Posted on 06/24/2014 2:13:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Recently, a friend emailed me with a very common claim, namely, that, “Paul hijacked Christianity with no personal connection with Jesus and filled his letters with personal opinions.” This could be rephrased in the more common claim: Paul invented Christianity.
This claim is especially common among Muslim apologists who use it in an attempt to explain why the Qur’an simultaneously affirms Jesus as a true prophet while also contradicting the Bible at every major point. However, since my friend is not a Muslim and is not coming at the issue from that angle, I will just deal with the question more broadly.
My friend alleges that some of the “personal opinions” of Paul that were interjected into the New Testament include: “slaves obey your masters; women not to have leadership roles in churches; homosexuality is a sin (though there is Old Testament authority for this last, Paul doesn’t seem to base his opinion on it).”
“None of [of the above] were said by Jesus and would perhaps be foreign to his teaching,” he wrote. “I think Paul has created a lot of mischief in Christianity, simply because he wrote a lot and his letters have survived.”
Let’s deal with this point-by-point.
No personal connection to Jesus
Paul, in fact, did have a personal connection to Jesus. This is revealed in the famous “Damascus road” accounts in Acts 9:3-9, Acts 22:6–11 and Acts 26:12–18. Paul refers back to this experience elsewhere in his letters, though it is only laid with this level of detail in Acts, written by Paul’s traveling companion Luke.
The only way one can maintain that Paul had no connection to Jesus is to rule out the conversion experience of Paul a priori based on a presupposition. Of course, I can argue that such a presupposition is untenable, but that would take an entire post to itself. For the sake of brevity, I would just point out that it is illogical to employ such reasoning. It would go something like, “It didn’t happen because it couldn’t happen because it can’t happen therefore it didn’t happen therefore Paul had no personal connection to Jesus.”
Personal opinions
Yes, Paul does interject his personal opinions into his writing! However, when he does, he clearly delineates what he is saying as his personal opinion as an Apostle.
For instance, in dealing with the issue of marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul clearly distinguishes between his own statements and the Lord’s.
In 1 Corinthians 7:10, Paul says, “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord)…” and in 1 Corinthians 7:12, Paul says, “To the rest I say, (I, not the Lord)…” This example shows that Paul was not in the business of putting words in the mouth of Jesus. Paul had no problem showing when he was giving his own charge and when it was a statement made by the Lord Jesus, as it was in this case (Matthew 5:32).
Yet it is important to note that other Apostles recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture from the earliest days of Christianity, as seen the case of Peter (2 Peter 3:15–16).
Paul’s “personal opinions” and the Law
Out of the three examples, two are directly from the Mosaic Law. Obviously the Mosaic Law couldn’t have stated that women should not preach in the church because the Church did not yet exist and wouldn’t for over 1,000 years.
The claim that there is only Old Testament authority for the last of the examples is false. The same goes for the claim that Paul does not base his statements on the Law.
It is abundantly clear that Paul actually does derive his statements on homosexual activity from the Law.
For instance, in 1 Timothy 1, Paul mentions homosexuality in the context of the type of people the Law was laid down for (1 Timothy 1:9-11). This short list indicts all people, just as Paul does elsewhere (Romans 3:23), showing that all people require the forgiveness that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ.
When Paul deals with it elsewhere, he mentions it in the context of other activities explicitly prohibited by the Law (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), again going back to the idea that the Lord Jesus Christ sets apart (sanctifies) His people and justifies them.
As for the command for slaves to obey their masters, this is regularly claimed to be objectionable by critics. By way of introduction, is important to distinguish between what we have in our mind about the institution of slavery as Americans and the institution of slavery as it existed in Paul’s day. After all, Paul explicitly listed “enslaverers” (or man-stealers) in the same list mentioned above (1 Tim 1:10). Since the entire institution of slavery in the United States was built upon the kidnapping of people, it is clearly radically different from what Paul spoke of. Furthermore, the stealing of a man was punishable by death under the Mosaic Law (Exodus 21:16). The practice of slavery in America would never have existed if the Bible was actually being followed.
Paul also exhorted his readers to buy their freedom if they could (1 Corinthians 7:21) and instructing the master of a runaway slave to treat him as “no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother” (Philemon 11). Paul grounded his statements in the defense of “the name of God and the teaching.” Paul said that bondservants should “regard their masters as worthy of all honor,” not just for the sake of doing so, but so there might be no chance to slander the name of God and the gospel.
The fact is that Paul knew the Law quite well (Philippians 3:5-6) and the Law does deal with slavery.
Ultimately, the claim made by my friend requires more fleshing out on his end and some evidence on his part in order to be more fully dealt with.
Paul’s teachings foreign to Jesus’ teachings?
This is another common claim. First off, one must ask if this statement implies that Jesus would simply have to repeat everything Paul said and vice-versa or else they would remain foreign.
