Spotlight Religion Blast From The Past 9jabook 2020 Anniversary
https://9jabook.com/forum/topics/nigerian-pastor-says-the-apostle-paul-is-the-antichrist-adeboye-c
we have outlined 3 of Aribisalas articles spanning from 2011 to 2016 and 2020
What Do you as a Christian Think ?
The Bashing of Apostle Paul by Fmr Pastor Femi Aribisala has continued unrelenting for almost a Decade Now .Aribisala Who more or less is now a Full Political Pundit And Rarely goes By the Moniker Pastor anymore.
The Former Saul Who Wrote More Than Half Of The New Testament never gained a respite from the incessant persecution he got from the Healing Wings Owner & Anti Pauline Epistle Proponent who seems to have Become one of Nigeria’s Most Vocal Political Commentators Today
by Femi Aribisala faribisala@yahoo.com www.femiaribisala.com
2020
Expressions of Grace In the Ministry of Jesus (1), By Femi Aribisala
Jesus never gives anybody what they deserve. He only gives what we don’t deserve.
The centrepiece of Paul’s doctrine of salvation is what he refers to as “the election of grace.” (Romans 11:5). In his epistles, Paul shows that God does not relate to people: “according to their good or bad works.” (Romans 9:12). On the contrary, he relates to them according to His own purposes, which He determines all by Himself.
This grace of God does not conform to any human yardstick. We cannot deserve it or work to earn it. God says to Moses: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Exodus 33:19).
This means it is God who determines those on whom He showers His grace. It is dispensed entirely at His discretion. We cannot choose to receive God’s grace. It is completely gratuitous. Jesus says to His disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” (John 15:16).
Gracious Jesus
Paul mentions the word “grace” no less than 91 times in his epistles. However, Jesus, the very architect of God’s grace, does not mention the word even once in the gospels. But this should not lead to the conclusion that Jesus did not display the grace of God.
Indeed, Jesus preached God’s grace more than Paul. But he preached it practically by showing grace in action. Indeed, it can even be argued that Paul merely taught the grace that Jesus practiced.
Bible prophecy says gracious words would stream from Jesus’ lips. (Psalm 45:2). This was realised from his childhood when Luke observes that: “the grace of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40). Furthermore, at his inaugural preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth, Luke says everyone was amazed by: “the gracious words that came from (Jesus’) lips.” (Luke 4:22).
John also observes that Jesus was: “full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). He says Jesus came from heaven to dispense one grace after another. (John 1:16). He then points out that: “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17).
What precisely is this grace of God, and how does it find expression in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Unmerited Favour
Throughout his ministry, Jesus never gave anybody what they deserved. He only gave what they did not deserve. John the Baptist warned Israel not to assume their Abrahamic heritage would earn them special favours. (Matthew 3:9). Nobody obtains anything from God by entitlement.
As a result, Jesus was a master of the unexpected. He turned water into wine at a wedding even though it was not yet time for miracles. (John 2:1-11). His people expected him to do His miracles in his Jewish hometown of Nazareth, but He did not. (Matthew 13:58). Instead, he did them mostly in Capernaum, a predominantly Gentile city that He made the base of His operations.
When they complained, He pointed out that there were many widows in Israel, in the days of Elijah, when it did not rain for years and there was a great famine in the land. Nevertheless, Elijah was sent to none of them but to a widow in Zarephath, in the non-Jewish region of Sidon. He also pointed out that many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha. Nevertheless, none of them was cleansed, except for Naaman the Syrian.
This expose of the unmerited grace of God so annoyed Jesus’ people in Nazareth that they decided to kill Him. But He managed to escape from them.
Last Will Be First
When Paul had what he describes as “a thorn” in his flesh, he expected Jesus to heal him. He pleaded with Jesus for healing on three different occasions but Jesus refused. Instead, Jesus told Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Accordingly, Jesus’ principle of grace teaches us to be counter-intuitive. The Lord said to me: “Femi, never give people what they deserve. Only give them what they don’t deserve.” This is because God ignores those who think they deserve anything from him. He only pays attention to the undeserving.
Jesus says: “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:30). Thus, when He came to his own people, the Jews, they rejected him. (John 1:11). God says to Israel in Hosea: “You are not My people, and I will not be your God.” (Hosea 1:9).
In effect, favoured Israel went from first to last. It is only from this last position that Israel can become first again and get back into God’s favour: “It shall come to pass, in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ there it shall be said to them, ‘you are sons of the living God.’” (Hosea 1:10).
God said to Rebecca: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23).
Accordingly, God procedurally rejects entitled first-borns. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son, but God preferred Isaac to him. Esau was Isaac’s firstborn son, but God chose Jacob. Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn, but he forfeited his birthright by sleeping with his father’s concubine. (Genesis 35:22). Thereafter, Judah became first. (Judges 20:18).
Manasseh was Joseph’s firstborn son, but God preferred Ephraim. (Genesis 48:17-19). Aaron was the firstborn son of Amram (Exodus 6:20), but God chose his junior brother, Moses, to supersede him. Eliab was the firstborn son of Jesse, but God preferred David as the king of Israel. The oldest son of David was Absalom, but God chose Solomon as David’s successor.
Grace In Action
Jesus was only impressed with the faith of those who were not Jewish and therefore not entitled. He commended the faith of a Roman centurion, saying: “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matthew 8:10). He healed the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman, even though He was only sent to the Jews. (Matthew 15:24-28).
