I wish I could sit down with the Apostle Paul right now and have a crucial conversation. I have so much to tell him.
For one, that God showed me 35 years ago that he was supposed to replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve Apostles.
That’s right, while Peter was busy casting lots, basically rolling the dice, as to who should replace Judas, Paul was killing Christians.
Peter knew better than to cast lots, he had heard from God that Christ was the Messiah, so he knew that hearing from God was possible. I guess he must have forgotten that he could have just asked God, “hey Father, who do you want to replace Judas?”
God’s reply would have been, “Saul of Tarsus.”
I can imagine Peter’s response, “excuse me, Father, but uh, he’s a, a Christian killer.” “You’re kiddin’ me, right?”
God would have said, “just watch, I’m about to rock his world and he’s gonna’ make a 180, and I want him to join you guys.”
But that didn’t happen, so poor Paul, struggled outside the group his entire ministry. He and Peter even almost came to blows at one point.
Paul sure would have benefited from being a part of the group because he desperately needed to be immersed in the teachings of Christ. He needed to hook up with Matthew and listen for a long time, but no, Paul was excluded. So, he forged his own path.
The book of Acts did mention that Paul pulled aside for three years to learn of Christ, but three years is nowhere near enough time to erase all the decades of religious teaching.
Paul was a Pharisee and had studied for years under the teachings of Gamaliel, the top doctor of Law in Jerusalem. Paul was totally ingrained in religion, the very spirit that Christ opposed.
It’s because of his religious inculturation, and the lack of access to the first-hand teachings of Christ, that Paul made the mess that is with us today.
Paul was coming from a religious point of view in teaching about Jesus. Whereas, Christ’s teachings came from a spiritual point of view.
Christ’s message was that of a spiritual place called the kingdom of God that is not a physical place, but is within you. A state of being that connects you to a loving force that works through you in order to bless other humans.
The term kingdom of God was used 85 times in the Gospels, but only mentioned 11 times by Paul. Christ’s message phased out.
I would like to tell Paul that I appreciate his zeal and hard work, but he really missed the mark when it comes to a few key doctrinal issues between his teachings and the teachings of Christ.
For one, Christ specifically told his disciples, not to set up an organization, but Paul never got that memo.
In Mark 10:42-45, Christ was talking to his disciples when he said,
You know that those who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not to be like that among you. With you guys, whoever is to be great among you, shall be your minister. And whoever of you who is to be the topmost, shall be servant of all.
Christ was anti-organized religion. However, Paul was coming from a religious paradigm and used his knowledge of the Jewish religious system to create a religion out of Jesus.
Unlike Christ’s admonishment for the disciples not to create rulers over men, Paul’s religion was top heavy with rulers. There were Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, all to “oversee” the spiritual welfare of the sheep. It was not supposed to happen.
Next, Paul came up with the free gift doctrine. Who doesn’t love a free gift? Paul taught that it is only by faith in the name of Jesus, no works necessary, lest you should boast. Really Paul, boast?
Christ taught that the two key traits of those entering the spiritual kingdom of God were meekness and humility. Christ also taught that when he returns, his disciples would be rewarded according to their works.
That’s why James rebutted Paul’s writings, and wrote, don’t you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James was defending the teachings of Christ, and calling Paul out on it.
The next thing Paul taught was that all humans are born into sin, because of the original sin of Adam. Because of this teaching, the Christian religion today teaches that even innocent newborn babies are born into sin.
Jesus never mentioned Adam, even once, and his messages were not centered around the theme of man’s original “sin.” Christ’s main message was to address the error or “sin” of thinking that religion can truly connect man to God.
We can see that Christ did not view children as sinners when he used a child as an example while talking to his disciples. Jesus picked up the child and said, “unless you guys become like this little one, you will not enter into the kingdom of God.”
Christ was reiterating his sermon on the mount to his disciples using a child to represent all the traits necessary to enter the kingdom of God, a pure heart, meekness and humility.
I would like to say to Paul that children are not born sinners. They are brought into the world purely innocent. It is jaded adults who teach them how to hate.
The next item on my agenda, to discuss with Paul is Hebrews chapter 9.
Paul, straight up, takes the Jewish blood sacrificial ceremony and interjects Christ as the blood sacrifice in a “spiritual” sense.
One thing that puzzles me about this is that Paul obviously, didn’t pay too much attention to Isaiah and Jeremiah, who both said, CLEARLY, that God does not want blood sacrifice and burnt offerings.
Did Paul just not see those writings, because he was SO enculturated with the belief that God needs blood to remit sin?
Jesus was murdered by men who hated that Christ opposed their religious doctrine. His death should have shown all humanity who the enemy is—the spirit of religion.
God doesn’t need blood to cover the sin of wicked babies, but wait, it gets worse.
Paul claims that God orchestrated the death of Christ for the good of mankind. Christ was the very Messiah, the chosen one of God to teach the true way to the nations (Isaiah 42, Hebrew Bible). He was so close to the spirit of God that they had a father/son relationship.
How would you feel if you were accused of murdering your beloved one?
The purpose of Christ was not to be offered up by God as a blood sacrifice, but to teach us how to discard religion and spiritually know God.
With all good intentions, Paul built a kingdom, but it is not the kingdom of which Christ taught.
Paul created the Christian religion, which would eventually replace the teachings of Christ with the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.