Destroying Christianity: The Arbitrary Application of Paul

*All scriptural quotes are derived from the New King James Version of the Bible*

Before you begin reading anything else, please note the following, internalize it, and spread the Word: Jesus Christ cannot be defeated, because He has already won. So, with that said, can Christianity be defeated? No. Christianity will remain eternal because those who put their trust and full faith in the Salvation of Jesus Christ will forever remain with God eternally. The gift we receive through Christ’s sacrifice is eternal life. Christianity – i.e., the fundamental belief in Jesus Christ as Messiah – is consequently incapable of defeat.

To be sure, we know that the community of professed Christians will shrink through tribulations that will test the boundaries of our commitment. Like Peter shortly after the arrest of Jesus Christ, many will deny knowing Him at a time of momentary human failure. Many will not. The latter group are called “martyrs.” Their blood runs throughout the world today, as various groups target their extinction for taking the unapologetic position that our Triune God so loved the world that He manifested in the flesh, as the Son, suffered, died, was buried, and resurrected – emerging as our eternal King. The blood of Jesus washed away the sins of those who call out His name and confide their need for redemption through Him. Rest assured; Jesus will have his just vengeance on those wolves who kill his sheep. But what of those wolves who lurk amongst the sheep, cloaked in sheepskins, encouraging the flock to run into the mouths of other wolves? It is time to explore the cleverest sheepskin of all – the arbitrary application of Paul within Christian churches.

It is my belief that the selective use of Paul, or in some cases, the complete elimination of Paul’s epistles, leads to a church’s eventual collapse. They may gain seats and donations temporary, but the congregation will eventually find itself spiritually void and, ultimately, it will either lose its congregants to other churches or Christianity itself. Why? Whereas the first four books of the New Testament – the Gospels – are critical to understanding Jesus Christ Himself, the epistles of Paul add the framework within which worship and the faith are empowered to fully be realized and blossom. In essence, the Gospels are the plant, the epistles are the pot – in which Paul’s epistles are arguably the most profound because of their direct correlation to the management of church affairs and Christian community. Ignore those Godly messages delivered through Paul’s pen at the peril of the church itself. Doing so is an attempt at destroying Christianity.

There are clear messages of God to His people manifested in the Word that are unmistakable when you truly open your heart to Christ. The Gospels are a record of the ministry of Jesus Christ on earth. The fifth book – Acts – is in many ways an extension of the Gospel of Luke, providing the Christian an understanding of the ministry of Jesus Christ during the immediate aftermath of the Resurrection. Acts provides an understanding of Jesus’ continued ministry on earth, through the Apostles, including the introduction of Paul. I do not believe there is any dispute as to my understanding of those first five books of the New Testament. What comes next, however, is where churches afflicted by modernity begin to question.

Paul wrote thirteen letters to the various churches throughout the Greco-Roman world. Whereas other epistles were written by James, Peter, John, and Jude, Paul’s are unique in that they provide instructions and guidance to various churches undergoing practical challenges at a very early and potentially fragile time for Christianity. In effect, Peter is encouraging the church to remain faithful and hopeful; Paul does that too, but he also focuses on very specific challenges among the newly formed congregations.

The challenges Paul addressed ranged a gamut of issues that modern churches undoubtedly face today. From the acceptance of homosexuality to adultery to “gender equality” – Paul’s world was full of dangerous traps for the new Christians to whom he ministered. As such, probably more than at any other time in the history of the Christian faith, Paul’s teachings are more important today than ever before. They are instructions to pastors, ministers, and ordinary Christians regarding that which they may face within their own churches.

The pagan Greco-Roman world was inundated with degenerate and sinful behaviors. The new churches in places like Corinth or Thessalonica were surrounded by activities that may not have been as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah but were pretty close. Worse, many of the pagan rituals of the era involved sexual depravity that ran directly contrary to the teachings of Christianity. New adherents to the faith were confused. They had come from religious environments that either indulged the desires of the flesh or, if they were Hebrews, found themselves hogtied by Mosaic law. In essence, Paul’s ministry required a careful balancing act. It was one that recognized the sanctity of God’s Word and a recognition as to that which is sin (Hebrews living amongst pagans) and teaching others not only the definition of sin itself, but the deleterious impact of sin on the church.

Whereas we see in the Book of Acts that Paul’s ministry is relegated to the Gentiles, he is dealing with churches that were undoubtedly blended communities converging beliefs from various sectors of the Roman Empire – Hebrew and Gentile.  The very beginning of his letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1:10, explicitly addresses this issue: “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Modern pastors recognize when divisions can potentially destroy a church from within. This was likely made worse by contests amongst Jews and those new to the Word.

