{"id":904,"date":"2012-07-21T13:28:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T11:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/web\/?p=904"},"modified":"2012-07-21T13:28:17","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T11:28:17","slug":"pauline-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/?p=904","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the midst of the growing 19th and 20th century awareness of the differences between Trinitarian doctrine and the period of origins, a person might be surprised to find one group who claim to be followers of Christ Jesus reading the following in the Holy Quran:<\/span>
\n\u201cO People of the Book!\u00a0 Commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of God anything but the truth.\u00a0 Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in God and His Messengers.\u00a0 Do not say \u201cTrinity\u201d: desist: it will be better for you: for God is One God: glory be to Him: (far Exalted is He) above having a son.\u00a0 To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth.\u00a0 And enough is God as a Disposer of affairs\u201d (Quran 4:171)<\/span>
\nAnd warning:<\/span>
\n\u201cO People of the Book!\u00a0 Exceed not in your religion the bounds (of what is proper), trespassing beyond the truth, nor follow the vain desires of people who went wrong in times gone by \u2013 who misled many, and strayed (themselves) from the even Way.\u201d (Quran 5:77)<\/span>
\nOne may wonder what, from the New Testament, separates these two groups by such a vast expanse of understanding.\u00a0 No doubt the key difference which divides Trinitarians from Unitarians, and Christians from Muslims, is Pauline theology.\u00a0 For centuries the argument has been put forth that Trinitarian Christians largely follow Pauline theology more than that of Jesus.\u00a0 This charge is difficult to deny, for Jesus taught the Law of the Old Testament, whereas Paul preached mysteries of faith, in denial of the Law which the prophets had suffered and struggled to convey.\u00a0 In disrespect to thousands of years of revelation conveyed through a long chain of esteemed prophets, and contrary to the teachings of the rabbi Jesus himself, Paul focused not on the life and teachings of Jesus, but upon his death.\u00a0 As Lehmann put it:<\/span>
\n\u201cThe only thing which Paul considers important is the Jew Jesus\u2019 death, which destroyed all hopes of liberation by a Messiah.\u00a0 He makes the victorious Christ out of the failed Jewish Messiah, the living out of the dead, the son of God out of the son of man.\u201d[1]<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nMore than a few scholars consider Paul the main corrupter of Apostolic Christianity and of the teachings of Jesus:<\/span>
\n\u201cWhat Paul proclaimed as \u2018Christianity\u2019 was sheer heresy which could not be based on the Jewish or Essene faith, or on the teaching of Rabbi Jesus.\u00a0 But, as Schonfield says, \u2018The Pauline heresy became the foundation of Christian orthodoxy and the legitimate church was disowned as heretical.\u2019\u201d[2]<\/span>
\nLehmann continues:<\/span>
\n\u201cPaul did something that Rabbi Jesus never did and refused to do.\u00a0 He extended God\u2019s promise of salvation to the Gentiles; he abolished the law of Moses, and he prevented direct access to God by introducing an intermediary.\u201d[3]<\/span>
\nOthers elevate Paul to sainthood.\u00a0 Joel Carmichael, who commented as follows, very clearly is not one of them:<\/span>
\n\u201cWe are a universe away from Jesus.\u00a0 If Jesus came \u201conly to fulfill\u201d the Law and the Prophets; If he thought that \u201cnot an iota, not a dot\u201d would \u201cpass from the Law,\u201d that the cardinal commandment was \u201cHear, O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is one,\u201d and that \u201cno one was good but God\u201d\u2026.What would he have thought of Paul\u2019s handiwork!\u00a0 Paul\u2019s triumph meant the final obliteration of the historic Jesus; he comes to us embalmed in Christianity like a fly in amber.\u201d[4]<\/span>
\nMany authors have pointed out the disparity in the teachings of Paul and Jesus; the best of them have avoided opinionated commentary and concentrated on simply exposing the elements of difference.\u00a0 Dr. Wrede comments:<\/span>
\n\u201cIn Paul the central point is a divine act, in history but transcending history, or a complex of such acts, which impart to all mankind a ready-made salvation.\u00a0 Whoever believes in these divine acts \u2013 the incarnation, death, and resurrection of a celestial being, receives salvation.<\/span>
\n\u201cAnd this, which to Paul is the sum of religion \u2013 the skeleton of the fabric of his piety, without which it would collapse \u2013 can this be a continuation or a remoulding of the gospel of Jesus?\u00a0 Where, in all this, is that gospel to be found, which Paul is said to have understood?<\/span>
\n\u201cOf that which is to Paul all and everything, how much does Jesus know?\u00a0 Nothing whatever.\u201d[5]<\/span>
\nAnd Dr. Johannes Weiss contributes:<\/span>
\n\u201cHence the faith in Christ as held by the primitive churches and by Paul was something new in comparison with the preaching of Jesus; it was a new type of religion.\u201d[6]<\/span>
\nWhich theology won the day, and why, and how, are questions left to the analyses of the above authors.\u00a0 Should a person come to recognize that the teachings of Paul and those of Jesus oppose one another, consideration should be given to the question: \u201cIf I had to choose between the two, to whom should I give priority — Jesus or Paul?\u201d\u00a0 The question is so relevant that Michael Hart had the following to say in his scholastic tome, in which he ranks the 100 most influential men of history:<\/span>
\n\u201cAlthough Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament.\u201d[7]<\/span>
