Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Red Letter Christianity
Not only am I going to make it clear that Red Letter Christianity (RLC) is a false religion, but I am going to start off by showing you where the Bible (Peter to be specific) warns us of it in End Times prophecy.
2 Peter 3:10-17 (NASB)
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
There are several points to be made here, so I will give each of them separately.
1) Peter is speaking about the end times, but then tells us that since we will be looking for these things, there is something else we should be watchful for as well. So when he speaks about Paul and his letters, he is doing so as part of his teachings of the end times.
2) Next I want you first to remember something about Peter. In Acts, Ananias and his wife hold back some of the money they sold their house for and lied, pretending they were giving it all to the apostles. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit became aware of this deceit and called Ananias out for it and then later did the same with Ananias' wife. Both of them fell dead as God took their lives from them for their lying to Him. What this tells us is that Peter has the gift of knowledge. The Holy Spirit reveals things to him.
So here in the verses above, what does Peter reveal about Paul? He calls him his beloved brother. He tells us Paul was given wisdom. If Paul was a fake apostle, Peter would have been aware of it. You can fool people, but you cannot fool God. Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit and having the gift of knowledge, it just does not come as a logical argument to say Paul had Peter fooled.
However, RLC doesn't only call Paul a fake apostle, but they also try to say that the other apostles turned against Paul. The problem with believing that is, not only is there no real evidence of that, but Peter says these things after he already read Paul's letters and he says nothing against them!
3) Peter made it clear that he loved Paul like a brother, and said Paul was given wisdom. He also revealed that he was good with what Paul wrote in his letters. Peter then goes on to warn us something that we need to watch for in the end times so we don't fall into its snare.
He tells us that there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard for some to understand. He says in the end times, there will be those who are untaught and unstable, who will distort Paul's teachings as they do the rest of scripture, to their own destruction. He is telling us that so we will watch for it and not be pulled into it. That is exactly what RLC is doing!
Throughout history there were those who thought Paul hated women and such. I have never heard anyone say that Paul was a fake apostle and push so hard for others to believe it as well. Yet here today, we have so many eschatologists being amazed with how perfectly the entire world is lining up with end time prophecy, and now we have Peters own prophecy being fulfilled.
Someone would need to be absolutely blind to not see that Red Letter Christianity is exactly what Peter was warning us about in the end times. They preach that Paul is a fake apostle. They teach that Paul's teachings contradict the teachings of the other apostles as well as what Jesus taught. (Which is not true.) And how do they distort the rest of scripture as Peter says they would do? They preach that the only verses in the Bible that matter are the words of Jesus Christ and the rest of scripture does not matter.
One would have to be spiritually blind to not see that the RLC is exactly what Peter warned us of.
More Reasons Why Red Letter Christianity is Wrong!
1) They pick and choose verses! -- They will argue they don't, but simply by definition what they do is just that. Their main belief is that the words of Jesus is all that matters. You don't need to read the rest of the Bible. If you choose to read only the verses in red, and not the rest of the Bible, you are picking and choosing which verses you will trust. There is absolutely no other way of interpreting that!
2) They teach that the Bible is not the true Word of God! -- If Jesus can be trusted, but none of the other writers can be trusted, you are saying that only the verses in red are the Word of God and the rest is not. If you preach that anything less than the entire Bible is to be trusted, you are clearly saying that the Bible is not the true Word of God!
If you think about this, it is actually a silly belief. Jesus did not write one single word of the Bible. Jesus taught it, but He never put pen to paper and wrote a single word. The entire New Testament was written after Jesus had died and ascended to heaven. So if you cannot trust what the writers of the Bible wrote, how can you trust that anything they say Jesus said was true? Not only is RLC picking and choosing what verses to believe by only accepting the words in red, but they are picking and choosing what parts of the writings of the apostles they want to believe as well.
