Question: Did Paul ever say “I take nothing from men”? If so, what was his reason for saying this? Did he ever use any other sources in writing his Epistles (besides God)?
Paul was still “the Apostle to the Hebrews” when he wrote this Letter in AD 53.
It was his “calling” at that time to reach out to mainly the Jews to convince them of the validity of the Sacrificial Death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, for their waywardness and backsliding, which is summarized in Malachi!
He had been singled out by Almighty God in Christ Jesus to accomplish that task because of his especially high level of understanding of God’s purpose, and his steely persistent objectivity to accomplish that task; even to the point of executing the “sect of the Christians”!
At Acts 28:25–28, He (Paul) actioned the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9–10, which placed Israel in the position of Lo-Ammi (not My people), and the Gospel was primarily directed at the Gentiles from then onwards, and is still the case, and will remain so until the prophecy of Roman’s 9:25–33, and Roman’s 11:25–27 are completed!
Israel will then reach the point of Zech.12:10, and will “look on Him who they pierced”, and will mourn like they have never done before!
You will see that this above has nothing to do with the Dispensation of Time of the “here and now”, as when Paul activated the prophecy of Acts 28 (Isaiah 6:9–10) in AD 63; a new Dispensation started, and his teachings were from then onwards based on his last 7 letters!
Those Letters are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Titus, Philemon and 1&2 Timothy. These are the ones pertinent to this “Age Time”, and run from AD 63 to the Lord’s return, after the time of Jacob’s trouble!
All the Books from the beginning of the Bible to AD 63 are contextual, for the very necessary knowledge of Gods’ planning etc. but as the Jews are in the “Lo-Ammi state” (Hos.1&2); they are not being dealt with directly by God (but are in a state of preservation) until the prophecies in Old and New Testament regarding God’s Direct Intervention come into play!
Very few of today's Christendom’s teachers, preachers are aware of the errors they speak from the pulpits, which makes it very hard for devout people to try to tie together what is not applicable for Christian’s and what is applicable to Jews eventually, when Zech.12:10 is reached!
See: Position of the Jews in Scripture, Old and New Testaments (study)
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