How Paul invented Christian faith & destroyed that of Je
Paul: how he invented the current Christian faith & destroyed that of Jesus
One of the most confusing sections of the Bible is those epistles (letters) that Paul wrote. They are not considered "gospels" & yet they fill more than half the pages of the New Testament. They contain a lot of contradictory statements & are the real cause for the deviation of current Christianity from its original righteous path. They were the seed that started the division of the Christian faith into several opposing sects. From the moment these epistles were included in the holy book, Christianity kept drifting farther & farther away from its simple forgiving origins. The core of today's Christianity barely has any connection with Jesus' preaching & has even shifted far from Paul's deviations (absurd as they may be):
1. Paul claimed that Jesus is "the Son of God" Romans1: 4, but not "the God". He is a Lord that comes 2nd to the Father.
2. Paul never stated that God (the father) & Christ (the son) are one.
3. Paul did not say that God & Christ are equal. Paul defined God as the father/the creator/the almighty/the greatest, while Jesus was always the follower who takes after the father.
4. Paul never referred to any "trinity".
5. Paul did not designate mother Mary any divinity & never called her "the mother of Light (God)".
Paul may have put down the foundation of Christianity, but the Patriarchs/Monks/Priests throughout the years have added a multi-story building on top of this base, a building that Paul himself (let alone Jesus Christ) never intended to be erected!
Notes on Paul's autobiography [according to Acts (of the Apostles) in the Holy Book]
1. In Acts 9 Saul (Paul's original Jewish name before embracing Christianity) is portrayed (years after the ascent of Christ to Heaven) as a fanatic anti-Christ Jew who was "breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord." He went to the high priest of Jerusalem & asked him for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus deputizing Saul to arrest any man or woman embracing the new religion & bring them bound in chains back to Jerusalem. "As he journeyed & came near Damascus, a light from Heaven suddenly flashed around him making him fall to the ground. He then heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?" So he said, "Who are you, Lord?" Then Jesus replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Get up & get into the city & you will be told what you must do." At this very moment Saul shifted his beliefs from the far-left anti-Christ stand to become a far right fanatic pro-Christ! Now, three versions of this incident appear in this section of the Bible [Acts], not one of them is identical with the other. So let's review them & note the differences:
a) In Acts 9 "The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. They led him by the hand to Damascus. For 3 days he was blind & did not eat or drink anything."
b) In Acts 22: 9 "…my companions indeed saw the light & were afraid, but they did not hear the voice.."
c) In Acts 26: 13 " … along the road I saw a light from Heaven stronger than the sun, shining around me & those who journeyed with me. We all had fallen to the ground when I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew…"
So, in version (a) the companions heard the sound but did not see the light & Saul was blinded. In version (b) they saw the light but did not hear the voice. In version (c) all of them fell to the ground (not just Saul as in a). How can the same crucial event be narrated by the same man (Paul) in the same chapter (only few pages apart) of the same book (the Bible) & be that different? There is no plausible explanation other than being a fabrication or that the man is feeble-minded.
2. Now let us carry on with the story in Acts 9 "In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Arise & go to the house of Judas on the street named Straight & ask for the man from Tarsus, Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he saw a man named Ananias coming in & putting his hand on him to restore his sight." Ananias said to the Lord, "I have heard from many about the man & all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. He has come here with an authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles & their kings & before the people of Israel." Then Ananias went into the house & on placing his hands on Saul he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus-who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-has sent me so that you may see again & be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes & he could see again. He got up & was baptized. After taking some food, he regained his strength. Immediately, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. " All of a sudden Paul becomes "Immediately" an expert in Christianity & begins preaching it! And what does he preach: that Jesus is the son of God. Who taught him that? Where has he learned the principles of his preachings? Also, there is a historic flop as Damascus did not have synagogues at the time being an enemy of the Jews." All those who heard him were astonished & asked, "Isn't he the same man who destroyed all those who called on this name [Christ]? & hasn't he come here for the purpose of taking them bound in chains as prisoners to the chief priests?" They were astonished then & we are still amazed now! "After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan… but his followers took him by night & lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall [surrounding Damascus]. When he reached Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples [of Jesus] but they were all afraid of him & didn't believe that he was really a disciple. But Barnabas· took him & brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey to Damascus had seen the Lord & that the Lord had spoken to him, & how in Damascus he has preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed in Jerusalem with them & he moved freely speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He disputed with the Hellenists [Greeks] & they tried to kill him. When the brothers learned of this, they brought him to Caesarea & sent him to Tarsus." One small remark, the occupants (at that time) were Romans & not Greeks!
