Members of the Eleventh Dáil - William O'Donnell

William O'Donnell (died 4 February 1947) was an Irish politician who served for four years in the Dáil Éireann.

He was first elected at the 1943 general election to the 11th Dáil as an Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for Tipperary. He was re-elected at the 1944 general election, but died in 1947. After his death, the by-election for his Dáil seat was won on 29 October 1947 by the Clann na Poblachta candidate, Patrick Kinane.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - John Joseph Meighan

John Joseph Meighan (1891 – 4 March 1978) was an Irish Clann na Talmhan politician. A farmer by profession, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon constituency but lost his seat at the 1944 general election. He was elected to the 5th Seanad at the 1944 Seanad election on the Labour Panel. He was re-elected to the Seanad in 1948 and 1951. In 1954 he was nominated to the Seanad by the then Taoiseach John A. Costello. He was defeated at the 1957 Seanad election.

Galatian Controversy

In the Book of Galatians, Paul admonishes the Galatian church, Why?

According to www.TheUneditedGospel.Wordpress.com," The gospel is a matter of first importance because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. This gospel, among other things, reveals “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom 3:22). This “righteousness of God” is the righteousness that is accounted to the one who has faith in Jesus, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24). Those who believe in Jesus are justified on the basis of Jesus’ death, because “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom 3:25). Christ died for their sins on the cross, was buried, and was raised on the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4).

To the Jew First

While this gospel message was at first delivered to the Jews (Acts 2-7), it soon spread to the ethnē, the Gentiles. In Gaza, Philip proclaimed the gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26f). Later on Peter is sent to preach the gospel to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion (Acts 10). Meanwhile, Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee zealously persecuting the Christians, was converted in a dramatic encounter with the risen Christ, who appointed him as an apostle and commissioned him especially for preaching the gospel among the Gentiles (Acts 9). The believers who came to Antioch (of Syria) after the scattering of the Jerusalem church (Acts 8:1) preached to the Hellenists, as well as to the Jews (Acts 11:19-20). Sometime after Saul (hereafter, Paul) came to Antioch, he and Barnabas were sent off on the first great missionary journey to the Gentiles (Acts 13-14).

All of this outreach to the Gentiles came to the attention of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. Overall the Jewish believers were glad to hear of it. When Peter gave his report of what happened with Cornelius’ household, they glorified God,“Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). Before long, however, some men came to Antioch from Judea and began teaching the Gentile brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1).

The Jerusalem Counsel – Acts 15

It was over the issue of circumcision that the first church counsel, held in Jerusalem, was convened. Barnabas and Paul, among others, were appointed to go to Jerusalem and speak with the apostles and elders about the matter (v. 2). When they arrived, Barnabas and Paul recounted all that God had done through them among the Gentiles (v. 4). Those among the Pharisaical party arose and demanded that the Gentile believers must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses (v. 5). Much debate ensued, after which Peter gave his testimony (vv. 7-11). He reminded the counsel of how God had chosen to send him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and how they had received the Holy Spirit just as the Jews had at first, thus establishing God’s approval of them. Both Jews and Gentiles must be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, without distinction, being cleansed by faith. To place on the Gentiles a burden that the Jews could never bear themselves was to put God to the test.

Once Barnabas and Paul again testified of the work God had done through them among the Gentiles (v. 12), James delivered the judgment of the counsel (vv. 13-21). Citing Amos 9:11-12 (LXX), James reasons that this grafting in of the Gentiles was foretold in Scripture. It was the judgment of the counsel, therefore, that the Gentile Christians should not be troubled to undergo circumcision or to keep the law of Moses. It was only required of them to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.

The Galatian Problem

The circumcision issue was not isolated to Antioch. The so-called Judaizers made their way to the Galatian church and apparently managed to gain a hearing there. This occasioned one of the more, shall we say, emotive writings in the New Testament: Paul’s epistle to the Galatians. It is in this epistle that Paul lays out just what is at stake with the Judaizers’ perversion of the gospel and thus why it is not simply “another point of view” that should be accommodated in charity, but a “different gospel” worthy of the apostle’s anathema. 

What sets Galatians apart from other of Paul’s letters is that, where he otherwise begins with a note of thanksgiving (I thank God for you…) or with an outburst of praise (Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…), Paul instead cuts to the chase: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Gal 1:6). Meanwhile, his greeting is laced with the true gospel: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal 1:3-4). This gospel is not of human origin, Paul makes clear, “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:12). This fact is the grounds on which Paul can denounce in the strongest terms those who would preach “a different gospel.”

