Some say Paul wasn’t a legitimate apostle as were “the twelve” that Jesus sent exclusively to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6) and it’s true so far as being an Apostle to Israel… Paul wasn’t. The qualification for replacing Judas are explicit as seen in Acts 1:21-23, and Paul would not qualify even if he was converted at that time.

Some even say Paul was a fraud. Can we defend Paul’s apostleship “to the Gentiles” and his epistles without applying Paul’s epistles, since the critics reject them?

Paul’s unique epistles put forth his “the gospel of the grace of God” for the Gentiles. These were attacked even during his ministry. So, we shouldn’t be surprised when people today condemn Paul’s epistles.

Peter, “the Apostle to the circumcision (Israel),” wrote of the importance of Paul’s epistles for the people of Israel in understanding why the delay in the Messiah’s coming to set up His kingdom on earth.

“And account that the longsuffering (the delay) of our Lord (in His 2^nd coming) is (opportunity for) salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; ¹⁶As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest (twist), as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (2Pet 3:15-16)

The Peter called Paul our “beloved brother,” identifying Paul’s writings as “Scripture.” So, if Paul were a false prophet, then it stands to reason then that Peter too would have been a false prophet for endorsing him! Are we so brazen as to castigate and destroy Peter’s apostleship, as well? I think not!

Paul was not the deceptive one. Those who pervert Paul’s epistles and His “gospel of the grace of God,” slandering him, Peter says they are the deceptive ones! Peter says religious people in his day were “wresting” (twisting, or perverting) the “scriptures,” including Paul’s epistles. Peter said they were corrupting Paul’s epistles, and ALL the word of God, to suit their own religious biases and religious traditions. What better example of corrupting “the word of God” could there be than a blatant denial and outright rejection of Paul’s thirteen epistles, roughly half, of the so-called “New Testament”?

Paul Was Falsely Accused of Lying In His Own Day:

We shouldn’t be surprised to hear people today denying Paul’s testimony. There is a reference in the Bible to Paul being “slanderously reported” (Rom. 3:8). Individuals were attempting to discredit Paul by misquoting and misrepresenting him. Just as some today call Paul a fraud and a liar, so they did in his day while Paul was still ministering, 2,000 ago. Satan never quits trying to stop God’s message of the grace of the cross!

Four times Paul wrote, “I lie not,” as seen below. Let’s briefly survey those four instances where Paul denied lying. We just may encounter him answering charges that people still spew against him today.

1. Romans 9:1-2: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, ²That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” If you read the preceding verses and then chapters 9-11, you can see how Paul affirms his love for the nation Israel. He was wrongly accused of hating Israel. Yes, he indicted them for killing their Messiah and he preached that Israel had “fallen” before God (cf. Rom. 11:10-11, 25). Nevertheless, the cross was part of the truth that Jesus Christ had sent him to proclaim, and he did it boldly. Israel had certainly conspired against and murdered the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, Paul knew it firsthand. As Saul of Tarsus, he himself had led the Jews in that rebellion against Jesus and His Jewish followers (cf. Acts 7:57-58; 8:1-4; 9:1-6,13-14; 22:4, 8; 26:9-11; Gal. 1:12, 23; 1 Tim. 1:13). Now, as God’s “apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul was also telling lost Israel to hearken to God’s Word spoken through him; if they believe into Jesus Christ and His finished cross-work, they too will be saved from their sins.
2. 2 Corinthians 11:31: “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.” In the context of this verse we find Paul’s immense suffering for the sake of the ministry that the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Lord Jesus Christ had given him. Paul endured many unspeakable beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonments, deprivations, and so on (verses 22-33). He had often been accused of being a “nobody,” someone not worthy of being honored as an apostle (see 2 Cor. 4). The numerous trials Paul was willing to go through for the sake of “the Church, the Body of Christ” demonstrates that he was a very faithful servant of Jesus Christ (cf. 2Cor 1:8-10). In fact, he was more of a servant of Christ than those who were criticizing him! No fraudulent person would have stood to endure that much mistreatment. None of the anti-Paul people today within and without Christendom could endure that much!
3. Galatians 1:20: “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.” People in Paul’s day accused him of continuing the work of James, Peter, and John, much as most od today. They denied Paul’s UNIQUE ministry, apostleship, and doctrine. In Gal. 1:1-2:21 Paul explains how his ministry is unique, he was not ordained or taught by Israel’s 12 apostles, he preached the different gospel message, of pure grace rather than “the Law” of “the gospel of the Kingdom” that the 12 were instructed by Jesus to preach to Israel (cf. Matt 10:5-6). Paul preached how “the Church, the Body of Christ” was “under grace,” separate and distinct from Israel and her Law program.

