The Gospels vs. the Epistles & a Warped View of the Trinity

I recently got into a conversation with someone on the street who appeared to have a lot of zeal for God, but when I spoke of sins Paul listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, this person made a comment to the sort of "Paul had some good writings, but he was not Jesus." I do not know if there was a certain sin in these 2 verses that I was referring to that hit a strong chord or not, but this person was big on the 4 gospels.

I recently got into a conversation with another person (who belongs to the Catholic church) about homosexuality and I was accused of being judgmental towards the homosexual lifestyle. Here is the list of sinners in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that will not inherit the kingdom of God: the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. If you were to ask anyone if stealing was wrong, they would definitely say yes. They may try to justify that it really "isn't stealing when I take stuff from work," etc., but I guarantee that if you were to take something of theirs, it would be wrong.

I do not know why the specific sin of homosexuality is given the green light when the rest of the sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are not. When I showed my relative this passage, I got the same answer that I got on the street: these were Paul's words, not Jesus'. This relative also referred to the Bible as a "history book." It should not surprise me that when I asked why God sent Jesus into the world I didn't hear anything about the forgiveness of sins and something about how Jesus was someone we could relate to in a human form.

This person did put a lot of stock in the Torah and the laws given to Moses because they were directly from God. In Acts 9:15, the Lord, Himself, told Ananias that Saul (renamed to Paul) is "a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel."

2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." You may say that these are Paul's words and not divinely inspired, but remember that Paul was called by the Lord Himself.

Back to the issue of homosexuality- if you want to take God's words on it- Leviticus 18:22 (from God Himself) specifically prohibits it. It is not one of the ceremonial laws that no longer apply.

On the issue of the Trinity, my relative reasoned that since Jesus = God and the Father = God, that believing in the Father or Jesus would result in salvation. Jews could believe in the Father and be saved, or one can believe in Jesus and be saved since they are both God. Furthermore, since Allah is the God of Abraham which is the same God as the Jewish God, Muslims can be saved by believing in Allah. This is not the way it works.

My attempts to quote John 14:6 were useless. Even though Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," since Jesus = God, the Father = God and Allah = the God of Abraham (the same Christian God), one can believe in any of the three and be saved. In addition to this, the second coming of Jesus will be both the first coming (of the Messiah) for the Jews and the second coming.

This is what happens when a low view (or lack there of) is taken of Scripture. I was accused of being closed minded that Jesus was the only way. It wouldn't have done any good to quote Matthew 7:13-14 where Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

I guess Jesus is just as closed minded. So, did Jesus take His cues from me or did I take mine from Him?