But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! ⁹ As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell!

Gal 1:8-9 NET

 The “contrary” gospel that Paul has in view is the one expressed by some of the Pharisees in Acts 15: the Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.

In what follows we will examine the anatomy of this “contrary” gospel in two steps. First, we will discern from Paul’s letter to the Galatians elements of the Judaizers’ motive. Second, we will set elements of their gospel in juxtaposition to elements of the true gospel Paul seeks to defend in the letter. This step will take up most of the discussion since the motive of the false teachers was not nearly as treacherous as the pitfall that lies at the heart of their false gospel. Nevertheless a brief analysis of motive may be helpful in identifying a person or group as a false teacher or false brother.

1. The Motive

Paul exposes the motive of these “false brothers,” as he calls them. In the first place, he says, “[they] slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery” (Gal 2:4). Second, Paul intimates, “They make much of you [Galatians], but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them” (Gal 4:17). Finally, he concludes, “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh” (Gal 6:12-13). From this profile we may discern at least three aspects of the Judaizers’ motive. 

a. Slavery under the law. The Judaizers sought to spy out Christian freedom in order to reign believers back into slavery. That is, slavery under the law of Moses. This aspect hints at something of the antithesis that distinguishes the false gospel of the Judaizers with the true gospel preached by Paul. Their false gospel places those who accept it into slavery under the law of Moses, whereas the gospel Paul preached is freedom from this slavery through the death of Christ. We’ll develop this further below.

b. Avoiding persecution for the cross. The Judaizers were Pharisees, just as Paul was prior to his conversion. He himself once persecuted the church fiercely because of the cross. The Christians were proclaiming Jesus, who had been crucified (viz. hanged on a tree, as it were), as the Messiah. The Scripture stated plainly, “every one that is hanged on a tree is cursed of God” (Deu 21:23 LXX). Before Paul came to understand the significance of Christ’s crucifixion—that Christ became a curse on behalf of His people in order to save them from the curse of the law—the Christians’ message of a crucified Messiah was the height of blasphemy. The ostensibly Christian Pharisees for this reason sought to downplay the cross and emphasize keeping the law so not to bear the reproach of the cross.

c. Making much of themselves. Ultimately the motive of the Judaizers came down to the puffing up of their egos. Outwardly it might appear that the Judaizers were “making much” of their Gentile converts, but inwardly they only sought to make much of themselves and to be made much of by those foolish enough to follow their teaching. All the while, those who submit to their teaching are shut out and placed under slavery to the law.

2. The Antithesis

Deplorable as the Judaizers’ motives were, it is the content of their false gospel that deserves the most careful scrutiny and is the real occasion for Paul’s forceful denunciation. In Philippians, Paul can nonetheless rejoice that the true gospel of Christ is being preached, even if some who preach it do so out of less-than-pure intentions (Phil 1:15-18). Now the content of the Judaizers’ gospel is not systematically laid out in Paul’s letter. Their doctrine is summed up in their own statements recorded in Acts 15 (vv. 1, 5), cited above. We may best appreciate the content of the Judaizers’ gospel and the magnitude of its danger if we consider at least three sets of antitheses (I imagine more could be teased out, but I’ll aim to condense them into the three presented below). In each set we will see how the elements of the false gospel sit in direct opposition to elements of the true gospel. 

a. Law and grace. The Judaizers’ drumbeat was obedience to the law of Moses. If the Gentiles were to be saved, it must be by keeping the law of Moses (which meant, of course, being circumcised). Even if they insisted that the grace of Christ was necessary for salvation, their gospel expressly denied the sufficiency of grace. When Paul denied,“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal 2:21), he was also asserting that to preach righteousness as if it were through the law would be to nullify the grace of God. If indeed one could be justified by keeping the law, then Christ died for nothing and the grace of God is not even necessary!

On the contrary, Paul warns, “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Gal 3:10). Here is the dreadful pitfall of seeking justification by the law:

I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. ³ I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴ You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Gal 5:2-4

The only way one could be justified by the law is if he keeps “the whole law” perfectly. Yet no human being—save for the God-man Jesus—ever keeps the whole law perfectly. So it is that anyone who seeks to be justified by the law is under a curse; such a person has been severed from Christ and has fallen away from grace. 

