Khalid Saifullah
IB Veteran
- Messages
- 633
- Reaction score
- 67
- Gender
- Male
- Religion
- Islam
(overview)
•Paul (formerly Saul) was a Jewish Roman citizen who was one of the greatest enemies of Jesus.
•Although Paul left Tarsus, a city in Cilicia (in present day Turkey) for Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, Paul never met Jesus or any of his closest apostles.
•Paul was responsible for the persecution of Nazarenes (early Christians). Paul even killed some Nazarenes.
•It is reported that before his “vision” Paul desired to marry a women called Popea, who was the beautiful and ambitious daughter of the high priest of the Jews. She rejected Paul’s offer for marriage and went to Rome to pursue a career as an actress. She rose in ranks until she slept with Nero and ultimately married him. Due to this, Paul had good reason to resent both Jews and Romans.
•On a journey to Damascus, Paul claimed to have met Jesus in a vision and became a follower as a result.
•Paul began preaching the so-called ‘teachings of Christ’.
•Paul claimed that Jesus was the ‘son of God’.
•The Jews considered this blasphemy and began to persecute him.
•In preaching to non-Jews Paul was highly successful, he became known as the “Apostle to the Gentiles” and the greatest propagator of Christianity.
Paul’s corruption of Christianity
•The longer Paul preached the further he drifted away from the teachings of Jesus.
•Paul’s teaching were greatly influenced
by many forms of Paganism: Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, etc.
•Paul taught the concept of Jesus as "The Word", who was the ‘Son of God’.
•Although, he did not teach the divinity of Jesus nor the doctrine of the Trinity.
•Paul taught concepts such as Jesus dying for our sins and that his suffering redeems his followers.
•Paul also helped shift the image of Jesus as a man to the new image of Christ who was no longer a Prophet of God but was a separate yet indivisible part of God.
•He taught that man can only achieve salvation and forgiveness by accepting Christ.
•This concept allowed followers to disregard Jewish Law such as circumcision.
•Paul believed that these additions were necessary if his version of Christianity was to succeed in the Roman Empire that was home to many pagan and mysterious
religions.
•Many of these pagan convert brought with them their pagan ideas and rituals.
•This new image of ‘Christ’ allowed the intellectuals in Greece and Rome to assimilate their own philosophy of what Paul and his followers were preaching.
•Paul believed that he needed to introduce Christ this way in order to get the Roman’s to accept the teachings.
•In the Bible Paul is found to have said, “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?”
•The Roman view of God/ existence was a tripartite one.
•As mentioned in a previous lesson Rome had three forms of government.
•Rome also had the concept of Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto being the three major interconnected Gods.
•This tripartite (consisting of three parts) view was not unique to Rome, in the Indian religion there is the trinitarian group of Brahma, Vishna, and Shiva. In
Ancient Egyptian religion there is the group of gods called Osiris, Isis and Horus. In Greece they were Zeus, Poseidon, and Aidoneus. In Babylonia and Assyria they were Anos, lllinos, and Aos.
•There where many other civilizations that had this tripartite view of God including but not limited to the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Celtic nations, the Germanic nations, Siberia, Japan, Scandinavia and Mexico.
•Later, they included the ‘Holy Ghost’ into Paul’s concept of Jesus being the son of the father and the ‘Trinity’ was born.
•The Greek language was not vast nor supple enough to carry the entire meaning of what Jesus taught.
•The teachings were re-worded and changes were made.
•When the Hebrew Gospels were translated into Greek these changes were made permanent and all previous Gospels in Hebrew were destroyed or suppressed by
the church.
•Among the destroyed texts were the teachings of Barnabas, who was a close disciples of Jesus and propagated the original teachings of Jesus.
•The Gospel of Barnabas opposes the divinity of Jesus, it emphasizes that Jesus did not die on the cross, it condemns Paul and rejects his evangelism and it
explicitly prophesizes the coming of Muhammad by name.
