Are Paul’s Writings Equally Inspired as the Gospels?

Since Paul wasn't one of the Twelve Apostles during Jesus' ministry, are his writings still inspired by the Holy Spirit? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. You can call with your question and talk to Pastor Adriel live if you call us in the next 25 minutes. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account. You can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Stephanie in Yonkers, New York. Stephanie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, my question is regarding Matthew 12 verse 31. Therefore, I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. I'm wondering, what's the difference between the two kinds of blasphemies mentioned, and what makes blasphemy against the Spirit unforgivable? Thank you for that very clear question, Stephanie.

I don't know why in particular you're asking that. I know for a lot of believers, Stephanie, there's this deep concern that, have I committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Have I done something that is going to cause the Lord to forever turn his back on me? Usually, when I'm talking to Christians who have that concern, I try to reassure them and say, look, if that's something that you're concerned about, if you're worried about the Lord turning his back on you because of something you've done, really, you don't understand what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was in the context here.

It's really important for us to understand the background of this passage in particular. Jesus has been doing miracles, and the religious leaders have seen these miracles with their own eyes, and yet they're continuing to reject him. In fact, in the context there in Matthew chapter 12, they're saying that the miracles that Jesus was doing, the healings that he was performing, were being performed essentially by the evil one, by Satan, by Beelzebul. If you go back to verse 22 of Matthew chapter 12, it says, a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw, and all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David? So people are saying, look, this is the Davidic king, is this really him, the Messiah, the one who's come to save us?

And how do the religious leaders respond? Verse 24, but when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. So in other words, what they're doing is they're not just rejecting Jesus, not believing that he is the king, the son of David, the savior, the Christ. They're saying that the miraculous works of Christ were accomplished by Satan. In other words, there's this attitude towards Jesus, towards his gospel, towards his work, the work ultimately of the Holy Spirit here that is just absolutely rejecting Christ. And so what is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Well, in the context here, it's attributing the works of Jesus to Satan.

It's not a Christian who struggles with some sin pattern or struggling even with doubts, those kinds of things. This is a group of people, religious people who knew better and yet continually rejected Christ, even though they had seen him work right there in front of them. Now, there actually is a great reassurance in this passage because Jesus says, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. In other words, we have a great degree of hope, Stephanie, that no matter what we've done, no matter what sin and blasphemy we've committed, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. But there's one thing that will cause us to perish eternally and it's rejecting Jesus. It's not being willing to embrace who he truly is, the Christ, the Messiah, the savior of the world. And that's precisely what these religious leaders were doing. In fact, they weren't just rejecting him, they were saying he was the devil. And for people who do that, for people who just completely cast Christ aside, reject the gospel, attribute the works, the changed lives to the evil one, there is no hope. And so that's one of the things that we see in this passage, Stephanie. Does that help clear this text in particular up for you?

Yes, definitely. Thanks so much. Well, thank you for calling us and may the Lord bless you. Thanks so much, Stephanie. We appreciate you being a regular listener to CORE Christianity. We've got a call coming in from Arkansas. This is Avery who has a question about tithing. Avery, welcome to the program. Yeah, thank you guys for having me.

It's a pleasure listening to you guys every day. Yeah, my question is in regards to tithing. Just kind of confused on the topic. I've been to churches where it's taught as a doctrine that it's our response, it's our duty, it's a commandment from God that we're supposed to pay 10% of our income to the local church.

Every time you get paid, just kind of a doctrine there. But when I look at the scripture, I just don't seem to find that as one of the things that Paul taught as a doctrine. You see it brought up in the New Testament in Hebrews, but it was referring—obviously the book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews, and it's referring to the fulfillment of the covenant that Jesus—all that was being fulfilled in Jesus. So where do we stand on that? Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for that question. And obviously the tithe was something that was given to the Jews, as you mentioned, under the old covenant. And part of it was bringing the tithe to the storehouse. This is a part of how the Levitical priesthood was provided for in that time. It was the sort of temple upkeep, those kinds of things. And when you actually look at all of the things that were tithed, it was probably more than 10% under the old covenant.

