Paulinity, Not Christianity (2)

Why was Paul so vehemently opposed to good conduct (works) as means of salvation, and insisted that faith alone suffices, conferring righteousness even in deadly sin (Rom 8:10) ?

The answer can be found in Paul's deranged personality. From his epistles it is evident that Paul was a morally weak troubled soul who agonized and battled in vain with some unspeakable personal demon or abominable sinful trait, which try as he may, Paul couldn't give up:

“I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want but what I hate… For I know nothing good dwells within me…As I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want” – Romans 7:15-19

Although Paul didn't have the guts to mention in his epistles the unspeakable evil that troubled him, it has been suggested that he was a repressed homosexual who couldn't change his “sinful” nature that violated traditional Judaic law. Hence the heretic nut-job formulated the warped misleading idiocy that faith can actually transform ungodly evil into righteousness:

“To one who does not work (by the law) but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” – Rom 4:5

Islam's “prophet” Mohammed would have loved this wacky sophistry that rationalizes and justifies ungodly evil. He is known to have plundered, robbed, raped, massacred, paedophiled and incested all in righteous devotion to the Muslim false god – Allah.

Paul blundered further:

“If Christ is in you, even if your bodies are dead in sin, your spirits are alive in righteousness” – Rom 8:10

Seriously, why would any sinful Paulinist (sorry Christian) bother to be good, if faith in Christ is all that is required for righteousness?

This is utterly incomprehensible to we “pagan” African traditionalists for whom exemplary good conduct is mandatory for ascension to the higher spiritual dimension in the afterlife where as deified ancestors we become one with our creator.

In traditional African spirituality, there's no free ticket or short cut to “heaven”. Belief in some fairy-tale man-god does not substitute for good conduct and cannot make up for wicked sinful life.

On the other hand there is no everlasting burning torture in hellfire by a cruel vindictive deity (Allah, Yahweh). Those who are not good enough for heavenly deification are reincarnated and given another opportunity. Herein lies the significance of African names like Babatunde, Yetunde, Nnanna, Ekaete, Magaji all of which are rooted in the African concept of reincarnation.

Enough digression. Paul concocted the inane claptrap of faith transmuting evil into righteousness as some sort of ego defence mechanism to deal with his self-loathing “sinful” guilt – “nothing good dwells in me” (Rom 7:18). The homosexual hypothesis is supported by the fact that Paul never married, and from his condescending remarks about women.

Paul's fabricated doctrine is further laid bare by his own admission that his misleading preachments were not from God but were driven by egomania:

“What I am saying, I say not with the Lord's authority but as a fool in boastful confidence. Since many of you boast, I too will boast” – 2 Cor 11:17-18

This is contrary to what today's Paulinists would have us believe that the Judeo-Christian god inspired the authors of their Bible. Paul on the other hand, the most pre-eminent author in the New testament not only clearly stated that he wasn't inspired by Yahweh, but actually admitted to lying for his quasi-religious agenda:

“But through my falsehood God's truthfulness abound, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” – Romans 3:7

From the above verse, wacko Paulo seemed genuinely perplexed that his lies for his bogus dogma were considered sinful. Such was the perverted morality of the founder of modern Christianity.

This notion of lying to advance a religious agenda is not peculiar to Christianity, but also obtains in Islam – the other major false dogma with which we Africans have been brainwashed. In Islam it is called Taqiyya (deception), and partly explains the cognitive dissonance of Muslims whose claims about Islam contradict observed reality.

Muslims insist theirs is a “religion of peace” but we non-Muslims know Islam to be the most violently intolerant dogma humanity has ever known (Quran 9:5,123). They claim the Quran is a repository of scientific knowledge, but even Muslims acknowledge the Islamic world lags far behind the non-Muslim world in science & technology.

They claim Islam enhances the position of women, but the worst forms of misogynistic abuse and violence against women are rampant in the Islamic world – honor killing, stoning to death, pedophillia, forced marriage, female genital mutilation etc.

Back to Pauline deception. The cock and bull yarn about Paul's dubious road-to-Damascus conversion after a prior history of supposedly persecuting Christians, is strikingly similar to the false testimonies sometimes given by evangelical Christians in today's Churches to dramatically exaggerate the impact of Jesus on their miserable lives.

Typically goes, “I was formerly an assassin or armed robber until I received Jesus…blah blah blah”. It beats me why the police never arrest these publicly self-confessed killers and armed bandits even though there's no statute of limitations on murder or armed robbery.

The truth of the matter is that the dreary frustrating misery of their pathetic existence which drives their vacuous placebo solace in churches would be much less compelling story for wooing converts and perpetuating their mental enslavement. Hence the need to embellish their otherwise less captivating accounts with the “I was formerly a witch” crap.

Evidence that the road-to-Damascus yarn was a hoax can be found in the inconsistencies and contradictions of the various accounts of the purported conversion in books of Acts and Galatians, as well as in Paul's own admitted proclivity to lying in order to advance his self-glorifying quasi-religious agenda (Rom 3:7). The book of Acts alone contains 3 disparate versions of the fraudster's road to Damascus fabrication.

Even among early Christians Paul lacked credibility, hence he desperately cajoled:

What I write is true. Before God I do not lie! - Galatians 1:20

This beggar's belief!! Having confessed to falsehood (Rom 3:7) and admitted his false preachments aren't from God (2 Cor 11:17), he invokes the same “God” to cover up his lies.

Other inconsistencies in the New testament narrative of Paul, particularly his alleged persecution of Christians, are beyond the scope of this already lengthy write-up.

Suffice to surmise that Paul's lack of tangible connection to Jesus as did the chosen 12 apostles who were Paul's major rivals (2 Cor 11:4-5), adversely affected his credibility among early Christians. Consequently, the blaspheming charlatan concocted the road-to-Damascus canard in which he purportedly met Christ, just so as to boost his (Paul's) flagging credibility and popularity among early Christians.

Nafata Bamaguje
Development / Accra / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com