[Bible Comment] I recently came out of Mormonism and have been attending a Calvary Chapel church. When I kept hearing the accounts of Paul I noticed that they often contradicted the words of Jesus. This bothered me so I was doing more research. I am hyper-sensitive about getting deceived after being a Mormon for 30 years. I found that Paul had multiple accounts of his “first vision” and he often even contradicts himself (Similar to Joseph Smith). He calls himself an apostle, but there are no witnesses to his apostleship. He says he is getting all of his information not from the other apostles, but as direct revelation from God. Paul states that the son is revealing himself through Paul. Something seems really fishy to me. The parallels between Paul and Joseph Smith shock me…. They say that the entire bible is of the same value and that the words that Jesus spoke are no more important than the words that Paul spoke because it is all written by the power of God….What are your thoughts?
[Bible Answer] Greetings in Jesus’ name. To go to a Calvary Chapel church is to go to a congregation which distorts grace. That is not a spiritually healthy
environment to be in! Have you seen this about Chuck Smith? For your own good leave ASAP!!!!
Please tell me what seems like a contradiction about Paul’s conversion/salvation vision? Are you seeing a contradiction in the flawed KJV, which has various translational errors? Since Mormons are KJV onlyites, perhaps you were presented with that translation instead of more accurate ones.
Please know that Paul did NOT contradict Jesus. If someone said otherwise,
please get exact with Bible references. Paul taught Christians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16) and fully endorsed all of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16,17). How could that be if he contradicted Jesus? Furthermore, Paul was fully endorsed by other Apostles, including Peter (2 Pet. 3:15,16) and Barnabas (Acts 9:27). Were both Peter and Barnabas wrong about Paul? Was the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 deceived about allowing Paul to share his apostolic experiences and his teachings? In fact, it was Paul and Barnabas who brought the issue of “circumcision” to the leaders in Jerusalem, which resulted in that church council about salvation. If he was a false apostle, he would not have been recognized like he was. In fact, just the opposite occurred and they highly endorsed Paul (and Barnabas) with this:
So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul– men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 15:25,26)
Another weighty endorsement of Paul came through Ananias:
A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. “Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.’ (Acts22:12-15)
To say Paul was a false apostle is to deny that the Bible is God’s word, because Paul was inspired by God to write half of the New Testament books. Paul did NOT contradict Jesus. The council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) didn’t contradicted Jesus either! It came after the Jewish Temple was negated by Jesus’ death on the cross. Things changed after his redemptive death.
The similarity between Paul and Joseph Smith is as light to darkness. Paul was a true servant and Joseph Smith was a Bible-defined false prophet who made various false prophecies. Joseph Smith also stands condemned by Mormon Scripture! Mormonism uses Biblical terms but to them they mean something totally different than how the Bible uses them. There are NO significant similarities between the two. Please do NOT be deceived…. Remember Heb. 3:14.
