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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Paul never met Jesus other than to have a vision with J asking him why he persecutes him(Jesus). [/quote]
Not quite. It's true that the example you mention is the only one that is recounted in Acts, but even that indicates that Paul met Christ on other occasions. Acts 26:15-16 says, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you (Paul) for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those i[i]n which I will appear to you[/i]." A plain reading of this text indicates further encounters to come.

Paul also mentions numerous times (which I have cited in my OP) that he was taught the Gospel not by any man but by Christ himself. Galatians 1 is probably the fullest account. Galatians 1:11-12 says, "For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, [i]but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ[/i]."

Again, you're certainly free to believe whatever you want about whether Christianity and the claims of the Bible are true, but only through a willful disregard of the plain text can you come to the conclusion that Paul never claimed authority to speak for Christ or that he had no further encounters with Christ than on the road to Damascus. Paul is extremely clear in his writings that he regarded himself as bringing the teaching of Christ, which he received directly from Christ, to the church.[/quote]

Paul received the teaching directly from Christ, but not from Christ in the flesh, but from the Spirit of Christ.  Paul did not start writing his epistles until 30 years after Jesus died.  [/quote]

This is wrong. Paul claimed he met Jesus (after the resurrection) just a few years after the crucifixion. In fact, Paul's eye-witness testimony is earlier than any of the gospels, even Mark's. Paul may have written his letters later, and over a span of many years, but he drew from that very early encounter with Jesus. See, for example, Strobel's The Case for Christ.[/quote]

These early historical meetings support the interpretation that Paul is speaking, in part, from what he learned directly from Jesus after the crucifixion, also directly during his (Paul's) meetings with Peter and James (Jesus' brother). All of these meetings took place within a few years into his (Paul's) mission.

It seems very conjectural to hypothesize that Jesus, Peter, or James spoke to Paul about homosexuality, when we have no record of Jesus talking about it. We know that OP likes to make this conjecture, but IMO it seems very wrong to put convenient words into Jesus' mouth like that.

It also seems conjectural to speculate that Paul's pastoral letters 30 years later to new, gentile (non-Jewish), audiences were intended as more than advice from a highly respected church leader. OP keeps insisting that Paul saw himself as an authority on everything. Certainly Paul himself saw himself as an apostle who was charged by God with spreading the gospels, and OP's many quotes support that. But it seems very likely that Paul saw himself in several roles: spreading the gospels (apostle) and providing sage and respected advice to help the new, often gentile, churches navigate their establishment and survival in a world where people were starting to realize the messiah might not return immediately. It's speculative, and OP's quotes are ambiguous (that's generous) to argue that Paul thought he was speaking for God on new issues like homosexuality. That would make Paul a *prophet*, and even OP concedes Paul doesn't call himself that. [/quote]

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