Paul ?
In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful
Paul ……….the 'corrupter of Christianity'
It is also important to note that the concept of 'Resurrection' is not regarded as a unique event in the Bible and thus could not be taken to support the divinity of Jesus:
"And the graves were open; and many bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." #52 (Mathew 27:52-53)
The whole concept of the 'Resurrection' was introduced by Paul who never saw Jesus alive:
"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel." #53 (2 Timothy 2:8)
Paul was also the first to declare Jesus as the son of God:
"Immediately he (Paul) preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is the son of God." #54 (The Acts 9:20)
Christianity of today is largely the teaching of Paul and not Jesus! The liberty with which Paul proceeded to change the teachings of Jesus is indeed alarming. The resurrection and divinity of Jesus are among the major issues that were introduced by Paul. Other basic issues regarded as sacred by Jews were sadly discarded by Paul. Consider the following:
"God said to Abraham, 'You must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations. You and your descendants must agree to circumcise every male among you………… every male who is not circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me." #55 (Genesis 17:9-14)
First, we find Paul speaking indifferently about circumcision, which is a sacred Jewish ritual:
"Whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing" #56 (1 Corinthians 7:19)
Later, he went to the extent of openly condemning such practice:
"I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourself to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all" #57 (Galatians 5:2)
It is worth noting that Jesus himself was circumcised!
It may be that Paul claimed to be an apostle and a man of God, yet some of his own words in fact portray him as a man of little integrity.
"I robbed other Churches, taking wages from them to minister to you." #58 (2 Corinthians 11:8)
"What I am saying now is not what the Lord would want me to say; in this manner of boasting I am really talking like a fool." #59 (2 Corinthians 11:17)
"For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus." #60 (2 Corinthians 11:4)
Sadly these are some of the words of a man after whom Christianity of today is largely based!
Paul argued that it is not necessary for a person to obey the law of Moses to be a good Christian, and that in fact, the only requirement for salvation is faith.
If that was the case, we may indeed wonder, why then did Jesus spend the best years of his life preaching what to do and what not to do in order to enter the Kingdom of heaven? The naive idea that a mere belief in Jesus automatically guarantees one's place in heaven is in contradiction to the teachings of Jesus:
"Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what God in heaven wants them to do." #61 (Mathew 7:21)
It also contradicts the teachings of the Old and New Testaments:
Old Testament:
"Also to you O Lord, belong mercy; for you render to each one according to his work." #62 (Psalms 62:12)
"And will he not render to each man according to his deeds?" #63 (Proverbs 24:12)
"The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." #64 (Ezekiel 18:20)
New Testament:
"Each of us shall give an account of himself to God." #65 (Romans 14:12)
"Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labour." #66 (1 Corinthians 3:8)
All these verses testify that faith alone is not sufficient, but that the reward is also very much dependent on one's "work", "deeds", "righteousness" and "labour".
What is truly amazing is the fact that the last two verses, which are from Romans and Corinthians, are in fact the words of Paul himself. This illustrates how he not only contradicted the teachings of Jesus, but also contradicted himself!
Paul claimed that his teaching was directly revealed to him from Jesus through a vision. This immediately raises the following important questions:
1- Was the message and revelation delivered by Jesus incomplete? Did he have to complete it after his death through another?!
2- Jesus lived all his life as a Jew and followed the law of Moses, moreover he always maintained that he has not come to change the law:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" #67 (The Bible, Mathew 5:17-18)
On the other hand we find that Paul preached numerous concepts that were never taught by Jesus and that contradict the law of Moses.
These two conflicting situations compels us to uphold only one of them. They cannot both be correct. Needless to say, the teachings of Jesus are surely to be upheld. Those who truly believe in Jesus will undoubtedly follow his teachings.
Due to this marked discrepancy between the divine message delivered by Jesus and the corrupt innovation brought about by Paul, there is justification in Paul being called by Heinz Zehrnt the "corrupter of the gospel of Jesus" #68 (The Jesus Report, Johannes Lehman, p. 126), while Werde calls him "the second founder of Christianity" #69 (Ibid. p.127).
In the Bible we read the following accusation against him:
"This man is trying to persuade people to worship God in a way that is against the law." #70 (The Acts 18:13)
This serious accusation cannot be ignored, bearing in mind what Jesus said:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil"
Jesus lived all his life as a Jew, he often preached in synagogues, and early Christians were all using the synagogues. There is no evidence whatsoever in the Bible to indicate that Jesus thought of himself as the founder of a new religion.
The disciples preaching after Jesus' death still maintained the Jewish law. We read for example that Simon Peter while preaching after Jesus' death still called himself a Jew who followed the Jewish religion:
"I need not tell you that a Jew is forbidden by his religion to associate with one of another race." #71 (The Acts 10:28)
Later, after Jesus' death, and when the new religion of Christianity was established and deviated from the original teachings of Jesus Christ, Paul, Barnabas and the gentiles were expelled from the synagogues as they were accused of blasphemy and pollution:
"But the Jews ………… raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region." #72 (The Acts 13:50)
It is important to note that at that time Barnabas still travelled and preached with Paul. Later, when Paul deviated from the original gospel, the two men parted company.
The concept of 'Resurrection', being a new concept introduced by Paul, was immediately attacked in the synagogues:
"And they took him (Paul) to the Areopagus saying: May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?" #73 (The Acts 17:19)
The word "new" in the verse is self-indicative.
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