Paul’s gospel does not nullify the grace of God, rather his gospel is the grace of God. “For the grace of God has appeared,” Paul reminds Titus, “bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit 2:11-12). Paul reminds the Ephesians that, even while they were dead in their sins, God made them alive together with Christ, which is to say, “by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5). “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God,” Paul testifies, which is to say, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:19-20). That is grace.

It must be clarified that grace and law are not antithetical to each other in and of themselves. The antithesis comes when grace and law are brought to bear on salvation. Is salvation by the law or is it by grace? If you can be saved by keeping the law, there is no need for salvation by grace. If one attempts to be saved by keeping the law and fails (as everyone who attempts this will do), he will not find grace, but only condemnation. Yet, the one who is saved by grace is not without law, for God’s grace trains him to renounce ungodliness and unrighteousness, and to live godly and upright. Nevertheless, he is not saved because he keeps the law, but because by grace he has died with Christ and lives by faith in Him.

In speaking of the relationship between law and grace, we may also speak in terms of law and promise. The promise to Abraham and his descendants, “that he would inherit the world,” did not come by the law, but “through the righteousness that comes by faith” (Rom 4:13). “For if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified. For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either. For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants” (Rom 4:14-16 NET). If this inheritance comes by law, it is no longer by promise, “but God gave it to Abraham by a promise” (Gal 3:18).

The law came 430 years after the promise. The law did not annul or add to the promise, “It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made” (Gal 3:19). The “offspring” is Christ, who is the singular offspring of Abraham par excellence (Gal 3:16). Meanwhile, the rest of Abraham’s offspring were held under the curse of the law because of transgressions. Yet, in the fullness of time, Christ came from God, born of a woman and under the law, in order to redeem us “from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13-14).

b. Works and faith. Corollary to law and grace is the antithesis between justification through works of the law over against through faith in Christ. In his perplexity, Paul inquires of the Galatians,

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? ³ Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? ⁴ Did you suffer so many things in vain–if indeed it was in vain? ⁵ Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith– ⁶ just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Gal 3:2-6

Paul points back to Abraham, the forefather of all who believe, who was counted as righteous by faith. Paul reasoned in another letter that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness before he was circumcised. It was afterward that “he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them” (Rom 4:10-11 NET). 

The Spirit that the Galatians had received was given them by grace through faith in Christ. By grace they had been redeemed from the curse of the law because Christ died on the cross, in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that together with the Jews they would receive the promised Holy Spirit (Gal 3:14). This blessed gospel, bound up with justification by faith, was announced in advance by Scripture when it recorded God’s promise to Abraham: “In you shall all the nations be blessed” (Gal 3:8; Gen 12:3). The Galatians–insofar as they had genuinely trusted in Christ and His cross-work–were heirs of that promised blessing not through works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, the Heir of Abraham par excellence. 

Rather than trusting Christ alone, the men who were troubling the Galatians trusted and boasted in their works (which is what it meant when Paul said that they “want to make a good showing in the flesh”). They boasted in the outward mark of circumcision. Herein lies the depravity of their so-called righteousness. It is little wonder that Paul (in Phil 3:2) shames them with the monickers: tous kynas (literally, the dogs), tous kakous ergatas (literally, the evil workers) and tēn katatomēn (literally, the mutilation). Circumcision was what distinguished them as devout, godly Jews from the godless, unclean Gentiles—they were the “circumcision” while the filthy Gentiles were the “uncircumcision.” Yet Paul saw them as no more distinguished from Gentiles than they Gentiles from dogs. 

Conversely, those who trusted in Christ alone for justification were hē peritomē (literally, the circumcision), which is to say, “we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil 3:3 NASB). Herein lies the heart of the difference between justification by works and justification by faith. The Judaizers’ confidence was in their circumcision, in their flesh; Paul’s confidence was in Christ. The Judaizers boasted in their works; Paul gloried in Christ Jesus, in whom he had received circumcision of the heart (Col 2:11-12; cf Rom 2:28-29). Indeed, if one could be justified by works done in the flesh, “he has something to boast about, but not before God” (Rom 4:2). However, the Judaizers’ boast was empty, “For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law” (Gal 6:13; cf Rom 2:17f). The only boast that has any worthy—and a surpassing worth at that—is to boast in the Lord and in His cross, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). The righteousness that comes by works boasts in itself, to its own destruction. In stark contrast, the righteousness that comes by faith says, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). 

