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Paul's authority is what was given to him by the holy spirit. Of course, Paul shouldn't be on the same level of Jesus, but his words are spirit inspired.
I guess thats what I'm looking for. How do we know his words are inspired. What do we have to go on?
The so-called apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus) is not an authority for anything. He was a confidence man who founded the cult of Christianity by inventing the story of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and his vision of him on the road to Damascus to fool gullible people of the time through a series of chain letters (the "Epistles"). When charges were brought against him, he managed to evade prosecution by claiming Roman citizenship, under which authority he was transported to Rome and imprisoned in the Carcer of the Forum Romanum until Nero had him put to death.
If we're looking for more than Paul's witness of himself as an apostle,
we get get it from other sources than Paul himself.
For example, Peter ( an apostle ) also acknowledges Paul.
I was about to point out Peter's acknowlegement of Paul, but see that it was already done.
As far as authority of Paul's writings...they are given authority by God himself. Paul performed miracles and other acts and signs, which confirmed he was a messenger of God. His writings were referred to as scripture by the other apostles, and vice versa.
Peter refers to Paul's writings in 2 Peter. However, many believe 2 Peter wasn't written by Peter.
I guess I was looking for more than:
1. Paul said he was
2. Council of Trent deemed his letters to be divine
Thanks for everyones answers so far though. Really.
Bigthirsty, I was just wondering how you decide whether or not any of the books of the NT are inspired or divine? What do you consider to be your standard? Just asking.
Here are a few sources that I found on the canonicity of the NT.
Quote:
[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the first century AD.[2]Justin Martyr, in the early second century, mentions the "memoirs of the apostles," which Christians called "gospels" and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament.[3][4] A four gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was asserted by Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers to it directly.[5][6][/font]
I like Wendell's take. Yeah, it looks like he was a Christian, but 'confidence man' has a great ring to it too. That was definitely worth the chuckle.
I think Paul's writings are aligned with a consistent theme as found in the scriptures. It could also be the best cut and paste ever (the assigning of specific books to the one's we call the bible). Paul wrote on the breadth of difficulties that existed in a great diversity of areas in the Middle East nations. He cut across cultures and diverse interpretations of the Christian theology to represent what was best. He was a man who could think on his feet, and was totally sold out for G-d. As best as could be determned, he didn't marry and in so many ways was the palatable revisitation of John the Baptist. I don't agree with all he wrote, but he holds up.
Re: the authorship of Acts: I thought Luke was a physician, and his writings speak about the deliberate, painstaking care that goes into this profession. At the time, the powers of observation and the interweaving of personal and psychic history were important features for determining health. There was a greater sense of holism to wellness, and as such, one incorporates a larger circle of systems when attempting causal attributions. This whole thing about a dead man rising likely got many people in the areas all a-flutter, and he was likely the best to examine the many factors of the period and those that came into play that made Christianity what it is.
Because 2 Timothy 3:16 says ALL scripture is inspired by God.
And what scripture was Paul referring to ?
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