A Closer Look at Christianity by Barbara A. Brown

THE MISSION OF JESUS

Upon beginning his ministry at the approximate age of 30, Jesus made it clear that his mission from God was to get the Jews back on track:
"For the son of man is come to save that which was lost." (Matthew 18:11)
"For I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. " (Matthew 15:24)

Jesus also made it clear just what God wanted him to do:
"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12:49)

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

A careful study of Jesus' words will show that, contrary to what Christians may think, Jesus had no intention of starting a new religion; he only came to reiterate the message that God had given to all prophets before him: man was to obey God's Laws and worship Him alone.
At no time during his ministry did Jesus claim to be anything more than a human being, inspired by God.
Indeed, he referred to himself as the son of man, and made it clear, in a number of verses throughout the Gospel, that he was merely a Messenger of God:

"Why callest thou me good? There is none good but One, that is God." (Mark 10:18)
"...whosover receives me, receives not me, but Him who sent me." (Mark 9:37)
"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent." (John 17:3)
"Now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard from God." (John 8:40)
"I ascend unto my Father and your Father, my God and your God." (John 20:17)

Despite all his efforts--wonderful words backed up with some pretty nifty miracles--Jesus was soundly rejected, especially by his own people.

Three years after he began his ministry, he was arrested and charged with sedition and blasphemy.
Success had eluded him--at the end of his life on earth, he left behind only a mere handful of followers,
nor more than 500 at most.

This all changed dramatically, however, when a new preacher, claiming to speak in the name of Jesus,
came upon the scene only a few years later.

THE TRUE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY

The followers of Jesus, who called themselves "Nazarenes", continued to incite controversy wherever they went after Jesus had left the earth; they did this by continuing to echo his words of doom ahead for the Jews if they did not get their act together very soon.

One of these Nazarenes, a man named Stephen, finally pushed things too far by letting loose with an inflammatory speech when hauled up in front of the Jewish judges known as the Sanhedrin. Howling with fury at his "Blasphemous" words, the judges jumped up and dragged Stephen out of the city, where he was stoned to death. This story can be found in Acts chapter 7 in the Bible.

The execution of Stephen was observed by a young Jew named Saul. Born in Tarsus, not much later than Jesus himself, Saul had become part of the Jewish sect of the Pharisees; these "legal eagles" had become fanatic in their pursuit of the Nazarenes; following the execution of Stephen, Paul himself began to take a very active role in this endeavor.
His performance in this capacity was so good that he was made chief agent for this purpose in Jerusalem, and he was given the necessary documents to extend the purge into neighboring cities.

Approximately five years after Jesus' ascension into heaven, this twenty-five-year old zealot was on his way to Damascus to pick up a group of Nazarenes for return to Jerusalem when he had a vision in which he claimed Jesus appeared, asking why Saul was persecuting him.
Various theories have been advanced as to just what happened to Saul that day--such as sunstroke, a hallucination, and even an epileptic seizure--but nothing is for certain except that whatever did happen changed a zealous persecutor into an ardent preacher.
Saul changed his name to Paul and went off into the deserts of Arabia in order to think about just how he was going to go about carrying out what he believed to be a command from Jesus to go out and preach.
Exactly WHAT to do was quite a dilemma for him, however; since the Jews had rejected Jesus and his message, Paul didn't think he stood much of chance of getting through to them, either. He made up his mind that it would be best to simply dismiss them off and target the Gentiles (non-Jews) instead. In order to do this, however, some creative thinking was definitely called for.

The Romans and the Greeks, who made up the Gentile population of Paul's world, were pagans who worshiped a plethora of gods and goddesses. Temples and statues of their deities abounded in the land, and Roman law had it that all people, with the exception of the Jews, must pay homage to the gods.

Paul knew that people with such deep-reaching pagan beliefs were not going to accept the idea that grace and salvation could come from a person who was only considered to be a most upright and righteous human being.
If Paul wanted quick results in his ministry, he knew that he would have to "modulate" things a bit, taking into account the culture of the Gentiles.

Paul Maier, in his book "First Christians", tells us that thirteen years elapsed between the time Paul "received his calling" and the time that he began preaching. During that thirteen years, Paul's creative mind put in a lot of overtime; when he finally returned to Damascus, he came back armed with the knowledge that the Gentiles would demand a tangible god within their new religion, and he was prepared to give this to them.

Paul was wildly successful in his subsequent missionary efforts, what with the accommodations he ended up making for the Gentiles. Although the religion of Christianity takes its name from Jesus Christ, Paul of Tarsus must be considered as its true founder, as he is the one who conceived all of its doctrines, and set up its churches throughout the world of his time. Christians don't deny this, either: "No figure in Christian history stands so tall or has had such a tremendous influence as has Saul of Tarsus..."[3]

In his book "The 100: A Ranking of the most Influential Persons In History", author Michael Hart concurs
in saying:

"No other man played so large a role in the propagation of Christianity."[4]

There is one big problem with this picture, however: the teachings of Paul, the true founder of Christianity, cannot be found anywhere in the teachings of Jesus or in those of prophets before him.

Not only that, but Paul had little contact with the true disciples of Jesus who also might have set him straight; they were not in agreement with Paul's innovative teachings, and let him know this as much as possible. In the end, however, Paul's brand of Christianity won out because, through his charismatic personality, not to mention the fact that he and his companions out-matched the true disciples of Jesus in important manners such as social rank, wealth and education, he gained such a large following among the Gentiles. Judeo-Christianity, that of the disciples of Jesus, didn't stand a chance.

Let's take a closer look at all of the innovations that Paul introduced into "his" religion of Christianity.