•Paul was able to spread his teachings further than Barnabas because Paul was a Roman citizen who also spoke Greek; he was able to carefully maneuver in the
land
End
•Paul (formerly Saul) was a Jewish Roman citizen who was one of the greatest enemies of Jesus.
•Although Paul left Tarsus, a city in Cilicia (in present day Turkey) for Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, Paul never met Jesus or any of his closest apostles.
•Paul was responsible for the persecution of Nazarenes (early Christians). Paul even killed some Nazarenes.
•It is reported that before his “vision” Paul desired to marry a women called Popea, who was the beautiful and ambitious daughter of the high priest of the Jews. She rejected Paul’s offer for marriage and went to Rome to pursue a career as an actress. She rose in ranks until she slept with Nero and ultimately married him. Due to this, Paul had good reason to resent both Jews and Romans.
•On a journey to Damascus, Paul claimed to have met Jesus in a vision and became a follower as a result.
•Paul began preaching the so-called ‘teachings of Christ’.
•Paul claimed that Jesus was the ‘son of God’.
•The Jews considered this blasphemy and began to persecute him.
•In preaching to non-Jews Paul was highly successful, he became known as the “Apostle to the Gentiles” and the greatest propagator of Christianity.
Paul’s corruption of Christianity
•The longer Paul preached the further he drifted away from the teachings of Jesus.
•Paul’s teaching were greatly influenced
by many forms of Paganism: Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, etc.
•Paul taught the concept of Jesus as "The Word", who was the ‘Son of God’.
•Although, he did not teach the divinity of Jesus nor the doctrine of the Trinity.
•Paul taught concepts such as Jesus dying for our sins and that his suffering redeems his followers.
•Paul also helped shift the image of Jesus as a man to the new image of Christ who was no longer a Prophet of God but was a separate yet indivisible part of God.
•He taught that man can only achieve salvation and forgiveness by accepting Christ.
•This concept allowed followers to disregard Jewish Law such as circumcision.
•Paul believed that these additions were necessary if his version of Christianity was to succeed in the Roman Empire that was home to many pagan and mysterious
religions.
•Many of these pagan convert brought with them their pagan ideas and rituals.
•This new image of ‘Christ’ allowed the intellectuals in Greece and Rome to assimilate their own philosophy of what Paul and his followers were preaching.
•Paul believed that he needed to introduce Christ this way in order to get the Roman’s to accept the teachings.
•In the Bible Paul is found to have said, “But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?”
•The Roman view of God/ existence was a tripartite one.
•As mentioned in a previous lesson Rome had three forms of government.
•Rome also had the concept of Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto being the three major interconnected Gods.
•This tripartite (consisting of three parts) view was not unique to Rome, in the Indian religion there is the trinitarian group of Brahma, Vishna, and Shiva. In
Ancient Egyptian religion there is the group of gods called Osiris, Isis and Horus. In Greece they were Zeus, Poseidon, and Aidoneus. In Babylonia and Assyria they were Anos, lllinos, and Aos.
•There where many other civilizations that had this tripartite view of God including but not limited to the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Celtic nations, the Germanic nations, Siberia, Japan, Scandinavia and Mexico.
•Later, they included the ‘Holy Ghost’ into Paul’s concept of Jesus being the son of the father and the ‘Trinity’ was born.
•The Greek language was not vast nor supple enough to carry the entire meaning of what Jesus taught.
•The teachings were re-worded and changes were made.
•When the Hebrew Gospels were translated into Greek these changes were made permanent and all previous Gospels in Hebrew were destroyed or suppressed by
the church.
•Among the destroyed texts were the teachings of Barnabas, who was a close disciples of Jesus and propagated the original teachings of Jesus.
•The Gospel of Barnabas opposes the divinity of Jesus, it emphasizes that Jesus did not die on the cross, it condemns Paul and rejects his evangelism and it
explicitly prophesizes the coming of Muhammad by name.
•Paul was able to spread his teachings further than Barnabas because Paul was a Roman citizen who also spoke Greek; he was able to carefully maneuver in the
land
End