Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror

Through the years, My wife and I have butted heads on several topics from the Bible. She would state something and I would state the opposite. We would both pull out our Bibles to support our claim and it turned out that we both were right or both of us were wrong. The Bible contradicted itself.

Through these disagreements brought me to an interesting conclusion, it was Paul. I also found out that this Paul problem was not new. The early Christians rejected Paul and some of the most famous people in history also rejected Paul. Thomas Jefferson, who was an American founding father and third President of the United States also rejected the Apostle Paul. He disliked Paul so much, he even created a bible that did not included any of Paul's writings in the Jefferson Bible.

The problems that stem from Paul are his conversion on the road to Damascus. Each time it is recorded, it seems to change. Acts 9:3-7 say's hearing but not seeing and Acts 22:9 says seeing but not hearing. If the Books of the Bible are the words of God, Why would God allow this? The God I worship is perfect does not allow mistakes.

People with Big Ego's get on my nerves more quickly than others. Paul had an enormous ego problem. It was all about me, myself and I with him. No other author of the books of the bible was so full of himself and used so many personal pronouns as Paul. Paul refers to himself as me, myself and I 175 times in 1st Corinthians, 103 times in 2nd Corinthians, in the short book of Galatians an outstanding 69 times. I just wonder if Paul had a mirror how many times a day he would gleam at himself. To himself, Paul was the greatest Apostle that ever lived. He even rebuked Peter to his face once in Galatians 2:11.

Ask yourself these questions.

1. Why did Paul not accept what the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 had said?
2. Paul says in Galatians 2:16 that we are saved by faith only. Then why does James refute this by calling the author of this doctrine a “vain man” in James 2:20?
3. Why in 1^st Corinthians 10:27?
4. Why does Paul say, “as it is written” in Romans 3:10 and piece together sentences from six different places in the Old Testament?
5. If no one is righteous as he claims in Romans 3:9-20, why in Luke 1:6 claim that the parents of John the Baptist as “righteous before God”?
6. If Paul is not the one that Revelation 2:2 speaks of, why does Paul say in 2^nd Timothy 1:15 that everyone in Asia had turned away from him? The church of Ephesus was in Asia.
7. How can Paul be a 13^th apostle when Revelation 21:14 says that there are only twelve? How about Matthew 19:28?
8. Paul in Ephesians 1:1 address them as an apostle, is he the one guilty in Revelation 2:2?
9. If Paul says in Ephesians 6:19 of making the “mystery of the gospel” known, why didn't Jesus share this mystery with the twelve that had spent 3 years with Him in His earthly ministry?
10. In Philippians 2:7, Paul says that Jesus came in the likeness of men, In Romans 8:3, Paul says Jesus was the “likeness of sinful flesh”. But in 1^st John 4:2-4 in KJV, (the NIV omits it), John says anyone who denies that Jesus did not come in the flesh is part of the spirit of the anti Christ. Does this make Paul the anti Christ?
11. Who authorized Paul to give us new commandments in 1st Thessalonians 4:2?
12. In 2^nd Thessalonians 3:14, who gave the authority to Paul demanding people to obey? Should I be ashamed for not believing Paul?
13. Does Paul have the authority to judge and deliver people over to Satan as he does in 1^st Timothy 1:20? This has Catholicism written all over it.
14. Why was Paul looking for a prophet to endorse him in 1^st Corinthians 14:37?
15. Why did Jesus not mention Paul in Matthew 28:18-20?
16. Why did Jesus say in Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” and then take it away from them in Galatians 2:7?
17. Why did Paul in Acts 21:21 teach the Jews to forsake the law of Moses, when Jesus said in Matthew 5:18, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”?
18. Why did Paul tell in 1st Corinthians 8:8 it was OK to eat idol meat when the Council of Jerusalem said not to in Acts 15:29?
19. If the “other Gospel” in Galatians 1:6 was not the very one taught by the original Apostles John, Peter and John, why does Paul attack their character in Galatians 2?
20. Why did Paul accuse Peter for acting Jewish around Jews and acting gentile around gentiles in Galatians 2:14, when Paul claims to do the same thing in 1^st Corinthians 9:20-22?
21. Compare Galatians 2:7 to Acts 15:7, who was the one that was to spread the Gospel to the gentiles?
22. When Paul had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:1-3, and then tell Him that he did it to profit nothing and He was now in debt to the entire law and he had fallen from grace as in Galatians 5:2-4?
23. If Jesus had abolished the law as Paul claims in Ephesians 2:15, then why did Jesus lie in Matthew 5:17? Has Heaven and Earth passed away?
24. In Acts 23:6 Paul claims to be a Pharisee, Jesus says in Luke 12:1 to beware of Pharisees. Was Jesus referring to Paul?
25. Did Paul allow us to change the Sabbath in Colossians 2:13-16? Compared to Matthew 5:17-19

It's all confusion when you study Paul and compare his words to other scripture in the Bible. Do we follow Paul or do we follow Jesus? I chose to follow Jesus' Red words and the men who was actually there with Jesus. John, James, Luke, Matthew, Mark and Peter. Not Paul and his companions.