okay good morning um so last class we talked about the central Paradox in Christianity what Jesus believes is different from what Christianity teaches us about Jesus okay so let's go over let's review uh what Jesus believes teaches what Christianity teaches us about Jesus okay so Jesus um remember that Jesus is one of are great spiritual leaders and Geniuses like the Buddha um and there's a three Tire approach to his religion or philosophy there's an inner approach which is a secret teachings his secret understanding of the world there's an inner Lear which is what he teaches his disciples and then there's a public leer which is what he tells other people in public in the public Lear we know very well he believes in generosity in Mercy um in focusing on um being a good and kind person in the inner leer we also know very well he demands that the people follow him give up all worldly possessions and Pursuits if you're rich if you want to follow him then you must abandon all your wealth and he demands self-sacrifice uh from all his Apostles okay and then there's a secret lay which is the philosophy that underpins all these religious teachings and the secret is that this world we live in is false and what's really true is the Divine spark within us that allows us to connect to the true reality of the monad or the one okay the world that we live in is being controlled by a monster and that's why you should not hate the rich you should pity the rich because the rich are pursuing what is false and in the pursuit of what is false it is it is causing them to feel anger um and self-hatred so Jesus has this great metaphor and what he says is that the person of wealth is like drinking salt water okay the more you drink the more thirsty you become and you feel it's because you have not drunk enough so you drink more and more salt water and eventually you will poison yourself right so that's how he feels about the preserv of wealth it will it is poisonous it will only lead to your ultimate demise and that's why it's important to focus instead on our Humanity on our connection with others that's why it's important to be compassionate okay and you you should be most be compassionate towards the rich because to the ones who are most guided who the ones who are most misguided and deluded okay so that's the Jesus and again his teachings are no different from say Buddhist teachings or Hindu teachings or Dum teachings okay so all these major religions are aligned in this belief but then you have the Bible the Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus of the Bible is portrayed very differently right in the Bible Jesus is a Son of God and there's a conflict between God and Humanity remember we humans committed the original sin we disobeyed him and ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil and therefore God banished us from Paradise and ever since we've been living in misery God expects us to acknowledge our failings and ask for forgiveness but because we are ignorant um and misguided and sinful we refuse to apologize therefore Jesus has to return has to come to Earth and sacrifice himself in the crucification has to crucify himself in order to atone for our sins and to wash us of all our past sins so that we we can begin a new okay and after he has completed the sacrifice he has become resurrected and he now ascends to heaven and he prepares for the day when he will return and destroy all evil and build an eternal Paradise on Earth and this is what is known as the second coming okay and this is an extremely powerful story but it's also very complicated and in many ways contradictory okay so if Jesus is a Son of God then what is God's role in this and how does a Son of God a god actually die on Earth and why does he have to die first before he can return again okay so there are a lot of contradictions in this story that you don't have in the first Jesus teachings all right so the question I want to ask today is how did we get from here okay Jesus is teaching us about the kingdom of God that the kingdom of God is within us and and accessible to all who are willing to do good to this idea which demands that we believe that Jesus is a Son of God who came to sacrifice himself to redeem us from our sins and he will eventually return to bring Eternal Paradise to Earth all right these are two very different worldviews so how do we we get from uh here to here okay so a lot the clue lies in the Bible and the story of Jesus in the Bible so what's interesting about the Jesus story is Jesus gets into trouble when he goes into Jerusalem before he was in the provinces and he was building a large following he was healing people he was spreading um the kingdom of God message and he was very popular and he was very safe but then he got he he went to Jerusalem and he ran a fowl of the religious Elite in Jerusalem the high priest and eventually they rallied the Jewish people against Jesus and they persecuted him okay and eventually Jesus was betrayed by name named Judas es scariot one of his followers and the Jews brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate the Roman governor of Judea and at first ponus pilot refused to punish him but the Jews insisted and so Pon pilot had to eventually crucify Jesus in order to satisfy the will of the Jewish people okay now this story is constructed in a way that's very very clever in history who was also persecuted by his own people which caus his death you guys remember which truth teller exactly okay Socrates right so this story reminds us of Socrates right the persecution of a truth teller that's Socrates right that Rems of Socrates now let's let me ask you another question who else was betrayed by his own followers SU right you see how clever this is the two most famous individuals in world history at this point Socrates and julus Caesar are brought into the story of Jesus so that it