DID PAUL CREATE CHRISTIANITY?

 

 

It is claimed that Christianity was created by Paul rather than Jesus. This claim is preposterous for many reasons. Jesus claimed that it was He who had instituted the New Covenant. When He sent out His disciples before His ascension, He instructed them:

·       “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20)

 

The New Covenant was to be based upon His Cross and His teachings. Therefore, He had sent out His Apostles to proclaim His teachings and not their own. He therefore sent His Holy Spirit to authenticate His Word through miracles:

·       how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:3–4)

 

Paul had written that he too had been made an Apostle of the Word, and this was proven by these same miracles that he had been performing through the Spirit (2 Corinthians 12:12).

 

Nor was he presenting new teachings. Instead, he often referred to himself as an Apostle “through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Galatians 1:1). This wasn’t simply based on his own supernatural experiences. Instead, after 14 years of ministry, he visited the other Apostles “to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain” (Galatians 2:2):

 

·       On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised…and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Galatians 2:7, 9)

 

Even though Paul had publicly opposed Peter (Cephas) before the brethren in Antioch, Peter nor any of the Apostles ever opposed what Paul had been teaching. Instead, Peter acknowledged that what Paul had been teaching was the Gospel and even called his teachings “Scripture”:

 

·       And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:15–16)

 

Likewise, Paul never tried to distinguish what he was teaching from the teachings of the other Apostles. Instead, they bore the same Gospel message:

·       For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. (1 Thessalonians 2:3–6)

 

·       And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2:4; 2 Thess. 2:14)

 

Besides, Paul often referred to his Gospel as the “Word of the Lord”:

 

·       Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, (2 Thessalonians 3:1; 1 Thess. 1:8)

 

In no way did Paul ever claim to contradict Jesus, even if some of his teachings might have appeared that way. Why? Jesus purposely spoke in parables which could easily be misinterpreted (Matthew 13:10-17), while Paul’s teachings could be difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:16). To summarize, Paul had been teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Bible never claims otherwise.