There were a lot of things going on there. And I think a lot of believers now, under the new covenant, we just sort of say, well, 10% is a good number in terms of giving to the local church. We know from places like 1 Corinthians 16 that when the church would gather on the first day of the week, that they would give an offering. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 1 says, concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come. So he's talking about Christians giving on the Lord's day for the good of the body of Christ and the advancement of the gospel.

But you don't see the language of tithing there per se, and I think it's because the tithe was especially associated with the old covenant and with the worship of the old covenant. When we look at the New Testament, we are called as followers of Jesus to give and to give to the work of missions, to give to the local church, but listen to what the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

He doesn't give us a number there. He says, look, give as you've decided in your own heart, not under compulsion, and so I think that there's a problem when churches say you have to give X amount, and it's this sort of obligation that they're laying on the people. Paul says, no, each has decided in his heart, but we're called to be generous givers. And so I know that there are many believers under the new covenant who give a tithe, and I think that's kind of a helpful baseline. I know that there are other believers, Avery, who give more than that, who say, you know what, the Lord has just blessed me so much, and this is how much we've sort of opted to give as a family or for me as an individual. I think when we think about this subject of giving, we have to think of it in light of the gospel, how merciful God has been to us, how generous God has been to us in his son Jesus. We give to the work of missions, to the work of the local church in response to the fact that God has given to us so much grace.

It should be something that we do joyfully, excited about the gospel continuing to advance. The last thing I'll say here, so what I'm getting at is it doesn't seem to me like the tithe is this New Testament command, but Jesus himself had no problem talking about money and possessions. Think about the parables that he told, the importance of not clinging to our possessions, putting our hope ultimately in God and in his kingdom, storing up treasure not on earth but in heaven. And I think one of the reasons Jesus repeatedly talked about money and possessions is because he knew how often we tend to put our hope, our confidence in those things, to live for those things. Jesus said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also.

And so I think each of us as believers ought to ask ourselves the question, where is my treasure? What am I investing in? Am I investing in this world first and foremost?

Is this what I'm living for? Or am I storing up treasure in heaven? Am I investing in God's kingdom? Am I giving to the work of the local church where the gospel is being proclaimed and missionaries are being sent out? Am I aligning myself with those purposes or am I holding on to these things?

Is there greed that's sort of taken over my heart? I think it's an important question for each of us to ask. And so I would say go to that text in 2 Corinthians 9, read that passage, and think about giving in light of the new covenant and how gracious God has been to us, brother.

Thank you so much for your question. You know, I'm curious, Adriel, in addition to offering our money, what would you say as a pastor about offering our time and our talent to God? Yeah, I would say mostly just money.

Absolutely. And God has gifted us in so many different ways. I know that there are some people who are really struggling financially, but what they do give is their time and their service in other ways. And I think that there's something wonderful about that. You know, all of us, everything that the Lord gives to us is a part of these gifts that He's entrusted to us, and I think we're called to give it all back to Him and to the advancement of the gospel.

And so, yeah, Bill, I think that that's certainly something we should be thinking about. It's not just even giving our money. Sometimes people can think, oh, I've sort of checked the box off. I've given a tithe, that kind of a thing. No, God wants your heart.

He wants your heart. And so I appreciate the fact that you brought that up, because God has gifted us in unique ways, and we're called to use those gifts for the building up of His body. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the phone number to call. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that we received from Arthur. Hello. I'm just beginning to support you people financially, but anyhow, my question is this. The writings of Paul in the New Testament, are they all inspired by God like the rest of the Bible, or is it just only plainly his opinion, his opinion, human opinion? Well, Arthur, first let me just say thank you for partnering with us.

