Jesus' Words Only

Reviving Focus on Jesus' Words Alone.
[Audio Version]

Our mission is to proclaim our Lord Jesus' lesson that He was the "sole teacher" (Matthew 23:8-11) and "sole pastor." (John 10:16 G. poimen.) He sternly told the apostles they were not to call themselves or anyone else a "teacher"! In John, Jesus explained why when He insisted that the "apostolos is not more important than the one who sent him." (John 13:16.) The Greek word apostolos means either the title of Apostle or messenger or one that is sent. Here Jesus meant He was more important than any Apostle or messenger.

Even John the Baptist realized that despite knowing he himself was the greatest prophet who ever lived prior to Jesus (Matthew 11:11), yet he "must decrease" so that unfettered acceptance of Jesus' message would "increase." (John 3:30-31.)

Once Jesus began preaching the kingdom, then it would rob him of the authority God gave Jesus to treat anyone else's words -- particularly from mere correspondence whose author does not claim to quote Jesus or God -- as an authority on the same level as Jesus: "All authority has been given me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18.) For more on this principle, see our article "The Jesus' Words Only Principle Explained from Numbers 12 & Deut. 18."

Competing Love For Paul / Pauline Doctrine.

The Modern Church has instead fallen in love with Paul, or, more correctly, the points in Paul's writings that soften the requirements of costly grace which Jesus taught. This causes a vying for control over the church. Either Paul and his Dispensation of Grace applies, or Jesus and His costly grace gospel applies, as Bonhoeffer highlighted. We have developed two masters. Mainstream Christian theologians largely defend dismissing Jesus' words as applicable only to a prior dispensation of Law. Sometimes this is called Dispensationalism or Covenant Theology, but it all ends up the same: marginalizing Jesus' words. The famous theologian Rudolf Bultmann even claimed Paul teaches us in Second Corinthians 5:16 that it is necessary to treat Jesus's teachings pre-resurrection as irrelevant. (Bultman on Paul.)

Based upon this, Bultmann has influenced evangelical seminaries ever since to teach young pastors to emphasize the message of Paul, dismissing as largely irrelevant the words of Jesus. To dismiss Jesus' words as pertinent only to a supposedly old covenant of Law disregards entirely the prophecies that the New Testament was supposed to place the Law more proximately on our hearts, and God would give us a heart wanting to obey His statutes. See our New Testament in Prophecy. PS The Law on Gentiles in the Law is a short list -- largely just the Ten Commandments. Importantly, Gentiles had the option to use atonements provided in the Law - and this is why we can invoke Jesus' atonement for us. See Law Applicable to Gentiles.

Bultmann's influential dismissal of any ongoing validity to Jesus' words in the New Covenant Scriptures, putting all the emphasis on Paul's words, proves the danger of two masters as Jesus said: you will love the one and hate the other. (Matthew 6:24.) This is where the church is today--having been wooed from its first love for Christ. To avoid making any apostle a competing master, we must remember the apostles only had one inspired function -- that is when they served to carry Jesus' words (John 14:26), that is, when they serve the role of a "messenger" -- the meaning of the Greek word apostolos. Otherwise, they are at best edifying.

Growing Realization Of This Truth In The Church.

This message of focusing only on the words of Jesus as the New Covenant inspired scripture appears overdue. The hunger for this information is reflected by the number of visitors. Since January 2008 through April 30, 2020, there have been over 18 million hits, increasing at a present rate since January 1, 2020 of over 2.8 million per annum.

By comparison, in all of 2016, the rate was 1.6 million per year. For all of 2019, it was 2.7 million per annum.

Clearly, interest on this topic continues to speedily grow. Yet, rest-assured, nothing is monetized on this site. No cookies, and no tracking.

Over 500 true followers of Jesus / Yahshua have written positive emails and book reviews on Jesus' Words Only and Jesus' Words On Salvation. (See "Reviews" Tab above.) These two books are available here free for download in PDF. (The chapters also have been converted to webpages with free links in the list below.) If you wish to share these books with others, they can also be purchased from Amazon and major online retailers.

Works by other authors are highlighted here because they too draw us to trust only Jesus as our true sole teacher and our divinely-indwelled Lord (John 14:10 "father dwells in me.") For more information on general church topics, including articles and books critical of Paulinism, see the popular "Further Reading" tab.

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