Don't you find it just a tad difficult to believe that when Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts, that he could be trusted when writing what Jesus said, but cannot be trusted when writing anything else? Do you believe that many years after Jesus died, that the Holy Spirit was strong enough to bring every word of what Jesus said back to their memory correctly, but couldn't tell them anything else to write?
3) They take verses out of context. -- By teaching others that only the verses in red should be followed, they are essentially telling people to take verses out of context. They do not realize they are doing this one, but it still ends up with the same results. If you cannot read the verses around what Jesus says, the words He says can take on a different meaning. This also happens when you cannot compare His words to others verses in the Bible.
A good example is in their stance that Jesus is not God. They claim that Jesus never actually says He is God, so we cannot assume He is God. They wuld believe this of course because their system of red letters only forces this mistake.
Overall, there is a passage of an angel claiming Jesus to be God, there are places where the disciples say He is God and He agrees with them, there are Old Testament Prophets who claim the Messiah will be God. Most importantly, there are two places where Jesus Himself makes the claim, but He does not use the actual words “I am God.”
I have written an article showing that Jesus is in fact God and gives each verse and an explanation. If you question if Jesus is God, I would advise you to read it. If you do not question that fact, then I would have to assume you agree that Red Letter Christianity is wrong if they believe Jesus is not God.
Article… https://www.onegodlogic.com/jesus-god-or-son-of-god.html
RLC was Created as a Political Ploy.
The founders of RLC are Jim Wallis and Tony Compolo are both strong members of the Democratic Party. Even in their own words, they admit that they felt that Christianity in the Right was focused too much on Homosexuality and Abortion. Then they try and make this sound better by adding that they wanted to put the focus back on Christ again.
That last part was a lie that gives the rest of it a lie as well. The majority of Christians who are Republican put the focus on Christ. There are some who are really into politics who focus on the sins that Democrats support. Those are usually Homosexuality and Abortion. However, the majority of Christians are focused on Christ more than anything else. So their mission was not to put the focus back on Christ, but it was to take the focus off of abortion and homosexuality.
That alone makes them wrong! The truth is, God is against homosexuality and abortion. It is wrong to try and justify ones support of sinful things by trying to keep people from reading the entire Word of God! Anyone who knows me knows I believe most Christians are wrong for attacking homosexuals over their sin. It is not an unforgivable sin and we should be focused on bringing them to Christ rather than attacking them for their sins. Even so, it is much worse to try and distort God's Word to further your political beliefs.
Their main goal is to water down Christianity so they can get more of the Christian votes to the democratic party. To achieve their goal, they tell us Paul is a fake apostle. No words but the words of Jesus should matter and Paul's teachings are contradicting to all of the other apostles as well as the teachings of Jesus.
In turn this pushes the belief that the Bible is not the true Word of God and only the words Jesus spoke can be trusted. Even if those words were written down by the same guys they are saying can't be trusted.
I am not real big into politics myself. However, I will always tell people that if they call themselves a Christian, they should never vote for the democratic party. As Christians, we should ALWAYS place God's will above our own. It doesn't matter if you are a minority and think the democrats care about you more (which is a lie as well) or what your personal beliefs are for how a government should be ran. It doesn't matter if you like the president or not. The Democratic party is the party that stands for everything that God is against. They stand for abortion and God is against it. They stand for homosexuality and God is against it. They have been the party that over and over pushes to remove God from schools and any other venue they can. To vote democratic is to vote anti-God and that is absolutely wrong! So the simple fact that RCL is founded by Democratic Party members and was created for the purpose of satisfying their beliefs, it makes this religions absolutely wrong!
Are the Red Letter Christians even Saved?
I just don't know. Part of me says they are because according to the truth of God's Word, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus is Lord. So by those beliefs they are saved. The only question is where is their belief? Is it in the head or the heart? Each person will be judged individually for that.
By some of their logic, one might argue they do not seem to be filled with the Holy Spirit. However, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a prerequisite. Being sealed by the Holy Spirit is. The moment we truly believe, God sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise of salvation. Being filled with the Holy Spirit seems to be something a little different. This seems to be where the Holy Spirit fills you up and uses you to His purpose.