It's such an encouragement and grateful that you're blessed by the broadcast. Really a great question. If Paul wasn't walking around with the rest of the disciples while Jesus was alive on earth, can we say that his writings, I mean, he wrote a lot of the New Testament, can we say that they were really inspired? Or do we just need to look at the writings of Peter as inspired by God and John and others who were there in the presence of Jesus? Well, I think what we can do, Arthur, is take Peter's word himself. Listen to what Peter said about the writings of the apostle Paul, and this is in the book of 2 Peter 3, beginning in verse 14. Peter said, Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

Now, think about that right there, Arthur. Peter himself referred to the writings, the letters of the apostle Paul, as scripture. Now, another thing I think that really helps us to recognize that Paul's writings, they weren't just his personal opinion, this is the word of God, this is scripture, is what Paul himself said in the book of 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, in chapter 14, verse 37, he's exhorting the Corinthian church, and listen to what he said there. He said, I'll start in verse 36, Or was it from you that the word of God came? He's talking to the Corinthians here. He said, The word of God come from you?

Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. In other words, not only does Peter recognize that the writings of Paul are scripture, the word of God, Paul himself, in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, seems to recognize that what he's writing is the very word of God to the Corinthian church.

He's saying that they ought to acknowledge it as such as well. The Christian church has embraced the writings of the apostle Paul as a part of what we call the canon of scripture, inspired of the Holy Spirit for our benefit, for our growth in grace. Typically, there are a number of criteria that the church historically looked at in terms of determining which writings were indeed inspired when we're looking at the New Testament.

That is, things like apostolicity. Was this written by an apostle or someone who was associated with the apostles? Of course, Paul himself was.

We know that he went to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles to talk about the gospel that he was preaching. Antiquity. Are these writings old? Were they there around the time of Jesus and the apostles and shortly thereafter? Or was this something that was written much later? Catholicity.

That's another word that we use. In other words, did the church early on receive these writings as inspired scripture? When we're looking at the writings of the apostle Paul, it's clear that they did.

Then just a sort of general coherence. Do these writings all fit together with the broader message that we're receiving in the Bible? When we look at Paul's writings, we can check the box on all of those.

As I said, Peter himself recognized them as the word of God and quoted Paul. So, Arthur, thank you again for your support and for that question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Here's the number to call. If you have a question about the Bible or something in the Christian life, it's 833-843-2673, or just spell it out on your phone, 833-THE-CORE. Easter is coming up just less than two weeks away now, and chances are you might be inviting a friend or neighbor or relative to go to church with you. Some questions may come up about the Christian faith. We want to offer you a wonderful book that will help you answer many of those questions.

That's right. We are offering, once again, More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell, a really wonderful apologetics book. If you don't know what that word is, apologetics, it just has to do with the defense of the Christian faith. All of us are called, as followers of Jesus, to know why we believe the things that we believe and to defend them, to be able to share them with others. This is a book that's really going to help you to do that, as I said, More Than a Carpenter.

It really gets into some of the archaeological evidence, evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. It's just a lot of great things that we know will bless you this Easter season, so get a hold of this resource. You can make a donation of any amount here at CORE Christianity, and we will send you a copy of More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Or give us a call at 833-THE-CORE for that offer or any one of our offers. Let's go to Paul from Johnston, Rhode Island. Paul, welcome to CORE Christianity. Hello. Hi, Paul.

Thanks for calling us. What's your question, brother? I would like you to, if you could tell me, you would say the best scriptures to read for physical healing in our body.

Yeah. Well, Paul, can I just follow up with you there? Are you praying for healing for yourself or for someone else? It's for myself.

Okay. Well, there's this exhortation that's given to us in the New Testament when we're suffering with some physical sickness. It's found in the book of James, in James 5, verse 13. And James said, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Now, I love that verse because sometimes people will look to sort of faith healers today, that kind of a thing. Someone to just work a miracle on them, sort of like Jesus did in the Gospels. But you don't really see that in the ordinary life of the church. Actually, what you do see is precisely what James talks about here, is brothers coming together, brothers and sisters coming together in the context of the body of Christ and praying for one another. And Paul's encouragement there is, Look, if you're sick, go to the church.

