DALE RATZLAFF | Pastor and Founder, Life Assurance Ministries (1936–2024)
Periodically I encounter resistance against the authority of the Apostle Paul’s epistles. This resistance comes primarily from educated people with college degrees—usually from Adventist schools. The context for this resistance is usually my quoting the clear passages on law in Paul’s writings. For example, the books of Galatians, Colossians, and Romans explain that in the New Covenant, the law is no longer our standard of righteousness and practice. In order to avoid the implication of these statements of Paul’s, people remind me that even Peter had problems with Paul’s writings and quote, “in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort.” They conclude that because I use Paul’s writings to explain that the law ended with the inauguration of the New Covenant, I am one who is misunderstanding Paul and distorting the gospel. Several have even said they think Paul did not clearly understand the teachings of Christ, and his writings on law, therefore, cannot be taken at face value and are less reliable than the rest of the Bible.
What about these charges? Can the writings of Paul be trusted? I hope that this short study will fully answer these questions.
First, let us look at what Peter said about Paul in context.
“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:14-16).
Note three things here. First, Peter calls Paul “beloved”. Peter, the one who “presided” at Pentecost in Acts 2, who oversaw the Samaritans receiving the Holy Spirit in Acts 8, and who preached the gospel to Cornelius’ household and witnessed the first Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit in Acts 11—this same Peter whom God appointed to “launch” the church would not have called Paul “beloved” if he were teaching another or a distorted gospel. Second, Peter says that Paul wrote “according to the wisdom given him.” Peter clearly believed and stated that Paul received his wisdom from God. Again, Peter would not have endorsed Paul’s revealed wisdom if Paul were “off” in his teachings. Third, Peter says that some who are “unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures”. Peter includes Paul’s writings and lists them with “the rest of the Scriptures.” Furthermore, Peter ends this passage by saying that those who distort Paul’s writings as they distort the rest of Scripture do so “to their own destruction.”
Far from diminishing the authority of Paul’s writings, this passage from 2 Peter, therefore, clearly endorses them as part of Scripture!
My wife Carolyn and I read a chapter of the Bible together every day. We recently finished Acts and are nearly through Romans. Our recent readings have reminded us of the divine intervention in the life of Paul and the clarity of his simple gospel message. Following are just a few references:
The Lord told Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
Paul’s ministry and gospel were endorsed by the first church counsel recorded in Acts 15. The counsel concluded that the Apostles should not “put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke (law) which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear…All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what things and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles” (Acts 15:12). It was made clear that Jews and Gentiles are saved the SAME way: “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are” (Acts 15:11).
About Paul in Corinth we read, “And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city’” (Acts 18:9-10).
Acts 22 lists a number of times the Lord spoke to Paul including, “Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21), and in Acts 23:11 we read, “on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, ‘Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also’”.
In Acts 26, Luke records Paul’s defense before Agrippa. As Paul recounts his conversion experience he says. “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me’” (Acts 26:14-18).
In Paul’s shipwreck experience we read, “For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:23-25).
It is my settled conclusion that no honest student of Scripture can in any way diminish the Scriptural authority of Paul’s teachings. To do so one must discredit Luke’s accounts of God’s apostolic appointment of Paul in the book of Acts.
It is my settled conclusion that no honest student of Scripture can in any way diminish the Scriptural authority of Paul’s teachings. To do so one must discredit Luke’s accounts of God’s apostolic appointment of Paul in the book of Acts. Deductively, if one considers the book of Acts to be in question, then one must also discard the book of Luke written by the same author. As you think about the evidence of Paul’s inspiration, remember also that Peter, the leader of the disciples’ group when Christ was on earth, endorsed Paul’s writings as written with the wisdom of God and saw his writings as part of Scripture.
In the formation of the Christian canon, the Gospels and Paul’s writings were the first documents to be included. Anyone who tries to undermine the authority of the writings of Paul, consequently, is on very shaky ground: they are going against the conclusions of Peter, Luke, and the early church. Even more, a person who denies Paul’s scriptural and apostolic authority has no claim to the Protestant Reformation cry, “sola scriptura,” nor can such a person be included in the Christian Church. A person who denies Paul’s authority denies the evidence of recorded Scripture as outlined above. It not only clearly and repeatedly supports Paul’s writings, but the record includes numerous instances where our risen Lord directly commissioned Paul as His “chosen instrument” to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, Kings, and the people of Israel and to offer salvation to those who accept the simple gospel of God’s grace through faith in Christ.
Those who doubt the teachings of Paul, as mentioned above, ought to recognize that they have replaced the writings of Paul with the writings of Ellen White in that they interpret Paul’s writings through the grid of their so called “spirit of prophecy”. In so doing they are unable to take Paul’s statements at face value and they are in danger of rejecting the Lord Himself who called Paul, appointed him to ministry and revealed the gospel directly to him.
“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:11-12
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