First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER THROUGH THE SHLIACH SHA'UL TO THE BRIT CHADASHA KEHILLAH IN CORINTH (II)

Shliach Sha'ul has just undergone horrendous tribulation and has

almost been killed in Ephesus. Apollos (the probably author of

Hebrews) was with Shliach Sha'ul in Ephesus when Shliach Sha'ul

wrote I Corinthians. The scholar Hugh Montefiore believes that

Apollos wrote the Book of Hebrews and sent it to Corinth from

Ephesus before Shliach Sha'ul wrote I Corinthians in the C.E. mid

50's. This is indeed possible. II Corinthians is written shortly

after I Corinthians, both epistles probably being written C.E.

55/56, I Corinthians written from Ephesus, II Corinthians

probably from Macedonia (see II Cor. 2:13; 7:5). Shliach Sha'ul

planted congregations in Macedonia in Philippi and Thessalonica.

In II Corinthians, carnal or worldly wisdom is still a focus of

his attack as it was in 1 Corinthians. See sofia sarkike in I

Corinthians 1:12.

As we will prove when we get to Galatians, it is the regenerate

community of the redeemed who are sealed (sphragisamenos--II Cor.

1:22) as are the 144,000 sealed before the Great Tribulation

(Rev. 7:4--see the same Greek word), because both are the

eschatological Israel of G-d of Galatians 6:16, a term of such

ultimate end-time magnitude that it will exclude neither national

Israel (Rom. 11:26-27) nor the Jewish remnant throughout the ages

nor the remnant of regenerated, righteous Gentiles.

3:14-18 and 4:1-6 describes the uncircumcised heart.

5:10 tells why we must be absolutely holy and blameless in the

body. Also we must always avoid the Greek tendency to separate

the spiritual side of our lives from the physical; and that means

we must be holy and blameless in spirit and in body.

Can you become an shliach? Not all the Shluchim saw the L-rd (see

8:23). There are still shluchim in that sense of

congregation-planters today. Have you been called and set apart

by a body to go out and collect at least 2 or more witnesses

together every week in His Name to celebrate the Word and make

talmidim? The seal of your Shlichut (to prove you are a shliach)

will be the congregation you establish (I Cor. 9:2).

Chapters 11 and 12 I use almost verbatim at times in The Rabbi

From Tarsus (VHS Home Video, Word, Inc, 1986).? In this passage

Shliach Sha'ul attacks the "super-shluchim" who come from

Jerusalem and try to undermine Rav Sha'ul's preaching.

Chapters 11 and 12 are the most autobiographical parts of Rav

Sha'ul's writings. Here as in Galatians we can see shades of

Jeremiah in Shliach Sha'ul, who consciously uses some of

Jeremiah's diction.

After sending the letter called I Corinthians from Ephesus,

Shliach Sha'ul felt the state of the Brit Chadasha kehillah was

so chaotic that sending Timothy was not enough (Timothy may have

been ill-treated during his visit) and that it was obligitory

that the shliach himself make a personal visit to Corinth.

Unfortunately, there he was opposed by someone who, it seems,

rejected Rav Sha'ul's authority as Moshiach's Shliach and caused

a great deal of pain (II Cor. 2:1,5) which necessitated Rav

Sha'ul's tactical retreat (he wanted to give them time to get

their house in order before more serious censure was necessary).

Shliach Sha'ul rebuked the congregation and withdrew to Ephesus

where he wrote a severe letter (now lost) to the Corinthians.

This lost letter of ultimatum Shliach Sha'ul sent by the hand of

Titus (who appears to have been less timid than Timothy). After a

trip to Troas (part of modern Turkey) and Macedonia (part of this

area is in modern Greece, ancient Macedonia being where the Brit

Chadasha kehillot at Philippi and Thessalanica were located),

Shliach Sha'ul finally located Titus, extremely anxious to hear

if the Corinthian congregation was reconciled to Shliach Sha'ul

as a result of his "sorrowful" letter. Relieved that the majority

were repentant but apparently also somewhat angered that a

stubborn nest of opposition to Rav Sha'ul's Shlichut still

remained as a minority in the congregation, Shliach Sha'ul wrote

this letter (our II Corinthians) and sent it by the hand of Titus

C.E. 55/56 in order that the rebels could be completely

neutralized and the Moshiach's Shlichut offering for the poor

Jewish Messianic Kedoshim in Israel could be raised and prepared

for Shliach Sha'ul when he arrived there on his way to Jerusalem

(see on this II Cor. chs. 8-9; Rom. 15:25-28; I Cor. 16:1-4; Gal.

2:6-10).

Apparently, though he was much relieved that the majority were

coming around to him, Shliach Sha'ul felt he should include in II

Corinthians more warnings comparable to what he said in I Cor.

4:18-21. The corps of liberal rebels in Corinth opposed Shliach

Sha'ul by criticizing his wisdom as inferior, his attitude as

despicably meek, his personal demeanor as weak, his rhetorical

ability as a speaker of no account, his planning as full of

vacillation, his demeanor too emotional, his fund-raiuing too

exacting, his letters too disturbing, his claims too boastful,

his demand for separation unto holiness too restrictive, and his

refusal to accept financial help too unprofessional and even

unloving. But Shliach Sha'ul reminded the Corinthians that those

who would criticize him lacked his endurance in suffering or his

charismatic power to do the signs and wonders that were the works

of an Shliach (see II Cor. 12:12). Notice how he repeats the

warning from I Cor. 4:18-21 in II Cor. 12:20-13:3,9-10. Ch.

