Resource: https://bibladhekurani.com/religion-of-jesus-christ-or-religion-of-saint-paul-an-analysis/
BY ABDUL WAHID KHAN
FOREWORD
1. After in-depth study of the Bible over the years, I found that there are great discrepancies between the teachings of Jesus Christ and Saint Paul. I was alarmed. These findings are of great significance to Christians who love and revere Jesus Christ ardently and want to follow his truthful teachings.
2. But Paul has distorted the teachings of Jesus with impunity. Paul by his whims and fancies has devastated the true religion of Jesus in a most despicable manner. He has caused deviations and alterations. He has greatly adulterated the teachings of Jesus.
3. No one from outside Christianity could have dared to interfere with Christianity with so much liberty as Paul has done to the religion of Jesus.
4. Paul is a self-proclaimed Christian. His doctrines are his own and without any Divine Authority. He has thrust his own version of faith, and Christians have mistakenly adopted his erroneous teachings at the cost of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul has mostly done away with the teachings of Jesus and instead has propagated his own brand of teachings! Moreover, Paul was a commoner; as such, he had no right to interfere with the Divine teachings of a prophet. Also, he had no authority to overrule, mitigate and demolish Divine teachings enunciated by Jesus. Paul has caused great deviations and adulterations to original Christianity by introducing his own doctrines.
5. Thus, Paul has caused tremendous spiritual loss to true Christianity. Today Christians are losers in their religion. Christians with wisdom can themselves evaluate the teachings of the two and notice contradictions and contrast. For this duality only Christians are to blame themselves. On their own they have chosen, mainly due to misguided oratory of Church authorities, the wrong path. Paulinic doctrine is attractive to follow, but it is patently false.
6. Christians forget that God’s laws, no matter how difficult they may appear, can never be replaced by man-made laws. It was for this reason that Jesus had forewarned by saying, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15.
7. While analysing the two sides of Christianity, one propagated by Jesus Christ and the other by Paul, let us also look into the personality of Paul. Who was he? What he did and why he did it. No disrespect is meant for him while analysing his personality.
Personality of Saint Paul
1. Fourteen years after Jesus Christ’s departure, there appeared on the scene at Jerusalem a man called Paul. He was a Jew who was born in Cyprus and then a part of the Roman Empire.
2. During the lifetime of Jesus, Paul had remained a staunch opponent of Jesus Christ. (Acts 22:3-5, 26:10-11). He continued to remain so for fourteen years even after the departure of Jesus Christ. Paul, being a Jew, was even tortured and got killed by many of Jesus’s followers. He was personally present at the stoning to death of Saint Stephen—the first Christian martyr. His own words are—"For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.” 1 Corinthians 15:9. At 1 Timothy 1:13 Paul confesses, "Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man…
3. Paul personally never met Jesus Christ, and he was never one of his disciples. Paul, being a Jew, was a regular visitor of the synagogue. There he fell in love with the beautiful daughter of the Chief Rabbi. Paul wanted to marry her, but the Chief Rabbi refused to hand her over to him. Paul became disappointed, dejected and depressed at his failure. He lost interest in life and also in the synagogue. He became aloof and alone. He needed some other class of people with whom he could associate.
4. Then after fourteen years, according to Paul’s own statement, Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision, which was caused due to severe sunstroke while he was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus (Syria). In that vision Jesus asked him, 'Why was he persecuting his innocent followers?' That moved the heart of Paul, and from then onwards the hostile attitude of Paul against Jesus changed, and he became an ardent follower of Jesus Christ. Paul at last found his place with a new class of people with whom he could associate.
5. Paul already had access amongst peoples of the Roman Empire who were living in far-off lands across the Mediterranean Sea in areas around Rome, Greece and Turkey. The Pagan and Gentile people living in those areas were worshipping the sun, other stars, planets, stones and various deities and idols, etc. Like Egyptians, they used to believe in the Pagan Trinity.
