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Is Paul the AntiChrist?

 

Anti’ could mean ‘against’ or ‘another’.  Anti-christ, could better be translated as ‘another christ’ or it could be translated 'against-christ'.  Jesus, the true Christ, came to call people to repentance, back to the keeping of God’s law.  Yet, Paul’s words are the catalyst that causes the world (Church) to become lawless.  If Paul is not the anti-christ, he got his message from an anti-christ - while he thought he was conversing with Jesus.

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Paul said he got his message from a bright light which claimed to be Jesus.  However, the message Paul shares in his letters is contrary to the message that Jesus gave us when he was on earth. 

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Paul said Satan can appear even as an 'angel of light' – and that’s what he said saw.   Jesus warned us the many false prophets would come claiming they are the Christ,  Paul’s ‘angel of light’ did the same.  Jesus said when he left this world, on his return, every eye would see him.  When he returned, according to Paul, only Paul’s eyes saw him.  Jesus said if someone says, ‘I saw the Christ’, don’t believe them.  Jesus said false prophets would come with signs and wonders, Paul said he did signs and wonders.  He claimed to be an apostle, even though the Book of Acts tells us to be an apostle one had to be with Jesus on his earthly ministry, Paul was not.  There were to be only 12 apostles, Paul would have been the 13th.  Paul was at odds with the teaching of the true apostles, who knew and walked with Jesus for 3 years.  Paul called them names, because he didn’t agree with the  theology they learned from Christ.

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Jesus told us to keep the Old Testament ‘law and prophets’, every jot and tittle, until heaven and earth pass away.  If you have ever asked a Christian why they don’t keep God’s law.  They will point to one of Paul’s many teachings; Paul is blunt in Eph 2:15, Col 2:14, 2Cor 3:11-17, Rom 6:4, 7:13 and Gal 3:19… The Law is abolished, done away with, we are not under the law but under grace, it was nailed to a tree, has faded away and was only ordained by angels who are not gods. Paul calls the Law; In 2 Col 2:14, “old covenant”, Gal 3:24-25, the law was a temporary tutor, Gal 5:1 “yoke of bondage”, Rom 10:4, “Christ is the end of the Law”, 2Cor 3:7, “law of death”, Gal 5:1, “entangles”, Col 2:14-17, “a shadow”, Rom 6:4, “not under the law”, Rom 3:27, “law of works”, Rom 4:15, “works wrath”, 2Cor 3:9, “ministration of condemnation”, Col 2:14, “wiped out”, Gal 3:19, 4:8-9, ”given by angels…who are not gods and are weak and beggarly celestial beings”.  (Even though the Bible clearly says that God, YHVH, Our Father, gave Moses the Ten Commandments, Paul twice said that they were given by angels – to negate their importance.  Paul’s point then is that the commandments are of little value simply coming from angels.) He said that the law was just a tutor to lead us to Christ, but now we have Christ we don’t need it. 

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Christians are taught that Paul came with a new teaching from Jesus, which will supersede what Jesus taught in the Gospels.   So it's very important to understand the order in which the New Testament books were written;  If we look to see order in which the New Testament books were written, we will see that Paul’s epistles were written first before the Gospels and many of the apostolic letters and that was long before the Book of the Revelation was written.  That is very significant.  For we see that after Paul wrote his 'lawless' epistles, the true apostles were not pleased with what they read or with the impact that Paul’s writing had on the people.  It was between 10 and 20 years after Paul wrote his epistles that the true apostles, seemingly in response to Paul, wrote their Gospels and their epistles, and Book of Revelation.  Much of what they wrote was in direct contradictions, or a correction, rebuttal, or a rebuke, to what Paul wrote. 

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Paul wrote that Jesus came only in the “likeness” or “appearance” of “sinful human flesh”, also Phil 2:7, “appeared to be a man”.  Paul calls Jesus a ‘life giving spirit’, 1 Corinthians 15:45, –but John wrote, that’s ‘not true’ Paul, he was totally human, we saw him and we touched him (1John 1:1-3) we lived with him for three years.  Paul wrote that the Law passed away, Matthew quoted Jesus as saying that the Law won’t pass away until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:17-9).  John wrote that Jesus said only those who keep the commandments of God will enter the new Jerusalem (Revelation 22:14). Paul said twice it was OK to eat meat sacrificed to idols (1Corth 8:4, 10:28), John records that Jesus said ‘No’ to that twice in the Book of Revelations (2:12, 2:20).  Paul said that works are not necessary, only an academic faith is needed to be saved. James, Jesus’ half-brother, said, ‘No Paul, works are needed, faith without works is dead’. Paul argues that we will be robed with Christ’s righteousness; Jesus in the Book of Revelation tells us that the ‘Bride’ prepares herself for the wedding, and her white linen robe is the “righteous acts of the saints”. Paul say that we inherit Jesus’ righteousness (Romans 3:21-22). And John tells us do not be deceived, he who does righteousness is righteous (1John 3:7). Paul tells us that we are ‘totally depraved’ therefore can’t overcome sin on our own, but Jesus calls on us to repent of our sins and choose righteousness.  Paul included predestination in his theology, as though we are not in charge of our destiny, yet the rest of the Scriptures clearly tell us that we have a free choice – we may choose eternal life or death. Paul said sin doesn’t stop us from receiving God’s saving grace since it comes by faith alone, but Jude 4 says that is turning the grace of God into a license to sin. Jesus said that only the 'righteous' would see the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:20). Paul never met Jesus, so he was either was ignorant of Jesus’ teachings or was a liar, or received his teaching from a false Christ.

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Paul's message is 100% contrary to Jesus' message...which one are you going to follow?  You do have to choose.  But remember this, Jesus said he is to be our only teacher, by keeping his words we will not see death, his words lead to eternal life, and by his words we will be judged.

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Peter (2Peter 3:16-17) said if understand Paul to be saying that we can live lawlessly and still be saved, we have misunderstood him to our own destruction. So even at Peter's time, people were understanding Paul to say we don't need to keep God's law, that has been going on for almost 2000 years.  To be fair to Paul, I have to say that Paul himself said a number of times told us in his epistles that we must keep the law of God - but then a number of times he made statements that are understood to say that we don't need to keep God's laws.  And perhaps there is an translation issue or a general misunderstanding with Paul's letters.  Maybe somebody changed his message?  But I caution people that we must know what Jesus taught and instructed us, and not stray from that, or compromise what he said.  If any of Paul's writings are in conflict, or understood to be in conflict with what Jesus said, Paul's message must be rejected.  

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The next question is; do we need Paul's epistles?  Jesus said it's by keeping his words we would be saved, his words are the words of eternal life, and by his words we will be judged.  Jesus said we are to go into the world and teach all that he said, not what Paul said.

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Don

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