We must again clarify that the relationship between works and faith is not in and of itself antithetic. After all, as James said, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Abraham was justified by his faith in God and His promise. Nevertheless, that faith was seen in his obedience. When God told Abraham to go and sacrifice Isaac, his promised son, he did so because he “considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Heb 11:19). (Of course, at the last moment Abraham was halted before completing the act and a ram was provided as a substitute) Furthermore, Abraham, having been counted righteous by faith, received circumcision as a seal of that righteousness. 

This balance was not lost on the apostle Paul either. The same Paul who wrote, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Eph 2:8-9) went on to say in the next verse, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). That same Paul gave this instruction to Titus,“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us” (Titus 2:7-8). Again, “let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14). These instructions are very much bound up with the mercies of God in the gospel:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ⁸ The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

Tit 3:4-8

Examples could be multiplied, but the point should be sufficiently established that while we are not justified by works, nevertheless Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). 

c. Slavery and freedom.

We finally come to consider the antithesis between slavery and freedom. Here all that’s been discussed comes to a head. For the antithesis that lies between justification by works of the law and justification by grace through faith in Christ is slavery verses freedom. Paul again draws from the life of Abraham to illustrate this:

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴ Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”

Gal 4:21-27

Paul immediate makes application to the Galatians (and to believers in general),“you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now” (Gal 4:28-29). The children of promise are those “born according to the Spirit,” which allows us to develop the antithesis between slavery and freedom in terms of flesh verses Spirit. Paul’s opponents in Galatia (the Judaizers) were children of the slave woman, “born according to the flesh.” They are still enslaved to the law; their “mother” is Mount Sinai and “the present Jerusalem.” They are in opposition to the children of promise and seek to bring them back into slavery under Sinai. The believers in Galatia, however, were born of the Spirit. Their mother was the free woman, who corresponds with “the Jerusalem above.”

Before Christ came, everyone was indeed held captive under law—whether the law of Moses given to Israel or, in the case of the Gentiles, the law that was written on every person’s conscience. Thus, Paul explained, “the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:22-24). Paul goes on to explain that a child, as long as he remains under a guardian, is no different than a slave. Therefore, “we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Gal 4:3). Yet in the fullness of time, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). Now that Christ has come, “we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal 3:25-26). In other words, both the children of promise and the children of Sinai were once held under the custody of the law. The children of the free woman were no different than those of the slave until Christ came and redeemed the children of promise from the law’s custody and bestowed on them the right and freedom of adoption. Thus, John wrote, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Joh 1:11-13).

When Paul preached the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ to the Galatians and they believed in Him, they themselves had received “the right to become children of God.” They were no longer slaves to sin under the law. They were sons and heirs of the blessing of Abraham and so had received the Spirit of God. Thus Paul exhorted, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). The false gospel of the Judaizers was “a yoke of slavery.” The gospel Paul proclaimed to them was freedom in Christ, freedom from the yoke of the law.

While this freedom was a freedom from the law (in a sense), it was not a freedom from righteousness or holiness. Thus Paul instructed the Galatians, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:13-14; cf. 1 Pet 2:16-17). In Christ they were called to freedom, not to sin as they pleased, but freedom to walk by the Spirit they had received. Paul exhorted, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). Their own flesh and the Spirit would always be at war, but “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal 5:17-18). In them, the Spirit would produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). In their struggle against the flesh and its desires they would stumble, but whereas under the law there would be condemnation, under grace “if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal 6:1).

The Diagnosis

The Judaizers’ false gospel fundamentally denied the sufficiency of grace and the efficacy of Christ’s death on His people’s behalf. They may well have claimed the necessity of grace, but by preaching “you must to circumcised to be saved,” they nullified the grace of God and emptied the cross of its power. If one could be saved by circumcision and keeping the law of Moses, then Christ died for nothing and the grace of God is unnecessary. If one attempts to be justified by keeping the law, he must keep the whole law or be condemned. If one seeks, then, to be saved by circumcision and keeping the law, Christ and His cross are of no value and in fact he is severed from Christ and His grace. Therein lies the fatal pitfall of the Judaizers’ false gospel. Any gospel that denies the sufficiency of the grace of Christ and the efficacy of His sacrifice for sin is a false gospel.

In stark relief is the gospel of grace preached by Paul and the other apostles. This was no human gospel, they had all received it from the Lord Jesus himself. This was God’s gospel! This gospel proclaimed redemption from the curse of the law for everyone who flees to Christ and rests in Him. This gospel leaves no room for boasting, except for boasting in the Lord and His cross. It is only by the grace of the Lord Jesus that anyone is saved and declared to be righteous in God’s sight. This gospel is the only hope for sinners, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15). 

