LETTER TO AN AMERICAN FRIEND (Excerpt from the letter)
Dear Daniel,
As I promised, I am writing you a letter. A lot of time has passed and a lot of things have happened.
You asked – what do I think of Gen. 15: 6? If you read the Bible carefully and thoughtfully, you will find that, as a rule, a person is justified before God by deeds - Gen. 5:24, 6:9, 22:9-12, 26:4-5, Numb. 12:3, Deut. 6:25, 24:13, Mt. 7:21, 12:50, Lk. 1:5-6, Jn. 4:34, 8:29, James 2:14-26.
As an exception to the rule, sometimes a person is justified before God by something else – Gen. 15:6, Numb. 25:7-13, Ps. 106:30-31, Lk. 19:1-10, 23:39-43.
We see that the apostles John (1 John 2:6, 2 John. 1:9-11) and James disagreed with Paul. The Apostle John made a veiled mockery of Paul (1 John 2: 6).
The main mistake of Paul, Martin Luther, and all Protestants, is that they accepted the exception as a rule. To read the Bible and to believe is not enough to be a Christian (Mt. 7:21, James. 2:19, 26).
You asked me (01.03.1999) what I think about 2 Tim. 3:16. I think the following: Paul wrote his letters in the 50s and early 60s A.D. The Gospels had not yet been written. Paul almost never quotes Christ. Paul wrote in 2 Tim. 3:16 on the Old Testament. All its references are from the Old Testament. It is unlikely that Paul thought that his letters would be included in the New Christian Canon.
You also asked me what test I use to find out which part of the New Testament is true and which is not. I have already written about this. I wrote to Ancil in 1995 that I think, the Teaching of Christ must be the main rock of our faith and our teachings (Mt. 7:24-25). All other opinions and concepts we can accept, until they contradict the Teaching of Christ (2 John 1:9).
The teaching of Christ and the teaching of Paul are not the same. Unfortunately, most Protestants use the teaching of Paul much more than the Teaching of Christ.
WITH CHRISTIAN LOVE – YOUR BROTHER IN CHRIST
YURI SHAPUROV
21.12.2020 - 19.05.2022
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