Unes

Chapter IV

Christianity in Crisis

Nobody disputes that Jesus was a devoted Jew, and he lost his life for Jewish causes. While Jesus was alive he did not change any of the Jewish laws, and he whole heartily believed in Judaism in its entirety. Then, how can we accept that "in the name of Jesus" all these changes have been done to the Judaism that this is not Judaism any more!? And all these changes were revealed after Jesus was gone!? This does not make any sense. This is quite unlikely that Jesus lived his entire life with certain beliefs and after he died his spirit reversed all his beliefs in major ways.

All of those early CRUCIAL CHANGES were initiated ONLY by Apostle Paul, who claimed he had seen a vision of Jesus on the Road to Damascus. After seeing Jesus vision Paul whole heartily was devoted to Jesus brotherhood movement. Barnabas, who was a friend of Paul, helped him to be accepted into the Jesus Community in Jerusalem. Jesus community in Jerusalem was the Headquarter of the Jesus movement. The leaderships in Jerusalem were consisted of the Super Apostles, who had been with Jesus when he was alive. After that introduction in Jerusalem, Apostle Paul joined his friend Barnabas who already had established a Jesus community at the city Antioch, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem.

From the beginning Apostle Paul was seeking to promote Jesus brotherhood to the Gentiles. Apostle Paul convinced the leaderships in Jerusalem to authorize him to recruit the Gentiles into the Jesus brotherhood Movement. Paul acquired a letter from the Jerusalem leadership to pursue his vision in recruiting the Gentiles.

Apostle Paul knew he had to make it easy for the new recruits in order to convert them. Paul was very open-minded in this issue. He had much bigger ambition for the Jesus brotherhood movement. So Apostle Paul relaxed the Jewish bloodline requirement, circumcision requirement, and kosher food requirement for the new Gentile recruits. So in Antioch Jesus community, there were two tables for their meals, one for Jews with kosher food and one for Gentiles. To improve the community fellowship Paul was persuading the two groups join each other's table and ignore the formality of the setup. At this point Apostle Paul was also living in Antioch community and he did not object to any of the rules which Apostle Paul was implementing.

Everything was fine, until couple observers from the Jerusalem leaderships arrived to examine the progress in the Antioch community. These observers were astounded to see how grossly Judaism had been ignored. They strongly objected to the Antioch community arrangement. They totally dismissed Paul for such a setup. They charged that the Sacred Laws of the Judaism had been violated to its core. Apostle Peter who was participating in Gentile meal table, then he withdrew and Joined to the Jewish kosher meal table. The following Passage is from Galatians which it describes Apostle Paul's outrage of the incident:

Paul Rebukes Peter

Galatians 2:11 But when Cephas(This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter ) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong. 2:12 Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision. 2:13 And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy.

In Jesus community in Antioch Paul's views were totally pushed aside. This incident very clearly indicates that all the surviving Super Apostles unanimously rejected Paul's position and Paul's revelations. Now that the entire surviving Super Apostle rejected Paul's revelations then how can we accept them as genuine instructions from Jesus? This proves Paul's revelations are void.

It defies any logic that Jesus for such Major Reversals in his own belief system and the initiation of such Critical Changes to the Judaism he would have completely ignored all his beloved Disciples, and he only had communicated such Earth Shaking Changes just with Apostle Paul. It is inconceivable that we ignore Jesus personal beliefs when he was alive along with all the Super Apostles beliefs and just simply depend on Paul's words. How did Apostle Paul acquire such a prominent position which he even over-rides Jesus? Apostle Paul was a very clever man. He knew absolutely there was no chance for him to suggest those changes on his own account then he implemented them in the name of Jesus.

After the confrontation in Antioch community Paul was very disappointed and he traveled to the cities in Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor to establish his own version of Jesus movements fresh. Paul was promoting a version of Judaism which would bring Jews and Gentiles together for a unified brotherhood without emphasizing on the Jewish laws and Jewish bloodline. This is the version which at the end succeeded and was labeled as Christianity Faith. Paul's letters and his vision of making the brotherhood movement easy for the new Roman converts were the keys for the creation and the success of the Christianity. We can confidently claim that Apostle Paul on his own initiative used Jesus' Fame to establish the new Christianity Faith.

We can not accept that those changes happened maybe because after the crucifixion Jesus changed his mind and he realized Judaism was no good any more! Or, claim that maybe then, the Resurrected Jesus got in charge of the divinity, and he changed some of the sacred laws which God had sent earlier! Then, we need to ask; did God approve of what his beloved Son was doing to his sacred laws!? Or maybe we supposed to believe that by then God was retired!? We can not act like a retarded person and ignore all these revealing accounts.

It is ironic for the people who scientifically are the most advanced civilizations they follow such incoherent theology! It seems when it comes to digest their spiritual beliefs the Dark Ages has never left them. Where is the Logic which has achieved them so much glory? A high school student would have stronger Logic and shows far more Intelligence than this!

I do feel the pain and the distress which this view would inflect on the followers of the Abrahamic Faith. And I do sympathize with their dilemma. This is very disorienting for them to lose the safety of their familiar Faith. But all of us are empowered to endure and to absorb these challenges for our growth. Mentally our lives are not meant to be easy. Sometimes through the hardship we learn the most enlightening messages of our lives.

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Even though most Christian groups emphasis that Gospels are word of God but in 1965 POPE PAUL VI held Vatican 2nd Council for the affairs and the theology of the Catholic Church. That Council adopted NOSTRA AETATE. That document rejects any ill-feelings towards non-Christians. The document reversed the Christian doctrine of hatred toward the Jews, who were blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus. Also, on March 2000 POPE JOHN PAUL II apologized for the Church’s prosecution of Jews throughout the Church history. Also, in 1969 the Protestant Church repudiated Martin Luther teaching on the Jews, and in 2002 a new revision was announced.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/v2non.htm
http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?item=1468
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/111/23.0.html

So, the Christian Church does not really consider the Gospels as words of God. Otherwise how could they alter the words of God?

This is part of a larger article which I have posted on my site, under Civility.

May God Bless us All,
Unes

Toto

This is your website: http://www.thetruthshall.com/ You have a typo in the website listed in your profile.

The above post is taken from here.

Malachi151

I do, he was a myth that never exsited at all.....

Sparrow

I'm another that is unconvinced the Jesus described in the bible ever existed. Perhaps you have some new evidence?

chimaira

Was Jesus Jewish? does a Jew abolish the Sabbath? does a Jew abolish the laws mosaic? does a Jew say that he is the generated son of God? does a Jew speak about trinity? a Jew known as it which he did come sau worm the world by his sacrifice ? etc...

luminous

If Peter rejected Paul's revelations then why does he call Paul in 2 Peter 3:15-16 a "beloved brother"?

2 Peter 3:15-16 "...just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction."

Chris Weimer

Call it an exaggeration. Many serious scholars consider Jesus a devoted Jew.

aa5874

Both Jesus and Saul/Paul are questionable, they are most likely to be myths.

Chris Weimer

fredhsu

Amen, just like how I portrayed him in the short story I posted