The Judaizers’ false gospel also failed miserably to strike the correct balance between law and grace, works and faith. To put it one way, they have confused the root of justification (grace and faith) with the fruit of justification (faith working through love, thus fulfilling the law). Justification by faith apart from works does not mean that the justified live without good deeds. Rather, the justified do good works as a result of God’s saving work, because in Christ they are a new creation “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” 

We are almost twenty centuries removed from Paul’s time and the controversy surrounding the Judaizers. Nevertheless the Judaizers were only walking and teaching according to a pattern of false teaching that preceded them and that to this present time still troubles the church. In closing, then, we must consider two points.

a. Anatomy of a false teacher. It is important to note that the Judaizers, while obscure to us in the twenty-first century, were clearly men of considerable influence in the first century church. Luke identifies these men as believers from the party of the Pharisees. What sort of influence did these men have if, upon their arrival in Antioch, the apostle Peter—who in their absence freely ate with the Gentile believers—withdrew from his non-Jewish brothers? The most dangerous false teachers are not the ones out on the fringes. Rather, the most dangerous false teachers are those that sneak into our midst. It is a pretense of love and faith in the Lord that masks their true motives. Moreover, it is the barest minimum of orthodoxy that distracts from the deadly pitfall of their heresy.

b. Anatomy of a false gospel.“But I believe Jesus is Messiah!” The Judaizers may have confessed Jesus as Messiah, but the gospel they preached fundamentally denied the gospel of grace the apostles were given by Jesus to preach to both Jews and Gentiles. Many false teachers, past and present, affirm orthodox statements such as “Jesus is the Son of God” or “Jesus is the Christ.” No less do false teachers affirm the necessity of God’s grace for the salvation of sinners. Yet, just like the Judaizers, they preach a gospel of salvation by grace plus the law or justification through faith plus works. What lies behind such a message is a fundamental denial of the sufficiency, not only of grace and faith, but of Christ and His meritorious work in dying for our sins and being raised from the dead. It is the gospel that adds anything to the finished work of Christ that is properly called a false gospel. The gospel of Christ, the true gospel, is that everyone is a guilty sinner before a holy God and the only way anyone is saved is by His grace alone through faith and repentance towards Christ Jesus alone, for His is the one who died in our place and was raised and who intercedes for us.

Galatia

 Anatolia Ancient Regions 

 Dying Gaul

Volcae_Tectosages

Why would I be talking about  Galatia on an Irish History blog. Well, because the Celts settled Galatia prior to or around the time they settled Ireland. There were different Celtic tribes as seen by the Briton, the Scots, the Welsh, and the Irish. However, Galatia intrigues me since there is a book of the Bible with the name Galatians.

Ancient Galatia ( /ɡəˈleɪʃə/; Greek: Γαλατία) was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace (cf. Tylis), who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli (Gaul or Celt). The Galateans themselves were not literate, and their name for themselves remains unknown.

Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. Ankara, today the capital of modern Turkey ).

Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the Galatians, Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci", "Gauls settled among the Greeks" and the country "Gallo-Graecia", as had the 3rd century AD Latin historian Justin. The more usual term in Antiquity is Ἑλληνογαλάται (Hellēnogalátai) of Diodorus Siculus' Biblioteca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed to Gallia in the West.




The Galatians were in their origin a part of the great Celtic migration which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The original Celts who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios circa 270 BC. These Celts consisted of three tribes, the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii.

Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge war band and was turned back in the nick of time from plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphi. At the same time, another Gaulish group of men, women, and children were migrating through Thrace. They had split off from Brennus' people in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278–277 BC; others invaded Macedonia, killed the Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy Ceraunus but were eventually ousted by Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of the defeated Diadoch Antigonus the One-Eyed.

The invaders came at the invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated.

Instead, the migration led to the establishment of a long-lived Celtic territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia, a territory that became known as Galatia. There they ultimately settled, and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia and supported themselves by plundering neighbouring countries.

The Gauls invaded the eastern part of Phrygia on at least one occasion.

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo: conformably to custom, each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief ('tetrarch') of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles southwest of Ancyra, written in Greek as Drynemeton (Gallic *daru-nemeton holy place of oak). It is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means "sanctuary of the oaks" (from drys, meaning "oak" and nemeton, meaning "sacred ground"). The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands.