I have read some of the so called contradictions they point out between Paul and Jesus. I have to say, some of them shows me that if they are saved, they are definitely not in tune with the Holy Spirit. They definitely are not hearing His voice speak to them. However, this is the same thing that happens when one is truly saved and falls back into a life of sin. They are still born again, but they become so separated from God that they do not hear His voice anymore. When one strives to grow closer to God, the Holy Spirit grows stronger in them. They become more in tune with Him and Hear His voice more clearly. Though I have to admit, it would be hard to be right with God when you are spending time distorting His Word rather than proving it.
As for some of those contradictions...
RLC LIE---
None of the books contradicts what Jesus teaches until Paul's epistles.
TRUTH ---
In all of my studying the many doctrines I have studied. Not once have I found a contradiction in what Paul teaches and what Jesus teaches. I found a site where someone lists off the contradictions and as I read through quite a few of them, I could not help but to roll my eyes. Just like the supposed contradictions of the atheists, none of them were true. These things being called contradictions were nothing more than proof that one can study and know the Bible, but without the Holy Spirits true guidance, they never learn the truth.
The difference between these "RLC" and atheists, is that atheists are trying to prove God is not real. These others are deliberately twisting the Word of God to fit what they want to believe. Atheists do not have the help of the Holy Spirit to understand the scriptures better. RLC if they are true believers, should have that help and the only reason they make such basic mistakes is because they are not even trying to find the truth.
Since Paul is the only one (for the most part) who gives clearer explanation to the teachings and goes into more detail, and the teachings fly in the face of what they want to believe, they are faced with a choice. Change their beliefs to fit the entire Word of God or find a way to cut out the parts that contradict what they believe. So they defame Paul and say he was a fake, because following the truth of God's Word is not what is important to them. Making Gods Word fit their beliefs is what is important to them.
RLC LIE---
Jesus says not to take anything for your preaching and Paul teaches to make a profit.
TRUTH ---
When Jesus gave his disciples directions and sent them out to preach, he told them to freely give as they freely received. That is because God gave them the ability to heal and cast out demons freely, so Jesus was telling them to not try and get rich off it. However, Jesus did also tell them to find the one who was worthy in each town and to abide with them. To live with them the entire time they were there. These people fed them and gave them whatever they needed. So they were receiving for their preaching, but just receiving what they needed to survive.
Paul on the other hand, was not just sending a few men on a journey to live with others while the preached. He was setting up a regular church. Those who ran the church would not be living with someone else to take care of them and they needed to still survive. With clearly different situation, he gave the okay to make a wage so they could still buy food and such. He also gave minor rules on how much they should make in comparison to each other in their positions in the church. He never gives any impression that one is to preach for profit to get rich.
In fact, Paul Himself never took a profit or even wages out of anyone's pockets. He actually found people of a similar trade that he was trained in (tent maker) and he worked manual labor with them, to help them make more money while he was there, so they did not suffer for taking care of him. To say that Paul was teaching to make a profit is nothing more than twisting the Bible to make a false claim.
RLC LIE---
Paul teaches that we are saved by faith alone and Jesus says we must do the will of the Father.
TRUTH ---
This is one of those cases where they not only just read the words in red, but they pick and choose a particular verse and do not even keep it in context, for the sole benefit of twisting God's Word to fit their beliefs. After all, you cant claim Paul as a fake apostle if you cant show contradictions right?
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Matthew 7:21 (NASB)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
When you read Matthew 7:21 all by itself, it sounds like Jesus is saying that for anyone to enter heaven, they must do the will of the Father. Now let us read it in context.
Matthew 7:15-23 (NASB)
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
When you read it in context, you realize this teaching from Jesus is not for everyone, but is about false teachers and false prophets. It starts right off in verse 15 making it clear...
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
Then after he says you must do the will of my Father he says...
