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The Paul Problem
This is one write-up which has got "built-up" over the last three years. A major purpose of this was for my own benefit. Writing clarifies things, bringing into focus things which are vague. It helps the thinking process – many a times, the very process of writing leads to a solution. I have had a big, long struggle over this issue. The conclusion, which seems so obvious now, came to me after a very slow and painful struggle over a period of more than three years. It is only in end-2007 that I have achieved clarity on the issue. I was a Paul-lover and a lover of his writings. I considered his writings to be the Word-of-God. I could spend hours poring over them and reading books written on their basis. But love is blind, as they say. Meaning that when you love someone, you become oblivious to his/ her faults. The faults are there, but you are blind to them. And in my love for Paul, I had become blind to his faults and the possible faults in his writings.
The first crack surfaced when, while doing a study on "Justification" in mid-2004, I came across articles which showed how Paul contradicted Jesus in the area of salvation and how Paul misused the OT Scriptures to make his points. There seemed to be some substance to them and I shared them with some Christians whose understanding I respected. I continued doing so over the next two years, but unfortunately, could not get much help. I do not blame them since the issues are complex and beyond the capability of the average Christian. What was really saddening was the ostrich-like head-in-the-sand attitude of people I loved and respected, and looked up to for guidance. I have always believed, and still believe, that valid criticism has to be faced squarely and honestly – it always does you good in the end. If I am right about my beliefs and the other person is wrong, then it helps test my beliefs; and if I am wrong and the other person right, then I am better off changing my beliefs anyway.
As part of the process of sharing with others, parts of this write-up got done over the years. It was only in end-2007, after more than three years of struggle, that the conclusion of this write-up hit me – Paul himself was irrelevant and his writings are also irrelevant! It is Jesus who matters. On the Day of Judgment, we are going to face Jesus, not Paul. We are going to be judged according to Jesus’ words, not Paul’s. On that day, it is Jesus who can help us, not Paul. Who was Paul anyway? A person who never knew Jesus, had never even met him personally, never spent a single minute with him, never heard him speak first hand, never saw a miracle of his, never saw any of his good acts, never was convicted by his life! All he had was this "experience" of Jesus (an experience similar to Constantine’s and Mohammad’s), on the basis of which he preached "his gospel," which brought him into constant conflict with the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, who had spent years with him, hearing words from his lips, learning constantly from him, being influenced by his lifestyle. A lot more is learnt, a spirit is imparted, when one actually spends time with another person, much more than when one gets second-hand information about him, and the twelve apostles had this in their favor. Today we have the four gospels and the book of Revelation, which contain Jesus’ actual words on the basis of which we are going to be judged on Judgment Day. And they are adequate to convey what God wants conveyed. Paul doesn’t add anything to them. Who can add anything to Jesus’ words anyway?
Today to me, Paul’s writings are irrelevant. It is Jesus’ words which matter. On Judgment Day, we are going to be judged by Jesus, not Paul. On Judgment Day, we are going to be judged according to Jesus’ words, not Paul’s. On Judgment Day, it is Jesus who can help us, not Paul. If Paul is the things described below (false apostle, liar, hypocrite, coward, 666 etc.), it’s going to be his and his supporters’ and defenders’ problem on Judgment Day, not mine. If he is not, good for him and his supporters and defenders. Then it’s the Paul-bashers’ problem on Judgment Day, not mine. If Paul did contradict Jesus, if he did misuse the OT Scriptures to make otherwise unprovable points, it’s his problem, and the problem of his supporters’ and defenders, not mine. If he did not contradict Jesus and he did not misuse OT Scriptures, good for him and his supporters and defenders. Then it’s the Paul-bashers’ problem on judgment day, not mine. I am neither a Paul-supporter nor a Paul-basher. In the words of John 21:22, "What is it to me? I follow Jesus". On the day of judgment, I neither want to be proved a Paul-supporter (in case he did contradict Jesus and he is all or some of the things described above), nor a Paul-basher (in case he did not); I just want to be proved a Jesus-follower. I wouldn’t waste my time either attacking him, or defending him (or trying to understand some of the things he wrote!) Also, I don’t judge him like some of the Paul-bashers do. I have neither the right, nor the full facts of the case to judge him. Only God has that. We have to leave his judgment to God. And follow Jesus.
Reading through the following pages might give the impression that I am a Paul-basher. I am not. The impression may come from the fact that a lot of the material presents the Paul-bashers' point of view. I have purposely left them in a form that a Paul-basher would, in the form that I encountered them. Which brings me to the second purpose of this write-up: if possible, to help other Christians, whom I love, overcome the problem I struggled with for more than three years. But to overcome it, they have to first face it squarely and honestly. Sooner or later, they are likely to encounter the issues personally. Being a good challenge to their current faith, those who are willing to face the issues squarely and honestly need not go through the struggle and confusion a person in a similar position to theirs has already gone through. Having read all what follows, and knowing the conclusion of it, would place them at an advantage straightaway.
