7th March, 2024
By Paul Dada
The General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries and one of Nigeria’s controversial Christian clerics, Johnson Suleman recently stirred a serious controversy on the social media and in the Nigerian Christian circle when he hinted that it was possible for Paul the Apostle in the Bible to have contradicted Jesus Christ.
The comments of Suleman drew the ire of many Nigerian Christian faithful. But an undaunted Suleman in a viral video reiterated his stand.
He said: ” Honestly, I will not respond to this if not for the sons of the prophets who are talking about it. I was preaching here and somebody also called me. And I said something which I stand by. I am not somebody who says something and everywhere is shaking, I will now change my mouth. In fact when everywhere is shaking, I will amplify what I said more, so that everywhere can shake more.
“I said something on this altar and I repeat it and stand by it. I was talking about those who preach grace and say once you are saved, you are saved.I preached all of those things before until I lost a friend. I lost a friend who was also a preacher of grace and I found out ‘what’s going on?”.
“So, I went to go and pray. And the Lord told me that ‘You are preaching Paul, you are not preaching me. And you focus on Corinthians. Who wrote the letter to the Corinthians? Who wrote to the Thessalonians?’
“God told me that the teachings of Paul are not from the lips of Jesus. They are from Paul’s lips. They are the revelations of Christ that Paul had. But Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were the accounts of what Jesus said and did.
“And he said to me that priority and focus should be on the life of Jesus. What Paul said is secondary. Paul actually learnt based on what he was told. He wasn’t there. I’m going to focus more on what Jesus said than what Paul said. If Jesus said and I look at what Paul said and is contrary to what Jesus said. I would not take what Paul said but what Jesus said”.
Quoting 2 Peter 3:15-16, Suleman went on to claim that Peter, a frontline apostle in the Bible advised Christians to be careful of the letters of Paul. He then declared ” I would choose what Jesus said over what Paul said any day”.
From scriptural and historical evidence, could Paul have taught contrary to what Christ taught?
The Pauline background
The Bible does record that Paul before his conversion was a well educated Judaist who hated Christians and their faith. He among others, stood out as a leading persecutor of Christians. He got them arrested and jailed. He supported and conspired with the irate mob that murdered Stephen, a Christian deacon and preacher.
In one of his journeys to unleash terror on the followers of Christ, he heard the voice of Jesus from heaven. In the dramatic encounter, he became converted. Paul soon became one of the leading lights of the Christian faith. He was a relentless missionary who planted many churches. He travelled wide with his team to propagate Christianity and became a mentor to thousands of Christians of his era. Paul wrote at least 13 of the 27 books in the entire canon of the New Testament scriptures.
Fact Checking Suleman
1. Did Paul teach what Christ directly taught him or did he teach based on what he heard from others?
Luke the writer of Acts of the Apostles recorded in the chapter 9 of that book (Acts 9:1-9) that Paul had an encounter with Christ. In Acts 9:15, Jesus told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel who would suffer many things for the sake of the Gospel.
In Acts 13 when some notable church ministers met to pray and fast, the Holy Spirit told them to release Paul and Barnabas for the ministry He had called them into.
In Galatians 1:11-18, Paul affirmed that no man taught him the gospel. He said he was taught by Jesus. He said after his conversion, he did not go to see any of the earlier apostles until after three years so he could not have learned about Jesus from them.
2. Did Paul ever accept he could teach what was contrary to Christ’s?
Paul was an influential figure in the early church era who was well acknowledged for his sincerity. In one of his letters to the Corinthians, he affirmed most trenchantly that the things he taught were the commandments of Christ( I Corinthians 14:37).
3. Did the apostles and church elders collectively endorse Paul?
In Acts 15:23-26, the Jerusalem council of apostles and elders endorsed Paul in a letter to the church in Antioch. They described Paul and his companion as men who had risked their lives for the gospel.
4. Did Peter warn believers to be careful of Paul’s letters as claimed by Suleman?
A contextual analysis of 2 Peter 3:15-16 shows that Peter was not warning believers to be wary of the Pauline epistles. But he was rather endorsing Paul. In fact, he ranked Paul’s writings as scriptures. What Peter said was that Paul’s letters were beyond the understanding of arrogant ignoramuses who would twist his words and take them out of context
5. Did the early church fathers endorse Paul?
In Christian history, leading figures who succeeded the apostles are known as church or apostolic fathers. Among them were Polycarp, Clement, Ignatius, and others.
A good number of them wrote to support Paul.
In his letter to this Philippians, Polycarp ( AD 69-155) wrote: “obey the word of righteousness and to practise all endurance, which you also observed with your own eyes not only in the most fortunate Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others who lived among you, and in Paul himself and the other apostles. … They are with… the Lord, with whom they also suffered.”
Verdict:
From the foregoing, it is clear that Johnson Suleman goofed in his insinuation that Paul could teach anything contrary to Christ’s. The apostles of his era did not think so. The Christian faithful of the time did not think so. None of the respected earliest Christian leaders and writers thought so.
Suleman is in error.