Paul the apostle brief biography of george
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© 2002, Quency E. Wallace. All rights reserved
Introduction. The Apostle Paul, to the many Christians who have had the opportunity to do a cursory study of this remarkable 1st century icon of the primitive church, still remains a highly enigmatic figure, even though he did much of the writing of the New Testament. Paul, through no fault of his own, has not been given enough extant historical material that can be mined to give us a thorough analysis of this fascinating figure who has come to dominate much of the New Testament Theology embraced by Western culture.
It is possible, however, to combine scriptural analysis and anthropological research, with extra-biblical source information to produce a reasoned analysis of the possible cultural milleu, education, and other environmental influences in the early life of Paul that helped to shape him into the man that was divinely called to shepherd the new church into it's mission to all humanity. To the exten
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Introduction
As if out of nowhere, Paul comes upon the Christian scene[1]. Not as a Christ följare, but as the persecutor of the church, Saul. The tension Luke creates is palpable. He writes, “And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a ung man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). In Acts 9, Saul had a radical encounter with the risen Christ and was called into ministry. There are a few things we know about Paul. He was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37, 22:25-29). He was from a Jewish family from the city of Tarsus (Acts 22:3). He was trained as a Pharisee and a son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), and he even sat under the teaching of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), a first century influential Rabbi and a leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin. While a långnovell citizen, he was Jewish, circumcised on the eighth day, and from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil 3:5). Paul writes of himself, “…a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regardi
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In his 92 years of fruitful service, George Mueller of Bristol had read through the Bible more than 200 times. More than 100 of those biblical journeys were traversed upon his knees, actively praying about what he was reading from the Word of God. He expressed his personal conviction in this way: “As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so it is with the inner man. What is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God – not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe. No, we must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts.”
It should be no surprise that George Mueller is numbered among the giants of the faith. The Apostle Paul expressed the truth so clearly in his letter to the Romans: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (10:17).[1] As we review the life of George Mueller of Bristol, it is evident that he n