A number of Bible teachers and writers are saying that Paul took the simple story of Jesus as we have it in the Gospels, and grafted upon that message a mass of speculative doctrines about sin and faith and salvation which Jesus himself never taught. The call of these teachers is to try and get Christians to rid themselves of Paul’s influence and to go back to Jesus. This may sound pious, but it is a dangerous teaching.
Since the writings of Paul constitute a major portion of the New Testament (which Brethren take as their “rule of faith and practice”), the implication that Paul differs from Jesus–teaching what Jesus did not teach–is a very serious charge. Do Jesus and Paul really differ? Is Paul’s teaching an unreliable addendum to what Jesus believed and taught?
We read the words of Jesus recorded in Acts 26:16. The account is a rehearsal of Paul’s encounter with Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road. Jesus says to Paul, “I have appeared to you for this purpose: to make you…a witness both of the things you have seen, and of the things which I will yet reveal to you” (Acts 26:16/NKJV). At the time of Paul’s conversion, he fell to the ground, a bright light shone around him, and Paul said, “Who art thou, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 26:15). And then Jesus said, “Rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you…a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.” Jesus said those words.
Jesus says that Paul was chosen to bear witness to Him, and to preach the Gospel of Christ to the nations. Paul certainly never had any idea that he was preaching anything except what Jesus authorized him to preach! No where in all the writings of Paul, is there a single passage that would lead us to believe that his gospel differs from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Both Paul and Jesus, for example, taught the reality of Satan, and that evil spirits war against the souls of human beings. (Compare Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 22:31-34, and Ephesians 6:11-20). Jesus and Paul both speak of the devil as a real and active being.
Both Paul and Jesus preached about moral purity in the realm of sexual conduct. Paul said that “fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Jesus said that there was adultery even in the repeated “glance of the eye” (Matthew 5:28).
Both Paul and Jesus preached the doctrine of love and forgiveness. (Compare Matthew 5:44 with Ephesians 4:32).
Both Paul and Jesus preached salvation through the blood which Jesus shed on the Cross. (Compare Matthew 26:28 with Ephesians 1:7).
It is true that Paul taught truth in some specific areas about which we have no record that Jesus spoke–but Jesus promised that divine truth would be “revealed” to Paul. In our day the writings of Paul are often taken apart and examined in every fine detail. Paul has been accused of being under rabbinic influence, of harboring negative attitudes toward women, and of lacking knowledge about modern science and psychology. And so Paul’s writings are discounted as the words of a confused man who exhibits a non-Christian spirit. But Paul went into much detail in Galatians 1:10-24 to establish the true source of his authority:
Paul spoke with the glorified Christ on the Damascus Road.
Paul’s message came not from human authority but from the divine Father.
Paul scarcely had any contact with the Twelve, but did spend time alone in Arabia.
Surely the New Testament letters of Paul (along with the complete Old Testament) are to be called “Scripture” (as the Apostle Peter spoke of Paul’s epistles in 2 Peter 3:16). Paul’s writings are indeed “the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2: 13).
There is a subtle change today in the way many Brethren regard the Scripture. Alexander Mack spoke of the entire New Testament as the trustworthy Word of God. He said, “The orders, statutes, and laws which the Son of God and His apostles have ordained (of which the Scriptures testify outwardly)…this is the perfect will of the true Law-giver” (page 386, European Origins of the Brethren, Durnbaugh).
The current view of Scripture held by many Brethren is to place an emphasis on “following Jesus” and to minimize the writings of the apostles (especially parts of Paul’s epistles). This is a retreat from the historic Brethren emphasis on the entire New Testament as our source of information concerning the way of salvation, the pattern for living the Christian life, and even for gaining knowledge about who Jesus is. It is dishonest to imply that Alexander Mack and the early Brethren felt that Paul’s writings belonged to an inferior category.
