St. Paul

"Master of St. Paul". The subject and title seems a bit ironic because of St. Paul's service and dedication to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Non the less I found this course to be informative and I enjoyed the weekly assignments. The teaching techniques used are effective in that they make the student research the course material. I do find however that Lesson 16 "Admitting that you are a Sinner", to be more of a sermon and less of a lesson. It seems to be a bit more personal to the instructor than to the student. The lesson would be better served in my opinion if the focus on sin was from various perspectives using more study on actual transgression as in the Old Testament on the transgression of law.

However when studying the life of arguably the greatest missionary, theologian and writer of the early church this course does a good job of covering Paul as one of the most important figures in the New Testament. Paul's gospel indicted all of humanity for the crime of rejecting God and His rightful authority. Under the influence of Adam's sin, mankind plunged into the depths of depravity so that they were utterly unable to the righteous demands of God and deserved only the wrath of God. Consequently, the sinners only hope was the gospel which embodied God's power to save those who had faith in Christ which was the focus of Paul's gospel. Paul affirmed Jesus' humanity and His deity and the fact the Jesus was a physical descendant from the from the line of David.

In his years as a Pharisee, Paul's initial and adamant rejection of Jesus as the Messiah may largely have been motivated by Jesus' ignorable death. Death by crucifixion was indicative of divine curse. Certainly the Messiah could not have died under the curse of God. But when Paul wrote his first epistle, this death curse was recognized as the grounds for substitutionary atonement. (Gal.3:10-14) Paul explained that the idea of a crucified Messiah was a stumbling block to the Jews. This gospel would later lead to plotting his death and several attempts on his life. Yet through all of his life's challenges after his conversion he never spoke in anger or arrogance but always in love and patience. But he knew that he would suffer after his vision from God, "This man is My chosen instrument to carry My name before Gentiles, kings and the sons of Israel. I will certainly show him how much he must suffer for MY name !".

Paul's missions were initially met with suspicion from Church leaders but Barnabas intervened in is behalf and when meeting with Peter and James, the Lord's brother, and he is on his way to teach for several years. The pillars of the Church Peter, John, and James approved the no-Law gospel preached by Paul and his focus on Gentile evangelism. "No-law" of course referring to Paul and Branabas' journey to Jerusalem to settle the circumcision matter. Still as a result of this matter, the Law-free gospel does not encourage unrighteous behavior in believers.

History tells us that Paul was probably a man of above intelligence considering his years of Rabbinic training and by his own words in Gal.1:14, "I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors". Though zealous, his knowledge would have taken a great deal of reading, work and study. Yet after Christ appeared to him as the resurrected and glorified Christ in blinding radiance on his way to Damascus, Saul immediately surrendered to His authority and went into the city to await further orders. There his blindness was healed and he received the Holy Spirit and accepted believers baptism.

I take great solace and comfort in the example set by Paul. His amazing display of courage and faith to endure the prison's, the death threats, ship wrecks and other situations that may have never been recorded in the annals of history are truly are a testament of his never ending faith and belief in God's work. His gospel of salvation that is so freely given to humankind through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our union with Jesus through faith is our liberation from sin, death, and allows us to help one another mature, to serve Christ, and glorify Him, which is the highest purpose.

I thank you once again for offering this course.

Gods blessings upon you all.

Rev. Dennis Zerull

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

St. Paul

To spend 20 weeks in the study of St. Paul or NOT?, was the question I asked myself twenty weeks ago when I was deciding which class I wanted to take next. 

To complete the PhD program I needed 60 hrs and I had already taken the classes I knew I would like, so I took this the Study of Saint Paul by default, telling myself after all Paul was a man who could "almost" make a complete change in his life patterns when shown an enlightened and better way.