The fact is that there is nothing contradictory between Paul’s writings and Jesus’ teaching. One must wonder why Luke – a traveling companion of Paul and the author of Luke-Acts – would have no problem writing the gospel that bears his name if he perceived such a contradiction. Furthermore, one must wonder why this apparent conflict was lost on the earliest Christians, including the Apostle Peter, who viewed Paul’s letters as Scripture (see above).
In affirming the Law (Matthew 5:17), Jesus affirmed all that Paul that was clearly grounded in the Law. Furthermore, if there was a real contradiction between Paul’s writings and the teachings of Jesus, Paul would have been rejected, instead of accepted as he has always been.
The Christian community existed before Paul became a Christian, as is clearly seen by the fact that he was persecuting Christians (Acts 8:1,3), and he even met with the leaders of the early church. They did not reject Paul, but instead affirmed what he had been teaching (Galatians 2:2,9). This makes it even clearer that Paul could not have invented or hijacked Christianity.
As for the claim that Paul has had such a large impact “simply because he wrote a lot and his letters have survived,” all one has to do is look at the other early Christian writings that survived in order to see that is not a valid metric.
We have seen that the claim that “Paul hijacked Christianity” is without evidence. While I have taken the burden of proof upon myself in responding to this claim, in reality the burden of proof would be on the one making the claim in the first place. No such evidence has been presented and no substantive evidence can be presented since Paul did not invent Christianity or hijack Christianity or anything similar to it. Instead, Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ commissioned to spread the gospel, something that he clearly did by establishing churches and penning many letters under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we can still read today.
When one reads the gospels and the other writings contained in the New Testament, the message is cohesive and clear: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Ro 3:23), God demands complete perfection (Mt 5:48) and all we have earned through our sin is death (Ro 6:23) and hell. Yet God offers the free gift of eternal life to all who repent and believe (Mk 1:15, Ro 10:9–11) in Jesus Christ, who died as a propitiation (Ro 3:25, Heb 2:17, 1 Jn 4:10) for all who would ever believe in Him (Jn 6:44) and rose from the grave three days later, forever defeating sin and death. Those who believe in Him can know (1 John 5:13) that they have passed from death to life (Jn 5:24) and will not be condemned (Jn 3:18), but will be given eternal life by Jesus Christ (Jn 6:39-40). Paul and Jesus in no way contradict each other on what the gospel is, in fact the four gospels and Paul’s letters (along with the rest of the New Testament) form one beautiful, cohesive truth.
Game, I like your profile page. Same here.
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Then Paul, James, Peter, and John are “Hebrew Roots people?”
Romans 2:
[1] Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
[2] But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
[3] And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
[4] Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
[5] But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
[6] Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
[7] To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
[8] But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
[9] Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
[10] But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
[11] For there is no respect of persons with God.
[12] For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
[13] (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
[14] For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
[15] Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
James 1:
[16] Do not err, my beloved brethren.
[17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
[18] Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
[19] Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
[20] For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
[21] Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
[22] But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
[23] For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
[24] For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
[25] But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1John 3:
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
[4] Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
[5] And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
[6] Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
1Peter 1:
[1] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
[2] Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
[4] To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
[5] Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[6] Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
[7] That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
[8] Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
[9] Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
[10] Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
[11] Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
[12] Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
[13] Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
[14] As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
[15] But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
[16] Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
[17] And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
[18] Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
[19] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
[20] Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
[21] Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
[22] Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
[23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Well, it appears that they must be, if your standard is what we are to go by!
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Do you understand the standard of belief in someone that is understood in the scriptures?
Apparently not, judging by your posts.
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There is no “Rood cult” except the keepers of the plain word of Yehova.
All of my refutation of your abundant error is the pure scriptures, not anything from Rood, or any other man.
Quit cursing Yehova’s messengers, and look into your own heart.
Stop listening to the contrived words of men that twist clips out of the word out of context, and demand the full word.
Paul declared that the Gospel that he preached is the same gospel that Moses preached in the desert. (Hebrews 3&4)
Why do you reject that?
I’ll just leave you to your law keeping. Tell Jesus how good you were when you sit before His judgment throne.
I don’t have to tell him anything.
Really, that is what your real problem is. He knows all hearts, and his word is very plain to those that read it all.
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Like I said, I will simply leave you and the Catholics to earn your salvation through carnal means.
No obligations to keep the feast days, the holy days, the Torah.
You keep contradicting yourself. You say *Save by grace* but then demand something the leaders of the early church and the Holy Spirit never required, and that is keeping the Torah.
Not to mention that the feast days can't be properly kept without the Temple and a consecrated priesthood to make the proper sacrifices.
So this obsession with keeping the Torah is meaningless.
If getting back to the Hebrew roots makes you feel better, if you like keeping the feast days, if they are special to you and mean something to you, have at it.
But don't demand that everyone do what you do just because you think it's right when Scripture does not demand it of us.
All the admonitions of Scripture are for living according to the law of love, not the Law of the of covenant.
We are under the new covenant and are not bound by the old one any more. God doesn't relate to us that way, we don't need to relate to God that way.
