The Apostle Paul was the first to pen down most of the New Testament arguably the central figure in the founding of the religion that has come to be know as Christianity.  This is a guy who claims to have been directly instructed by Jesus to further his ministry.  If Paul had not written his letters and epistles, the new testament would clearly not be the work we know it today.

So it better be true that Paul was actually inspired and instructed by Jesus.  But was Jesus ministry cut short by his unceremonious crucifixion?  What we know about Christianity was essentially propounded by the mind of Paul.  Why would Jesus have left his unfinished ministry in the hands of someone not in his immediate chosen 12.

The first Christian documents to be penned were probably written in the 50s by Paul, a good two decades after the death of Jesus. The earliest gospel, Mark, was written after the year 70, more than 40 years after the events they describe.  The gospels bear the names of some apostles, but it is unlikely that these books were written by any of Jesus's apostle.

So if the gospels are so distantly removed from the events the described, making them less reliable, it is thus important that the works of Paul contain more true and reliable information.  But can we trust Paul to be truthful and honest?  I submit that a great deal of his accounts sounds doubtful, to say the least.  Here are my premises:

1)   He claims to have been working for the Jewish temple authorities, assign to persecute followers of Jesus.  Did this happen in Jesus's sojourn on earth or was it after he had departed?  Is there any evidence that early Christians were persecuted by the Jewish authorities?   I think this claim is spurious.

2)  He claims he was sent to Damascus to persecute and arrest Christians in this city.  This is a very implausible account.  Damascus was and still is a city in Syria.  The Jewish temple authorities would have had no jurisdiction over events in Damascus, let alone despatch a gang of brigand to execute an arrest there.  This would have been frown upon by the overseeing Roman authorities.  This account is unlikely to be true.

3)  The accounts of the conversion incidents, given in Acts and Galatians, are at variance with each other.

4)  After his conversion, how long was it before he meets the other apostles?  Pauls accounts are again at variance.

5)   He himself is aware of the bad reputation he was causing amongst apostles and is surmoned to Jerusalem for a meeting.  He is at pains to say "I  tell no lie", inferring that he was being charge with lying and inventions.

6) Informs his audience that they will see the coming of Jesus in their lifetime.

That a religion that has come to dominate the planet has relied on the manupulative mind of this impostor from Tarsus is an indictment to the state in intellectual thoughts at the inceptions of the movement.

Well remember Paul was a rebel before his conversion. . . . . . hence your heading "paul to be trusted"
I believe Paul wanted his readers to appreciate his authority as an apostle; therefore, he used his conversion experience of encountering Christ to that effect. Remember the corinth church was seriously trouble and Paul was trying to set those sexual predators, the haters, the selfish self centered "christians, murderer etc (you name it) straight on the Christ teachings.

Peace

@Poster

How will you say a thing like that!

And what do you know about Apostle Paul?

For ages now, rabbis and jewish scholars have been researching the bible

And none has found anything incriminating about Apostle paul

Pls, dont try to mislead people on NL

Because Apostle paul is a man respected by all standards.

One more question - When did you begin your findings on the City of Damascus.?

darefestus:

@Poster

How will you say a thing like that!

And what do you know about Apostle Paul?

For ages now, rabbis and jewish scholars have been researching the bible

And none has found anything incriminating about Apostle paul

please, don't try to mislead people on NL

Because Apostle paul is a man respected by all standards.

One more question - When did you begin your findings on the City of Damascus.?

My goodness. Have you ever read you bible? Have you ever take a look at a map of the region. Damascus has been a city of Syria for more than 2000 years.

Well, just go read you bible and I bet, if you put any attention into it, you will soon come across the deceptions and manipulations of Paul.

If Paul told such a horrible lie about the Road-to-Damascus experience, what else could he have lied about? Can we really trust him in any of his pronouncements?

huxley huxley
let me borrow the phrase of Chrisbenegor, you no well at all all
boy you dey craze o , just as someone in the bible said that too much knowledge was driving Paul mad,

i meant it jocundly though 

SHALOM!

huxley:
The Apostle Paul was the first to pen down most of the New Testament arguably the central figure in the founding of the religion that has come to be know as Christianity.  This is a guy who claims to have been directly instructed by Jesus to further his ministry.  If Paul had not written his letters and epistles, the new testament would clearly not be the work we know it today.

The New Testament is about YAHSHUA, not PAULINE THEOLOGY.

Paul's Writings are NOT New Testament.

So it better be true that Paul was actually inspired and instructed by Jesus.  But was Jesus ministry cut short by his unceremonious crucifixion?  What we know about Christianity was essentially propounded by the mind of Paul.  Why would Jesus have left his unfinished ministry in the hands of someone not in his immediate chosen 12.

