“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 mainstreamChristianity.
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 anddisobedient 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 numerousgospels (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 fringecult 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 heattempted 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 Romebecame 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 bothDecember 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 theBiblical 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

Jesus I know, Paul I know, Who are you, poster?

This is realy revealing and shocking....seriously, if one should look into the history of our religions, one will just come to the fact that all along everything we have heard, been taught, read and known have been all along an old aged lie. Religion is a scam walahi.

jmoore: Jesus I know, Paul I know, Who are you, poster?

well, you dont ve to know me, I made some research on Paulinity and the history of christianity. This particular article struck me the most, the writer is a well respected professor of theology and has written very authoritative books and articles on religion not just christianity. I shall paste the part 2 of this articles both here and as a separate thread. I will like to see other people's contributions as well, christians especially.

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 derangedpersonality. 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… ForI 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 insome 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, Magajiall of which are rooted in the African concept of reincarnation.
Enough digression. Paul concocted the inane claptrap of faith transmuting evil intorighteousness 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 falsedogma 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 bullyarn about Paul’s dubious road-to-Damascus conversion after a prior history ofsupposedly persecuting Christians, is strikingly similar to the false testimonies sometimes given by evangelical Christians intoday’s Churches to dramatically exaggeratethe 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 neverarrest 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 toDamascus 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

Either moslem or jehovah witness. Probably a fake moslem,pls in which ever verse u quote,can u pls post the whole chapter. Make ur pastor dey decieve u with verses of the bible without allowing you to read the whole chapters. Seriously, if u don't believe in the bible, kindly keep it to urself and stop hammering it to our faces. We have better topics to read on NL

