spirit that gaurded Delphi and was defeated by Apollo causing Python and the Oracle to be subject to Apollo, and also, that it is why there was a temple to Apollo there. Also, it is said that it was Python who declared that Socrates was the wisest man in Greece.  So this girl in Acts would have been seen as one who was connected to the Oracle at Delphi. 

Now we come to the actions of the slave girl and Paul which occur in verses 17-18: She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. 

A lot of Preachers miss why the words that she said was a bad thing, and to be honest this went on for days before Paul had had enough. The danger in what she said was that she was using the message of Paul and Silas to exult them. When Preachers are being exalted, they start receiving the praise that is due to God and to god alone. Also by doing this she was equating God with the worship of demons. Paul casted out this demon and that caused a big commotion that ended with Paul and Silas being beaten and jailed. 

There are a couple of reasons that struck a cord with me. The first is that people seem to look at Greek Mythology as Comic Book characters, instead of a false religion. The second is that this shows how false religions are powered by demons. 

Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons that were not God,to gods they had never known,"

1 Corinthians 10:19-20 "What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons."

I could go on with the Bible quotes and I recommend everyone to look this up for themselves. I am not saying that we can't enjoy Greek Myths, but to realize that these  are talking about demon powered beliefs and those same demons are active today empowering false beliefs.

The Question

 Many people have heard me ask this question before, but I think that it is probably one of the most important questions of our lives. The question is - How real is God to you? 

Is God just a fictitious character like Superman or one of the Greek myths that we have turned into comic book characters?

Is God real but like the King of Lesotho? A King of a real place that you don't anything about or any dealings with?

Is God like the leader of Monaco? A ruler over paradise where you might like to go someday but has no bearing on your day to day life?

Is God like the leader of the USA?  Someone who has authority over you and every decision that he makes impacts your life, but doesn't know you personally and more than likely will never know you?

Is God someone who knows you personally and lives with you?

A Pastor whom I like, once wrote a book (that I recommend for people to read) talking about Jesus as being a next door Savior, comparing him to a mister Wilson type character from Home Improvement.  However I believe scripture says that God is even closer than that. Fifty days after the Passover where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose again, was a Feast of Pentecost. During this Feast, the Holy Spirit came upon believers, and from that point forward the question became have you received the Holy Spirit? In Act 19:2, Paull encounters a group of men and asked them this question.  "And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”?" That gift of the Holy Spirit - is God with being with us - all day, every day, for the rest of our lives. 

So the question that I have for you as you have read this, Does God's Spirit live within you? This is the big difference that Christianity have with other religions. In Christianity, we don't ascend to God, but instead God descends to live with us, to make us a part of his family, his kingdom, and someday to live with him. 

BTW. the book that I mentioned is: Nextdoor Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust by Max Lucado and it is one of the best books about Jesus that I have read.

What is a Pastor.

    When I was growing up there was this cliche that my grandfather told me many of times. It went like this - Preachers come a dime a dozen, but a Pastor is hard to come by. That saying became popular because people recognized a truth. There is a difference in Preaching and Pastoring. Preaching can be taught in a classroom situation but Pastoring can not be taught that way. Pastoring comes from mentorship and having a heart for people. 

    The New Testament talks about several things that get combined in most people's definitions of Pastor, so it only right to start there in talking about being a Pastor. It talks about teaching, and being a teacher or Rabbi is important, but that is different from being a Pastor.  As we look for someone to lead the congregation, it is important to bbe able to teach and to teach, one must study continuously. That means to finding time to dig into the word with the Holy Spirit and go deep into the text to see what it is really saying and not using text to make it say what you want it to say - but, that is not Pastoring.  

     It also talks about evangelizing,  but that is also different from Pastoring. Evangelizing is telling someone who Jesus is and why that is important and what that means to us. This is something that all Christians should do by the way that they live, and Church Leaders should be an example of that - but, that is not Pastoring either.

