The Pauline Conspiracy

Pauline Christianity has done a great disservice to the world by monopolizing and hoarding Jesus in a theological sandwich.

If you have been reading my posts for some time now, and you are still on the same page with me, the recent horrifying press conference between Emperor Trump and His Royal Highness King Netanyahu, should have shocked you to the core, even though it is no surprise that Israel decided long before October 7th to evict the Palestinians in Gaza, with extreme prejudice.

The unconditional support of Christianity for Israel is equally shocking, when you consider everything Zionist Israel is doing to the Palestinians is diametrically opposite to everything that the so-called leader of Christianity taught. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that Zionism is the Anti-Christ.

In my previous post, I covered much of the theological confusion of end times prophesies:

Christian Pessimism, Zionism & Why There Are No End Times

There has been much ink spilled over the last four years, diving into the roots of our current global struggle with tyranny. The alternative community is unanimously labelled “conspiracy theorists” by the mainstream media and/or any agents of the cabal, who use this label to discredit and ostracize those who have the courage to peer underneath the cloak of propaganda that the globalists have created.

The rabbit hole is jam packed with conspiracies. To be more accurate, it is not really a rabbit hole—it is a labyrinth of history, politics, corruption, greed, lies and outright evil.

One of the conspiracies that is rarely, if ever mentioned, in discussions within the alternative community is the history of institutional Christianity. This is mainly because of the heavy Christian bias, who form a significant percentage of the alt community—they believe we are living in the End Times, and our core problem is rooted in an epic battle between God and the Devil.

Christianity has a checkered past, a long history of political domination, persecution of so-called heretics, Holy Wars and spiritual barrenness. And this by no means is meant to ignore the overall social benefit lavished on the world by Christianity.

However, Protestant Christianity has washed its hands of the abuses of the Church, by pointing the finger at Roman Catholicism, and by claiming that Protestant Christians were the real Christians during the first 1500 years of Christianity—even though Protestantism did not exist prior to Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses, which he nailed on the door of the Wittenburg Church, that fateful day in 1517.

Very few Christians have the courage to study the history of the early church, in order to answer the $64,000 question: How did Jesus’ simple message of brotherly love and devotion to the Father become a monolithic church within the space of 300 years? What happened?

The short answer is that the Apostle Paul screwed everything up.

THE LONG ANSWER

The famous carpenter from Galilee is known today as Jesus Christ by the Christian Church, but he was actually known as Yeshua ben Yusef by his friends and countrymen. That is, Joshua son of Joseph, or Joshua ben Joseph, when translated into English.

Yeshua, when translated into Greek in the New Testament became Iēsous, by adding the suffix “us” which was the tradition of the day, with male names such as Barnabus or Marcus. Iēsous, when translated into Latin, became Iesus (pronounced yaaay-soos). This became Jesus, when translated into English.

Joshua ben Joseph was a carpenter (tekton in Greek) and a travelling lay preacher, who was called Rabbi by both his friends and enemies. Tekton is the Greek word for tradesman, artisan, builder or woodworker. A metal worker or smith was known as a chalkeus.

The record we have of the life and teachings of Jesus describes his three year ministry, wandering throughout Palestine with an entourage of disciples, apostles, evangelists, followers and hangers-on. Jesus taught a relatively simple religious philosophy based on a handful of concepts that revolve around his brand-name, the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is both the inner spiritual life of the believer and the eternal family comprised of humans, angels and God the Father, as well as the future hope for all humanity. One of Joshua ben Joseph’s key talking points was that the kingdom of heaven is within you. This is a very different concept from that of the Jews who believed the kingdom of heaven was a Jewish nationalist state, presided over by a Moses-like judge that extended into eternity.

According to Jesus, the main ideas of the kingdom of heaven can be summarized:

• You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven (family of God).

• The Father in heaven is the head of this divine family.

• The family of God has one commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbour (family member) as yourself.

• Membership in this divine family leads to a desire to serve both God the Father and the family members.

• This social service gradually makes the believer more God-like through greater acts of service.