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
So those verses show He is still talking about the false prophets and such. If prophets and teachers are not teaching and doing the will of the Father and teaching the truth, they will be claiming how they did all these miracles in His name, and He will say to them that He never knew them and to depart from Me.
In order to make Paul look contradicting, they take an entire passage about Jesus preaching against false teachers and false prophets and such, and yank one particular verse out of it and use it all by itself so it sounds like Jesus is saying something He is not. And so many then fall for that because they do not actually study God's Word for themselves and if they do, many study it looking to prove their beliefs instead of looking for the truth.
Of course you may wish to argue that you believe the RLC interpretation of this verse more. That is fine. You have every right to believe what you wish. Just keep this little bit of information in mind....
there are 11 primary verses in the Bible where Jesus states "how" we are saved. (I list them all in my book) A primary verse is a verse that says exactly what it means. It leaves no room for secondary interpretations. In all 11 of those verses, Jesus only mentions believing in Him. There are a handful of verses where Jesus mentions doing the will of His father, baptism, being born of water and of spirit, etc... Every single one of them are interpreted verses. He says baptism, but never says what kind of baptism, water or of the Holy Spirit? He always leaves something for interpretation.
Think logically for a moment. We are not talking about some street preacher who used to be on drugs and half his brain is fried now. We are speaking about the Son of God! The most critical teaching in His ministry is on our salvation. To believe that doing the will of the father is necessary to be saved, you have to also accept that the Son of God was negligent to mention that extremely important detail in more than half of the times He teaches us how we are saved. That would be some pretty shoddy preaching even from the worst of preachers. But you are willing to believe that Jesus sucked at preaching and forgot imperative prerequisites to our salvation in most of his teachings, and believe in a handful of interpreted verses over 11 primary verses, just to keep believing in the Red Letter Christianities false teachings.
I know that the RLC do not accept the teachings of the apostles (especially Paul's) but there are 5 primary verses by the others and 7 primary verses from Paul that all agree with the 11 primary verses from Jesus that only mentions believing to be saved.
2 Peter 3:10-17 (NASB)
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,
There are several points to be made here, so I will give each of them separately.
1) Peter is speaking about the end times, but then tells us that since we will be looking for these things, there is something else we should be watchful for as well. So when he speaks about Paul and his letters, he is doing so as part of his teachings of the end times.
2) Next I want you first to remember something about Peter. In Acts, Ananias and his wife hold back some of the money they sold their house for and lied, pretending they were giving it all to the apostles. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit became aware of this deceit and called Ananias out for it and then later did the same with Ananias' wife. Both of them fell dead as God took their lives from them for their lying to Him. What this tells us is that Peter has the gift of knowledge. The Holy Spirit reveals things to him.
So here in the verses above, what does Peter reveal about Paul? He calls him his beloved brother. He tells us Paul was given wisdom. If Paul was a fake apostle, Peter would have been aware of it. You can fool people, but you cannot fool God. Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit and having the gift of knowledge, it just does not come as a logical argument to say Paul had Peter fooled.
However, RLC doesn't only call Paul a fake apostle, but they also try to say that the other apostles turned against Paul. The problem with believing that is, not only is there no real evidence of that, but Peter says these things after he already read Paul's letters and he says nothing against them!
3) Peter made it clear that he loved Paul like a brother, and said Paul was given wisdom. He also revealed that he was good with what Paul wrote in his letters. Peter then goes on to warn us something that we need to watch for in the end times so we don't fall into its snare.
He tells us that there are some things in Paul's letters that are hard for some to understand. He says in the end times, there will be those who are untaught and unstable, who will distort Paul's teachings as they do the rest of scripture, to their own destruction. He is telling us that so we will watch for it and not be pulled into it. That is exactly what RLC is doing!
Throughout history there were those who thought Paul hated women and such. I have never heard anyone say that Paul was a fake apostle and push so hard for others to believe it as well. Yet here today, we have so many eschatologists being amazed with how perfectly the entire world is lining up with end time prophecy, and now we have Peters own prophecy being fulfilled.
