One of the church’s most effective methods of growing rotten fruit has been our (and by ‘our’’ I mean ‘your’) relentless efforts to pervert the message of scripture. We have a bumper crop of Christians who believe it is right (and good) to throw out everything in the bible that isn’t written in red letters. To make things worse, you think criticizing Paul makes YOU inclusive and compassionate.

“John, you jerk! Have you even read what Paul says about women? AND SLAVERY?!!! AND GAYS??!!!!! He was a hateful bigot! I am a follower of JESUS, NOT PAUL!!!”

I know you only want to apply the words of Jesus himself so you should know that in the next paragraph, all the words inside the quotes are in red letters.

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man [Paul] is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:15)

It turns out, Paul was just like you! A follower of Jesus! But more importantly, Paul was Jesus’ CHOSEN INSTRUMENT. Quoting Paul is NOT ‘putting words in Jesus mouth.’ Jesus put His words in Paul’s mouth.

Did you know that Jesus didn’t write a single verse in the Bible? Everything that you know about Jesus was written down by…wait for it…people like Paul. When you throw out everything that isn’t a direct quote from Jesus, you’re throwing out Jesus’ quotes too.

Whenever you get the urge to speak dismissively about Paul, or Timothy, or Mark, or Luke, or Moses, or any other biblical author, you should tape your mouth shut unless tape isn’t strong enough to shut you up in which case use super glue. I’m confident that Jesus did NOT appoint you to be His chosen instrument. Your gospel is false and you should repent for preaching it.

(Galatians 1:8) But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!