• The religion of Jesus can be summed up as perfection through service.

THE RELIGION OF PAUL

A few things need to be pointed out:

• Paul never personally met Jesus, nor was he personally trained by Jesus as were the other apostles.

• Paul arrived on the scene two years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

• Paul does not mention most of the events of Jesus life, nor does he mention the actual words of Jesus, more than a mere handful of times in his letters.

• Jesus never mentioned or predicted that another apostle would come and explain his mission, in the context of his death on the cross.

• Paul’s letters were written first in the 50’s AD, at least a decade before the first gospel of Mark was written in 68 AD. This means Paul’s letters were circulated throughout the early churches and became the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

The Apostle Paul is the real founder of Christianity, and this is easily proven by the passages in Romans 5, Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15, which are the core teachings of Christianity.

Paul taught that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, who came as a sacrificial son to atone for the sins of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from a state of perfection in a garden, because a rebellious angel posed as a talking serpent and tricked them into eating a fruit that was forbidden by God. The fruit had mystical powers that enabled the eater to become aware of evil, and therefore destroyed their childlike innocence.

God was so hard-hearted that he could not forgive Adam and Eve, and unceremoniously tossed them from the garden to go live in the hostile wilderness, forced into a life of drudgery, tilling the soil.

Paul further taught that the transgression of Adam and Eve brought sin and judgement on the whole world, and the only way to escape this fall from grace was the mystical transference of sin to the sacrificial Son, who was tortured to death by his political enemies, to ransom the human race from the clutches of the Devil.

Paul substituted the physical church for the kingdom of heaven—membership in the Church became necessary for salvation, instead of entrance into the family of God. Paul taught that the Church was the Bride of Christ, who were being prepared for a future wedding with the Bridegroom (Jesus).

Paul was motivated by a desire to make the teachings of Jesus more palatable to his Jewish countrymen, and to the mystery cults and philosophical groups in Palestine, such as the Mithraists, Dionysians, Orphics, Eleusinians and Greek philosophy groups, such as the Skeptics, Stoics and Cynics.

Paul's knowledge of Greek philosophy and literature is evident in Acts 17:16-34, when he encountered Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens. He quotes and makes allusions to Greek poets and philosophers over 20 times in the New Testament. Paul, in fact, quotes Greek literature far more than he quotes Jesus:

• Titus 1:12

  Paul quotes, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This quote is also attributed to Epimenides.

• 1 Corinthians 15:33

  Paul quotes, “Bad company corrupts good character.” This quote is found in a play by Menander.

• Greek poet Aratus in Acts 17:28, saying “For in Him we live, move and have our being,” which is a reference to Aratus' poem “Phenomena.”

Jesus taught that the student is not above his teacher, yet Christianity has placed Paul on equal, if not greater footing than Jesus, when we consider that Paul’s teachings are the core of Christian doctrine. The truth is that Paul’s teachings ought to be considered as commentary, and not as the gospel truth.

Paul’s well-meaning letters to his churches in Asia Minor became known as the Word of God, and the god-man, Jesus of Nazareth, became a sideman to Paul’s atonement doctrines. The actual teachings of Jesus have been marginalized for 2000 years. Jesus’ simple way of life became a series of concepts and doctrines that a church member is required to memorize in order to find salvation, and escape from sin and eternal torture. Furthermore, the Christian church claimed authority over the believer through doctrines of infallibility—the pulpit, the priest and the Bible became the voice of authority, instead of the Father in heaven.

Paul further instituted rules and codes of conduct for pastors and deacons, as well as for husbands and wives. He advocated that celibacy was spiritually superior to marriage and family. If the whole world followed Paul’s instructions, it would be the end of the human race.

Jesus’ entire message is an analogy of the human family, yet Paul condescended to re-write Jesus’ egalitarian message, claiming that family is somehow not spiritual:

“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion” (1 Corinthians 7:8-9).

He admitted, that this was his own personal advice, when he said: “But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.”

