Sunday, November 15th

This week, Gayle reviewed Paul's Jewish interpretations of the words righteousness (God's act of bringing about shalom) and the Law (Obedience to the Law is like watering the tree of life. The fruit of the tree is righteousness, God bringing peace to the world.

We then moved into how Paul's Greco-Roman environment has impacted the way that he views Sin. Paul saw sin as a condition instead of individual acts of wrong. He knew that obedience to the Law does not produce righteousness, so what will?

Paul believes that Jesus Christ is the path to God's justification. God justifies us inspite of the fact that we are all sinners. We are all "out of whack," but God justifies us anyway through Christ, if we believe.

November 15th

This week Gayle talked about how Paul viewed the Law. We discussed how rules can often have a negative connotation in modern day society. People often don't associate having rules with a feeling of freedom. We did talk about how people thrive when they are given barriers and limits. Children need someone to set limits for them to be truly happy.

Paul would have viewed the Law in a very positive way. The Law was the path to righteousness, which is God bringing about Shalom.

Gayle compared Righteousness to the Tree of Life. Following the Law waters the tree. The tree produces fruit. The people themselves do not create the fruit. That is God's doing. God brings fruit out of their efforts.

Discussion Question:

In your experience, do people have to be in line with the law and righteousness for God to produce fruit?

Sunday, November 1st

This week in the forum, Gayle talked about Paul's Judaism. We looked at the development of Christianity developing first as a sect of Judaism and then as a separate religion.

We discussed the Convenant that the Jews entered into with YHWH. We reviewed the 3 types of eschatology (study of the end times).

1. Promise-Fulfillment eschatology: God and Israel enters into a covenant which brings Shalom to the world.
2. Prophetic eschatology: the path from making the covenant to the desired result of Shalom (Peace for all) was broken because of the unfaithfulness of the Jewish people.
3. Apocolyptic eschatology: The path to shalom is continually interrupted as people make mistakes, repent and get back on the right path again, and then mess up again. It will take some form of crisis to break this cycle and bring Shalom.

We examined the meaning of the word: righteous to Paul and the Jews. The word "righteous" would be wonderful to Paul because it describes God bringing the world together in shalom, in peace, as it was in the beginning of creation. Righteousness to Paul meant Justification, righteousness, and justice all in one greek word.