The Controversial Doctrines of Paul
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Blurb:
I’ll be starting a new series called The Controversial Doctrines of Paul 📖🔍.
The inspiration for this series actually comes from my article The Apostle Who Divided the Church in my previous series, Knowing Your Apostles, where I presented Paul as the most controversial apostle. I believe that no other apostle’s teachings generate as much theological debate ⚖️ , disagreement 💬 , and conflict as Paul’s.
It is not because Paul was intentionally controversial or because he wanted to create controversy 🌪️ . Rather, I believe it is for two reasons that the apostle Peter noted:
“...as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
— 2 Peter 3:15–16
First, some of Paul’s teachings are genuinely difficult 💡 to understand, so some may misunderstand them out of pure ignorance.
Second, as Peter also noted, the controversies are sometimes created by “untaught and unstable“ people who are not interested in the truth but only in perverting or distorting Paul’s teachings for their own selfish and godless purposes.
I will attempt to address these two broad groups throughout this series.
In this series, I will be exploring some of the questions 🔥 that continue to divide the church today, including the following:
Is the Protestant interpretation of Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith mistaken, as the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) claims? Or is James the one who actually got it right? And is justification by faith uniquely Paul’s invention, as a fringe subset of this movement claims?
Is Paul’s teaching on the roles of men and women in marriage anachronistic and out of touch with modern realities?
Have the spiritual offices of apostles, prophets, and evangelists ceased?
Have the gifts of the Holy Spirit 🕊️ ceased and are modern manifestations merely psychosis and fake?
Should Paul’s teaching that women should not teach in the church be understood only within its cultural context, and was he simply a male chauvinist perpetuating patriarchy?
And more...
Some of the answers may contradict your long-held theology or challenge your assumptions. Others will surprise you, may not satisfy you, or may even infuriate you. However, I can assure you that they will be thought-provoking 🧠 and grounded in the whole Bible, not just parts of it. You will be able to decide whether your beliefs are truly grounded in Scripture or in tradition, your own understanding, or what others have taught you.
I come from a Christian background where we sought to let the Bible speak for itself and not read our own ideas into it 📖🔍 . We didn’t have these debates, so they’re frankly surprising to me, and I’ve had to go back and reexamine 🗝️ what Scripture actually says. I say this simply to signal that I approach these questions without any preconceived conclusions or theological hang-ups.
Paul says that we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth (2 Corinthians 13:8). I hope you’ll join me on what I believe will be an exciting journey 🧭 through the Bible. I promise you that, if you’re open-minded to the truth, you will learn something new.
Jesus said:
“My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.”
— John 7:16–17 (NIV)
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Stay tuned, and remain blessed.