Paulinity, Not Christianity (1)

“Therefore let us abandon the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to more maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works but of faith toward God” – Hebrew 6:1

This is probably the most brazen attack by Paul on the Christianity taught by Jesus. In this verse, Paul had the temerity to imply that Jesus' teaching was immature, while he, Paul was the smart alec to take Christianity to the next level. How right Paul proved to be, for his heretic perversion of Jesus' mission has now become mainstream Christianity.

As evident from his harangue quoted above, Paul disparaged Jesus' teaching as “repentance from dead works”. But what were the “dead works” Paul denounced ? His rants in his other epistles provide the answer – “works of law”:

“For all who rely on works of the law are cursed” – Galatians 3:10

“For no human will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” – Rom 3:20

“For we believe that a man is justified by faith even without works of law” – Romans 3:28

The “law” of course being traditional Judaic law which Jesus wholeheartedly supported:

“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a dot will change from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever changes one of the least of the commandments, and teaches men so (e.g. Paul), shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven” – Mathew 5:17-19

“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to become void” – Luke 16:17

Thus Jesus not only unequivocally endorsed Mosaic law - stoning to death adulterers and disobedient children (Deut 22:22, Deut 21:18-21, Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10); killing Sabbath violators (Exodus 35:2); human sacrifice (Exodus 22:29-30, Ezekiel 20:26); trial by ordeal (Num 5:14-22); killing non-virgin brides (Deut 22:20); marriage by rape (Deut 22:28-29), and other such cruel Sharia-like barbaric laws – he (Jesus) threatened to deal in afterlife with heretics like Paul who preach otherwise (Mathew 5:19).

Jesus would be aghast at today's Paulinists masquerading as Christians, who deride “old school” mosaic law as they are now under the Pauline dispensation of the “grace”:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works - Ephesians 2:8-9

Paul's doctrine of belief and faith rather than good works brought him into conflict with Jesus' handpicked disciples who knew Jesus personally and better understood his teachings. The apostle James in obvious response to Paul's misleading preachments countered:

“Faith by itself, if it has no works is dead” - James 2:17

“A man is justified by works not faith alone” - James 2:24

“As body without spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead” – James 2:26

Paul himself alluded to this doctrinal confrontation with Jesus' handpicked disciples:

“If someone preaches another Jesus different from the one we preach…if you receive a different gospel from the one you accepted…I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superlative apostles” - 2 Corinthians 11:4-5

Note Paul's sarcastic derision of Jesus' apostles as “superlative”. More importantly his reference to receiving a “different gospel” in the above verse is quite instructive, for there were indeed numerous gospels (over 50) in early Christianity before Emperor Constantine compelled the Church elders at the second Council of Nicea (325 AD) to arbitrarily select the four that are now included in the standardized Christian Bible.

Apparently Pauline Christianity used different gospels from Judeo-Christianity preached by Jesus' apostles. The gospels of the Hebrews, Thomas, Clement and second apocalypse of James were among the earliest Christian scriptures and were used by the then prevalent Judeo-Christian faction.

Pauline Christianity which was initially fringe cult only became ascendant after the 70AD Roman destruction of the Jerusalem temple in response to a Jewish revolt against Roman rule. This resistance to Roman rule was actually what the biblical Jesus stood for, and for which he was executed when he attempted to seize power from the Romans as “King of the Jews” (Luke 19.38, Matthew 21:5-9), in order to restore traditional Judaism.

Thereafter the original Judeo-Christianity was crushed and the pro-establishment Pauline Christianity (Rom 13:12) which was later adopted as the official religion of Rome became ascendant, with Paul supposedly authoring most of the books in the New Testament that now define Christianity.

To avoid the terminal fate that befell Judeo-Christianity which was crushed by Rome, Paul the loyal Roman citizen Paul advised:

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing (Roman) authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority (of Rome) is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” - Romans 13:1-2

Pauline Christianity is actually a paganised distortion of Judaism, as the Christ described in the New testament gospels was plagiarized from pre-Christian pagan cultures of the Middle East. Mithra, Dionysus and Osiris were all pre-Christian pagan deities (ancient Persian, Greek and Egyptian) that were born of virgins, died and resurrected, with their resurrection signifying some sort of redemption. The birthdays of Mithra and Dionysius were both December 25th!!

Since Pauline Christianity was mainly addressed to non-Jews (Acts 22:21, 26:18), it is not at all surprising that gentile pagan myths and practices found their way into the New testament and Christianity. Even the Christian worship day (Sunday) is not the Biblical Sabbath (Saturday), but the worship day for the Roman sun deity – Sol Invictus - as was decreed by Emperor Constantine.

NB: Bible quotes are from Revised Standard Version.

Nafata Bamaguje