Source: Huffington Post
By: Robert Orlando
Saint Paul’s Cathedral: It is the symbolic heart of London and the third largest cathedral in the world.
The Apostle Paul was, for much of his life, an abject failure who never knew the success of his Christianizing mission. From his letters, written 50-60 A.D., we know that most of his relationships deteriorated in the midst of his overbearing personality, Jesus’ original 12 disciples could hardly tolerate the man. Paul had to constantly fight to see that the congregations he started stayed true to his teachings, and he failed on numerous occasions to complete his missionary journeys because of disputes back in Judea. And yet, Paul was incredibly talented in one key measure: being divisive.
Interlaced within his Epistles, and other New Testament texts, lies a challenging narrative concerning the founding of the Christian Church. A narrative that leads up to one event that shaped the religion for generations to come, that led to Paul’s violent death, and set forth an understanding of Jesus, the Christ, which was a far cry from the underclass, largely unlettered, first-century Palestinian Jew. The event, occurring between 58-60 A.D., was the supposed third Jerusalem Council, where Paul expected he could finally make amends with Jesus’ original followers. Yet, as Gerd Ludemann flatly states, “Paul miscalculated this situation.”
It did not go as planned.
First some background: Paul, a self-professed Hebrew among Hebrews, was rarely at peace with his original followers back in Jerusalem. James the brother of Jesus, Peter and the other remaining disciples were keen on keeping the movement — then known as The Way — as a Temple-based, ethnically Jewish, messianic mission. They were suspect of Paul, and understandably so. He had once been their chief persecutor prior to his conversion, around 36-39 A.D. Read further:
Watch a trailer of the documentary.
Chief Editor’s comments:
From Jesus to Christ — the First Christians: A four hour PBS documentary
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)
The life of Jesus as presented by the Gospel of Matthew was about Judaism, the Jewish Law and the Kingdom of Heaven rather than an obsession about his own death and vicarious atonement, as preached by St. Paul.
The title of this comment and the article linked here is a four hour PBS documentary about the early history of Christians, which can be seen in the video section of Google.com. Let us start our review with two verses of the Holy Quran. It states:
And when Allah will say, “O Jesus, son of Mary, didst thou say to men, ‘Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah?’”, he will answer, “Holy art Thou. I could never say that to which I had no right. If I had said it, Thou wouldst have surely known it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy mind. It is only Thou Who art the Knower of hidden things. “I said nothing to them except that which Thou didst command me — ‘Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.’ And I was a witness over them as long as I remained among them, but since Thou didst cause me to die, Thou hast been the Watcher over them; and Thou art Witness over all things. (Al Quran 5:117-118)
Read further and watch the documentary:
http://islam4jesus.org/article/from-jesus-to-christ-the-first-1qhnnhcumbuyp-216/
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Europe
Achievement of St. Paul
At the time of Jesus, may peace be on him only 5% of the Roman Empire was Jewish and 95% were Pagans. So, St. Paul transformed the pure Monotheism of Judaism to three in one or Trinitarian Monotheism to make it palatable for the Pagans. So, in a manner of speaking he reduced hundreds of gods of Paganism into three persons in one being of Trinity and brought large segments of population closer to the Jewish and Islamic understanding of pure Monotheism. This was Paul’s achievement.
Now is the time when large populations in the West is becoming disillusioned of the dogma of Christianity that the Christians should take the final steps to a pristine and a pure Monotheism and for this I suggest reading about Trinity and its history in Ecumenical Councils in our website, especially made for our Christian brothers and sisters, Islam for the West.
Apostles did not have the New Testament: What did they believe in?
What did the apostles of Jesus, may peace be on him, read or believe in? Most believing Christians have never paused to think about this fundamental question! If they begin to think and read about it they are guaranteed to have a rude awakening. None of them ever set their eyes on the New Testament and most of them even never saw any of the four canonical Gospels, the first of which was written in the 65 AD and not in Jerusalem or Judea.
Those Apostles who did not meet Paul or met him briefly would not have had any clue as to what he wrote in the thirteen letters attributed to him, in the New Testament.
The Council of Carthage, called the third by Denzinger, on 28 August 397 issued a canon of the Bible quoted as, “Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, 4 books of Kingdoms, 2 books of Chronicles, Job, the Davidic Psalter, 5 books of Solomon, 12 books of Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobias, Judith, Esther, 2 books of Ezra, 2 books of Maccabees, and in the New Testament: 4 books of Gospels, 1 book of Acts of the Apostles, 13 letters of the Apostle Paul, 1 letter of his to the Hebrews, 2 of Peter, 3 of John, 1 of James, 1 of Jude, and one book of the Apocalypse of John.”
Prof. Bart Ehrman explains in his book, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, in the chapter titled, The Invention of Scripture: The Formation of the Proto-orthodox New Testament:
As you learn more and more about how the New Testament was compiled, think about what had the Apostles been reading, if they could read or believed in! Read further: