The Second Letter from Connor to Paul The Apostle:
To get a better understanding of why I wrote this I suggest you read my last two blogs: “I Will Not Read The Bible” where I talk about how I read the Bible last month and how I’m reading it this month and “The First Letter from Connor to Paul The Apostle”. I also recommend reading the book of Galatians to get a better idea of where most of this is coming from. It’s a short read you can probably get it done in 20 minutes at max. Also there are no references for my quotes because the format in which we have our version of Galatians is in letter format just like the original.
The second letter of Connor, a brother of the fellowship and honorary member of the church of Galatia,
To Paul the apostle.
Dear Paul, I thank you again for the words that you had written to the Church of Galatia and in turn to the church of the fellowship. For the words you give are not your own but those of God the Father. Your letter should be shared with the entire world, this is a goal that we wish to accomplish not for you but He who inspired you.
I am afraid that I have miss read your letter, Paul. In my first letter I wrote you “I wonder what you would think of the church as a whole today”. I imagine not a one of you apostles would be all too pleased with the division we have brought upon ourselves. Would you think that we have turned away from the Gospel originally preached to us? Probably. It seems as though we are incapable of coming together as one under one banner marked by a cross.”
What I failed to see the first time I wrote you was how the church of Peter and your own church paralleled the church of today. I failed to see how diverse our Lord made the early church. The Lord blessed your ministry to the uncircumcised, but he also blessed the ministry of Peter to the circumcised. As you said, you “did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who apostles before.” Instead you went away to preach the gospel that the Lord had revealed to you. “James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars” likely knew little to nothing about your ministry. It was when you returned to Jerusalem, 18 years after you began your ministry, that you came to James, Peter, and John and they “perceived the grace that was given to” you, and “they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and” yourself.
The early church (James, Peter, and John) saw that you “had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised.” They saw that God existed in churches other than their own, not thinking that God only existed in their church, because that is true idolatry. In the time that I have been born into, we tend to think that idolatry is creating something with our hands and calling it God. In truth, idolatry is when you start thinking of God in a fixed image. God our Father created images of himself but He created two beings that are diverse, dynamic, and always different.
Paul, does much of the church of today practice this idolatry? Do they believe that God can only exist in the manner in which they see and worship Him? I wish to say no. I plead that this is not true. I pray for the church that this may not be the case. I pray that we see just how diverse the Father has made His church. Yes as I said it before so I say it again: God created the denominations.
Does this mean that God has deceived us? Certainly not! God made the denominations so that He might reach as many people as possible. It is through him that we are truly unified. Just as He blessed the fruits of your ministry so that those who had not been circumcised might come to the grace of Christ, just as Peter’s ministry to those who were circumcised was. Rather than seeing just how different we all are, we need see what it is that binds us. The church is broken, Paul, but so is a mosaic.
I thank you for the letter you addressed to Galatia, whether you knew it then or if you have watched it blossom, your letter has changed the world and indeed myself.
May God’s peace rest with your spirit. Please pray for me and the fellowship to the Lord our God. Amen
