General Comments on Galatians The letter to the Galatians is in a rather hostile tone. Paul is addressing the Church there, and censuring them with strong words. In his absence, the Church there has Judaized and adheres to the view that circumcision, and presumably other physical acts of the Law of Moses as well, are essential for salvation. This is a matter previously addressed in a council (cf. ch. 15), and so this group appears to be deliberately rebelling against the edicts handed down from the leadership of the Church. How this rebellion came about is unclear. Throughout the text of this letter Paul refers to the subversive antagonists as "they" (cf. 1:7, 4:16, 5:12, 6:12-13) without ever explicitly identifying who "they" are. Some commentators see it as a result of Jewish proselytes who are attempting to counter the success of Christianity by subverting their doctrine. I see little internal support (i.e., material in the text itself) for this reading. It seems more likely that history is repeating itself in that the events of Acts 15:1 have repeated themselves. Jewish converts to Christianity are not abandoning the Law, and are attempting to indoctrinate the Gentile converts to Christianity in the Law as well. Supporting this reading is the parallel Paul draws between the preceding group of Pharisees at Antioch and the present situation. In 2:2 Paul makes reference to the events of Acts 15 by using the term "lest by any means I should run...in vain". He employs those terms again in reference to the conflict at hand by saying "Ye did not run well" (cf. 5:7) and "Let us not be desirous of vain glory" (cf. 5:26). Additionally, Paul uses a pun on circumcision in 5:12 where he wishes that those who trouble the Gentiles were "cut off". A metaphor such as this would make the most sense if those being "cut off" were members of the Church who need to be excommunicated. Finally, in 4:8 it is clear that Paul is addressing a Gentile audience in the letter. If his audience is of Gentile origin, then what of the Jewish converts in Galatia? Either there weren't any, or the Jewish converts had championed the Law in Galatia just as Jewish converts had championed the Law in Antioch. Only in this case they appear to reject the counsel of the Church leadership and have taken to persuading the Christian Gentiles to their notions. And, in doing so attack Paul's character, questioning his apostleship. Thus, there is more evidence for the subversive antagonists being heretics internal to the Church than Jewish proselytes external to the Church. Comments on Galatians 1 v1-5 is the introduction to the letter with Paul identifying his calling as an apostle as being from Jesus Christ. An authority statement. v6-10 Paul censures the Galatians for warping the gospel. He makes it perfectly clear that the attempt to Judaize Christianity by incorporating aspect of the Law is unacceptable. It is not part of the gospel he preached. v6-8 is a popular anti-mormon passage. It is used because Smith saw an angel. Anti-mormons allege that our gospel is "another gospel" because our doctrine of salvation doesn't match up with theirs. Use of this passage in such a manner is obviously out of the context Paul has written it for. When Paul says "removed from...the grace of Christ into another gospel" he is contrasting the faith of Christianity with the works of the Law, specifically the idea that circumcision is essential for salvation. This is the subject of the majority of the letter to the Galatians. As the LDS Church does not forward the view that circumcision is essential for salvation, it has no application to us. When this is made manifest to anti-mormons they typically attempt to make a parallel between their own faith-emphasized view of salvation (focusing mainly on Justification) and the LDS works-emphasized view of salvation (focusing mainly on Exaltation) and the Grace versus the Law issue Paul is addressing. At that point, a discussion on the three steps of spiritual salvation (Justification, Sanctification, and Exaltation), as dictated by the Bible, is in order to point out to them that LDS doctrine of salvation is eminently Biblical. For additional material on this subject see: http://www.cybcon.com/~kurtn/saved.txt http://www.cybcon.com/~kurtn/biblexlt.txt v11-24 Paul recounts various pivotal events in his life as a defense of his ministry. This sort of authority statement, where he defends his person, strongly suggests those who are subverting the Galatian Christianity are attacking Paul's person in an effort to achieve their ends. Paul makes it perfectly clear that he was commissioned by Jesus Christ himself (v. 11-12, 15-16), is intimately familiar with the Law (v. 13-14), stands in high esteem with the apostles (v. 21-24), but his authority and motivation is not from them (v. 15-20). Copyright © 2002 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form or by any means for commercial gain without the express written consent of the author. Digital or printed copies may be freely made and distributed for personal and public non-commercial use.