6. Paul was well acquainted with their traditions, customs, cultures and beliefs. Polytheism was rampant amongst Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Persian Pagans and Gentiles of that time.
7. Paul was an intelligent man of strong personality. He began to influence pagan beliefs through his clever use of words. He was a persuasive conversationist who could play with words. Dialectical acrobatics was his art. His personality was complex.
8. Paul claimed that the spirit used to come to him in visions and used to suggest to him a new brand of Christianity. But that modified form of Christianity was fundamentally different from that which was preached by Jesus. So there arose a serious conflict of opinion between Paul and the original followers of Jesus who used to strictly follow monotheism, which was preached by Jesus Christ.
9. Despite the opposition, Paul continued to preach the modified form of Christianity. Paul even called the Jewish Law of Moses old and outdated. Paul spoke lies against Jesus. A few examples of these lies are as follows: –
a) In Romans 7:6 Paul says, "But now we are delivered from the Law.”
b) At Galatians 3:10 Paul says, "All who rely on observing the Law are under a curse."
c) At Galatians 2:16 Paul says, "Know that a man is not justified by observing the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.”
d) At Galatians 3:13 Paul says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.'"
e) At Galatians 5:4 Paul says, "You who are trying to be justified by the Law have been alienated from Christ, and you have fallen away from grace."
f) At Hebrews 8:13 Paul says, "By calling this (his) covenant 'new', he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear.”
10. Paul compromised with Christ’s belief with the belief of the Pagans and Gentiles. Paul modified the teachings of Christ’s Christianity with his false belief and imaginary. Paul gave to Pagans and to Gentiles an alternate god in the person of Jesus Christ to worship. But this was contrary to what Jesus had himself taught and preached. Pagans and Gentiles thought that they got a nearer god in the person of Jesus as against their distant gods. Paul borrowed the belief of the Trinity from Pagans and Gentiles and gave it to Christians in the form of the Divine Trinity. God, the son and the Holy Ghost. (or the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost) (or the Water, the Blood and Jesus). Choose any one combination.
11. Paul took some from Christianity and some from Pagans and Gentiles and started projecting his own form of theology, i.e., Paulinism. He left no stone unturned to demolish the original Christianity of Jesus Christ. It is unfortunate for today's Christians that some of them still follow Paul and not Jesus Christ, though they claim to earnestly love Jesus Christ.
12. Jesus had never called himself God or the son of God, and the whole Bible is the proof of it. On the contrary, Jesus has said about himself as follows: –
(a) A Servant—Matthew 12:18 and 24:45 John 13:16.
(b) A Prophet—Matthew—13:57 and 21:11
Mark—6:4, 6:15 and 9:37
Luke—7:16, 13:33 and 24:19
John 7:16, 12:49 and 13:17.
(c) A Son of Man—Matthew—8:20, 12:8, 17:22, 18:11 and 26:2
John—5:27
(d) A Slave—Matthew—10:24
John—13:16
(e) A Student—Matthew 10:24
(f) Jesus (metaphorically) said at John 20:17-
“I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my GOD and your GOD."
There is no mention of TRINITY by Jesus. Men have themselves invented it. TRINITY is the greatest offence to ONE TRUE GOD. It is a monstrous lie. It is the greatest sin of all sins. It is unforgivable.
13. Due to these contradictions by Paul, obviously there was violent opposition from original followers of Jesus, particularly from Barnabas (Chapter of Acts) and James, who was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and who was at that time the head of the faith. They considered Paul a traitor to the teachings of Jesus. James and his followers considered Paul an enemy to Jesus’s preaching and teachings. They considered him a renegade and a polluted person and advised him to repent. They even advised him, as an act of atonement, to have his head shaved along with others. (Acts 21:24).
14. Due to these oppositions, Paul all the more needed a fresh group of people to associate with, where he could be accepted more easily.
