Summary: "Saint" Paul does not meet the three eligibility requirements to be considered an apostle (Acts 1:21-23 KJV). The twelve foundations of the wall of the new Holy Jerusalem do not include his name (Revelation 21:14 KJV). Paul was just a self-proclaimed apostle (Galatians 1:1 NIV) who corrupted Jesus' church (cf. Tabor 2012; Chen 2021b). Jesus has warned us about this kind of false apostles (Revelation 2:2 NIV). In fact, Paul was anti-vegan (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV) while Jesus was vegan (Luke 21:34, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe: Old Syriac-Aramaic Manuscript of the NT Gospels; Matthew 9:13 CSB).
1. Failure to Meet the Three Criteria
In Acts 1:21-22 KJV, James the Just (Jesus' natural brother), in conjunction with the other 10 apostles (Peter, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James), plus around 120 disciples, as well as "the women, Mary the mother of Jesus and... his brethren", explicitly laid out the eligibility criteria to be considered a replacement for Judas the traitor:-
The candidate must have "companied" with the other apostles "all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us," "beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day he was taken up from us"; and must be "a witness with us of his [Jesus'] resurrection". Then two candidates were nominated, namely, "Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias" (Acts 1:23 KJV). "And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:23 KJV).
Paul simply met none of these requirements!
2. The 12 Foundations of the Wall of New Jerusalem
Not only are there eligibility requirements to be considered an apostle, but the number of apostles is strictly limited. In accordance with Revelation 21:14, God never endorses Paul's status as the 13th apostle, for the wall of the new Holy Jerusalem has only twelve foundations, which contain only twelve apostles' names (cf. End Times Truther Wing Wong 2021).
4. A Self-appointed Apostle
Paul was just a self-proclaimed apostle:- "Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead" (Galatians 1:1 NIV). Galatians is a letter from Paul the Apostle to a number of Early Christian communities in Galatia.
5. The First Corrupter of Jesus' Teachings
According to US President Thomas Jefferson, St. Paul was the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus" (Washington 1854). As pointed out by Albert Schweitzer (1910) in The Quest for the Historical Jesus, Paul perverted the discourse of Jesus and "displace[d]" it. The perversion involves at least seven domains, namely, eating food sacrificed to idols, eating animal flesh, denigration of women, slavery, justification by faith alone, submission to the authorities, and debasement of Moses' Law. Here, we will confine our discussion to the first two domains only (For more details, see Aribisala 2016 ; Chen 2021b):-
5.1. Eating Food Sacrificed to Idols
In I Corinthians 8:4-13, Paul argues that eating meat offered to an idol is not immoral, because “an idol is nothing at all” (I Cor. 8:4 NIV). “Food,” he asserts, “does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do” (I Cor. 8:8 NIV). "To the pure, all things are pure" (Titus 1:15 NIV).
On the other hand, in the letter to the church of Thyatira, Jesus rebukes them for tolerating a prophetess who "seduce[s] my servants to ... eat things sacrificed unto idols" (Revelation 2:20 KJV). And The Jerusalem Council led by James the Just, Jesus' natural brother, wrote to Gentile converts the Council's "decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals" (Acts 21:25 NIV).
5.2. Eating Animal Flesh
Eating anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV), advises Paul. For two thousand years, this has (mis)led numerous Christians to think that it is alright to slaughter innocent animals and eat their flesh.
Paul even defames vegans as weaklings in terms of faith:- "One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables" (Romans 14:2 NIV).
In contrast, Jesus warns against meat-eating:- “Be on guard, so that your hearts do not become heavy with the eating of flesh" (Luke 21:34, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe — Old Syriac-Aramaic Manuscript of the New Testament Gospels). And He admonishes the Pharisees, quoting Hosea 6:6, "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13 CSB).
In the Gospel of the Ebionites, Jesus condemns animal sacrifice in the Temple of Jerusalem:- “I have come to abolish the sacrifices, and if you cease not from sacrificing, my wrath will not cease from you” (Panarion 30.16.5). Jesus also rejected the Passover meal :“I have no desire to eat the flesh of this Paschal Lamb with you” (The Gospel of the Ebionites 22.4).
Throughout His human life, Jesus cared about animals, like sparrows (Matthew 10;29-31 NIV), "fowls of the air" (Matt. 6:26-33 KJV), sheep (Matt. 12:11), chickens (Matt. 23:37 KJV), yoked animals in general (Matt. 11:29-30), a donkey and her colt (Matt. 21:1-3 NIV). He even rescued and healed a badly beaten mule (Linzey and Dorothy 1998: 38-39; Linzey 2010: 60-61; Chen 2021).
Whilst Jesus showed compassion for animals, Paul sneered at exploited and downtrodden oxen:- "For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?" (1 Corithians 9:9 KJV)
6. Conclusion
While still on earth, Jesus already warned, "you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false" (Revelation 2:2 NIV). What Jesus says in this verse arguably refers to Paul the false Apostle.
"There is not one word of Pauline Christianity in the characteristic utterances of Jesus.... There has really never been a more monstrous imposition perpetrated than the imposition of Paul's soul upon the Soul of Jesus", opines George Bernard Shaw (1915).
Article link: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/paul-the-anti-vegan-is-an-ineligible-apostle-go-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen-hkbnews Amen!
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