These Celts were warriors, respected by Greeks and Romans (illustration, below). They were often hired as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years the chieftains and their war bands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check, until they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor. Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead, the Hellenized cities united under Attalus's banner, and his armies inflicted several severe defeats upon them, about 232 forcing them to settle permanently and to confine themselves to the region to which they had already given their name. The theme of the Dying Gaul (a famous statue displayed in Pergamon) remained a favorite in Hellenistic art for a generation.

Their right to the district was formally recognized. The three Celtic Galatian tribes remained as described above:

1. the Tectosages in the centre, round with their capital Ancyra,
2. the Tolistobogii on the west, round Pessinus as their chief town, sacred to Cybele, and
3. the Trocmi on the east, round their chief town Tavium. Each tribal territory was divided into four cantons or tetrarchies. Each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundred senators was periodically held at Drynemeton.

The king of Attalid Pergamene employed their services in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor; another band deserted from their Egyptian overlord Ptolemy IV after a solar eclipse had broken their spirits.

In the early 2nd century BC, they proved terrible allies of Antiochus the Great, the last Seleucid king trying to regain suzerainty over Asia Minor. In 189 BC, Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians, the Galatian War. He defeated them. Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 189 BC onward. Galatia declined and fell at times under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by the Mithridatic Wars, during which they supported Rome.

In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client-state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus, the contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia.

Upon the death of Deiotarus, the Kingdom of Galatia was given to Amyntas, an auxiliary commander in the Roman army of Brutus and Cassius who gained the favor of Mark Antony. However, on his death in 25 BC, Galatia was incorporated by Octavian Augustus into the Roman Empire, becoming a Roman province. Near his capital Ancyra (modern Ankara), Pylamenes, the king's heir, rebuilt a temple of the Phrygian god Men to venerate Augustus (the Monumentum Ancyranum), as a sign of fidelity. It was on the walls of this temple in Galatia that the major source for the Res Gestae of Augustus were preserved for modernity. Few of the provinces proved more enthusiastically loyal to Rome. The Galatians also practised a form of Romano-Celtic polytheism, common in Celtic lands.
During his second missionary journey, St. Paul of Tarsus, accompanied by Silas and Timothy (Acts 16:6), visited the "region of Galatia," where he was detained by sickness (Galatians 4:13).

Josephus related the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or perhaps to Gaul in general): "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites." Others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.

The Galatians were still speaking the Galatian language (Gaulish) in the time of St. Jerome (347–420 AD), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (in what is now the German Rhineland) spoke the same language (Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos, 2.3, composed c. 387).
In an administrative reorganisation about 386–95 two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia. The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of west-central Anatolia.

There was a short-lived eleventh century attempt to re-establish an independent Galatia by Roussel de Bailleul.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - John Beirne, Sr.

John Beirne, Sr (1 April 1893, date of death unknown) was an Irish Clann na Talmhan politician. A shopkeeper and farmer, Beirne was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon constituency and he was re-elected at the 1944 general election.

His son John Beirne, Jnr also served as a Clann na Talmhan TD for Roscommon from 1948–61.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - Michael Hilliard

Michael Hilliard (11 March 1903 – 1 January 1982) was an Irish Fianna Fáil Party politician.
He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election, as a TD for Meath–Westmeath. During his career he served in the governments of Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch. During his tenure as Minister for Posts and Telegraphs Hilliard oversaw the introduction of a television service in Ireland, Radio Telefís Éireann.

He retained his Dáil seat at eight further general elections, switching to the new Meath constituency after constituencies were revised for the 1948 general election. However, at the 1973 general election, he lost his seat to his party colleague Brendan Crinion. He did not contest any further Dáil elections.
While a TD in 1973, Hilliard was appointed a Member of the European Parliament as part of Ireland's short-lived first delegation.

His son Colm Hilliard was Fianna Fáil TD for Meath from 1982–1997.

Members of the Eleventh Dáil - Dominick Cafferky

Dominick Cafferky (died 15 March 1971) was an Irish Clann na Talmhan politician. A farmer, from Kilkelly County Mayo, he was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1943 general election as a Clann na Talmhan Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo South constituency. He was re-elected at the 1944 general election but lost his seat at the 1948 general election. He re-gained his seat at the 1951 general election but again lost his seat at the 1954 general election. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1957 and 1961 general elections.

In the early 1940s, Cafferky was imprisoned with Bernard Commons for one month in Sligo Jail for his part in the Mayo land agitation, after which he won a Dáil seat.