Paul’s epistles share a theme that continues to instruct and attempt to address real issues among the inexperienced Christians. 1 Corinthians 8 warns of idols – a likely issue among the new pagan converts, but not necessarily one by which the Hebrews would have been immune as evidenced in the various admonishments we witness in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. Whereas food derived from idol offerings is a highly unlikely challenge for modern Christians, it is yet an example of the issues I laid out relative to the newly converged community of believers. In modern times, one can see the potential for the corruption of the congregation by means of financial support to a church from a source that is antithetical to God. A mobster or drug dealer, for instance, worshiping money and using his financial resources to support a church could be viewed as eating from an unclean source.

However, less abstract and more concrete positions exist within the various writings of Paul that I believe, when dismissed or selectively applied, causes greater consequences than the receipt of inappropriate gains. When churches choose to accept one position of Paul’s – for example, his admonishment of lust in First Thessalonians – and yet ignore another position – such as divisive gossip warned in Galatians 5 – this creates an unclear message to the congregation. It essentially empowers the congregation to pick and choose behaviors based on their personal proclivities, not Biblical truths. One issue that stands out more profoundly as an issue of modern churches, however, is sexuality and gender relations.

Several passages of epistles directly address male-female relations. Let me make it abundantly clear: men and women are NOT equal. God did not make us equal, at all. We have very different functions within the God gifted spousal relationship. We each bring important functions to the family dynamic. God made us different so as to ensure that we are complementary of one another in a union prescribed by God. The notion of “women’s equality” is by definition a Satanic canard.

First, Christians know that God has distinct abilities for males and females, undermining the notion of equality. I am a man; I cannot carry a baby to term and deliver that baby as God intended the baby to be carried and delivered. I cannot feed that baby from my breast. As a father, that does not make me less in the parental relationship. God’s Fifth Commandment is to “Honor thy Father and thy Mother” (Exodus 20:12). God does not say, “honor thy mother; ignore the man.” God purposely sees us as intertwined and thus, blessed partners.

Second, Christians know that simply because male dominion over the family – Male Head of Household – is both prescribed by God Himself, Genesis 3:16, and reminded by Paul in several passages, we are not to abuse that dynamic. This is explicitly stated in Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” It does not get much clearer than that. Men are to love their wives, protect them, provide for them, care for the woman in their charge… and vice versa. Women are to engage in a reciprocal relationship with their husbands. I do not need to see my wife as an “equal” simply to love her. As a Christian, the Holy Spirit working within me drives me to be the good husband to her as Christ is the eternally good husband to the church.

In 1 Timothy 2:11-12, we read that which Paul reminds the church as it pertains to this male-female dynamic: “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” This is reiterated in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.” Breaking down these passages, one might assume that Paul was telling women to “sit down and shut up.” Not at all.

We know that Paul wants women to minister, at a minimum, to one another and to children, as we read in Titus 2:3-5: “The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things – that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” So, what is Paul saying to women? Paul is saying that women have a natural role in the development of Godly churches through cultivating the virtues of fellow Christian women – especially younger ones – while remaining the example of virtuous Christian women who submit to their husbands as God commands.

If we extrapolate this out more thoroughly, we see that women are never to lead or be senior pastors. By pastor, I mean the titular head of a given congregation. Pastor derives from the Latin verb “pascere” – lead to pasture – or more succinctly, to be a shepherd. There can be many shepherds tending to a flock, especially a large flock, but there will always be one senior shepherd or head pastor. Thus, it is okay to have multiple “pastors” as a title for the leaders of various ministries, but the senior pastor at the head of the church must by a male for important reasons. This can never be a woman, nor for that matter, can it be a co-shared role of equal male-female partners. There must be one male pastor at the top of the church.

When we read 1 Timothy 3:1-6, Paul begins: “This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, [c]not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);” Paul does not mince words. Bishops – used in the sense that we may coin “pastors” – are to be husbands. Deacons – again, a term used effectively for assistant pastors – are also to be husbands (1 Timothy 3:12). If women are not to have authority over the men in the church (1 Timothy 2:12), and pastors are to be husbands, then naturally women cannot be pastors. A church that employs female senior pastors (the leader of a church) is, by definition, in contravention with the Word of God by virtue of the instructions of Paul. But why is this a problem?

Contrary to modern theologians who transpose popular 21^st century concepts upon Biblical truths, Christianity is inherently patriarchal. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all inherently male. Adam was created in God’s image – a male. God manifested Himself as a male – Jesus Christ. The Bible refers to God as the Lord – a male title. Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34). Thus, Paul is not merely recommending male heads of the church to satiate some inherently anachronistic need for male leadership during a time in which women were second class citizens. In fact, women priestesses were commonplace in the Greco-Roman world. Many other “churches” were led by women. Replacing “husband” with lesbian “wife” does not fit the actual description of the Word of God as conveyed through the writings of Paul. Rather, Paul is making a distinction for Christianity – a male-led faith.

