The material in the following chapters of this draft is being proofed.
They are NOT finished chapters. I invite you to read them and leave comments about what you liked, didn’t like, didn’t understand, etc.
Thanks,
Winn
The central problem that Paul is addressing in the book of Galatians is about who is a part of the body of Christ: how you get in, how you stay in, and how you move forward. The problem within the ecclesiae in Galatia was an inner-ecclesiae squabble between two Christian groups, the Jews (the agitators) who became Jesus followers and believed that as the people of God who had been giving the Law, they should retain their adherence to the Law (the additives). Another group, equally Christian, were the gentiles who had become Jesus followers and did not follow the Law code of the Jewish Jesus followers.
What occurred in the Galatian ecclesiae is still prevalent in today’s local ecclesia. The constant struggle over who is in and who is out based on the additives a local ecclesia feels that is necessary to be a true follower of Jesus.
The reading sections are taking from The Books of the Bibletm which is a version of the text in which all chapters and verses have been removed.
As an example, when I was a milkman many years ago, there was a fellow driver, I’ll call him Tom, who was part of a strict fundamentalist Baptist church (ecclesia) who met with all the other milkmen after our routes were finished for a breakfast break. The group of drivers was not all followers of Jesus. The breakfast group was talking about taking communion one day in a cafe and I asked Tom, “if I attended his church on a Sunday when communion was being offered would I be able to take communion?” He didn’t even take a breath before he answered and the answer was short and to the point. “No,” he told me. “Why,” I asked. He answered: “because you are not a real follower of Jesus unless you belong to our church and abide by our doctrines.” For that church group, “taking communion” was an additive that had to be adhered to in order to be a true follower of Jesus. At the conclusion of each episode of “The Naked City,” a police drama series from the late 1950s and early 196os, the narrator would say: “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” Or one might take a clue from that line and say something like, “There are millions of stories in the Institutional Church about who is in and who is out. This has been one of them.”
Free At Last: Being Christian Without All the Additives
Winn Griffin
Copyright 2020 Winn Griffin DMin. All Right Reserved.
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
ISBN: 978-1-935959-64-9
Library of Congress Control Number: Coming Soon
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. The views expressed in this book are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Harmon Press or one of its Imprints.
Cover design Harmon Press
- Galatians Is About What?
- Reading Section 1: Paul Here: Listen Up! (1.1-5)
- Reading Section 2: You Changed to What? (1.6-10)
- Reading Section 3: It’s My Story And I’m Sticking To It! (1.11-2.10)
- Reading Section 4: Conflict Between Paul and Peter (2.11-21)
- Reading Section 5: Why Have You Changed? (3.1-4.11)
- Reading Section 6: What Happened to You? (4.12-20)
- Reading Section 7: Allegory or Typology? (4.21-5.6)
- Reading Section 8: Freedom (5.7-12)
- Reading Section 9: Works of the Flesh / Fruit of the Spirit (5.13-26)
- Reading Section 10: Being A Community Without All The Additives (6.1-10)
- Reading Section 11: Not Circumcision but the New Creation (6.11-18)
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