No matter how trustworthy, why are Paul's "Opinions" still regarded by Christians as the word of God?

Paul is an admitted LIAR.

Carl Sagan (Scientist; Author)

"My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts--the religion of Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the New Testament. There wasn't much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring document." (Letter to Ken Schei [author of Christianity Betrayed])

Thomas Jefferson

"Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus." (All references not listed here, can be found in Christianity Betrayed)

Albert Schweitzer

"Where possible Paul avoids quoting the teaching of Jesus, in fact even mentioning it. If we had to rely on Paul, we should not know that Jesus taught in parables, had delivered the sermon on the mount, and had taught His disciples the 'Our Father.' Even where they are specially relevant, Paul passes over the words of the Lord."

Wil Durant (Philosopher)

"Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ."

"Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ."

Walter Kaufmann (Professor of Philosophy, Princeton)

"Paul substituted faith in Christ for the Christlike life."

George Bernard Shaw

"No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus."

Thomas Hardy

"The new testament was less a Christiad than a Pauliad."

Hyam Maccoby (Talmudic Scholar)

"As we have seen, the purposes of the book of Acts is to minimize the conflict between Paul and the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, James and Peter. Peter and Paul, in later Christian tradition, became twin saints, brothers in faith, and the idea that they were historically bitter opponents standing for irreconcilable religious standpoints would have been repudiated with

horror. The work of the author of Acts was well done; he rescued Christianity from the imputation of being the individual creation of Paul, and instead gave it a respectable pedigree, as a doctrine with the authority of the so-called Jerusalem Church, conceived as continuous in spirit with the Pauline Gentile Church of Rome. Yet, for all his efforts, the truth of the matter is

not hard to recover, if we examine the New Testament evidence with an eye to tell-tale inconsistencies and confusions, rather than with the determination to gloss over and harmonize all difficulties in the interests of an orthodox interpretation." (The Mythmaker, p. 139,Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1986)

Jeremy Bentham (English Philosopher)

"If Christianity needed an Anti-Christ, they needed look no farther than Paul." (Paraphrased. Looking for a copy of "Not Paul, but Jesus" in order to retrieve the exact quote.)

Carl Jung (Psychologist)

"Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus of Nazareth to get a word in." (U.S. News and World

Report, April 22, 1991, p. 55)

Bishop John S. Spong (Episcopal Bishop of Newark)

"Paul's words are not the Words of God. They are the words of Paul- a vast difference."

(Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, p. 104, Harper San Francisco, 1991).

Apostolic tradition is what the New Testament is a crystallization of in part.Jesus condemned using mere human traditions and customs to break the commandments and Tradition of God(Matt15:3& Mark7:9) . St Paul in Coll2:8 warns the faithful against replacing Apostolic Tradition and Jesus teaching from it( remember there is almost no written portions of the NT at that timewith mere human traditions and ways of thinking.In 1 Cor11:2 instead of telling believers just to turn to the Bible(the Old Testament which was not yet a volume between 2 covers but disputed collections of scrolls)but to follow Apostolic Tradition(paradosis,that which is orally handed down). In 2 Thess2:15 Paul orders the church to keep or hold fast to the tradition and in 2 Thess3:6 to avoid the teachings of those who do not follow the Tradition. There would be no Bible without tradition(Mosaic and Apostolic) and the proper context of interpreting Scripture is in the Tradition by the authoritative Church,the Catholic Church, the Mother(and often grandmother and great-grandmother) of all the Churches.

Paul in this passage about celebacy starts off by calling His appraisal an opinion since the decision to be celebate or marry depends on the individual's gifting whether they have the ability from God to be trustworthy as a celebate. So in making a general injunction Paul would not be able to make a true injunction - Paul does however make some statements of fact about celebacy as an ideal - something to aspire to if you can - but not a general command since Jesus said that the apostles were correct to say celebacy is better than marriage provided that you can 'contain' the saying or provided that you have the faith and power to prove it true - since, if you don't, your celebacy will be sinfully maintained with burning sexual passions (- such as many 'Roman Catholic priests' have).

Jesus backs up Paul's trustworthy opinion by commanding that those who can contain the saying that celebacy is better than marriage SHOULD contain it... - this means they should obey the saying as a command - this corresponds to the scripture's command that if you have it in your power to do good it is sin to withhold from doing it...

Paul was kind of an opinionated guy and that did not start with his Xianity. Don't forget he was participated in stonings and persecuting Xians long before he became a Xians himself. Old Paul had a hard time with People who didn't believe like him. No matter what he believed, he always thought he was right and everyone else was wrong. If anything, he was very good at sermonizing and setting down in writing what he believed. It never did matter what he believed as long as he was passionate about it.

Paul was just very mean and persistant about forcing his views onto people. That is one reason that Evanelical Xians love him so much.

I would say because people of that time period were fearful, and fearful people need a leader with conviction. Right or wrong, Paul was convinced and forceful about it. He probably attracted followers of the same nature that also pushed his writings along.

I believe the words of Paul are God's word because God showed me the Bible is true.

2 Peter 1:20-21 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

so...........

What does that mean to you?

Paul and Ringo were the backbone of the Beatles.

The lord trusted in him! why can't we?

God loves you.....God bless

"God" did not prevent them from being included in the Bible, so they must be condoned by him.