First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER THROUGH THE SHLIACH SHA'UL TO THE BRIT CHADASHA KEHILLAH AT COLOSSAE

The target of Rav Sha'ul's letter (written probably ca. C.E.60/61

during the early part of Rav Sha'ul's house arrest in Rome and

during the same period Shliach Sha'ul wrote Ephesians) to the

believers at Colossee, a town not too far from Ephesus in modern

Turkey, is "philosophy" (2:8). A philosophy is a teaching from

man, a purely human speculation not grounded in sound exegesis of

the inerrant Scriptures. There is a Pharisaic temptation in every

congregation or denomination to begin to stir in human

philosophies and serve them up as part of Scriptural "orthodoxy."

It is a great shame that no one took the trouble to teach

Colossians to the Arabs in Mecca and Medina at the time of the

birth of Islam. Let's go back and look at the "philosophy" that

Shliach Sha'ul was attacking in Colossae when he wrote this

letter from Rome. There is nothing more dangerous than a

Biblically ungrounded mystic who is ignorant of the Word of G-d

(the closed canon of the inerrant measuring standard for all

extra-Biblical "prophecy"). Such a person does not bother to

bring every visionary's thought captive to obey G-d's Word (II

Cor. 10:5), but instead takes his stand on visions he has

received from angels (heedless of the warning of Gal. 1:8) and

goes into great detail about what he has seen (Col. 2:18).

There were some people like this endangering the Brit Chadasha

kehillah at Colossae. They were trying to take believers captive

with their philosophy (2:8). These heretics remind us of a

curious blend of Islamic mysticism and Rabbinic legalism, just as

the guise of the rabbi with his gnostic love of lore and

casuistry is discernible underneath the turban of a Sufi sheikh.

The heretics Shliach Sha'ul warned the Colossians about were

mystical and legalistic. At the same time they had gnostic

tendencies, which meant that they offered their "knowledge" (the

Greek word for knowledge is gnosis) as a way of salvation.

Apparently they were more impressed with the agency of an angel

than they were with a Moshiach like Yehoshua, as far as the

mediation of revelation was concerned.

Since a mystic could take his stand on what an angel had told him

(hadn't angels brought Moses the Torah--Acts 7:53?), and since an

angel could supposedly administer reprisals for breaking the

rules of Torah, these Colossian heretics seemingly advocated

strict adherence to legal observances, rituals, food laws,

festivals, and other religious legalisms in order to placate

these angels and ward off their demon-like displeasure. These

Colossian heretics appeared in the vicinity of the Brit Chadasha

kehillah of Colossae with their learned air of gnostic

superiority and, turning their nose up at the "elementary"

teachings that Epaphras (who lacked their educational "gnosis")

had communicated to the believers, they attempted to take the

congregation captive with their hollow and deceptive philosophy.

The Pharisees had a fine way of setting aside the Bible in order

to observe their humanly concocted philosophical traditions (Mark

7:9). The great danger for them in their exercise of human

arrogance was that they thought they knew as much about G-d apart

from his Word as they could learn in His Word, for they put their

traditions and interpretations right alongside the Bible and held

them in just as high authority and awe as the Bible.

Consequently, when the Moshiach came they were not ready for his

coming. Their eyes were on their own "signs" in their own

Philosphia (Col. 2:8) philosophical traditions and teachings and

supposedly great teachers and not on the inerrant Bible.

Consequently, they were not able to "get real" and they missed

G-d's purpose for their lives (Luke 7:30).

The Colossian false teachers had more than Pharisaic pride. As

mystics they may have attempted to short-circuit the Moshiach as

mediator and attain an immediate knowledge of G-d without the

mediation of the eikon tou Theos the "image" of G-d (1:15), the

enfleshed Word, Moshiach Yehoshua. However, Shliach Sha'ul

countered this teaching: the pleroma "fullness" the false

teachers offered the Colossians did not reside in their mystical

knowledge of G-d but in Moshiach himself (2:9). Rav Sha'ul's

watch-word is Chritos en umin E elpis tes doxa ("Moshiach in you

the hope of glory"--1:27). All the fullness of Theotetos (deity)

lives in bodily form and is mediated for our saving benefit

through Moshiach, Shliach Sha'ul argues.

The stoixeia of the cosmos are possibly the spiritual forces

behind false religions (see I Cor. 10:20-21), especially angelic,

that is demonic forces, which bring unregenerate man into

religious bondage (see Gal. 4:3,9). Our old nature and old self

that lived bound in that old world has died with Moshiach (2:20).