    The Bible also talks about being an Overseer (Bishop) and being an Elder. All of these are very important, as these are the people who seek out the direction that God wants to church to go, and leads the church in that direction - but, these traits are not Pastoring either. 

    Although everyone looks for all of these qualities in a Pastor, None of these traits define the act of Pastoring. In order for us to understand what Pastoring means, we must go back to the Latin Vulgate. The Latin Bible translated for the Catholic by Saint Jerome way back in the day. That is because the word Pastor is taken directly from Latin word Pastore. It means to shepherd. Latin uses the word Pastor to mean shepherding sheep and shepherding people. The Greek Bible does not separate leading sheep from leading people either. When the English translators translated to Bible into English they used shepherd to mean shepherding sheep and Pastor to shepherding people. I'm not saying that they missed translated, but I'm just diving into the text to understand it better.

    To get a clear picture of what a Pastor is and what is Biblically meant by Pastoring. Go into the New Testament and when you read shepherds or shepherding, replace that word with Pastor or Pastoring and you will get a clear picture. For example, Luke 2:8 becomes - 

    And in the same region there were Pastors out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.   

`    John 10:12 -He who is a hired hand and not a Pastor, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

    Hebrews 13:20 -Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Pastor of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

And I could go own. Pastoring means to look after all the sheep and if any of them has a problem, you tend to them to help them. To do this, you must invest the time it takes to know your sheep. A lot of Pastors have no ideal who is a part of their congregation and who is not. Others are so tied up in doing other things that they don't have time to be there for people. I'm not saying these leaders are bad, I'm just saying that is not Pastoring.

Knowledge, Sex, and Pentecost.

 I have recently been studying the "Sermon On The Mount" that is found in Matthew chapters 5-7. It is probably the most famous sermon ever preached and Jesus gave this sermon towards the start of his ministry. 

As I studied it this time, I noticed how much Jesus really blasted the Pharisees. Israel at that time was really fractured in their beliefs. You had the Essenes, the Zealots, the Sadducees, the Herodians, not to mention the Hellenistic Jews ( Jewish people who had adopted many of teh Greek/Roman beliefs and practices of that day). but probably the most respected group of all of them were the Pharisees.  The Pharisees had dedicated themselves to the study of what we call the Old Testament and all of its laws. As I look at what they believed and practiced, I notice that their theology was better theology than all of the other groups. They also so practiced obeying the law to the extent that Jesus himself admitted that they appeared to be blameless. 

 So seeing how Jesus blasted the Pharisees in this sermon really stood out to me this time through the passage. Jesus tells the people that the righteousness of the Pharisees (the people who dedicated themselves to the law and appeared as being perfect) wasn't good enough to get into the Kingdom of God. Jesus would go on and say that the Pharisees taught certain actions, but Jesus declares that a person with a desire to do those actions is guilty even if they do not commit those actions. Jesus then tells how the Pharisees missed it on their theology of divorce. oaths,retaliation, loving enemies, as well as doing charity, and praying, and fasting to be seen - as opposed to honoring God,  as well as judging others. 

However there is one section that really stood out to me. Actually there was this one word of this section that stood out to me The section is verses 21-23 of Matthew chapter 7. This is what it says:  "21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."22 "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?'"23 "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

The word that stood out to me is the word "knew". The word "knew" here is not knowledge of a person. It is to know that person intimately and completely. That word is also used to describe sexual intercourse. 

So now I have told about the connection between the first two words in my title and now I will try to connect them to the third word.  When the Bible says that a man "knew" a woman, he was spreading his essence  within that woman. So when Genesis tells us that God told Adam and Eve to to be fruitful and multiply, he was telling them to have sex and by having sex, they had a symbolic foreshadowing of what God would do at Pentecost when He poured out His Spirit to fill up Christians. From that day of Pentecost, Salvation was no longer based on circumcision, but on whether or not you had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

This is why I do not see sex as just a physical act, but an act that carries spiritual connotations.