>> “No obligations to keep the feast days, the holy days, the Torah.” <<
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They, like every other congregation that the apostles visited, were already doing that. That is the essence of the Way of Yeshua.
It was the interference of the Pharisees promoting their own false law, and demanding circumcision, that the council was about.
>> “Not to mention that the feast days can’t be properly kept without the Temple and a consecrated priesthood to make the proper sacrifices.” <<
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Proving that you have no understanding of what Yehova’s Appointed Times are all about!
The only Day that had anything to do with sacrifice was Passover, which Yeshua has fulfilled.
The rest of them are purely family observances done in a prescribed manner.
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http://www.sarshalom.us/resources/scripture/asv/html/luke.html
Speaking of Luke, read the prodigal son, chapter 15 and note, the Older Brother is Judaism the younger Christianity, the older brother never left The Father. The younger brother is dead without Torah.
John 19:20 Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.
Acts 22:2 And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. Then he said:
Acts 26:14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
I take it you are speaking of editor-surveyor... I cannot speak for my brother, but I don't see that in what he has said. What he seems to be so zealously arguing is the premise that if one loves YHWH and follows Messiah, then the inward man should desire Torah... That the Spirit, transforming us, will be continuously making us to be like Yeshua, and Yeshua kept Torah. And if you read more closely, Paul does not dispute that view, but rather, endorses it.
I don't think anyone would deny that keeping the Ten Commandments is part of living a holy life - set apart from the WHOLE law of Torah/Moses.
But one cannot 'set apart' any portion of Torah. It cannot be added to, nor taken from... That's the rub.
What I would dispute is the imposing upon Gentile Christians the ceremonial laws the Jews followed and insisting they MUST be followed in order to attain salvation.
But there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Messiah. There is ONE law for all. I would submit that there is only one Torah, and there has always only been one Torah. And the prophets bear that out in the Kingdom prophecies - There will only BE one Torah, and the whole world will keep it... How do we get from here to there?
I have made no demands upon you, or anyone else... My position is more of a 'You don't know what you are missing' thing.
Every word of Torah is prophetic - JUST the Holy Days are so chocked full of meaning that Col2 rightly calls them shadows of good things to come. Even a cursory investigation began to really open my eyes. What is it that they can teach us about what is to come? Moedim (Holy Days) has a connotation of 'rehearsals' for a reason, and most Christians haven't got a single clue about them at all.
The Torah/Law was NEVER intended to impart righteousness but, "law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Gal. 3:24).
I seem to take that far more personally than you do... And it is true - I had no idea how far from the truth I was until I started really studying Torah. Once I really bent to it, I could no longer trust what I had been taught anymore. The Sabbath was the first snare. There is literally *no* defense for moving it to Sunday, which the Roman church in times past and present pointed to as proof of their power and authority...
It is in that way that Torah has taught me the difference between what YHWH says versus the traditions of men. The Torah is there for lawbreakers - To show them the truth, apart from what they have been taught as right by men - It isn't needed for those who don't break the law. Just as the laws of our nation have little impact upon those of us who abide by her laws, So the laws of the Kingdom should not impede those who are the citizens thereof. That, btw, is Paul in a nutshell, and the beatitudes as well, those things against which there is no law...
Additionally, keeping the whole of Torah (the Law of Moses) is not even how believers are sanctified, because that, too, is by faith.
The Torah is not for that purpose. But if we love YHWH we will keep his commandments.
God writes His law upon our hearts and the person who is Christ's WILL live according to the leading of God because, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph. 2:10)
How is it that the law written on the heart of men is different than Torah? How can it be different? Read the Psalms (especially 119 as posted above), and tell me how the intention could have changed to something altogether different?
No, I really have no idea what you are going on about.
Apparently the only thing that Christians are not allowed to do is keep Torah. That just doesn't compute.
A good start would be to define what you mean by "Torah" in the first place. Is it the ten commandments given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai or the six hundred+ laws further spoken of throughout the rest of the Pentateuch? NOWHERE in the New Testament writings are there commands for believers in Christ (Christians) to keep the WHOLE law in order to either gain salvation, keep salvation or maintain a relationship with God. You want to presume that ALL Christians at one time "kept Torah" - though you haven't explained what that means - and that the "Church" through time perverted what God intended for us to know even two thousand years later. I just don't buy it.
A case in point WOULD be the Sabbath. Jesus said the sabbath was made for the man and not man for the Sabbath. It is a day of rest and Paul goes further to explain that this day of rest was something, "Each must be fully convinced in his own mind." (Rom. 14:5) Jesus "kept" Torah because he was a Jew, the Son of God, who fulfilled the law perfectly so that he might make propitiation for the sins of the world.
Jesus said that if we loved him we would keep his commandments, so what are His commandments?:
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." (John 14:21)
This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (I John 3:23-24)
Not from me - If that is what you are getting, then I am not explaining myself well enough, I guess.
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