15. Paul therefore insisted on preaching to Pagans and to Gentiles despite the fact that Jesus had instructed his disciples not to spread the word of his Gospel to non-Israelites. Paul was an astute man of stubborn and discerning nature. He did not listen to them. The influence of his personality was so great that he was readily accepted by the Pagans and the Gentiles as their preacher, teacher and a leader in faith.
16. While Paul was going his way, the religious and ideological differences between the two groups were widening with the passage of time. The original Christian group of James was calling Paul a tactical double dealer. (Chapter Acts).
17. Paul wanted his new modified form of Christianity to separate itself and get clear out of the Synagogue, as he was not tolerated there anymore. His move was both religious and political. No~ his purpose was better served by being outside the Synagogue. He wanted a clear break from the synagogue. He wanted to worship at another place, which some forty years after Jesus’s departure began to be called a "Church".
18. Thus Paul moved out of the synagogue and formed his own place of worship—the Church—to practise his modified form of worship, which was of his own design and making but having no Divine Authority. Doctrines of the Trinity and Jesus’s crucifixion were his brain inventions and were his main theological instruments to influence men. But both instruments were false, and the Bible is proof of it. At the new church, Paul got greater importance than what he got at the synagogue. So with more enthusiasm, he began to reach out to the Pagans and to the Gentiles.
19. In order to reap a bigger harvest of followers, he opened the door of his own form of Christianity to Pagans and Gentiles all over the Roman Empire. In order to win over the confidence and faith of these Pagan peoples, Paul grossly compromised on the principles, teachings and preaching of Jesus.
20. The letters that Paul sent to various newly raised Christian churches propounding his own brand of Christianity are included in the Bible. They are regarded by today’s Christians as a part of the New Testament. Anyone can notice the contradictions between Paul’s teachings and that of Jesus Christ. Paul was a complex and multifaceted person who, by his whims and fancies, has devastated the true religion of Jesus. Today Christians are better educated. They need not be like Pagans and Gentiles of Paul’s times who adopted and followed Pagan beliefs and practices.
21. Disciples of Jesus maintained that Jesus was not killed on the cross because Testament One says that whoever dies by being hung on a tree is accursed. (Galatians 3:13). And Jesus most certainly was not accursed. But Paul maintained that Jesus was killed on the cross. Since the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are later-day writings much after Paul’s writing, therefore, they are heavily influenced by Paul’s line of thinking. Even then, Matthew, Mark and Luke do not entirely share the viewpoints of Paul as well as of John. There are so many contradictions between the two groups.
22. At 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul says, "To the weak I became weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel” (at 2 Timothy 2:8 Paul says, “This is my Gospel”). (At Romans 3:7 Paul says, "If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory (i.e., of Jesus), then why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ”)
23. According to Paul. “The Law” was all right up to the time of Jesus. But now the same law that Jesus propagated and practised had become null and void. According to Paul, man became free of “The Law” after the departure of Jesus.
24. The most important of Paul’s teachings is that man becomes righteous by “faith" – and not by his deeds alone. According to him, every human being is born with an inherited sin from Adam. Further, Paul says that man’s sins shall not be forgiven unless he believes that God Almighty sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to the earth. Here Jesus was to be tortured and killed on the cross by men as an atonement for Adam’s sin. All these are teachings of Paul of deviated faith. Jesus never taught all that.
25. Paul preached that circumcision of males was not really necessary. At Galatians 5:2 Paul says, "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. (Aid disease is the direct consequence of not observing this time-proven practice.) Like all prophets, Jesus was also circumcised on the 8th day after birth. (Luke 1:59).
26. Paul allowed eating of un-slaughtered animals and even pork, though during the times of Jesus these were considered as unclean and therefore uneatable.
27. Pagans and Gentiles used to celebrate Sunday as a holiday in honour of their god—the Sun. Paul therefore replaced Saturday, the day of Sabbath, with Sunday to coincide with the holiday of Pagans.
