“A-PAUL-LING” EPISTLES

Music to the ears but poison to the soul.

Most Christians read the epistles of Paul with a veil over our eyes.  Otherwise we would realise how ridiculous they often are.  Read the following so-called scriptures again and see if you would still consider them to be the infallible word of God.

Ridiculous statements

The following statements of Paul are just plain ridiculous.

“One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’  This testimony is true”

(Titus 1:12-13).  This testimony cannot be true since it comes from one of the allegedly lying Cretans.  “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).  If natural men cannot receive the things of the Spirit, then no man can become spiritual because every spiritual man begins as a natural man (1 Corinthians 15:46). 

“Women will be saved through childbearing” (1 Timothy 2:15).  This is a most bizarre doctrine of salvation.  Isaiah says the barren should sing.  But it now it appears they should weep because, according to Paul, they cannot be saved.  “From now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none” (1 Corinthians 7:29).  Any married man who follows this prescription should not be surprised if his marriage breaks down.

Vain platitudes

The following writings of Paul are simply practically meaningless, although Paulinists are reluctant to admit this. 

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  I am yet to find a Christian who has ever achieved this.  In any case, Jesus is against long prayers (Matthew 6:7).  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).  There are so many things that Christ will not enable us to do, such as jumping from a high-rise building. 

“Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).  Paul really should have provided a manual as to how this is to be done.  Are we to become ghosts?  “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  This is just wishful thinking.  If all things have become new, why are Christians still so sinful?

False statements

The following statements of Paul are outright falsehood, even if without major spiritual repercussions.

“It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6).  This is palpably false.  God might choose to forgive those who trouble us if they repent, as happened in the case of Jonah and the Ninevites.  “She who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day” (1 Timothy 5:5).  This has no empirical basis.  Some widows are ungodly and don’t have night vigils. 

“The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).  Adultery is often not caused by the love of money.  “Only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” (Galatiansl 3:7).  Moslems are sons of Abraham but not of the Christian faith.  Only “sons of God” are of the faith.  “Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7).  Many people sleep in the daytime and some even get drunk in the morning.

Spiritual poison

The following statements are fundamentally dangerous and can lead a man into condemnation:

“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).  No man is free in this lifetime from the possibility of sin and death.  “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).  The birthright of Esau was revoked, as was the calling of the House of Eli.  If “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14), then the calling is revocable. 

“Our Savior Jesus Christ…has abolished death” (2 Timothy 1:10).  This is not true.  Men continue to die in sin every day and all Christians still die physically.  “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).  This is music to the ears but poison to the soul.  If we succumb to temptation and fall into sin, it will separate us from the love of God. 

Clearly, none of these quotations is “by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).  Paul himself says: “I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool” (2 Corinthians 11:17).