Are the words of Paul equal to or even greater than the words of God and the Old Testament ?

Question

Christians seem to be ready to dump the entire OT and its laws because of a few words written by Paul (Rabbi Saul).....

All the while the desciples of Jesus strictly observed ALL THE JEWISH LAWS.


.

Answer 1

They are the same, since Peter declared that the writings of Paul were "Scripture" - I.E.: the inspired words of God (2 Peter 3: 15,16).

According to the book of Acts, the Apostles debated whether any of the laws of the Old Testament applied to gentile Christians under the New Covenant. They eventually decided that only the laws that were purely moral in nature still applied to the gentiles; the laws which merely served to set Israel apart as a nation were no longer needed (i.e.; they were either "fulfilled" or were now defunct by virtue of the fact that the Nation of Israel no longer existed) and really were never intended to apply the gentiles (non-Jews) anyway. So it is not just Paul who cherry picked the Old Testament to decide which laws to obey and which ones to ignore; it was Jesus and the Apostles themselves (Mark 7; Galatians 5; for examples). So you are actually criticizing Jesus, Peter, and all of the apostles, not just Paul.

Answer 2

You must be kidding.

The Jewish laws never even saved the Jews.

Why would anyone attempt to rely on the old law, when we have the grace and mercy of Christ, and the salvific power that he gave to his new covenant church?

Anything Paul said that made it into the bible has now become the word of God ... as authoratively ratified by the church ... and his words are in full agreement with the constant teachings of the church.

The church ... not the old law .. is now the ordinary means of obtaining salvation in Christ.

Jesus set it up that way for a very good reason.

Answer 3

Not true. Dump the OT? Paul was a great apostle.

Paul, Peter, Luke, John, & the others were inspired by God when writing their letters or gospels.