3. The narration stops here to be resumed in Acts 11: 22 when the church in Jerusalem learns of the great number of believers (including many non-Jews) turning to Jesus' message in the north, so they decide to send Barnabas to Antioch to teach the new believers. He went to Tarsus to fetch Paul, found him & took him back with him to Tarsus where they stayed preaching in the Church for one year. "…And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" Acts 11: 26. Isn't this strange? Jesus never gave his message, followers & disciples a particular name during his stay on earth. Now, several years after his ascent to heaven, there comes someone whom Jesus never met: a zealot enemy of his message who suddenly turns towards it because of an alleged vision of Jesus. Out of a sense of self-guilt & repentance for his previous attitudes or out of a cunning desire to degrade the message of its forgiving humble goodness content, this man (Paul) begins preaching a new religion exalting Jesus to the divine levels of God & gives it the name (Christianity) that the founder of it dared never use; a name implying that followers now worship Christ rather than the Creator of Christ, the Almighty God. Furthermore, Paul disobeys the rules of preaching that his master had set, he preaches to non-Jews (Gentiles) & in a land far up north of where Jesus intended his message to be confined; "Jesus said 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel'" Mathew: 15: 24.
4. While preaching in Cyprus, together with Barnabas, the Holy Book tells us that Saul has suddenly changed his name to Paul & no reasons are given, "Then Saul, who also is called Paul, became filled with the Holy spirit.." Acts 13: 9. So what does this Saul or Paul say about his origin? We become really very much confused about a man who seems not to know his origin (or is deliberately changing or hiding it), a man who is sainted & considered the founder of the current Christian faith by most Christians. In Acts 16: 37 we find that Paul is Roman, "But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly without being condemned in any trial even though we are Romans." In Acts 21: 37 Paul is thought to be an Egyptian, but he addresses the Jerusalem mob saying that he is a Jew from Tarsus; " Then as Paul was about to be led to the barracks, he asked the commander in Greek, 'May I say something to you?' The commander said, "Do you speak Greek? Aren't you the Egyptian who sometime ago stirred up a revolt & led 4000 terrorists out into the desert?' Paul answered, 'I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia…" In Acts 22: 25-28 Paul again insists that he was Roman, not a one who obtained the citizenship but born Roman, " As Paul was bound with thongs to be flogged, he said to the centurion [commander of 100 soldiers] who stood by, ' Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen who hasn't been found guilty?'…. the commander said to him, 'Are you Roman?' Paul said, 'Yes.' The commander said, 'I had to pay a big price to obtain my Roman citizenship.' And Paul said, 'But I was born a citizen [Roman]." Still, for more confusion, in Acts 23: 6 Paul shouts out loud that he is a Pharisee! " But when Paul perceived that some of the members of the Sanhedrin [high Jewish council] were Sadducees & the others Pharisees [2 different Jewish creeds], he cried out in the council 'My brothers I am a Pharisee & the son of a Pharisee.."
5. To carry on with Paul's story (according to Acts), in Jerusalem Paul was arrested in the temple by Jews from Asia shouting, "he is the man who is teaching against the laws of Jews" Acts 21:28, he was rescued from the mob by Roman soldiers. He was given a hearing infront of the Jewish council & there was a plot to kill him from which he was saved & deported to Caesarea where he spent sometime in prison. The Jews in Jerusalem have plotted to kill the imprisoned Paul. He knows of the plot & the commander of the barracks lets him leave at night escorted safely to Caesarea with a note to its governor Felix urging him to make Paul stand trial infront of his accusers. Paul was imprisoned for almost 2 years after the trial until Festus succeeded Felix. The new governor re-trialed Paul in the presence of King Agrippa, & their verdict was to agree on Paul's appeal to be in the custody of Caesar in Rome. He was called by Festus "insane" Acts 27:24. After a weary 3-month sea journey in which the ship sank & Paul passed by Malta & Alexandria (of Egypt), they finally reached Rome. There, Paul stayed for 2 whole years in a house he rented boldly preaching the kingdom of God & all about Jesus Christ. .. In Acts 28:17 it is stated that Paul spent 2 years teaching & preaching freely the Jews in Rome (despite of a contradictory statement in Acts 18:2 in which it is mentioned that earlier "Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome"!) History informs us that Paul was killed by the sword in Rome.