Someone would need to be absolutely blind to not see that Red Letter Christianity is exactly what Peter was warning us about in the end times. They preach that Paul is a fake apostle. They teach that Paul's teachings contradict the teachings of the other apostles as well as what Jesus taught. (Which is not true.) And how do they distort the rest of scripture as Peter says they would do? They preach that the only verses in the Bible that matter are the words of Jesus Christ and the rest of scripture does not matter.
One would have to be spiritually blind to not see that the RLC is exactly what Peter warned us of.
More Reasons Why Red Letter Christianity is Wrong!
1) They pick and choose verses! -- They will argue they don't, but simply by definition what they do is just that. Their main belief is that the words of Jesus is all that matters. You don't need to read the rest of the Bible. If you choose to read only the verses in red, and not the rest of the Bible, you are picking and choosing which verses you will trust. There is absolutely no other way of interpreting that!
2) They teach that the Bible is not the true Word of God! -- If Jesus can be trusted, but none of the other writers can be trusted, you are saying that only the verses in red are the Word of God and the rest is not. If you preach that anything less than the entire Bible is to be trusted, you are clearly saying that the Bible is not the true Word of God!
If you think about this, it is actually a silly belief. Jesus did not write one single word of the Bible. Jesus taught it, but He never put pen to paper and wrote a single word. The entire New Testament was written after Jesus had died and ascended to heaven. So if you cannot trust what the writers of the Bible wrote, how can you trust that anything they say Jesus said was true? Not only is RLC picking and choosing what verses to believe by only accepting the words in red, but they are picking and choosing what parts of the writings of the apostles they want to believe as well.
Don't you find it just a tad difficult to believe that when Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts, that he could be trusted when writing what Jesus said, but cannot be trusted when writing anything else? Do you believe that many years after Jesus died, that the Holy Spirit was strong enough to bring every word of what Jesus said back to their memory correctly, but couldn't tell them anything else to write?
3) They take verses out of context. -- By teaching others that only the verses in red should be followed, they are essentially telling people to take verses out of context. They do not realize they are doing this one, but it still ends up with the same results. If you cannot read the verses around what Jesus says, the words He says can take on a different meaning. This also happens when you cannot compare His words to others verses in the Bible.
A good example is in their stance that Jesus is not God. They claim that Jesus never actually says He is God, so we cannot assume He is God. They wuld believe this of course because their system of red letters only forces this mistake.
Overall, there is a passage of an angel claiming Jesus to be God, there are places where the disciples say He is God and He agrees with them, there are Old Testament Prophets who claim the Messiah will be God. Most importantly, there are two places where Jesus Himself makes the claim, but He does not use the actual words “I am God.”
I have written an article showing that Jesus is in fact God and gives each verse and an explanation. If you question if Jesus is God, I would advise you to read it. If you do not question that fact, then I would have to assume you agree that Red Letter Christianity is wrong if they believe Jesus is not God.
Article… https://www.onegodlogic.com/jesus-god-or-son-of-god.html
RLC was Created as a Political Ploy.
The founders of RLC are Jim Wallis and Tony Compolo are both strong members of the Democratic Party. Even in their own words, they admit that they felt that Christianity in the Right was focused too much on Homosexuality and Abortion. Then they try and make this sound better by adding that they wanted to put the focus back on Christ again.
That last part was a lie that gives the rest of it a lie as well. The majority of Christians who are Republican put the focus on Christ. There are some who are really into politics who focus on the sins that Democrats support. Those are usually Homosexuality and Abortion. However, the majority of Christians are focused on Christ more than anything else. So their mission was not to put the focus back on Christ, but it was to take the focus off of abortion and homosexuality.
