Introduction

In the book of Numbers, Balaam, a man who possessed the gift of prophecy said, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

The apostle Paul, in writing to Titus, stated, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began (Titus 1:2).

With these two verses in mind, someone might ask why would you accuse Jesus of being a liar? To be fair, I am not. However, there are two statements that Jesus makes, which are truthful, yet in the denominational world, they seem to contradict Him. Both cannot be correct and so one of them is a liar.

How Much Authority?

Shortly after He was resurrected, and before He ascended back to Heaven, Jesus gathered the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18) Here’s a question: If Jesus has all authority, how much is left for anyone else? The answer is: Nothing!

With that in mind, why then does the Catholic religion have a pope? Here’s what Encyclopedia Britannica has to say on the matter…

Doctrinally, in Catholic churches, the pope is regarded as the successor of St. Peter, who was head of the apostles. The pope, as bishop of Rome, is thus seen to have full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal church in matters of faith and morals, as well as in church discipline and government.

What’s interesting is that Peter was never “head of the apostles” in fact, none of them were the “head” of anything. Since he was seen as Jesus’ ‘righthand man’, they assume him to be leader; or the first pope.

If the pope is the successor of Peter, then that makes Jesus a liar when He stated that He had “all authority”. All mean ALL and there is nothing left for anyone else. It’s irrelevant that Jesus is no longer on earth. He is reigning in Heaven (Eph. 1:20; Heb. 8:1; 12:2; 1 Pet. 3:22), and no one has the power to usurp his authority.

Going one step further, we ask the question: Where is the headquarters of the Church? The answer is, Heaven. The reason is that since Jesus resides there, and He is the head of the church (Col. 1:17-18), that makes it the headquarters.

The headquarters of the Catholic church is the Vatican in Rome, Italy, it can’t be they can’t be the head of the church. Any headquarters found on earth is not the authority of the church.

In conclusion, it is not Jesus who lied but, rather, those who make a man to be authoritative over the church; be it: Pope, Bishop, Priest, President, Prophet, etc. These men are the liars!

What Must I do to be Saved?

Another example is found in the great commission that Jesus gave to his apostles and to us. This also took place after His resurrection but before His ascension back to The Father.

In Mark 16:16, Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” In the first half, the word ‘and’ connects the words ‘believes’ and ‘baptized’ together. It’s a conjunction and it implies that both words are necessary as they are linked together.

Most of the denominations out there are more focused on the word ‘believe’ simply because it appears twice in the statement. However, no one, I know, has come to a church and said, “Look, I don’t believe in Jesus, but I do want to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.” It can’t be done! You have to believe and then be baptized. But you’re not saved first and baptized later because it doesn’t say that in this simple statement.

If baptism isn’t necessary for salvation, then Jesus is a liar! But we know that it IS necessary. On the day of Pentecost, at the conclusion of Peter’s sermon, the people listening asked what they must do (Acts 2:37) and his response was, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (vs. 38) If you read the rest of the book of Acts, you’ll see that every individual who was saved was baptized.

Even the apostle Paul stated, in his letter to the Galatians, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

Conclusion

From these two examples we can clearly see that Jesus is not a liar. But men, who want to do things for themselves (and still claim to be His people), are the liars. Make up your mind to read the scriptures for yourself and find out what God expects of each and every one of us.