Today many people call Paul a liar about the same matters! They want to make everything in the Bible one all-inclusive gospel, but it just does not work. This idea only fosters confusion and contradiction. Just compare James words in James 2:14, 24, 26 with Paul’s Ephesians 2:8-9. James requires works and faith for salvation while Paul says salvation is “not of works.” If they want to abandon such Bible confusion, they had better start recognizing the Bible’s distinctions by studying the Bible Dispensationally. Only then do we see the God ordained differences between that which applies to Israel under “the Law” and that which applies to “the body of Christ” today, under grace.

4. 1 Timothy 2:7: “Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity (truth).” Again, this delineates Paul’s special ministry (vs 3-7). Paul was sent to be the “due-time testifier” of Jesus Christ’s finished cross-work. Now, salvation through Calvary was available to “all men” directly, not through Israel (cf. Isa. 53:8; Mat. 20:28). This was part of Paul’s special commission from the Lord Jesus. The Judaistic religious system of the day had called Paul a liar, hoping to draw his disciples to them. The Lord Jesus Christ, post-ascension, had sent Paul to “Gentiles” and Paul was exercising his divinely-ordained apostleship. He had not taken the task upon himself and no man had appointed him. It was God’s will alone (Gal. 1:1), and God’s commandment (1Tim. 1:1) to make Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ… as “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13).

Now, let’s say for the sake of argument, that Paul was a false prophet and false teacher and we’ll ignore everything we just pointed out, since Paul’s epistles are supposedly false. There are a number of issues that we now need to address if Paul’s ministry and epistles don’t belong in the Bible. The anti-Paul people need to answer these questions.

• How else would we explain the current fallen spiritual condition of the state of Israel and the world without Paul’s epistles? Where else can we go in the Bible to find the explanation for Israel’s current fallen status before God, as seen in Paul’s Rom. 11:10-11, 25?

If we remove from the Bible Paul’s epistles and all passages from the book of Acts that describe Paul’s ministry, where in the Bible do we find ourselves as Gentiles Today?

Now recall that apart from Paul’s ministry to the Gentile “body of Christ,” Israel WAS preeminent in God’s dealings with mankind (cf. Exo 19:5-6). But today we can clearly see from Romans 11:10-11 that Israel is fallen, secular, and set aside by God (cf. Rom 11:25). Today there’s still no earthly kingdom of Christ, there is still; 1) sin in the world, 2) God’s wrath has not yet fallen on sinful mankind, 3) there is still sickness and disease, and Satan is still loose.

• How do we explain these facts apart from the words of Paul’s epistles? We can’t!

Just consider for example the promise of Jeremiah 3:17 (below), with its parallel passages.

“At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations (the Gentiles) shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” Here are parallel passages:

“And he [Messiah, Jesus Christ] shall judge among the nations (the Gentiles), and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)

“Yea, many people and strong nations (the Gentiles) shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD. ²³Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations (the Gentiles), even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” (Zech. 8:22-23)

These Scriptures all describe Israel and her future program coming to fruition in the Kingdom. So let’s consider these questions. When in recent history was the LORD’S throne in Jerusalem as Jer. 3:17 predicted? When did all “nations (the Gentiles)” go to Jerusalem to see the LORD sitting on His throne as Jer. 3:17 says? When did Messiah ever rule over all “nations (the Gentiles)” in a kingdom where there was no war, as Isa. 2:4 prophesied? Was there ever a time when every Jew knew the LORD and led 10 Gentile men to Jerusalem to personally see the LORD; but they will as we see in Zech. 8:22-23?