The Apostle Paul Founder of Christianity
by Lewis Loflin
Jesus was not the founder of Christianity as we know it today. Most of the New Testament doesn't even concern the historical Jesus while the main influence is the Apostle Paul and through the church he founded at Ephesus a Greek convert named John. Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, he only claimed some spiritual visions and proceeded to Hellenize the teachings of Jesus (who preached a generic form of Judaism), until he created Pauline Christianity. Because there are no known writings from Jesus or His actual Apostles, most of what He really taught is remains controversial. Also see the disputed Gnostic Gospels .
But according to Paul, Jesus' teachings are not relevant to salvation. While Jesus is regarded by Christians as the founder of thefaith, Paul's role in defining Christianity can't be ignored and trumps Jesus on theology. "Paul is regarded as the great interpreter of Jesus' mission, who explained, in a way that Jesus himself never did, how Jesus' life and death fitted into a cosmic scheme of salvation, stretching fromthe creation of Adam to the end of time." The doctrines of Christianity come mostly from the teaching or influence of Paul, a Pharisee(?) who rejected his Pharisaic Judaism.
His worship was that of a "Christ" totally unrelated to the Jewish Messiah, a nationalist (and human) figure that was supposed to free the nation from foreign (Roman) rule. Paul would later be placed over his Jewish-Christian rivals by a Gnostic heretic named Marcion. See Marcion . The Church in its struggles with both Marcion and the Gnostics was forced to define itself and launch an internal war to silence opponents.
What is shown below is taken word for word from The Sierra Reference Encyclopedia .
Copyright 1996 P. F. Collier, L. P. All rights reserved.
PAUL, ST.
PAUL, ST. (died c. A.D. 68), founder of PaulineChristianity. His name was originally Saul. Helater claimed that he was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, from a long-established Pharisee family in Tarsus. According to Acts (though not according to Paul himself) he studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, the leader of the Pharisees and grandson of Hillel.
This account of Paul's youth, however, is subject to doubt, since the tribe of Benjamin had long ceased to exist, and Pharisee families are otherwise unknown inTarsus. According to Paul's opponents, the Ebionites, he came from a family of recent converts to Judaism. He learnt the trade of tent-making (or perhaps leather-working), by which he made his living.
While still a youth in Jerusalem, Saul became part of the opposition to the newly formed Jerusalem Church (the disciples of Jesus, who, believing that Jesus had been resurrected, continued to hope for his return to complete his messianic mission). Saul was present at the death of Stephen. Soon after, Saul was an active persecutor of the Jerusalem Church, entering its synagogues and arresting its members. Acts represents this as due to Saul's zeal as a Pharisee, but this is doubtful, as the Pharisees, under Gamaliel, were friendly to the Jerusalem Church (see Acts 5).
Moreover, Saul was acting in concert with the high priest (Acts 9:2), who was a Sadducee opponent of the Pharisees. It seems likely that Saul was at this period an employee of the Roman-appointed high priest, playing a police role in suppressing movements regarded as a threat to the Roman occupation. Since Jesus had been crucified on a charge of sedition, his followers were under the same cloud.
The high priest then entrusted Saul with an important mission, which was to travel to Damascus to arrest prominent members of the Jerusalem Church. This must have been a clandestine kidnapping operation, since Damascus was not under Roman rule at thetime but was in fact a place of refuge for the persecuted Nazarenes.
On the way to Damascus, Paul experienced avision of Jesus that converted him from persecutor to believer. Paul joined the Christians of Damascus, but soon he had to flee Damascus to escape the officers of KingAretas (II Corinthians 11:32-33), though a later, less authentic, account in Acts 9:22-25 changes his persecutors to "the Jews."
After his vision, according to Paul's own account (Galatians 1:17), he went into the desert of Arabia for a period, seeking no instruction. According to Acts, however, he sought instruction first from Ananias of Damascus and then from the apostles in Jerusalem. These contradictory accounts reflect a change in Paul's status: in his own view, he had received a revelation that put him far higher than the apostles, while in later Church opinion he had experienced a conversion that was only the beginning of his development as a Christian.
Paul's self-assessment is closer to the historical truth, which is that he was the founder of Christianity. Neither Jesus himself nor his disciples had any intention of founding a new religion. The need for a semblance of continuity between Christianity and Judaism, and between Gentile and Jewish Christianity, led to a playing-down of Paul's creative role. The split that took place between Paul and the Jerusalem Church is minimized in the Paulinist book of Acts, which contrasts withPaul's earlier and more authentic account inGalatians 2.
Paul's originality lies in his conception of the death of Jesus as saving mankind from sin. Instead of seeing Jesus as a messiah of the Jewish type human savior from political bondage, he saw him as a salvation-deity whose atoning death by violence was necessary to release his devotees for immortal life. This view of Jesus' death seems to have come to Paul in his Damascus vision. Its roots lie not in Judaism, but in mystery-religion, with which Paul was acquainted in Tarsus.
The violent deaths of Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and Dionysus brought divinization to their initiates. Paul, as founder of the new Christian mystery, initiated the Eucharist, echoing the communion meal of the mystery religions. The awkward insertion ofeucharistic material based on I Corinthians 11:23-26 into the Last Supper accounts in the Gospels cannot disguise this, especially as the evidence is that the Jerusalem Churchdid not practise the Eucharist.
Paul's missionary campaign began c.44 in Antioch. He journeyed to Cyprus, where he converted Sergius Paulus, the governor of the island. It was probably at this point thathe changed his name from Saul to Paul, in honor of his distinguished convert. After journeys in Asia Minor where he made manyconverts, Paul returned to Antioch. His second missionary tour (51-53) took him as far as Corinth; and his third (54-58) led to a three-year stay in Ephesus. It was during these missionary periods that he wrote his Epistles.
Paul's new religion had the advantage over other salvation-cults of being attached to the Hebrew Scriptures, which Paul now reinterpreted as forecasting the salvation-death of Jesus. This gave Pauline Christianityan awesome authority that proved attractive to Gentiles thirsting for salvation. Paul's new doctrine, however, met with disapproval from the Jewish-Christians of the Jerusalem Church, who regarded the substitution of Jesus' atoning death for the observance of the Torah as a lapse into paganism. Paul was summoned to Jerusalem by the leaders James (Jesus' brother), Peter, and John to explain his doctrine (c.50).
At the ensuing conference, agreement was reached that Paul's Gentile converts did not need to observe the Torah. This was not a revolutionary decision, since Judaism had never insisted on full conversion to Judaism for Gentiles. But Paul on this occasion concealed his belief that the Torah was no longer valid for Jews either. He was thus confirmed in the role of "apostle to the Gentiles," with full permission to enroll Gentiles in the messianic movement without requiring full conversion to Judaism.
It was when Peter visited him in Antioch and became aware of the full extent of Paul's views that a serious rift began between Pauline and Jewish Christianity. At a second conference in Jerusalem (c.55), Paul was accused by James of teaching Jews"to turn their backs on Moses" (Acts 21:21). Again, however, Paul evaded the charge by concealing his views, and he agreed to undergo a test of his own observance of theTorah. His deception, however, was detected by a group of "Asian Jews" (probably Jewish Christians) who were aware of his real teaching. A stormy protestensued in which Paul feared for his life and was rescued by the Roman police, to whomhe declared for his protection that he was aRoman citizen. This surprising announcement was the end of Paul's association with the Jerusalem Church, to whom the Romans were the chief enemy.
The Roman commandant, Claudius Lysias, decided to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin in order to discover the cause of the disturbance. With great presence of mind, Paul appealed to the Pharisee majority to acquit him, claiming to be a Pharisee like James. Paul was rescued by the Pharisees from the high priest, like Peter before him. However, the high priest, resenting this escape, appointed a body of men to assassinate Paul. Learning of the plot, Paul again placed himself under the protection of the Romans, who transported him by armed guard from Jerusalem to Caesarea. The High Priest Ananias was implacable, no doubt because of Paul's defection from his police task in Damascus, and laid a charge of anti-Roman activity against him.
Paul appealed for a trial in Rome before Caesar, his right as a Roman citizen. The assertion of Acts that the Jewish "elders" were also implicated in the charges against Paul is unhistorical, since these same elders had just acquitted him in his Sanhedrin trial. Paul was sent to Rome, and here our information ends. Legends speak of his eventual martyrdom in Rome.
Paul's authentic voice is found in his Epistles. Here he appears as an eloquent writer, skilled in asserting his authority overhis converts as their inspired teacher.
The view often asserted, however, that Paulwrites in the style of a rabbi is incorrect. Hisoccasional attempts to argue in rabbinical style (e.g., Romans 7:1-6) reveal his lack of knowledge of rabbinic logic. Paul's letters belong to Greek literature and have affinity to Stoic and Cynic literature. His knowledge of the Scriptures is confined to their Greek translation, the Septuagint. Paul was a religious genius, who invested Greek mystery-religion with the historical sweep and authority of the Jewish Bible.