The conclusion frees you. There is a lot of time spent by Christian thinkers and theologians over understanding and making sense of Paul’s letters, and defending them in the face of attacks. As long as we are burdened and entangled with the task of making sense of Paul’s writings and reconciling them to Jesus’ words and defending them, we cannot run freely behind Jesus. Sooner or later, all Christians are bound to encounter the things presented below in the form that they are presented. The Paul-bashers views are freely available on the internet today. We no longer live in a society where the church had the power to limit or suppress information, or to intimidate those who don’t subscribe to its beliefs. Sooner or later, all Christians are bound to come across some of them. Since many of these things have enough substance to merit attention, it is possible that like me, many could get entangled in the Paul-Problem, and waste a lot of their time on an irrelevant issue like I did. Our business is to follow Jesus. But our business is to follow the real Jesus; the Jesus presented in the four gospels and the book of Revelation. Defending Paul and his writings do not constitute a part of following Jesus. We cannot waste time getting entangled in an irrelevant issue.
The second purpose of this write-up then, is to make the reader aware of the issues involved in "The Paul Problem." And by making the reader aware, to neutralize the issues and make them irrelevant. "I know all this; it is irrelevant anyway; I am not going to waste my time getting entangled in this. My business is to follow Jesus" should be the immediate response of the reader when he is confronted by some Paul-basher.
I have chosen to include only those items which are purely Bible-based, ignoring those which are not (such as Paul’s alleged frustration at not being able to marry a High Priest’s daughter) since such do not deserve attention. But it is only for interested people to delve into the issues more deeply, to find out which of them are true and which are not. I am no longer interested in delving more into them and examining them. I have wasted enough time in doing so. I am presenting them here as a disinterested person presenting another person’s point of view in a neutral manner. I am neither a Paul-basher not a Paul-supporter. For me, Paul is irrelevant. It is Jesus who matters. On the Day of Judgment, we are going to face Jesus, not Paul. We are going to be judged according to Jesus’ words, not Paul’s. On that day, it is Jesus who can help us, not Paul. On that day, I would want to be found as a Jesus-follower, not a Paul-supporter or a Paul-basher.
Organisation
This section is divided into two parts, Paul’s credibility and credentials, and his teachings –
B. Paul’s teachings
The first part, dealing with Paul’s character and credentials might seem like an exercise in character-assassination. There is a strategy employed by many people (especially politicians) of dealing with issues in a particular way – don’t deal with the real issues, but paint the other person so black that "what he is saying" is totally lost in a barrage of "who he is" or "who he is shown to be". Denigrate his character (either with truth or if the truth is not available, with falsehood) so much, that the real issues are sidetracked, and people come to believe that if "this person is so horrible, what he is saying cannot be the truth." I first got a taste of this from one of my school teachers when I was not yet ten, and felt so horrible that I would not like to subject even my worst enemies to such an ordeal! That time, I was too small to know how to handle it. Today, I treat such behavior with the contempt it deserves. I fully believe in separating "what a person is saying" from "how he is saying it" or "what his character is". Paul may be a horrible sinner, and yet what he has written from the book of Romans to the book of Titus may be the truth. After all, the entire Bible has been written by human beings who were themselves sinful persons!
The real issue is not Paul’s character, but whether what he has written in the books of Romans to Titus is the truth. This is what the second part is about, which deals with some of his teachings. But in the first part, I am dealing with Paul’s character and credentials only, and a purpose is to correct a distorted picture most Christians have of Paul as a person, and bring to focus many of the question-marks on Paul’s character. Paul’s plus-points are well known. But most Christians are horrified when they are confronted with Paul being a deliberate liar, a coward and a hypocrite. They have no problems readily admitting any of the other Bible writers or Bible heroes as "sinners" – from Abraham and Moses to David and Solomon to Peter and John – everyone’s sins are openly admitted without the bat of an eyelid. But Paul? When it comes to Paul, there is almost a conspiracy of silence! It is easy to think of him as the "worst of sinners" in general terms, as he called himself, but we know that there is a world of difference between generally and vaguely "accepting that I am a sinner" and agreeing to, and dealing with our "specific" sins. There is a distorted picture of Paul that is presented by Christianity in general – his specific sins are completely glossed over. He is thought of generally as a terrific and highly moral person, single-handedly carrying the torch of Christianity to various nations, and as one person who truly understood Jesus and presented an accurate view of him. This part brings into awareness the question-marks over Paul’s character and credentials, just the way the negative parts of the characters of other Bible heroes like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter etc are fully in awareness. The material is drawn from Paul-bashers views. As said before, only those inferences are presented which are Bible-based.
By its nature, this first part is not serious reading. But it does have an important conclusion which is rounded off at the end – that we have to base our primary understanding of what is going to happen on Judgment Day primarily on Jesus’ teachings, not on Paul’s. Paul’s character or position or authority is nowhere near Jesus’. There are far too many question-marks on Paul’s character and his teachings. It is Jesus who matters in the end, not Paul. And I can’t help repeating this once again – On the Day of Judgment, we are going to face Jesus, not Paul. On the Day of Judgment, we are going to be judged according to Jesus’ words, not Paul’s. On the Day of Judgment, it is Jesus who can help us, not Paul. So we have to base our primary understanding of what is going to happen on Judgment Day primarily on Jesus’ teachings, not on Paul’s. Happy reading.