Peter and especially St. Paul. were two of the early Christian leaders I felt the least passion for as I studied the history of the Bible. Both Peter and Paul appeared to have turned the axes of the Christian church away from bestowing honor to humankind by balancing ones self with both male and female energy. Thus, the study of Christian church often appears with an aggressive, "power hunger" ego nature, verses a loving, forgiving,, nurturing, peaceful, soulful nature. Governments from which the church had controlled for many years were also ego center and aggressive. After all, most wars were and still are about power to control or religion views (the one and only "right ones"). Peace, that should come with a spiritual enlightened life has yet to be discovered, for the most part, by those of us who call ourselves Christians. Females, until lately, have always been degraded, and even still the movement forward is slow. Attacks, excommunication or even death awaited anyone that so much., as even questioned the creeds or rules of the Christian church. Fortunately, early founders of the United States of America had the foresight to see that the United States constitution took the control of government away from the church. As our citizens were given a free education, at least through the 12th grade, and more and more make the decision to attend college, humankind is regaining it’s female energy from knowledge and the wisdom about the need for balance, the rights of all, and a need for peace if we wish to survive as a world rather than little groups, here and there, pitting against one another for power as each wipe out the other.

After the completion of this study I came to realized Paul himself faced a struggle with the Jews with all of their many rules, narrow mindedness and a need for control when he tried to establish the Christian faith in honor of the teachings of Jesus. Paul was very aware that Jesus saw all men as equal both slave and master, rich and poor, and he also had to see the female was equal to the male, where he liked it or not. Paul does make a point to let us know his views of marriage and perhaps about females in general are his own, not the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps having this weakness of his own flesh enabled him to work more patiently with some of the communities of the early Christian church that wanted to keep the new church strongly leaning in the path of the older teachings of the Jewish community. "Old dogs have problems learning new tricks" as the saying goes, even though they may appreciate and even understand that the new tricks lead to as a better path. In my driving patterns, I can at least have compassion with Paul as I often choose to travel the old rural route rather than take the new modern bypass.

I especially, liked the last class of the course on Spiritual Gifts. As a young age of six and even more as I became an adult, I have been a prophetic dreamer - dreaming of things before they happen and being told how to deal with them when it dose happen. Often I am given a wiser view in which to see the tragic event so that it was not near as traumatic without the knowledge of the dream. At first, I was often troubled by these dreams and asked God not to send them. For a while they actually stopped, but as I grew older and wiser I came to see there was no need to fear these dreams in the least. If flowers need rain, as well as sun, so do we humans. The dreams have returned and now when problems come I asked not. "Why me Lord?" but "What can I learn and how can I grow from this?"

Two days before the 9/11 attacks I saw them in a dream. When a colleague called, "Come quick! Look what just happened," I ran to the television screen to see the second tower hit and knew this was what I had seen in my dream. An angel had appeared as the ashes came down upon my head and feet, telling me to get up and go read from the Bible a passage from Lamentations. (The night of the dream I had awaken and rose from bed the find passage and it read something to the affect, - An Jerusalem shall be destroyed but it will be built even stronger. ) The angel in the dream continued to tell me I had used my own painful childhood to seek God all the more and had found the love and peace within I searched for, and that as tragic as this event would be I was to send love and blessings to both sides, the attackers and those attacked, for both were in pain and needed to know the positive energy of love, for perfect love cast out all fear. The day of the real attack, I stood and watched in tears and horror but even at that moment I sent love to both sides. I have continued to teacher others from that point forth, that hurt people, hurt people, and that the negative energy of fear only attacks more fear. However, love and forgiveness can break the chain of both fear and hurt.

Reading this last lesson on Special Gifts, I came see my dreams are nothing less or more than special gifts from God that I am to use like a great singer to lift the spirits and hopes of others. 

In the last few years another of my reoccurring dreams is where I am in a play ground with a partner "see sawing" and I am loving it as if I am a child again. I am thrilled both at being lifted into the sun and the big blue sky, and in love lifting my partner for those brief moments, as well. Then an angle appears and stands in the middle of our "see-saw" and holds us both in perfect balance. We are told to close our eyes, and to slowly breath in and out and then to hold the breath and feel the perfect stillness of balance,. Then the angle continues with advice. "Life is not just about the ups and downs but the perfect stillness - the balance that always takes two. Now as I step off, the two of you balance together," the angel directs us. We do and it is good! 

Perhaps the time has come for all humankind to find balance amidst our ups and downs - the yearnings of our souls for perfect peace -Divine Love where "Self" includes all things created on this universe as One Whole, be it male, female, communities, nations or humankind and the flowers, trees, rivers, birds or the sun that greets all with rays of warmth.

Rev. Linda Francis

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.