Brian2
Veteran Member
You might imagine that Paul as a follower of Christ would have jumped at the chance to learn from the twelve men who lived with and learned from Jesus in the flesh but that’s not what Paul did. It was a full decade after Jesus’s death that Paul first met Peter in Jerusalem then he went out preaching and teaching his own gospel in Asia Minor for another ten years before making a return trip to Jerusalem around 50 AD. It was only then 20 years after the crucifixion that Paul
met the rest of the Apostles for the first time.
Paul went to make sure that he (Paul) was preaching the right gospel and found that he was.
Paul did not preach the same thing as the Twelve Apostles and there was constant friction between him and the Jerusalem church about one issue in particular the law. Tensions eventually boiled over and cause Peter and Paul to come to blows.
When Peter visited Antioch he clashed with Paul over whether or not Gentile Christians needed to uphold the law. We only get to hear Paul’s side of the story of course but if we take his epistle at its word the two men came to an agreement. Paul would go forth as an apostle to the Gentiles while Peter would preach to the circumcised but there is a problem there. The agreement which Paul speaks of contradicts the book of Acts which states that Peter not Paul was chosen by God to minister to the Gentiles. In Acts chapter 15 verse 7 Peter said:
“Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles
might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.”
~ Acts 15:7
Easlier in Acts we can find the place where Peter was sent to preach to the gentiles, and it was to one family, Cornelius and his family, and others who had gathered at Cornelius's house. (Acts 10:34-43) That was not Peter being told to go to specifically the gentiles and Paul was not to go specifically to the gentiles either.
If you read what Peter had to say in Acts 15, you will see that Peter agrees with Paul about the gospel message.
Nevertheless, Paul claimed to have a different gospel than Peter and the other apostles, the
gospel of the uncircumcised a gospel which he
“Didn’t receive from any man nor was he taught it”
~Galatians 1:12
His gospel came purely from revelation and therefore couldn’t be verified by anyone as truthful and yet Paul’s new gospel spilt the religion of Christianity into two distinct confessions. One rooted in Judaism and a version tailored for the Gentiles. Concluding this chapter of Galatians, Paul argues that his way is the correct way because eventhough Jesus said:
“ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the
one who does the will of my Father…”
~ Matthew 7:21
How does any of this show that Paul was preaching a different gospel to the other apostles?
Paul's gospel WAS verified and if you have read the New Testament you should know that, and the decision of the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) shows that his gospel was verified by the early church.