When he healed ten men of leprosy, the only leper who came back to give thanks was a Samaritan. He revealed himself as the Messiah to a woman who was not a Jew but a despised Samaritan. (John 4:26). Despite his miracles, the Jew did not believe in him. But the Samaritans believed in Him without seeing any miracles whatsoever. (John 4:39-44).
With Jesus, the worst sinners received the warmest welcome, while the most scrupulous law-abiders received the greatest castigation. (Matthew 23:13-36).
Jesus dined and consorted with sinners. He appointed a thief, Judas, as His treasurer. He invited another thief on the cross to be with Him in paradise. He called Matthew, a despised tax collector, to be one of His disciples. He befriended prostitutes and women of easy virtue, insisting they would enter the kingdom of God before the religious leaders. (Matthew 21:31).
This is Jesus’ word of grace to entitled Israel: “Many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:11-12). CONTINUED.
2016
With Jesus, there was one shepherd, one faith and one baptism. But thanks to Paul, there are now thousands of Christian denominations.
Jesus says: “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-16). This echoes Jacob’s prophecy: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” (Genesis 49:27).
Paul confirms his Benjamite roots: “I am of the tribe of Benjamin.” (Romans 11:1). As a Benjamite, Paul fulfils Jacob’s prophecy of devouring the prey by participating in the killing of Christians. (Acts 7:58-59). He divides the spoil by being responsible for the denominational divisions of Christianity. Indeed, he tells Christians with deep cynicism: “There must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” (1 Corinthians 11:19).
Outright lie
Paul says Jesus sent him to the Gentiles and sent Peter to the Jews: “I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles).” (Galatians 2:7-8).
This is another one of Paul’s many lies. Jesus prescribed no such division of labour. When he resurrected, he sent his disciples to everyone everywhere: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Indeed, it was Peter, and not Paul, that God used to open the door of faith to Gentiles through Cornelius: “Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.” (Acts 15:7).
Paul initially preached to Jews; but they rejected a messiah allegedly sacrificed for sins. He admits this himself: “We preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this.” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
Paul cannot claim he was called exclusively to the Gentiles when he only switched to Gentiles because Jews rejected him: “When the Jewish people saw the crowds, they were very jealous. They insulted Paul and spoke against everything he said. But Paul and Barnabas bravely said: We had to tell God’s message to you before we told it to anyone else. But you rejected the message! This proves that you don’t deserve eternal life. Now we are going to the Gentiles.” (Acts 13:45-46).
Paul used the lie of a division of labour to divide Jewish Christians from Gentile Christians. He then divided even the Gentiles between themselves because contradictory doctrinal views abound in his epistles as he sought, in his own words, to be “all things to all men.” (1 Corinthians 9:22). This makes it difficult to pin Paul down to any position. He is hypocritically on all sides of every debate.
Bundle of contradictions
Is baptism necessary for salvation? Paul says it is not: “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Nevertheless, Paul baptised so many people: “Paul and Silas told him and everyone else in his house about the Lord. While it was still night, the jailer took them to a place where he could wash their cuts and bruises. Then he and everyone in his home were baptized.” (Acts 16:32-33). “After the people heard Paul say this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 19:5).
Moreover, the same Paul who claims Christ did not send him to baptise contradicts himself by teaching that baptism is necessary for salvation: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27).
Does a believer need to be circumcised? Paul says he does not: “I Paul say to you, that if you undergo circumcision, Christ will be of no use to you. Yes, I give witness again to every man who undergoes circumcision, that he will have to keep all the law. You are cut off from Christ.” (Galatians 5:2-4). But then the same Paul contradicts himself by forcing Timothy to be circumcised: “(Paul) took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region.” (Acts 16:3).
Is it wrong to eat meat offered to idols? Paul says it is wrong: “You cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” (1 Corinthians 10:21). And then he says it is not: “Food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.” (1 Corinthians 8:8).
Double-mindedness
Is the moral law necessary for salvation? Absolutely, says Paul: “Neither fornicators, nor adulterers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). However, he then contradicts this by making these sins permissible: “All things are lawful unto me.” (1 Corinthians 6:12). How can all things be lawful when sin is the transgression of the law? (1 John 3:4). How can all things be lawful when Paul says: “I myself serve the law of God.” (Romans 7:25). Go figure!
Are we justified by the law or not? Paul says we are: “The doers of the law will be justified.” (Romans 2:13). Then he changes his mind and says we are not: “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified. (Romans 3:20). Does repentance from sin lead to salvation? Paul says it does not: “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29). Then he changes his mind and says it does: “Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Are the commandments of God any good? Paul says they are not: “The commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.” (Romans 7:10). Then he changes his mind and says of the same allegedly “deadly” commandments: “The Law and its commands are holy and correct and good.” (Romans 7:12).
Are sacrifices to continue after the death of Jesus? Paul says “No;” on the grounds that: “Christ is the end of the law.” (Romans 10:4). But then, at the instance of James, Paul agrees to perform Nazarite rites according to the law which included the sacrifice of a ram: “The next day (Paul) purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.” (Acts 21:26).
Confusion galore
Paul says in one breath: the law brings God’s wrath and curses. (Romans 4:15; Galatians 3:10). Then he says in another: the law is “holy,” “spiritual” and “good.” (Romans 7:12-16). He says: “We are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive. (Romans 7:6). Then he says Christians should “uphold the law.” (Romans 3:31).
With Jesus, there was one shepherd, one faith and one baptism. But thanks to Paul, there are now thousands of Christian denominations; each with its own shepherd and doctrine. Paul is the author of this confusion. He is: “a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8).
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Visual Verse of the Day
“Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness.” Psalm 78:19