That alone makes them wrong! The truth is, God is against homosexuality and abortion. It is wrong to try and justify ones support of sinful things by trying to keep people from reading the entire Word of God! Anyone who knows me knows I believe most Christians are wrong for attacking homosexuals over their sin. It is not an unforgivable sin and we should be focused on bringing them to Christ rather than attacking them for their sins. Even so, it is much worse to try and distort God's Word to further your political beliefs.
Their main goal is to water down Christianity so they can get more of the Christian votes to the democratic party. To achieve their goal, they tell us Paul is a fake apostle. No words but the words of Jesus should matter and Paul's teachings are contradicting to all of the other apostles as well as the teachings of Jesus.
In turn this pushes the belief that the Bible is not the true Word of God and only the words Jesus spoke can be trusted. Even if those words were written down by the same guys they are saying can't be trusted.
I am not real big into politics myself. However, I will always tell people that if they call themselves a Christian, they should never vote for the democratic party. As Christians, we should ALWAYS place God's will above our own. It doesn't matter if you are a minority and think the democrats care about you more (which is a lie as well) or what your personal beliefs are for how a government should be ran. It doesn't matter if you like the president or not. The Democratic party is the party that stands for everything that God is against. They stand for abortion and God is against it. They stand for homosexuality and God is against it. They have been the party that over and over pushes to remove God from schools and any other venue they can. To vote democratic is to vote anti-God and that is absolutely wrong! So the simple fact that RCL is founded by Democratic Party members and was created for the purpose of satisfying their beliefs, it makes this religions absolutely wrong!
Are the Red Letter Christians even Saved?
I just don't know. Part of me says they are because according to the truth of God's Word, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus is Lord. So by those beliefs they are saved. The only question is where is their belief? Is it in the head or the heart? Each person will be judged individually for that.
By some of their logic, one might argue they do not seem to be filled with the Holy Spirit. However, being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a prerequisite. Being sealed by the Holy Spirit is. The moment we truly believe, God sends the Holy Spirit to seal us with the promise of salvation. Being filled with the Holy Spirit seems to be something a little different. This seems to be where the Holy Spirit fills you up and uses you to His purpose.
I have read some of the so called contradictions they point out between Paul and Jesus. I have to say, some of them shows me that if they are saved, they are definitely not in tune with the Holy Spirit. They definitely are not hearing His voice speak to them. However, this is the same thing that happens when one is truly saved and falls back into a life of sin. They are still born again, but they become so separated from God that they do not hear His voice anymore. When one strives to grow closer to God, the Holy Spirit grows stronger in them. They become more in tune with Him and Hear His voice more clearly. Though I have to admit, it would be hard to be right with God when you are spending time distorting His Word rather than proving it.
As for some of those contradictions...
RLC LIE---
None of the books contradicts what Jesus teaches until Paul's epistles.
TRUTH ---
In all of my studying the many doctrines I have studied. Not once have I found a contradiction in what Paul teaches and what Jesus teaches. I found a site where someone lists off the contradictions and as I read through quite a few of them, I could not help but to roll my eyes. Just like the supposed contradictions of the atheists, none of them were true. These things being called contradictions were nothing more than proof that one can study and know the Bible, but without the Holy Spirits true guidance, they never learn the truth.
The difference between these "RLC" and atheists, is that atheists are trying to prove God is not real. These others are deliberately twisting the Word of God to fit what they want to believe. Atheists do not have the help of the Holy Spirit to understand the scriptures better. RLC if they are true believers, should have that help and the only reason they make such basic mistakes is because they are not even trying to find the truth.
Since Paul is the only one (for the most part) who gives clearer explanation to the teachings and goes into more detail, and the teachings fly in the face of what they want to believe, they are faced with a choice. Change their beliefs to fit the entire Word of God or find a way to cut out the parts that contradict what they believe. So they defame Paul and say he was a fake, because following the truth of God's Word is not what is important to them. Making Gods Word fit their beliefs is what is important to them.
RLC LIE---
Jesus says not to take anything for your preaching and Paul teaches to make a profit.
