THE VOICE OF A STRANGER

“Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.” (Thomas Jefferson)

Jesus says his sheep know his voice and follow him: “They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:4-5).  The voice of Paul is the voice of a stranger.  But don’t just take my word for it.  Listen to these eminent bible scholars.

The theologian Soren Kierkegaard, writing in “The Journals,” observes: “Paul threw the Christianity of Christ away, completely turning it upside down.”

The theologian Ernest Renan, in his book “Saint Paul,” writes: “The writings of Paul have been a danger and a hidden rock, the causes of the principal defects of Christian theology.”

The American philosopher, Will Durant; in his “Caesar and Christ,” writes: “Paul created a theology of which none but the vaguest warrants can be found in the words of Christ.”

Robert Frost, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943, in his “A Masque of Mercy”, writes: “Paul he’s in the Bible too.  He is the fellow who theologized Christ almost out of Christianity.  Look out for him.”

Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, writes in “Two Types of Faith:” “The Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount is completely opposed to Paul.”

The famous mystic, poet and author, Kahil Gibran, declares in “Jesus, the Son of Man:” “This Paul is indeed a strange man… He speaks not of Jesus nor does he repeat His Words.”

The famous theologian Helmut Koester, in his “The Theological Aspects of Primitive Christian Heresy” says: “Paul himself stands in the twilight zone of heresy…  Whatever Jesus had preached did not become the content of the missionary proclamation of Paul.”

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and author of the American Declaration of Independence; writes in his “Letter to William Short:” “Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.”

The renowned English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, in his “Not Paul but Jesus,” declares: “It rests with every professor of the religion of Jesus to settle within himself to which of the two religions, that of Jesus or that of Paul he will adhere.”

The eminent theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur, in his “Church History of the First Three Centuries,” writes: “What kind of authority can there be for an ‘apostle’ who, unlike the other apostles, had never been prepared for the apostolic office in Jesus’ own school but had only later dared to claim the apostolic office on the basis of his own authority?”

Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian prophet of nonviolence, in an essay titled “Discussion on Fellowship”, writes: “I draw a great distinction between the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus and the Letters of Paul.  Paul’s Letters are a graft on Christ’s teachings, Paul’s own gloss apart from Christ’s own experience.”

Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist, writes in his essay “A Psychological Approach to Dogma”: “It is frankly disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus of Nazareth to get a word in.”

George Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925; writes in his “Androcles and the Lion:” “There is not one word of Pauline Christianity in the characteristic utterances of Jesus…  There has really never been a more monstrous imposition perpetrated than the imposition of Paul’s soul upon the soul of Jesus.”

Albert Schweitzer, winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, in his “The Quest for the Historical Jesus” and his “Mysticism of Paul” writes: “The attitude which Paul himself takes up towards the Gospel of Jesus is that he does not repeat it in the words of Jesus, and does not appeal to its authority.”

William Wrede, in his book “Paul,” writes: “The moral majesty of Jesus, his purity and piety, his ministry among his people, his manner as a prophet, the whole concrete ethical-religious content of his earthly life, signifies for Paul’s Christology nothing whatever.”

Rudolf Bultman, a theologian, writes in his “Significance of the Historical Jesus for the Theology of Paul:” “Jesus’ teaching is- to all intents and purposes- irrelevant for Paul.”

Walter Bauer, an eminent theologian, writes in his “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity:” “If one may be allowed to speak rather pointedly the Apostle Paul was the only Arch-Heretic known to the apostolic age.”

Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore writes in “Christ or Paul:” “If we apply to Paul the test ‘by their fruits ye shall know them’ it is abundantly clear that he was a false prophet.”

The voice of Paul is completely different from the voice of Jesus.  Indeed, close study reveals Paul is not a true disciple of Christ.  Don’t take anything for granted: find out for yourself.