In John 5:43, Jesus ostensibly warns his followers of a false prophet “coming in his own name.” Later, in the book of Acts, we see Paul doing just that – preaching under his taken name Paul instead of his given name Saul (starting with Acts 13:9). To be fair, Christian apologists have correctly pointed out that it was not uncommon for Jews of this region to have two names – one their Hebrew name (Saul) and another its Greek equivalent (Paul). They also note that the book of Acts was written by Luke, not Paul himself, and that Acts 13:9 simply states that Saul was “also known as Paul”, not that Paul himself actively changed his name from one to the other. That having been said, critical here is the fact that Jesus did not warn of a false prophet who changes his own name, but rather one who “comes in his own name” – or rather, a prophet who preaches under his own authority; something Paul does repeatedly throughout his ministry. Paul instructs the Corinthians to “be imitators of me” (1 Corinthians 4:16), he compliments the Thessalonians for becoming “imitators of us” (1 Thessalonians 1:6), he tells the Galatians that many others were “glorifying God in me” (Galatians 1:24), he informs the Romans both that God will judge others and that God is able to strengthen others “according to my gospel” (Romans 2:16 & Romans 16:25), and he compliments the Philippians in significant part “because you hold me in your heart” (Philippians 1:7).

 

Paul even has the gall to announce himself as an authentic apostle of Christ – doing so explicitly in 9 of the 13 biblical letters attributed to his pen. In his second letter to the Corinthians he even goes so far as to place himself on equal footing with “the most eminent apostles” – that is to say, the disciples who actually lived & served with Jesus Christ and who were actually appointed to their apostleship by Jesus himself (2 Corinthians 11:5-10). He even had the audacity in his letter to the Galatians to openly curse anyone professing “a gospel contrary to the one we proclaimed” (Galatians 1:8) – a direct reference to Peter, James, and John; true disciples of Christ who were in direct theological conflict with Paul at the time (see Galatians 2). Fittingly, of the 22 times in the Bible where Paul is referred to as an apostle, only twice are those referrals made by anyone other than himself – and both of those times the one doing the referring is Luke, the author of Acts and Paul’s traveling companion and personal press secretary (see Acts 14:4-14). Indeed, Paul is quite clearly far more focused on establishing his own honor and his own popularity than any of the other New Testament contributors, using the personal pronouns I, me, my, and mine over three times more than any of his scriptural rivals. Of course, as Jesus mentions in John 5:43, no true disciple or prophet would ever have to go to such lengths to convince others of their legitimacy In truth, Jesus himself noted that even if he alone bore witness to himself, then even his witness should be considered invalid as well (see John 5:31).

 

Filed under: Jesus & the Cult of Paul by Scaughdt