Good Question!

. MATTHEW 24:14,35.

14. "And This Gospel of The Kingdom
shall be preached in all the World
for a witness unto all nations;
and then shall The End come."
35. "Heaven and Earth shall pass away,
but my Words shall not pass away."

. MATTHEW 28:16-20.

16. Then the eleven Disciples
went away into Galilee,
into a mountain
where Jesus had appointed them.
17. And when they saw him,
they worshipped him:
but some doubted.
18. And Jesus came
and spake unto them,
saying,
"All Power is given unto me
in Heaven and in Earth.
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:
20. "Teaching them
to observe all things
whatsoever I have Commanded you:
and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto The End of The World."
Amen.

THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS THAT HE DID NOT.

This so-called Gospel of PAUL is NOTHING LIKE The Gospel of YAHSHUA.

The first Christian documents to be penned were probably written in the 50s by Paul, a good two decades after the death of Jesus

Theory based on WHAT?

The earliest gospel, Mark, was written after the year 70, more than 40 years after the events they describe.

How do you know that Mark's Gospel was the earliest?

Is it because Oyinbo Theologians told you so?

 

The gospels bear the names of some apostles, but it is unlikely that these books were written by any of Jesus's apostle.

You just arrogantly dismiss the possibility, offering no proofs whatsoever.

So if the gospels are so distantly removed from the events the described, making them less reliable,

This shows you ignorance and unbelief.

The Religions of THE TRUE GOD, YAHWEH, are based on THE TEN TALENTS OF ABILITY:

. THE TEN TALENTS OF POWER. (Matthew 25:1-46.)

1. TOTAL RECALL.
2. EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION.
3. TELEKINESIS.
4. TELEPORTATION.
5. TRANSLATION.
6-10. EVERLASTING LIFE.

WORSHIPPERS OF YAHWEH GOD are supposed to attain the capability of TOTAL RECALL.

FALSE TEACHING has attempted to eliminate Knowledge that such a thing ever existed, whereby I am the only Christian alive teaching it.

it is thus important that the works of Paul contain more true and reliable information.  But can we trust Paul to be truthful and honest?  I submit that a great deal of his accounts sounds doubtful, to say the least.  Here are my premises:

We are not supposed to rely on ANY Writer nor Writings, but THE SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF.

. JOHN 16:12-15.

12. "I have yet many things
to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now.
13. "Howbeit when He,
The Spirit of Truth,
is come,
He will guide you into all Truth:
for He shall not speak of Himself;
but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak:
and He will shew you
Things to come.
14. "He shall glorify me:
for He shall receive of mine,
and shall shew It unto you.
15. "All things that
The Father hath are mine:
therefore said I,

'THAT HE SHALL TAKE OF MINE,
AND SHALL SHEW IT UNTO YOU.' "

This is something that you know nothing about in your Religion.

1)   He claims to have been working for the Jewish temple authorities, assign to persecute followers of Jesus.  Did this happen in Jesus's sojourn on earth or was it after he had departed?  Is there any evidence that early Christians were persecuted by the Jewish authorities?   I think this claim is spurious.

You are now showing ignorance and stupidity.

Did you even read The Bible at all?

Anyone who has not even read The Bible at all should know that persecution against the Church did not take place until after the Crucifixion of YAHSHUA.

What sense would there have been in attacking Yahshua's Followers without killing him first?

Anyone who has read The Book of ACTS knows that STEPHEN was the THIRD Follower of Yahshua to Die, and that PAUL kept the garments of those who were stoning him- ensuring, by their Tradition, that he got a share of the loot.

2)  He claims he was sent to Damascus to persecute and arrest Christians in this city.  This is a very implausible account.  Damascus was and still is a city in Syria.  The Jewish temple authorities would have had no jurisdiction over events in Damascus, let alone despatch a gang of brigand to execute an arrest there.  This would have been frown upon by the overseeing Roman authorities.  This account is unlikely to be true.

Again, you show your ignorance and shallowness of intellect.

. ACTS 26:8-11.

8. "Why should it be thought
a thing incredible with you,
that God should raise the dead?
9. "I verily thought with myself,
that I ought to do many things contrary
to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10. "Which thing I also did in Jerusalem:
and many of the Saints
did I shut up in prison,
having received authority
from the Chief Priests;
and when they were put to death,
I gave my voice against them.
11. "And I punished them oft
in every synagogue,
and compelled them to blaspheme;
and being exceedingly mad against them,
I persecuted them
even unto strange cities."

PAUL WAS GIVEN AUTHORITY OVER THE JEWS IN GENTILE CITIES.

