Problem: According to some homosexuals, when Paul spoke against what is “unnatural” in Romans 1:26, he was not declaring that homosexuality was morally wrong, but simply that it was unnatural for homosexuals. “Unnatural” is used in a sociological, not a biological way. So rather than condemning homosexual practices, it is argued that this passage actually approves of them for homosexuals. Continue reading →
Problem: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6). Also, Acts 4:12 says of Christ, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (nasb). But what if someone has never heard the Gospel of Christ, will he be eternally lost? Paul seems to answer this in the affirmative. But is it fair to condemn people who have never even heard about Christ?
Problem: The Bible teaches that God loves the world (Jn. 3:16), but he allows people to get into sin.
Problem: The Bible teaches that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). However, Paul claims that God is wrathful and angry. Critics argue that this gives God an anthropomorphic quality—being “mad” or “angry.” Is this the case?
Problem: Some Preterist interpreters argue that Paul really believed that the gospel had reached the entire world, as Jesus predicted before the end of human history (Mt. 24:14). However, the gospel has clearly not reached all nations yet.
Problem: Paul writes, “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake” (Rom. 1:5). Commentator and NT scholar John Stott writes,
The Greek phrase is very compact. Neither noun (‘obedience’ and ‘faith’) has an article, which we should expect if a distinction was being drawn between them and one were to be conceived as a result of the other. Instead, ‘obedience and faith’ appears to be the one response desired by the evangelist, a personal abandonment of obedience-and-faith or, if you prefer, ‘obedient faith.’[1]
Under this view, Paul is saying that both obedience and faith are both necessary for salvation. While we do desire believers to obey God, is Paul saying that this is a requirement for salvation?
When Paul saw the light at Jesus‘ appearance on the road to Damascus, did he fall down to the ground? Yes, he did. The different verses in Scripture are simply describing the same thing in different ways. Acts 9:3-4 and Acts 26:13-14
Problem: The high priest Ananias commanded that Paul be struck on the mouth. Paul rebuked him for doing so, and those who stood by condemned Paul for reviling the high priest. Paul responded by claiming, “I did not know … that he was the high priest” (Acts 23:5). But this is highly unlikely, since Paul himself was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and worked closely with him before his conversion (Acts 9:1–3).
Problem: Paul refers to Ananias—the high priest—as a “whitewashed wall.” It was illegal to revile rulers in Israel (Ex. 22:28), and Paul later retracts this comment. Was this a sin for Paul to react like this? Also, how could Paul—a former Pharisee—not know who the high priest was?
Problem: Luke records,
“Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; 24 take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law. 25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.’ 26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them” (Acts 21:23-26).
Paul was previously against the necessity of following the Law (Gal. 2; Acts 15). Moreover, the author of Hebrews considers animal sacrifices as a case of apostatizing from Christ. Did Paul succumb to pressure in offering this sacrifice at the Temple?
Problem: Verse nine says he was “taken up dead.” But in the very next verse Paul said, “his life is in him.”
Problem: Luke writes, “They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” (Acts 21:4). Later, Agabus says, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles’” (Acts 21:11). Each place Paul goes, the believers tell him not to go. Is Paul being head strong?
Problem: Luke records, “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out” (Acts 19:11-12).
Problem: Jesus commanded His followers to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19) and to be witnesses to “the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). But in Acts 16 Paul and Timothy “were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia” (v. 6).
Problem: In the earlier chapter, Paul fought against the requirement of circumcision in the previous chapter (Acts 15; c.f. Ga. 5:2). However, here in the next chapter, he quickly circumcises Timothy?