13:l-10 states the purpose for the letter. Certain rebels had

been putting Shliach Sha'ul to the test, doubting that the risen

Moshiach was speaking through him (13:3), and now he commands

them to test themselves and repent, because when he comes he will

put anyone under the ban who is living immorally under a cloak of

critical arrogance (see also Yehuda 16 on sexually immoral "fault

finders").

Part of Rav Sha'ul's credentials as a real emissary from the

Moshiach and L-rd was the Moshiach-like suffering he had endured

(see 4:8-10; 6:4-10; 11:23-33; 12:10). The Corinthians had

interpreted this as weakness and had been more impressed with

certain "super-Shluchim" who demanded first class treatment and

were lording it over the Brit Chadasha kehillah in a

heavy-handed, yet rhetorically gifted, way. Shliach Sha'ul was

not impressed with mere ear-tickling words. If the Risen L-rd was

with these Jewish superstars from Jerusalem, where was their Aitz

of meekness and suffering and self-denial and where were their

charismatic signs and wonders? Apparently they acted in an

insolent way to Shliach Sha'ul and tried to steal the

congregation, poisoning the people against Shliach Sha'ul so they

could boast in another man's labor (10:15; 11:20). He was not

afraid of them and was ready to confront them and unmask their

false front. They were evil workmen and false Shluchim,

emissaries of Hasatan--that eloquent liar who is leading the

whole world into his seductive delusion and destruction. Like the

Snake in the Garden with his designs on that virgin Eve, these

insolent false Shluchim have a cunning plan to corrupt the

Corinthian congregation whom Shliach Sha'ul has wedded in

covenant freedom to G-d, by enslaving the Corinthians to

themselves and to another Moshiach Yehoshua, not the Moshiach

Yehoshua who sets us free from insolent money-grubbing and

ruthless Brit Chadasha kehillah political coups d'etat. No, these

super Jewish Shluchim preach another Moshiach Yehoshua (11:4)

which is a fraud of their own devising, one that is suitable to

their own lucrative (2:37) Besuras Hageulah, a different Besuras

Hageulah that offers a different spirit.

In another place (II Thes. 2:11) Shliach Sha'ul speaks of a

powerful delusion people receive who reject the sanctifying

Spirit of G-d and the love of the truth. This demonic and

deceiving spirit can be received when a false Besuras Hageulah

with a false Moshiach Yehoshua is believed in. These Shluchim

were false precisely because their "Yehoshua" was false, making

their basis of authority false. The Ruach Hakodesh of G-d leads a

true Shliach to declare that the true Moshiach Yehoshua, humbled

in mavet, exalted in his Techiyas HaMesim, is Adoneinu (I Cor.

12:3). Anyone preaching a different Moshiach Yehoshua in a

different spirit is not from G-d. Such a man is a false Shliach

sent not by G-d but by Hasatan. Shliach Sha'ul was determined to

confront these men who were taking advantage of the serious

rebellion in the Corinthian congregation to try to move in and

cut Shliach Sha'ul off, asserting their own different Besuras

Hageulah and spirit and "Moshiach Yehoshua" in order to

commandeer the congregation in a different direction away from

Rav Sha'ul's teaching. Shliach Sha'ul was determined that the

people he had won to the L-rd know how to judge a true Shliach

and how to judge whether they were walking in the faith.

What was the thorn in Rav Sha'ul's flesh of 12:6-7? We do not

know. But it was probably some physical weakness that was both

humiliating and demonically incited. G-d allowed it because it

kept Shliach Sha'ul from becoming conceited as a result of all

the revelations and heavenly wisdom he received from G-d, and

therefore G-d did not take this condition away from him. Gal.

4:15 speaks of an infirmity that may have had to do with Rav

Sha'ul's vision or problem with it (see also the possible vision

problem implied in Gal. 6:11). This certainly would have been

humbling, to go around the world claiming to have seen the L-rd

on the Damascus Road and to have had visions beyond any mortal

who ever lived, and yet be plagued with attacks where he had

trouble even seeing as well as a normal person. But this is

speculative, and we will never know the exact malady. The point

is G-d often gives a counter-balancing "thorn" along with

exultant privilege, and he does it for a reason that works

together for good for us (Rom. 3:21), because he loves us and

doesn't want us to become conceited or to get so strong in

ourselves that we forget our total dependence and competence is

from Him (3:4-6; 12:7-10).

A Messianic minister who must raise funds for the L-rd's work

should study carefully 8:1-9:15.

As Shliach Sha'ul writes this letter he has just had a brush with

death (probably nearly being killed in Ephesus) and is filled

with comfort and joy in the L-rd (see ch. 1) as he meditates on

the ministry, on the subject of death as it affects a believer,

and on the new creation and the Brit Chadasha. See chapters 3-5.

esp. 5:17.