Well, the answer to all of these questions is, “NEVER!” None of these things has ever yet happened, even though they are prophecies written some 2,500 to 2,700 years ago. So, without Paul’s words we are forced to conclude one of the following three possible explanations:

1. Perhaps those O.T. prophecies concerning the coming restored Davidic Kingdom on earth will never come to pass because they were flat-out lies. We would have to toss out these Scriptures as we already did to Paul’s epistles! The Bible believer will automatically rule out this explanation, for the Bible contains no lies. Yet of course, we know that all of “the Word of God” is true (cf. Psa. 119:160; Prov. 30:5-6) because God “cannot lie” (cf. Tit. 1:2; Heb. 6:18). After all, the Holy Bible is “the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).

2. Or, perhaps as some say those verses are not literal but spiritual and have already come to pass in some invisible way. This explanation is also erroneous and foolish; for if the Bible is only spiritual and not literal, and it means something other than what it says, we would never get anything coherent out of the Bible text. Nothing would be certain in Scripture, not even plain and simple words, only because they might have some other cryptic meaning. We would have to throw out some more Scripture if this were the case! There would be no literal sinless conception of Christ in a virgin, no literal blood atonement of Christ, no literal resurrection and literal ascension of Christ, and so on.

3. Or, as I believe, those kingdom prophecies have simply been ‘DELAYED’ as Paul says they are, they are still awaiting fulfillment. Of all these, the Bible believer must consider this the most plausible. It is only according to the Apostle Paul’s epistles, the Bible books of Romans through Philemon, that we can see that the fulfillment of Israel’s prophetic program is delayed. Israel’s program has been momentarily paused... while God brought a new Apostle and new gospel for the Gentiles.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11:25)

You cannot learn about the delay in prophecy being fulfilled in the books of prophecy. Only Paul’s epistles explain “the mystery (secret),” as to why prophecy is delayed. Nowhere in the Bible, outside of Paul’s ministry, explains the delay in prophecy’s fulfillment. We need something more than the prophetic Bible books, we need the Holy Spirit’s “revelation of the mystery (secret)” (Rom. 16:25), as given to Paul and found only in the writings penned through the Apostle Paul!

Again, for argument’s sake, we will suppose that people are correct in calling the Apostle Paul a false prophet. If that’s true, then we can eliminate possibility #3, leaving only explanations #1 and #2 (above). So, if Paul is “false” as his critic’s claim, then they in fact are just as much false as they claim he is, for they are alleging: 1.) Israel’s prophecies were lies all along, and/or 2.) the Bible does not mean what it says. In reality, those who claim Paul is a false prophet are actually the ones lying. They would cause us to question the validity of Israel’s Scriptures, and all the Bible, not just Paul’s epistles.

They are on dangerous ground, but let’s proceed to outline their other major erroneous beliefs!

“Scoffers” Are Mentioned in Peter’s Final Epistle (2Peter 3:3):

“ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: ³ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, ⁴And saying, Where is the Promise of His Coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2Peter 3:2-4)

Then Peter hearkens back to the days of Noah when God’s judgment came upon sinful mankind. The Great Flood of Noah’s Day was just a preview of the divine wrath to come during the future seven-year Tribulation and subsequent Second Coming of Jesus Christ: “For this they [the scoffers] willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:” (2Peter 3:5-6)

If you say that Paul was a false prophet, then you have placed yourself on the same level as the Bible scoffers in Peter’s final epistle. You will have made a gross error.

Surveying the books of Matthew through John, as well as the early Acts period, you see how God’s apostles and prophets warned about impending judgment, particularly wrath at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Mat. 3:7-12; 13:38-42; Acts 2:34-36; 3:19-23; et cetera). This judgment was spoken of as being very close, as in coming within the lifetimes of their audience (cf. Heb. 10:25-31; James 5:9; 1Peter 1:7, 13; 4:7; 1 Jn. 3:2; Rev. 22:7,12,20; et cetera).

