What is Pauline Christianity?

Answer

Pauline Christianity is a term used to describe what some consider as the distinct religious teachings found in Paul’s writings, separate from Jesus’ gospel. According to this view, Jesus and Paul taught different things. Those who support the idea of a distinct Pauline Christianity argue that modern Christianity is more influenced by Paul’s interpretations than by Jesus’ original teachings.

We affirm that the New Testament forms a cohesive unit: the Gospels depict the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah, while the Epistles elucidate the significance and application of Jesus’ work in daily life. For instance, Matthew 28 records Jesus’ resurrection, whereas 1 Corinthians 15 expounds on the importance of this event. Mark 15:38 mentions the tearing of the temple veil at Jesus’ death, a moment further explained in Hebrews 10:11-23. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Gospels also guided the writing of the Epistles to provide a comprehensive understanding of God’s plan for salvation.

Conversely, proponents of the concept of “Pauline Christianity” present a different narrative:

Jesus, a revered teacher, identified himself as the awaited Messiah of the Jewish people. He anticipated God’s overthrow of Rome and the establishment of His kingdom on earth. Jesus preached a message of unconditional love, tolerance, and acceptance of all without judgment. Unfortunately, Jesus’ mission to usher in a new era on earth was thwarted by his crucifixion at the hands of the Romans.

Following Jesus’ death, his followers, convinced of his resurrection by God, gathered in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, Jesus’ brother. They aimed to await the imminent kingdom and uphold Jesus’ form of enlightened Judaism. However, Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, allegedly pretended to convert to Christianity to infiltrate the early church. This caused tension with Peter, James, and other original disciples of Jesus, who were skeptical of Paul’s intentions.

Suspicious of Saul, who had never met Jesus.

Then Saul, who began calling himself “Paul,” had a stroke of genius. He skillfully merged traditional Hebrew concepts with those of pagan Greek philosophy, forming a new faith that could attract both Jews and Gentiles. He started proclaiming that Jesus was indeed God, that Jesus’ death was connected to the Jewish sacrificial system, that one could attain salvation simply by faith, and that the Mosaic law was outdated. Paul’s enthusiastic missionary work and compelling writings spread his new “gospel” throughout the Roman Empire. The Jerusalem Church, which included Peter and James, rejected Paul as a heretic and sect leader.

Following the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Jewish Church lost its authority, while the Gentile Church established by Paul grew in influence. A devoted follower of Paul authored the book of Acts, which elevated Paul to a legendary status by portraying him as the champion of the church. Subsequently, four anonymous authors collected fragments of information about Jesus and penned the books known as “Matthew,” “Mark,” Luke,” and “John”—yet Paul’s theology, already prevalent in the church, colored the writers’ viewpoints. Consequently, Paul’s faith triumphed over that of Jesus.

In essence, Paul was a fraud, an evangelistic swindler who managed to distort Jesus’ message of love into something unrecognizable to Jesus himself. It was Paul, not Jesus, who established the “Christianity” observed today.

Typically, proponents of the aforementioned theory also uphold the following beliefs:

1) Jesus was not divine. He never professed to be God, and he never aimed to initiate a new faith.

2) The Bible is not a divinely inspired text and is fraught with inconsistencies. Apart from conceivably the book of James, none of the Bible was authored by individuals who had personal acquaintance with Jesus. While fragments of Jesus’ teachings exist in the Gospels, it is challenging to ascertain his authentic words.

3) Paul was not truly a Pharisee and did not possess extensive education. His “conversion” was either a personal epiphany or a strategic maneuver.

Hallucinogenic experience or an outright fraud. His claims to be an apostle were attempts to further his own authority in the church.

4) Pauline theological “inventions” include a) the deity of Jesus; b) salvation by grace through faith; c) salvation through the blood of Jesus; d) the sinless nature of Jesus; e) the concept of original sin; and f) the Holy Spirit. None of these “new doctrines” were accepted by Jesus’ true followers.

5) The Gnostic Gospels are closer to the truth about Jesus than the traditional four Gospels of the Bible.

The concept of “Pauline Christianity” represents an outright attack on the Bible as the Word of God. Adherents of the “Pauline Christianity” theory are truly misrepresenting Jesus’ teachings. They choose to believe His words on love but deny His teachings on judgment (such as Matthew 24). They insist on a human Jesus, denying His divinity, although Jesus plainly taught His equality with God in passages such as John 10:30. They want a “loving” Jesus without having to accept Him as Lord and Savior.

Any time a skeptic finds a “disagreeable” doctrine in the Bible, he is likely to say, “That passage has been corrupted,” or, “Paul wrote that, and we know he was a liar.” Where the Gospels teach a “Pauline” doctrine, such as Jesus’ atonement for sin in John 1:29, the skeptic dismisses it as “inserted by devotees of Paul.” In reality, the skeptic’s only basis for such a selective approach to Scripture is a personal bias against the idea of Jesus’ atonement.

Interestingly, Paul’s credentials as an apostle were attacked, even in his own lifetime, by those who desired to lead the church into legalism and other errant ideologies. Paul defends himself from the spurious attacks of false teachers in 1 Corinthians 9; 2 Corinthians 12; and Galatians 1.

Paul’s apostleship is attested to by the miracles he performed «through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I haveFully preached the gospel of Christ.” (Romans 15:19), the training he received (Galatians 1:15-20), and the testimony of the other apostles. Peter, far from being Paul’s enemy, wrote this about him: “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16).