Go to the elders of your church and ask for prayer. Now, what I will say, Paul, is the Lord never promises to heal us physically of our physical sicknesses, whatever they may be. I think of the words of Paul to Timothy, his sort of son in the faith, where he encouraged him. Timothy was having these frequent stomach ailments, and Paul didn't say, Hey, you need to just name and claim your healing.

He said, No, you should have a little bit of wine every day to settle your stomach because of your frequent ailments. Sometimes God does heal miraculously. Sometimes God uses doctors and physicians to help us get better. And sometimes we don't get healed. And that doesn't mean that God doesn't hear our prayers. We don't always know why God answers some and not others, but we are encouraged to go to him and to pray and to pray in faith. Another follow-up question I'd have for you, Paul, is, Are you a part of a church, a Bible-believing church, where you can go to the elders, as James talks about there in James 5, and ask for prayer?

Yes, but I wanted to ask another question, too, if I could. Does it have to be done at church, or can you do this at home? You could even do it at home, brother. There's this story in the Gospel where a man came to Jesus, actually a soldier came to Jesus, and he asked Jesus to heal one of his servants. And Jesus healed the guy, not by going to his house, but just from a distance. Jesus healed him immediately, and the soldier had faith that the Lord could do it. And so God can work whether you're at church or whether you're praying at home.

That's okay. But what I'm getting at there is the exhortation that James tells us. I think we're all encouraged to pray for one another. And, Paul, I would like to pray for you right now, if that's okay. Can I pray for you, brother?

Yes. Let's pray for Paul and ask for the Lord's healing hand in his life. Gracious God, thank you for this opportunity to be able to pray for Paul.

Thank you for his question, for his desire to know you, and to know, Lord, how to approach this thing. And we know, Lord, that you call us to pray to you, to pray in faith, to seek your face. And I pray for him, Lord, that you would bring your healing in his life, that you would strengthen him, that you would strengthen his faith. I do ask, Lord, even that the people in his church would pray for him, and God, that you would do a great work in his life.

And I pray, Father, that you would help him through these current circumstances to trust you, to grow in his faith, to grow in his love for you, to look to you, no matter what happens, Lord, knowing that you love him and that you are in control. And so would you be with our brother Paul? Would you bless him today? Would you fill him with your spirit?

Would you grant him healing? We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Paul, thanks so much for your call. We'll continue to pray for you here at CORE Christianity. We have time for one more question.

This is from one of our listeners who went live on Facebook, and here's the question. Weren't the scribes and the Pharisees the priests from the tribe of Levi? If so, what happened to them to make them so far from Jesus during his time on earth? Yeah, well, they were the priests of the day. I mean, the religious leaders, they were the ones that everybody looked at and said, oh, man, that person, they really are probably close to God. They're so holy. Look at them.

And yet Jesus, over and over again in the Gospels, he rebukes them and he exposes hypocrisy. He says, on the outside, you guys look really good. You guys go through all of these sort of pious rituals. You pray really long prayers so that other people will notice you, but I know what's in your heart.

I can see beyond the mask. Now, why did this happen or how did this happen? The reality is it's sin. It's the insidious nature of sin. We're prone to take good things that God gives to us, even his word and his worship, and to try to make ourselves great through those things, and that's what the Pharisees did. And when Jesus, the Son of God, the truly great one, showed up on the scene, they didn't recognize him. They rejected him.

In fact, they hated him. Now, I think with the Pharisees, there's a great warning for each and every one of us. We can read the Bible, study the Scriptures, do quote-unquote religious things, but if we reject Jesus, if it's all about making ourselves great, making our name great, getting other people to look at us, well, then we are in real danger. Now, the beautiful thing about Jesus is he extended grace and mercy, not just to the sinners who were outside of the church, but even to the sinners who were within the church, even to Pharisees. You think of a guy like Nicodemus, who was a religious leader in John chapter 3. So no matter where you are, struggling with hypocrisy, there's hope for you in Jesus if you turn to him, and that's what we have to do. We want to know how you've been encouraged by this program, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.