Paul: Our articles

Is Paul is a liar?

Re 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

Y’shua (Jesus) addressed the church at Ephesus warning of people claiming to be apostles, yet identified by the faithful as liars (Revelation 2:2).

Does the Bible itself identify the liars? Is it possible that false apostles are named in the Scripture, and if so, is there evidence of at least one false apostle being a liar?

Other than the Twelve apostles, only Paul and Barnabas are called apostles (Acts 14:14). Paul left writings to examine and specifically claimed to be an apostle of Jesus Christ in the introduction of nine of his epistles, including Ephesians (Ephesians 1:1). Along with his claim as apostle, Paul also embraced for “us” the messianic role of being a light to the Gentiles (Acts 13:47, compare Isaiah 49:6).

Not only is Paul unique in claiming to be an apostle, he is unique in claiming that he was not lying. Is it possible that Paul is lying, even when he assures us he isn’t? Paul suggests that all men are liars (Romans 3:4). Using Paul’s own logic, it is important that Paul’s message be examined for evidence that he is a liar.

Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

The four passages in which Paul claims not to be lying are printed out below in context.

Rom 9:1-2 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

2Co 11:1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in [my] folly: and indeed bear with me.
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].
2Co 11:5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
2Co 11:6 But though [I be] rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
2Co 11:7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
2Co 11:8 I robbed other churches, taking wages [of them], to do you service.
2Co 11:9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all [things] I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and [so] will I keep [myself].
2Co 11:10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
2Co 11:11 Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.
2Co 11:12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
2Co 11:13 For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
2Co 11:16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.
2Co 11:17 That which I speak, I speak [it] not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
2Co 11:18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
2Co 11:19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye [yourselves] are wise.
2Co 11:20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour [you], if a man take [of you], if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
2Co 11:21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
2Co 11:22 Are they Hebrews? so [am] I. Are they Israelites? so [am] I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so [am] I.
2Co 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
2Co 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one.
2Co 11:25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
2Co 11:26 [In] journeyings often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils by [mine own] countrymen, [in] perils by the heathen, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;
2Co 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2Co 11:28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
2Co 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
2Co 11:30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
2Co 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
2Co 11:32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
2Co 11:33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
Gal 1:2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
Gal 1:3 Grace [be] to you and peace from God the Father, and [from] our Lord Jesus Christ,
Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Gal 1:5 To whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Gal 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
Gal 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught [it], but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Gal 1:13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
Gal 1:14 And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called [me] by his grace,
Gal 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Gal 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Gal 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Gal 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.
Gal 1:20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

1Ti 2: 3-7 For this [is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 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.

Paul boasts of perfect concern for the church in Romans 9:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 11:27-31. Y’shua states in Matthew 5:31 “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.”

Paul condescendingly compares himself to the original Twelve apostles, calling those Y’shua ordained “deceitful workers.”

2Co 11:5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
2Co 11:13 For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

Galatians 1:20 is in context of the Jerusalem Council. This Council directed the Gentile believers to the heart of the Torah with the four requirements repeated in Acts 15:20, 29 and 21:25. Paul, in Galatians 2:10, said that they asked only that he remember the poor.

In 2 Corinthians 11 and Galatians 2 Paul compares himself favorably to Y’shua’s apostles to counter their opposition to him.  James, who Paul slights in Galatians 2:12, had been appointed by the twelve apostles as the head of the church in Jerusalem.

Gal 2:6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed [to be somewhat] in conference added nothing to me:

Gal 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

In Paul’s final claim that he is not lying also comes with his claim to be an apostle (1 Timothy 2:3-7). That Paul felt that he needed to support his claim of being an apostle reveals that his apostleship was being challenged.

Paul’s background predisposes him to lying. He claimed to be a Pharisee (Acts 23:6) and to be brought up under Gamaliel in the “perfect manner of the law of our fathers” (Acts 22:3) and “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:6). Yet, Y’shua accused the Pharisees of being of the devil, who is the father of lying.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Apostle Yahukhanan (John) had interacted with Paul and did not commend him.

1Jo 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

If you find Paul a liar, his identity as a Satan-filled ambassador of a false gospel and a false Christ begins to come into focus and the warnings by Y’shua of the enemy sowing tares (Matthew 13:25) and of the stranger entering the sheepfold (John 10:5) take on real significance. The wheat and the tares must grow up together. Paul’s gospel (Romans 2:16) of grace tests those who would embrace the everlasting gospel (Revelation 14:6) of repentance and obedience.

For an excellent article to fill in the holes see Was Paul a Liar? by Edgar Jones.