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In this episode we will learn that the letter to Galatians is focused on two major struggles for the earliest church and how the outcome of those struggles would determine the future direction of the body of Christ on earth. These two struggles were as follows. Salvation by Grace vs Salvation by Works, and Spirituality by Grace vs Spirituality by Works. We should be aware that one major difference exists between these two concepts. Salvation and Spirituality.

In this message Pastor Harris will focus on the former concept of salvation. This issue of Salvation came to a head in the earliest church in what Pastor Harris calls “The Jerusalem Incident”.

In the text for today, Galatians 2:1-10 the Apostle Paul describes a second visit he made to the church in Jerusalem. As you may recall, Paul's first visit to Jerusalem was a rather traumatic affair. On that occasion the Apostle Paul was not allowed to address the Jerusalem church at all. He was limited to having a series of discussions with Simon Peter and James the Just, the brother of Jesus.

On this first visit, the leadership would not allow him to address the church.  So, he decided to go out and preach on the streets of Jerusalem and the street preaching stirred up the temple elite. Within days the temple authorities began to threaten reprisals against the fledgling Christian community. So the leaders of the church quickly went to Paul and urged him to leave Jerusalem. They asked him to return to his hometown of Tarshis.

Being a man under the authority he did as he was told and he remained in Tarshish for the next 11 years. But now in Galatians 2:1-10 Paul personally describes his return to the scene  of his banishment. He returns to Jerusalem but this time things would be different as Pastor Harris will demonstrate today.

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