6. It is noticed that Paul has introduced in his preachings a lot of new rituals & beliefs that Jesus never preached. He told the Jews & Gentiles to turn away from Moses laws (commandments) [Acts 21: 21], especially circumcision (Acts 15:2). He was a hypocrite that talked to every sect in the way they believe, as when he circumcised his follower Timothy (Acts 16:3) while preaching among the Jews of Derbe & Lystra (despite being against circumcision Galatians 5:2/3:12); & as he did with the Greeks in Athens when he felt distressed by the many idol statues he saw there & yet when he preached the Athenians he told them that the altar they had on which is inscribed "To an unknown God" could be worshiped as The Almighty God creator of the world (Acts 17: 16-25) . Other signs of his hypocrisy are encountered in his praise for the Old Testament (Moses law) when he is addressing Jews [as in Romans 1:16/2:13/3:31/7:12], yet he degrades the book & the law when talking to non-Jews [Galatians 2:16/3:1-3/3:11-12/3:19/4:5]. He introduced some pagan rituals into Christianity {as offering sacrifice, Acts 14:13 and forming churches & churchmen hierarchy, Acts 14:23/20:28, and also in Turkey (Corinth & Ephesus) when he found that disciples of John the Baptist had preceded them there preaching the true religion, he invented the ritual of receiving the Holy Spirit in baptization, Acts 19}. Although Paul referred to Jesus as the Christ/the Lord/the Savior of Israel, he still maintained God's superiority over Jesus [Acts 13:23/17:3/17:31].
The status of God & Jesus in Paul's epistles
Christians of today have a sound belief that Paul wrote these epistles (letters) by direct revelation from the Holy Spirit. Hence, they have included them as part of the Holy Book (found after Acts). Next, we will review some of the content of these epistles that became the core of the prevalent Christian faith of today (according to Paul).
ROMANS
1. "..His son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was a descendent of David according to the flesh, & declared to be the son of God through the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." Romans 1: 3-4. Here is stated the first aberration from the true message of Jesus. Paul raises him to the rank of the "son of God" & endows upon him 2 natures: one human "to the flesh" & the other "divine spiritual".
2. "Grace & peace to you from God our father & from the Lord Jesus Christ" Romans 1:7. Here divinity is divided between 2: God & Jesus (father & son) with no mention of any 3rd entity sharing this divinity (the holy spirit).
3. "..I thank my God through Jesus Christ…God, whom I serve with my whole heart…" Romans1: 8-9. Here Paul starts specifying privileges & functions to each of his 2 divine entities: thanking is a function of Jesus while worshipping is to God.
3. " [God] has left the sins committed in the past unpunished, & to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time that He might be just & the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus" Romans 3:26, "..in the day that God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel" Romans 2:16. These verses indicate that God's righteousness & forgiveness to people occur through their faith in Jesus (rather than the message of Jesus). Then Paul refers to his own gospel, where is it??
4. In Romans 3:25 "God presented him {Jesus} as a sacrifice/atonement/propitiation by his blood, through faith" & in Romans 5:8 " But God demonstrates his love to us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". This implies that the sins of mankind of the past & the present are nullified by Jesus' sacrifice of his blood & faith in such sacrifice (another of Paul's numerous additions to the original faith). One can't help wondering how God had no mercy on his so-called "son" by making him suffer like that! Wasn't there any other more merciful way in God's endless powers to provide love & forgiveness to his subjects?
5. In Romans 5: 18-19 " Therefore, just as through one man's offense condemnation came to all men, so also through one man's righteous act justification of life came to all men. For as by one man's disobedience [Adam] many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience [Jesus] many will be made righteous." In Romans 6:11 "..count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus". Here is another serious shift of faith. A man is not judged by his own sins & deeds, but rather by those of others! If you do bad, Jesus' sacrifice has provided you with propitiation, redemption & atonement provided you just believe in that. Conversely, if you do good, you still remain a sinner (being of Adam's seed)!
read the rest :
http://wadee3.5u.com/Paul.htm