Throughout the last two centuries, many have grappled with the seeming confusion portrayed in the New Testament when comparing Paul’s letters with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Paul hammers home the gospel of the grace of God, while the four gospels seem to be heavy on a kingdom message. Many have tried to rectify this problem by reading Paul’s message of grace back into the gospels. The problem with this is that in Paul’s Holy Spirit inspired letters; over and over again he claims that his message was a mystery, never before revealed until he received it. Others have tried to combine Jesus’ and the twelve apostles’ message with Paul and say that there has only been one gospel, therefore they all preached the same message. This is a grave error as well. Jesus and the apostles told the nation of Israel to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, something Paul never once is heard to have uttered. Did Paul preach something different than Jesus and the twelve? Is there more than one gospel spoken of in the New Testament? Can all of this be reconciled? The good news is that, yes, this is all easily understood if we study the Scripture without thinking it says something that it really doesn’t. read more »