Angels or demons or so-called "astral powers" (who supposedly

directed the course of the stars and the calendar) or heavenly

hosts (such as in "saint" veneration--see the word threskeia in

2:18) do not have to be placated (as these heretics taught) by

various religious and ascetic practices. We have been rescued

from the power of darkness (1:12) and transferred to a different

world where Moshiach alone is preeminent. Although visions per se

should not be despised (Acts 2:17), we do not take our stand on

visions (3:18), or let anyone judge us or disqualify us because

of some self-imposed religious observance (2:16,18). See

ethelothreskia in 2:23. The L-rd Moshiach Yehoshua, who makes

men new creations, will never take a back seat to legalisms or

religious philosophy or angels bringing visions and laws

(2:13-15)! This religious excess baggage can be discarded because

we already have full assurance and certainty of salvation,

pleroforia (2:2).

There is a circumcision we have that makes us supernaturally

grafted into G-d's people. It is Moshiach who has cut away the

heathen heart's downward pull, the akrobustia tes sarkos (2:13).

It is Moshiach who has circumcised our innerman with the

purifying and covenant sealing experience of the new birth,

Shliach Sha'ul declares, and no other circumcision is needed, nor

any legalism! Our conversion "covenant cut" was made by the hand

of G-d (2:11) and like old skin our old life has been cut away

and lies on the floor like surgical waste products. Therefore, we

are to know no man after the "flesh" (3:22). We need to keep our

thoughts on the things above where we have, spiritually speaking,

died (3:3) and been raised (3:1). We need to live in that and let

G-d cut away idolatrous pleonexia (covetousness) and other

vestiges of the old nature and the old self.

Our purpose, if we "get real" is found in Col. 1:25,28-29. But

getting "real" requires first that we get a new self (3:10), a

new creation existence where the self is renewed in the image of

G-d, Moshiach Himself (1:15-16). Everything else is shadow, He is

the substance. There is no hidden, invisible, esoteric realm

that He is not manifest L-rd and Victor over (2:15). Therefore,

we must put away the alienated, estranged mind that is at enmity

with G-d (1:21). The old self and its works of darkness must

die. We must not be puffed up by the mind of the flesh (2:18) or

taken captive by those things which have only the appearance of

wisdom (2:23). Instead we must come to true wisdom in the

knowledge of G-d's will (1:9), thereby bearing fruit and growing

(1:6,10).

In preaching all of this, the L-rd wants us to be gracious and to

make our words palatable (4:6). Then we will be a faithful

brother and minister (1:2,7) not moving away from our hope (1:23)

and therefore we will have love for all the saints (1:4-5).

Looking again at what this letter teaches about Moshiach, we ask

ourselves, who is this Word of G-d named Moshiach Yehoshua? He is

the image of the invisible G-d, the ruling heir of all creation

(1:15) and it is only through him that we inherit anything

(1:18). He is G-d's agent in creation (what liar would say G-d

does not use His Word in creation?) and all creation holds

together and is sustained from collapsing into nothingness by Him

(1:16,17). He is uncreated (He is "before all things"--1:17). He

is G-d's agent of reconciliation and judgment as the head of the

called out redeemed assembly of the people of G-d (1:18,20). In

fact, putting true believers under legalisms (an endless list of

can't do's and must do's) will provide no safeguard against the

old nature (sarks) arousing itself in us. Put to death this old

worldly nature daily, Shliach Sha'ul commands, and set your mind

on heavenly concerns. Devote yourself to prayer and

spiritual music and Bible study and thankful service (4:2,12;

3:16-17). Remember: a poisonous snake in the baby's crib must be

killed, not merely toyed with by means of gamey rules, which have

no power in restraining the coiling venomous flesh, the sensual

indulgence, of the unregenerate and devilish creature, the old

man unrenewed in Moshiach Yehoshua Moshiach. (See chapter

2:20-3:11; 4:12). We need not fear demons or angels because by

regenerating us, G-d has rescued us from the dominion of demonic

darkness (1:13) and brought us into the kingdom of His Word

(Moshiach Yehoshua), His Ben HaElohim He loves, in whom we have

redemption and acquittal, the forgiveness of sins.

This is a very important section of the Bible for viewing Judaism

and Islam correctly. Such teachings should be used with

Colossians 4:5 very definitely in mind. But visions per se should

not be despised (Acts 2:17), and when philosophers or poets agree

with the Besuras Hageulah, it may not hurt to quote them (see

Acts 17:28; I Cor. 15:32-33; Titus 1:12 where Shliach Sha'ul

quotes Epimenides of Cnossos, Menander, and Callimachus of

Alexandria).

Notice that according to this letter we must preach not merely

"the Aitz." We must preach "the blood of His Aitz, the

kapparah."