Yet, that judgment has never yet come. In fact, it has yet to come, some 20 centuries after the apostles wrote about it! Wickedness still abounds in the world. The prophesied “wrath of God” has yet to appear. So, what is going on?

If we look at 2 Peter 1:16, we observe Peter arguing: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

We infer from this that Peter and his apostolic associates are all being accused of following “cunningly devised fables” about the Lord’s return. In other words, they have been preaching for many years about God’s judgment against sin, and yet, that judgment has not come. At the time of Peter’s writing, Jesus Christ had been gone from Earth for over 60 years, and that wrath had yet to fall. The “scoffers” were capitalizing on this delay, saying the wrath was never coming at all. They believe the postponement (that Paul speaks of) proves the apostles are preaching lies, religious fiction, just trying to “scare them into righteous living.” Sound familiar? The ‘Preterist’ belief is that the wrath past in 70AD.

What is God the Holy Spirit’s response to the scoffers/doubters/mockers in the first century A.D.? Peter answers this here in 2 Peter 3:7-9:

“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. ⁸But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering (patient) to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Peter spoke of that “flaming fire judgment” we discussed earlier, judgment is coming, but God has delayed it in order to give more opportunity for some to be saved. The key toward explaining the delay in judgment is in v9 (above), then in vs 15-16 Peter says where he got the information; it was from Paul:

“And account that the longsuffering (patient delay) of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother PAUL also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; ¹⁶ As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest (twist), as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

God’s delay in judgment is actually time for His continued offering of salvation to all people of all nations today “by grace through faith” in Christ alone, through His finished cross-work. We find that the grace Gospel message for all nations without distinction today is only in Paul’s epistles. Rather than “wrath and war” (prophecy concerning Israel), God’s message to the “nations (Gentiles)” is one of “grace and peace” (as seen in the mystery). We find explanation of the delay in prophecy, only in Paul’s epistles. Peter admitted that prophecy’s wrath is delayed so that more people could be saved from it. The way they can be rescued during the delay is to be saved according to Paul’s “revelation of the mystery (secret)” program of grace for “the Body of Christ” today.

If you remove Paul’s epistles, you also remove God’s explanation for the delay of His wrath. In doing so, you make the Word of God vulnerable to scoffing. Do you really want to do that? If you do not want people to scoff at the Bible, leave Paul’s epistles where they are and just believe them!

Without Paul’s Epistles, How Do We “Gentiles” Benefit from Calvary?

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; ⁴Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; ⁶Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. ⁷Whereunto I (Paul) am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity (truth).” (1Timothy 2:3-7)

As we briefly mentioned earlier, in 1 Timothy 2:3-7, God’s invitation to all the world is to come by faith in Jesus’s finished cross-work, which was not declared anywhere… until Paul’s ministry.

Per Jesus’ instruction, Peter and the other apostles were to minister to Israel first, convert all of Israel first, and then—and Only Then—would redeemed Israel minister to the Gentiles in accord with Gen. 12:1-3; Isa. 60:1-3; 61:6; Zech. 8:20-23; 12:7; Mat. 28:19-20; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 1:8; etc.

Yet, as we’ve pointed out, there’s no redeemed national Israel today. There is no Jewish earthly kingdom able to evangelize Gentiles today. But, we Gentiles are saved today unto eternal life. All believing Gentiles today have opportunity to have access to Father God “in Christ.”

How is it that can we as Gentiles fellowship with Israel’s God?

Did a Jewish priest come and preach any Gospel message to us? No! Yes, the prophetic Scriptures say that’s how Gentile salvation will one day occur in the Millennial Kingdom age. So, if there was no such Jewish priest sent to us, then how can we be sure we even have eternal life and a home in heaven right now? What spiritual rights do we have as Gentiles, seeing as God’s chief nation to bless Gentiles (Israel) is fallen (Rom. 11:10-11) and blinded (Rom. 11:13) and not yet fully in her homeland?