28. The Pagans and the Gentiles used to observe the 25th of December as the birthday of their god—the Sun. Paul adopted this date also to be the symbolic birthday of Jesus Christ.
29. Paul presented to Pagans and to Gentiles an alternate god in the personality of Jesus. Was his doctrine of the Trinity right? Paul tried his best to win over a large number of Pagans and Gentiles even if he had to speak lies for the sake of a bigger following. He adopted a principle of give and take. He replaced truth with fiction. In Trinity he discovered a new Divine formula, and new converts got deceived (Chapter Romans).
30. After 325 A.D. Paul’s teachings won a victory over the teachings of Jesus Christ with the backing of ruling king Constantine. This victory was not a mandate from God, but it was through the ignorance and weakness of faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul’s followers took a path, which was clearly against the Divine Law. Today most Christians follow Paul and not Jesus. Yet they call themselves Christians. Is it not hypocrisy?
31. Because of Paul's notions such as the Trinity, the Son of God, the Begotten Son, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Three in One and One in Three, God made flesh, One Body and Many Parts, etc., they found their way into Christian faith. Paul was the cause of letting into Christianity other confusing, illogical and false dogmas as well, such as Original Sin; Sin and Atonement; Jesus died for your sins; Crucifixion; Resurrection; Redemption; and Bread as Jesus’s flesh and Wine as his blood. Paul was also the cause of letting into Christianity the mysterious and false theories, e.g., 'For the Wages of Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord; Death through Adam, Life through Christ; Life through the Spirit', etc. Did Paul have a licence to say and propagate anything which he misconceived himself?
32. Despite his age, Paul remained a faithful lover of the rabbi's daughter. Without her, his life was incomplete. In silent protest he led a life of self-denial. He remained unmarried. But every human being has within him two natures—a good nature as well as an evil nature. A man may have good in his mind but at the same time he may have an evil in his body. Let us see how this universal truth percolates in Paul’s existence. At Romans 7:14-20 Paul honestly confesses his weakness as follows (in decent language)— “We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
33. At Romans 7:21-25 Paul further confesses, "So I find this Law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law, but I see another Law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the Law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul continues, "So then I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s Law, but in the sinful nature I am a slave to the law of sin.
34. At 2 Timothy 4:9 Paul wrote to his young follower Timothy, “Do your best to come to me quickly. At 2 Timothy 4:21 Paul says.” “Do your best to come to get here before winter.”
35. Paul was a man of conviction. What he believed, whether rightly or wrongly, he advocated the same fearlessly despite opposition. Paul was also a courageous man to confess his bodily sins. Paul was beheaded in Rome around 61 to 68 AD and made flesh; One Body and Many Parts, etc., found their way into Christian faith. Paul was the cause of letting into Christianity other confusing, illogical and false dogmas as well, such as Original Sin; Sin and Atonement; Jesus died for your sins; Crucifixion; Resurrection;
Redemption: Bread as Jesus’s flesh and wine as his blood. Paul was also the cause of letting into Christianity the mysterious and false theories, e.g., 'For the Wages of Sin is Death, but the Gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord; Death through Adam, Life through Christ; Life through the Spirit', etc. Did Paul have a licence to say and propagate anything which he misconceived himself?
36. Jesus Christ, while biding his time in heaven, must be lamenting over the conduct and behaviour of his latter-day followers. Surely Jesus Christ is the most unfortunate of all Messengers of God, for he has been grossly misunderstood by his followers.
37. Christians are to decide for themselves whom they want to follow – Jesus or Paul. I am only a well-wisher of Christians, and therefore I wish to warn them so that they may try and look forward to finding a place in Heaven instead of landing right down in Hell due to their own disbelief.
“Wa maa ‘alainaaa il lal balaa ghul mubeen.”
(And our duty is only to deliver the message clearly.)
(Qur’aan: Surah Yaa Seeeen 36:17)
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