The male-female marriage relationship is, in this humble blogger’s opinion, the most essential relationship necessary for spiritual growth, as well as for the survival of the human species. Family is the best teacher for both men and women to learn social service, and children are enormously benefited by the care and attention lavished on them by spiritually motivated parents. No good Christian would deny the beneficial Christian heritage given to him or her by their godly parents.

The Church adopted Paul’s position on celibacy for the priest-class, and this led to the centuries of sexual abuse by the priest-class in the Church, and to the degradation and oppression of women who were not permitted to be leaders. Paul arrogantly proclaimed,

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

This is despite Jesus’ teaching that there is no male or female in the kingdom of heaven. A boy’s first teacher is his mother, and anyone who has spent any time in a local church knows it is generally the women who are the backbone of the Church, not the men.

Paul’s asexual Christianity has caused many commentators to wonder if he was gay. Paul never married, which was unusual for a Jewish man in the first century. He had a series of younger male companions. He was tormented by self-reproach and pleaded with God to remove a “thorn in his flesh.” (visiting the Roman baths?) He was at war with his own body, and he was eager to withdraw into the company of his male companions.

SALVATION, ENLIGHTENMENT, TRANSFORMATION

All religions and spiritual philosophies teach some form of salvation. Without personal transformation, religion is just words on paper. If your religion does not make you a better person, or at the very least, keep you from becoming a very bad person, then it is useless.

Religion’s ultimate goal is to make the world a better place, to improve our relationships with friends, family and co-workers, and to lessen violence, crime and domestic abuse. A church, temple, mosque or synagogue is a peace club, and those who enter the doors therein are signing up for an unwritten contract of becoming better citizens and improving the world, regardless of whether these members obey this contract or not.

Jesus of Nazareth was a religious genius, who skillfully created a spiritual philosophy that provides an escape from institutional authoritarian control by a priest-class. In fact, one of his great accomplishments was taking religion out of the hands of the existing priest-class, (which was the Jewish Sanhedrin at the time), and putting it into the hands of the common people. Jesus ministered primarily to the poor and working classes, and often violated the sensibilities of the Jewish rabbinical class by consorting with lepers, tax collectors and prostitutes.

Pauline Christianity has done a great disservice to the world, by monopolizing and hoarding Jesus in a theological sandwich, placing him in between Moses and Paul, and not allowing his actual message to surface to the light of day. Human beings are afraid of any idea they cannot control, and the Church is no exception to the rule.

Real religion is based on your own personal experience with the divine. Institutional religion is based on a set of doctrines that have to be memorized and parroted by all members. The institution becomes the authority, instead of God in heaven.

Jesus spent most of his devotional time in personal communion with God out in nature, not in the synagogues. He never made any rules or instructions about starting or maintaining a church. Christians have allowed themselves to be dominated by the priest-class because they are not courageous enough to be led by the Spirit.

This is because the number one motivator of human beings is security—just like any other mammal, we are instinctively drawn to comfort, safety and a feeling of security. However true spiritual freedom means following the Spirit of God wherever he leads you.

This does not mean people should forsake church or temple or mosque. It just means believers should be aware that a church is a religious social club, and not the kingdom of heaven. A church can become a true fellowship of believers only if the members give all authority and sovereignty to God.

Most institutional religious organizations strive for uniformity—everyone is required to think the same. But true spiritual unity is achieved when believers realize that they are united by:

• the fact of a shared future eternity

• we are all children of the same spiritual parent

• and we are united when we share common spiritual goals.

In other words, it is who we are in relationship with the Father in Heaven, and what we do together in pursuit of doing the will of God that unites us, not doctrines.

Doctrines divide, but the Spirit unites.

In conclusion, the horrors of Gaza are happening right now in real time, due to the failure of human beings to live together in peace and unity. War is spiritual failure. The Abrahamic religions, who all claim ownership of the so-called holy land, violate that holy land when they spill the blood of their brothers and sisters.

Land is only holy, when holy things are done there. Christians, Muslims and Jews could all live in harmony, if they followed the teachings of the man they all claim is their master, teacher, prophet and holy man.