The answer is that today there’s currently a different method of God reaching Gentiles than what prophecy described. Paul’s epistles are the only part of the Bible that describes how God reaches Gentiles apart from Israel and her prophetic program, her Davidic kingdom, and so on.

Removing Paul’s epistles would destroy the whole Bible’s clarity that comes by Paul interpreting it. For those of us who simply believe the Bible, we note the following two verses, written by Paul:

“If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I (Paul) write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant” (1Cor. 14:37-38).

There are some professing Christians, who refuse to acknowledge the Lord’s instructions spoken to them through the Apostle Paul. Paul anticipated there were such people in Corinth and you can read about them in 2 Cor. chapters 10-13. In fact, the last thing Paul wrote contained this verse: “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes” (2 Tim. 1:15).

Sadly, the Church at large and “the Body of Christ” today have largely abandoned Paul’s ministry and message of the mystery gospel Jesus gave Him for us, just as they did 2,000 years ago.

If any Christian friend you share with still denies all these verses, here is what you may want to do. Any further discussion on the matter with him would be a waste of time. By outright denying Paul as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13), your friend exhibits deep disrespect and hatred toward a large portion of the Bible. Frankly, there is nothing else to be said to him at that point. Just pray for him, because if he doesn’t accept Paul as legitimate, then he does not accept Paul’s Grace Gospel for his salvation. If he does not accept Paul’s Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, then he has not accepted Jesus Christ’s finished cross-work as sufficient payment for his sins… for Paul is the one to whom these truths were first revealed by Jesus from heaven (cf., Gal 1:12). Such a one is lost, dead in his trespasses and sins, unable to see the truth, so pray for his salvation. We can do no more.

When someone says Paul “started another Gospel to disrupt the Gospel of the Kingdom,” they are ignorant of the truth and do not realize that without Paul’s Gospel there is no way to explain the delay in the fulfillment of the Gospel of the Kingdom on earth as promised to Israel. Israel has been waiting 2,000 years for her Davidic kingdom to be restored. She is not yet the head of the nations (Gentiles) as prophecy predicted. She has never yet been the head of the nations or evangelized the Gentiles.

Yet, if the prophetic Scriptures are literal, and we believe they are, then the only logical conclusion is Israel’s prophecy program is ‘delayed,’ as Paul explains for us.

We don’t need Paul’s epistles to tell us that Satan is ruling today instead of God ruling through Israel. We can see that Israel today is secular and lacking her whole land today, with Gentiles dividing and wanting her Promised Land. We see the Gentiles oppressing Israel today, instead of God having already destroyed Israel’s enemies. So, the content of Paul’s epistles is confirmed in the current world events.

Thankfully, we see that salvation has come to the Gentiles without Israel, without her earthly kingdom, without her Christ/Messiah/King ruling in Zion, without her enjoying the Promised Land, et cetera. And this is exactly what Paul’s epistles say. Paul is thus proven to be a legitimate apostle of the God of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, explaining;  

“I say then…through their (Israel’s) fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” (Romans 11:11 (KJV)

Had Jesus Christ not appeared to Paul and given him multiple special “revelations” (2Cor. 12:1, 7), we would be without explanation and forced to believe everything in the Old Testament was either non-literal or a lie. To remove Paul’s epistles from the Bible, would destroy not just Christianity but the whole Bible canon!

If Paul’s Epistles Are Omitted, That Means…

1. You will lose Paul’s thirteen epistles, Romans through Philemon.
2. You must also remove the books of Acts and Luke because Luke was Paul’s closest companion. If Paul was dishonest, Luke was also dishonest for consistently portraying Paul as a legitimate Apostle of Jesus Christ.
3. You will also lose Peter’s second epistle. After all, Peter endorsed Paul as a legitimate apostle and “beloved brother”—hardly the language if Paul were a false prophet!
4. You must remove the book of Mark from your Bible as well, seeing as to John Mark had contact with Paul throughout Paul’s ministry (Acts 12:25; 2 Timothy 4:11).

Overall then, by removing Paul from your Bible you’ve gutted the so-called New Testament, removing over 60% of it!