More importantly, the symbolism is critical. Just as God leads the world… just as Christ is the King… so, too, must good men of moral virtue be seen leading the physical church. Those men, married to one wife, symbolize Jesus the Bridegroom married to one people – Christians. This is an eternal representation of God’s holy church. Any church that betrays that critical messaging and symbolism effectively places the Word into question.

If you can pick and choose that which you like from Paul, what else is up for grabs? Quite a bit. The more we treat the letters of Paul as an à la carte buffet versus a full meal, the more we invite other messaging to erode the faith and the faithful. This has critical downstream consequences.

For example, the church that accepts homosexuality, homosexual couples, or performs homosexual marriages is one that invites the enemy within the congregation through the normalization of sin. This is more than the oft misquoted mantra “hate the sin, not the sinner.” We are all sinners and sin will continue to resonate amongst us. Christians, however, do not celebrate the sin. The Holy Spirit within them compels remorse. If we sin – which surely we will do – Christ has paid for that sin. But Jesus’ sacrifice is not a trifle gift. It is not a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from Monopoly. When we offend God, we are sorry we did so. We know we will do so again, but we do not simply shrug our shoulders. Because Christians love God, they seek to do better the next time they are tested by the enemy – much like a child will do his best not to offend or disappoint his father.

Accepting sinful sexual immorality is different from inviting the sinner to enter the congregation, repent, and change his or her ways. I would gladly invite the bank robber to join the congregation as a means to introduce him to Jesus Christ. I would not tell him that bank robbery is okay. I certainly would not place a “bank robbery” flag outside of my church, lending tacit approval of bank robbery. By no means would I place a bank robber at the head of the church if that bank robber continued to rob banks. Why, therefore, would any church do the same for someone who continues to engage in other sinful behaviors while doing nothing to stop from doing so?

It is easier to take a callous position, however, when churches dismiss the teachings of Paul – in whole or in part. Female lead pastors or co-pastors (i.e., husband and wife teams at the very top of the church) send a clear message: maybe Paul is not right. The acceptance or endorsement of LGBT activities sends a clear message: maybe Paul’s messages are not as important. The devaluation of Paul ultimately leads to a final negative conclusion: if the epistles of Paul are considered a part of the total Word of God – and more importantly, the New Covenant Word of God – and churches are free to ignore his instructions to the faithful, does that not mean other parts of the Word of God are wrong or can be ignored, as well?

If I can ignore Paul’s instructions to the women of a congregation, can I not also ignore the warnings of John relative to The Revelation? If I can ignore Paul’s instructions as it pertains to the characteristics of a bishop, can I also assume that John 3:18 might be wrong, too?  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. If Paul is sometimes wrong, is it possible that another Apostle, John, misinterpreted the only means to attain eternal life? The unraveling of Paul is like a thread that pulls apart the seams of an entire dress.

When a few things are undermined, the entire work is undermined. You either have the truth – in whole – or none at all. “Half-truth” is merely a nice way of calling something a “lie.” What is the origin of lies? Jesus tells us in John 8:44 that Satan is the origin. Addressing the Pharisees, Christ says: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Consequently, if you open the Bible up to manipulation by undermining the truthfulness of the very Word itself, you are inviting Satan to replace Christ as the head of the congregation – regardless as to the heartfelt intentions of the ministry. Sometimes your sheep need to get dragged back, whether they like it or not. Sheep allowed to walk off on their own eventually die.

For those who question my logic, please take the time to look at churches and denominations who either selectively or entirely dismiss Paul. You will see they are all in some form of decline. The Presbyterian USA Church, which introduced female and/or homosexual pastors, is in decline. The United Methodist Church did the same thing and reaped the same results. Anglican and Episcopalian churches – like their Presbyterian and Methodist counterparts – employed the same dismissal of Paul with the same results.

Even the Roman Catholic Church, buoyed by mass Catholic immigration into the United States and larger families among the adherents is in decline. Roman Catholics continue to ignore the requirement of marriage for church leadership that Paul sets out. Correspondingly, the Orthodox Catholic faith, in which priests get married, is enjoying an expansion. Globally, Christianity remains the largest growing faith despite attacks by the faithless and the decline of traditional Protestant and Catholic denominations. This growth is led by Orthodox faiths in Eastern Europe and spirit-led, Godly pastors who use Paul’s teachings as a basis for church teachings.

In sum, if you – the Christian – discard the writings of Paul, you open up the Word to be abandoned at will. The truth of Jesus Christ is that He is the sole source of our Eternal Salvation. He requires nothing from us, beyond an open heart willing to fully absorb the grace He provides to us freely. In turn, Christians are asked to walk the path of righteousness – not as a condition of salvation, but a manifestation of our changed persona. Paul teaches Christians what that changed persona means. Undermining those teachings destabilizes the Christian and in so doing, opens them up to Satanic intrusion. If you wish to truly take your commitment to developing a Christian flock more seriously, take Paul seriously, as well.