. ACTS 22:3-5.

3. "I am verily a man which am a Jew,
born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia,
yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel,
and taught according to the perfect manner
of The Law of the Fathers,
and was zealous toward God,
as ye all are this day.
4. "And I persecuted this way
unto the death,
binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women.
5. "As also the High Priest
doth bear me witness,
and all the estate of the Elders:
from whom also I received
letters unto the Brethren,
and went to Damascus,
to bring them which were there
bound unto Jerusalem,
for to be punished."

YOU NEVER HEARD OF EXTRADITION?

The Jewish Authorities had authority over their own in other lands.

They submitted to this authority, or else were ostracized from Jewish Society.

. MATTHEW 10:21-22.

21. "And the brother
shall deliver up the brother to death,
and the father the child:
and the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them to be put to death.
22. "And ye shall be hated of all men
for my Name's sake:
but he that endureth to The End
shall be Saved."

THEY MUST HAVE BEEN TOLD BY THEIR TRUSTED BRETHREN TO STAY IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES, AND PREACH CHRIST THERE- KNOWING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.

. JOHN 9:18-22.

18. But the Jews did not believe concerning him,
that he had been blind,
and received his sight,
until they called the parents of him
that had received his sight.
19. And they asked them, saying,

"Is this your son, who ye say was born blind?
How then doth he now see?"

20. His parents answered them and said,

"We know that this is our son,
and that he was born blind:
21. "But by what means he now seeth,
we know not;
or who hath opened his eyes,
we know not: he is of age;
ask him:
he shall speak for himself."

22. These words spake his parents,
because they feared the Jews:
for the Jews had agreed already,
that if any man did confess that he was Christ,
he should be put out of the Synagogue.”

ALL OF THE CHRISTIANS PAUL CAPTURED HE FOUND BECAUSE THEY STILL WENT TO THEIR SYNAGOGUES.

This only happened because, as LUKE'S Book of Acts faithfully reports, THE DISCIPLES WERE NOT TEACHING YAHSHUA'S GOSPEL, EITHER!

Therefore, they got rid of Brethren who might have surpassed them in The Kingdom of God.

3)  The accounts of the conversion incidents, given in Acts and Galatians, are at variance with each other.

Who cares?

There is no possible way that Yahshua would have manifested to one who hated him, and had helped murder his Followers.

GOD DOES NOT REWARD WICKEDNESS.

. JOHN 14:21-27.

21. "He that hath my Commandments,
and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me
shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him,
and will manifest myself to him."
22. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
"Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us,
and not unto the World?"
23. Jesus answered and said unto him,
"If a man love me,
he will keep my Words:
and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him,
and make our abode with him.
24. "He that loveth me not
keepeth not my Sayings:
and The Word which ye hear is not mine,
but The Father's which sent me.
25. "These things have I spoken unto you,
being yet present with you.
26. "But the Comforter,
Which is The Holy Ghost,
Whom the Father will send in my Name,
He shall Teach you All Things,
and bring All Things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.
27. "Peace I leave with you,
my Peace I give unto you:
not as the World giveth,
give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid."

4)  After his conversion, how long was it before he meets the other apostles?  Pauls accounts are again at variance.

YAHSHUA SAID that the Pharisees were full of iniquity.

That should have to include LYING.

. MATTHEW 23:24-32.

24. "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26. "Thou blind Pharisee,
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also.
27. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones,
and of all uncleanness.
28. "Even so ye also outwardly appear Righteous unto men,
but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!
because ye build the tombs of the Prophets,
and garnish the sepulchres of the Righteous,
30. "And say,

'IF WE HAD BEEN IN THE DAYS OF OUR FATHERS,
WE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN PARTAKERS WITH THEM
IN THE BLOOD OF THE PROPHETS.'

31. "Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves,
that ye are the Children of them which killed the Prophets.
32. "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33. "Ye Serpents, ye Generation of Vipers,
how can ye escape The Damnation of Hell?"

5)   He himself is aware of the bad reputation he was causing amongst apostles and is surmoned to Jerusalem for a meeting.  He is at pains to say "I  tell no lie", inferring that he was being charge with lying and inventions.

Every time Paul says "I am not saying that..." he was saying that.

6) Informs his audience that they will see the coming of Jesus in their lifetime.

No, he did not.

He never says that once.

That a religion that has come to dominate the planet has relied on the manupulative mind of this impostor from Tarsus is an indictment to the state in intellectual thoughts at the inceptions of the movement.

No. The Religion was perfect.

The people who corrupted it did not follow it.

That is the easiest thing to demonstrate.