Contrast #15: honesty vs deceit … (09/30/18)
Seeing as how Jesus called the devil “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), openly warned his followers of “the yeast of the Pharisees” (see Matthew 16:11-12 – properly juxtaposed with Acts 23:6, Galatians 1:14, & Philippians 3:5) and other “false prophets” who will work to “deceive the elect” (see Matthew 24:24 – also Matthew 7:15-21, Matthew 23:1-7, Matthew 23:12, Matthew 24:3, Luke 6:26, Luke 14:11, Luke 18:14, & Revelation 2:2), and boldly stated that his own primary purpose was “to testify to the Truth” (John 18:37), it is crucial for any earnest student of the Scriptures (&/or any devout believer in Christ) to understand that – even though he frequently made claims to the contrary (a la Romans 9:1-3, 2 Corinthians 11:31-33, & Galatians 1:15-20 et al) – Paul was quite obviously a liar, and even openly boasted of being the same (see Romans 3:7, 2 Corinthians 12:16, & Philippians 1:18). As proof of this contention, please consider the following:
*Paul lied about being “entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles” in Galatians 2:7 after Peter had quite clearly and quite publicly laid proper claim to this same task (see Acts 15:7) …
*Paul clearly lied to James in Acts 21:18-26 about his well documented belief that the Law of Moses was no longer binding on Jews who “die daily” and are thus “crucified in Christ” (see 1 Corinthians 15:31 & Galatians 2:20 – also Romans 6:6-8, Romans 7:6, Romans 8:12-13, Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 6:14, & Philippians 3:8 et al) …
*Paul lied when he provoked dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees while being tried before Ananias and the rest of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem; knowingly & falsely proclaiming that he was being judged “concerning the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6-7), when in truth he was being judged as someone “who teaches everywhere against the people, against the Law, and against [the Temple]” (Acts 21:27-28) …
*Paul lied when he wrote to the Galatian Church and told them that the high council at Jerusalem only desired for them to “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10), when in fact Paul knew quite well that the same council had clearly decreed that Gentiles must fully abstain from four points of the Law – “from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from whatever has been strangled, and from blood” (see Acts 15:20-29) …
*Seeing as how the Jews in Jerusalem were already receiving direct testimony about Jesus from his actual disciples – from those who (unlike Paul) had actually lived and worked and served with Jesus during his ministry, Paul seemed to lie in Acts 22:17-21 when he claimed that Jesus had somehow personally told him to “get out of Jerusalem quickly, because [the Jews there] will not receive your testimony concerning me” …
*Paul lied in Acts 9:22-25 when he claims that his Damascus persecutors were “the Jews”, when in fact he admits in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 that it was actually “the governor under King Aretas” who was his primary persecutor at that time and place …
*Paul lied about when he met with the disciples after his revelation on the Road to Damascus (with Acts 9:20 stating that Paul preached in Damascus straight away thereafter and then went on to Jerusalem, and Galatians 1:16-17 claiming that Paul went first to Arabia for a time before then avoiding Jerusalem altogether and heading to Damascus instead)1 …
*Paul lied to King Agrippa about his conversion experience on the Road to Damascus, originally telling the Jews in Jerusalem that the spirit of Jesus told him to “Get up and go to Damascus, where you will be told everything that has been assigned for you to do” (Acts 22:10 – an account that generally harmonizes with Luke’s regaling of the same event in Acts 9), and then later telling Agrippa an obvious fabrication; claiming that Jesus had instead told him to “get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me … I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles – to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:16-18)
“For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the Law I became as one under the Law so that I might win those under the Law. To those outside the Law I became as one outside the Law so that I might win those outside the Law … I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.” ~ Paul of Tarsus (1 Corinthians 9:19-22)
“Now concerning the things which I write to you,
indeed, before God, I do not lie.”
~ Paul of Tarsus (Galatians 1:20)
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely,
but shall perform your oaths to the Lord’ and yet I say to you, do not swear at all,
neither by Heaven – for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth – for it is His footstool …
But rather let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ be ‘No’,
for anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:33-37)
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1Interestingly enough, there exists a document in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Q40266 – called The Damascus Document) which was written around the time of Paul’s espoused trip to Arabia. As it turns out, this parchment is an excommunication document that condemns an unidentified man – referred to therein as “the lying adversary, the lying spouter, the tongue, the scoffer” – who had rejected the Law before an entire congregation. Maybe this document refers to Paul, and maybe it doesn’t. Still, it adds a great deal of flavor to Acts 9:26-30, where Paul is shown to have great conflict with those in Jerusalem who “did not believe he was a disciple” and then “sent him away to Tarsus.”
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