[QUOTE=Sophistry and Illusion]
Ooh, now you have to give examples.
[/QUOTE]
Well, you often see parts of 1 Corinthians cited (as we saw upthread.) Personally, I think it’s a question of how you read it. I am not saying that 1 Corinthians is not Pauline, just that he was writing to a specific church dealing with a specific set of issues and what we have now is copies of mail that’s more than 1900 years old. And we don’t even have what the churches were writing to Paul, just what Paul wrote back.
I consider the deutero Pauline epistles to be Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. (Basically, I trust contemporary scholarship, not that I have the expertise to make an actual decision on the texts themselves.) I think most of what I’m thinking of here about criticism of what Paul supposedly thought about the role of women in the church is in 1 Timothy.
The classic example of what the OP raises is Jesus and the fig tree, which he curses for not bearing fruit out of season. See, e.g., Mark 11:13. WTF?
As for things which no longer fit our culture, Paul’s treatments of slavery and women, already mentioned, are pretty big. But the one I like most is the Sermon on the Plain, Luke, chapter 6 (RSV) (to similar effect, see Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5 to 7):
I have known a few Christians who live by these precepts, but very few. And I wonder how many red state fundamentalists understand how at odds with these teachings is, for example, the war in Iraq. As the bumper sticker says, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”
[QUOTE=Szlater]
The entire thing is controversial for non-Christians. The whole premise of the book is that one should blindly believe something for which there is no evidence. If it were written today, you would pretty much laugh in the author’s face.
As for controversial teachings:
Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Except, you know, if they should bite or sting or stab or shoot you, or for that matter burn or rape you. Yeah, you’re pretty much safe. Trust me, what could possibly go wrong?
[/QUOTE]
That passage refers specifically to a particular group of disciples, not Christians generally, if you give it a literal reading.
[QUOTE=kanicbird]
Makes a heck of a lot more sense then a fat guy in a big house flying around in a private jet telling us to cut down on our fuel consumption or the world will end.
[/QUOTE]
So is this like those guys you hear about building a boat in the basement, but then when they’re done they can’t get the boat out because it’s too big, or did he build the house outside the jet in pieces and then reassemble inside.
Oooh! Maybe it’s like a ship in a bottle, and the house is collapsable.