TRUTH ---
When Jesus gave his disciples directions and sent them out to preach, he told them to freely give as they freely received. That is because God gave them the ability to heal and cast out demons freely, so Jesus was telling them to not try and get rich off it. However, Jesus did also tell them to find the one who was worthy in each town and to abide with them. To live with them the entire time they were there. These people fed them and gave them whatever they needed. So they were receiving for their preaching, but just receiving what they needed to survive.
Paul on the other hand, was not just sending a few men on a journey to live with others while the preached. He was setting up a regular church. Those who ran the church would not be living with someone else to take care of them and they needed to still survive. With clearly different situation, he gave the okay to make a wage so they could still buy food and such. He also gave minor rules on how much they should make in comparison to each other in their positions in the church. He never gives any impression that one is to preach for profit to get rich.
In fact, Paul Himself never took a profit or even wages out of anyone's pockets. He actually found people of a similar trade that he was trained in (tent maker) and he worked manual labor with them, to help them make more money while he was there, so they did not suffer for taking care of him. To say that Paul was teaching to make a profit is nothing more than twisting the Bible to make a false claim.
RLC LIE---
Paul teaches that we are saved by faith alone and Jesus says we must do the will of the Father.
TRUTH ---
This is one of those cases where they not only just read the words in red, but they pick and choose a particular verse and do not even keep it in context, for the sole benefit of twisting God's Word to fit their beliefs. After all, you cant claim Paul as a fake apostle if you cant show contradictions right?
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Matthew 7:21 (NASB)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
When you read Matthew 7:21 all by itself, it sounds like Jesus is saying that for anyone to enter heaven, they must do the will of the Father. Now let us read it in context.
Matthew 7:15-23 (NASB)
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
When you read it in context, you realize this teaching from Jesus is not for everyone, but is about false teachers and false prophets. It starts right off in verse 15 making it clear...
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
Then after he says you must do the will of my Father he says...
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
So those verses show He is still talking about the false prophets and such. If prophets and teachers are not teaching and doing the will of the Father and teaching the truth, they will be claiming how they did all these miracles in His name, and He will say to them that He never knew them and to depart from Me.
In order to make Paul look contradicting, they take an entire passage about Jesus preaching against false teachers and false prophets and such, and yank one particular verse out of it and use it all by itself so it sounds like Jesus is saying something He is not. And so many then fall for that because they do not actually study God's Word for themselves and if they do, many study it looking to prove their beliefs instead of looking for the truth.
Of course you may wish to argue that you believe the RLC interpretation of this verse more. That is fine. You have every right to believe what you wish. Just keep this little bit of information in mind....
there are 11 primary verses in the Bible where Jesus states "how" we are saved. (I list them all in my book) A primary verse is a verse that says exactly what it means. It leaves no room for secondary interpretations. In all 11 of those verses, Jesus only mentions believing in Him. There are a handful of verses where Jesus mentions doing the will of His father, baptism, being born of water and of spirit, etc... Every single one of them are interpreted verses. He says baptism, but never says what kind of baptism, water or of the Holy Spirit? He always leaves something for interpretation.
Think logically for a moment. We are not talking about some street preacher who used to be on drugs and half his brain is fried now. We are speaking about the Son of God! The most critical teaching in His ministry is on our salvation. To believe that doing the will of the father is necessary to be saved, you have to also accept that the Son of God was negligent to mention that extremely important detail in more than half of the times He teaches us how we are saved. That would be some pretty shoddy preaching even from the worst of preachers. But you are willing to believe that Jesus sucked at preaching and forgot imperative prerequisites to our salvation in most of his teachings, and believe in a handful of interpreted verses over 11 primary verses, just to keep believing in the Red Letter Christianities false teachings.
I know that the RLC do not accept the teachings of the apostles (especially Paul's) but there are 5 primary verses by the others and 7 primary verses from Paul that all agree with the 11 primary verses from Jesus that only mentions believing to be saved.