\nWith regard to Paul\u2019s perspective:<\/span>
\n\u201cHe does not ask what led to Jesus\u2019 death, he only sees what it means to him personally.\u00a0 He turns a man who summoned people to reconciliation with God into the savior.\u00a0 He turns an orthodox Jewish movement into a universal religion which ultimately clashed with Judaism.\u201d[8]<\/span>
\nThe three main points where Pauline theology conflicts with that of Jesus are critical — elements so crucial that deviation from the truth threatens a person\u2019s salvation.\u00a0 In order of importance they rank:<\/span>
\n1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The divinity of Jesus alleged by Pauline theology versus the oneness of God taught by Christ Jesus;<\/span>
\n2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Justification by faith, as proposed by Paul, versus Old Testament law, as endorsed by Christ Jesus;<\/span>
\n3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus having been a universal prophet, as per Paul, versus an ethnic prophet, as per the teachings of Christ Jesus.[9]\u00a0 Interestingly enough, these three points constitute the greatest doctrinal differences separating Christianity not only from Judaism, but also from Islam.\u00a0 Running a theological finger down the backbone of revealed monotheism, Trinitarian Christianity seems to stand out of joint.<\/span>
\nTo address the first of these points, Jesus is recorded as having taught the oneness of God, as in Mark 12:29:<\/span>
\n\u201cJesus answered him, \u2018The first of all the commandments is: \u201cHear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus reportedly continued with \u201cAnd you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,\u201d finishing with emphasis upon the initial claim, \u201cThis is the first commandment.\u201d (Mark 12:30).\u00a0 Not only did Jesus stress importance by sandwiching his statement between the repeated and emphatic \u201cThis is the first commandment,\u201d but the importance of this teaching is equally stressed in Matthew 22:37 and Luke 10:27, and further complemented by the first commandment as recorded in Exodus 20:3 — \u201cYou shall have no other gods before Me.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus conveyed the above teaching from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (as acknowledged in all reputable Biblical commentaries), yet Pauline theology somehow arrived at concepts which have been extrapolated to support what is now known as the Trinity.\u00a0 One wonders how.\u00a0 Jesus referred to the Old Testament — what did the Pauline theologians refer to?\u00a0 Significantly absent from the above teaching of Jesus is the association of himself with God.\u00a0 There never was a better time or place, throughout the New Testament, for Jesus to have claimed partnership in divinity, were it true.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t say, \u201cHear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one — but it\u2019s not quite that simple, so let me explain\u2026\u201d<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nCopyright \u00a9 2007 Laurence B. Brown<\/span>
\nPermission granted for free and unrestricted reproduction if reproduced in entirety without omissions, additions or alterations.<\/span>
\nA graduate of Cornell University, Brown University Medical School and George Washington University Hospital residency program, Laurence B. Brown is an ophthalmic surgeon, a retired Air Force officer, and the medical director and chief ophthalmologist of a major eye center. He is also an ordained interfaith minister with a doctorate in divinity and a PhD in religion, and the author of a number of books of comparative religion and reality-based fiction. His works can be found on his website, www.LevelTruth.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/span>
\nFootnotes: <\/span>
\n[1] Lehmann, Johannes. 1972. The Jesus Report. Translated by Michael Heron. London: Souvenir Press. pp. 125-6.<\/span>
\n[2] Ibid.\u00a0 p. 128.<\/span>
\n[3] Ibid.\u00a0 p. 134.<\/span>
\n[4] Carmichael, Joel, M.A. 1962. The Death of Jesus. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 270.<\/span>
\n[5] Wrede, William.\u00a0 1962.\u00a0 Paul.\u00a0 Translated by Edward Lummis.\u00a0 Lexington, Kentucky: American Theological Library Association Committee on Reprinting.\u00a0 p. 163.<\/span>
\n[6] Weiss, Johannes.\u00a0 1909.\u00a0 Paul and Jesus.\u00a0 (Translated by Rev. H. J. Chaytor).\u00a0 London and New York: Harper and Brothers.\u00a0 p. 130.<\/span>
\n[7] Hart, Michael H.\u00a0 The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History.\u00a0 p. 39\u00a0 of the 1978 edition by Hart Publishing Co.; p. 9 of the 1998 edition my Citadel Press.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/span>
\n[8] Lehmann, Johannes.\u00a0 p. 137.<\/span>
\n[9] Christ Jesus was one more prophet in the long line of prophets sent to guide the astray Israelites.\u00a0 As Christ Jesus so clearly affirmed, \u201cI was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 15:24)\u00a0 When Jesus sent the disciples out in the path of God, he instructed them in such a manner as to leave no uncertainty in this regard, for he told them, \u201cDo not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.\u00a0 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 10:5-6)\u00a0 Throughout his ministry, Jesus was never recorded as having converted a single Gentile, and in fact is recorded as having initially rebuked a Gentile for seeking his favors, likening her to a dog (Matthew 15:22-28 and Mark 7:25-30).\u00a0 One wonders, what does that mean now, for those who have taken Jesus to be their \u2018personal savior\u2019 and presume to speak in his name?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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