conflates all three together Jesus is Socrates is Julius Caesar all right that's very very clever and you can only do this you have have a very nuanced understanding of Greek history Roman Min history and the Jewish Bible the Hebrew Bible right and in fact at at this time there are individuals who possess all three sets of knowledge and they are called hellenized Jews in the Roman Empire right if you are a heniz Jew meaning you grew up with a great education and your the ran Empire you have access to all three major sets of knowledge the Hebrew Bible Greek philosophy and Roman history okay and the major individual in the Bible who is a heliz Jew in the Roman Empire is named Paul and he is credited with most of the writing of the New Testament about a third of the New Testament which is the Christian Bible either it's written by Paul or it's about Paul so that's why we believe that not Jesus but Paul is the real founder of Christianity okay Christianity again is not by Jesus it's not a religion by Jesus Jesus it's a religion about Jesus and there's a difference okay now let's talk about the life in Times of Paul because it's a very interesting story okay and um again everything I'm telling you comes from the Bible a book called Acts of the Apostles which is about what happens after Jesus dies okay so after Jesus dies his brother James the just becomes leader of his movement okay and they're often called the poor in uh but they're all called the poor why because they're focused on um a life that denies worldly Goods okay they believe this mature reality we live in it's evil and we have to focus on the spiritual life and that's why they they demand poverty okay that's that's why they themselves are poor and that the man everyone who believes in them are also poor and uh the word for them it's called ebionites and this is important because the imites will eventually leave Jerusalem where they are now and go to Arabia where they will help found the um religion of Islam okay so I I want you guys to keep this in mind okay so James a Jud and his followers they're in Jerusalem and what this tells us is if they're in Jerusalem and they're not from Jerusalem then they are being protected and honored by the Jewish Elite okay and this again is evidence that it was not the Jews who killed Jesus it was the Romans who killed Jesus because if the Jews killed Jesus and all his followers would have to leave Jerusalem right but after his death they're all in Jerusalem basically okay so this is a major contradiction in the Bible let's talk about Paul who who is Paul we actually know very little about the early life of Paul we know that he's from a place called Tarsus which is part of the Jewish diaspora okay he himself is Jewish he's a Roman citizen and that's pretty rare for a Jewish person and you only get citizenship by doing three things the first thing is you're born of citizens which is probably the case with Paul okay he tells us in the Bible I'm born a Roman citizen therefore my parents are citizens which means his parents were were very wealthy and part of the Roman Elite okay second thing you the second way you get CIP is by um being a soldier for 20 years and the Third Way is through service to the emperor okay the emperor honors you uh with with citizenship if you have shown devotion and service okay so it's very hard to be a Roman citizen but Paul is a Roman citizen um and as a Roman citizen he grew up secular he grew up learning Greek rhetoric he learned Socrates Plato Homer all that okay for whatever reason he converted and becomes a Pharisee okay remember Pharisees are Jewish priests who eventually will become rabbis and as a Pharisee he's very fanatical we know that if you convert you actually you actually become very fanatical okay and as a Pharisee he was tasked with destroying the Jesus movement and that kind of makes no sense because we just said that if James ad just and the followers of Jesus are in Jerusalem that means they are being protected and honored by the Pharisees right so this is actually major contradiction that no one has actually explained to us okay but you'll see a lot of these contradictions in the Bible okay anyway the story continues here's a Pharisee and he's fanatical about destroying the Jesus movement because it is heresy it is um uh Jesus thinks of himself as a messiah and he's not okay um eventually Paul decides to go to Damascus to destroy the Jesus movement in in Damascus but on the road there he sees the light okay he sees the light and it's Jesus talking to him saying Paul stop persecuting me and my people and then Paul at this point has something called the Damascus moment okay Damas the Damascus moment moment is a very famous metaphor in English it means to see the light and to change your opinion okay and to convert into the true belief and at this point Paul becomes a fanatical follower of Jesus even though he's never met Jesus and he's never met the followers of Jesus this is extremely weird okay but he becomes a fanatical follower of Jesus and he decides he's going to spread the message of Jesus to everyone okay and the way you do that is you just go to synagogues and tell Jews that Jesus is the Messiah okay and eventually he will begin to build the structure and the organization of Christianity right now they're not called Christians they're still Jews and Jesus and his followers are considered a branch of um Judaism okay but there's some major differences the first major difference is Paul believes that Jesus is the Messiah and what's really important is he teaches us that through faith in Jesus you will achieve salvation this is very different from what Jesus himself taught it is through good works that you achieve F salvation but Paul teaches us no it is Bel in in Jesus as a savior that will offer you salvation the good works don't matter it's the belief the faith in Jesus that matters okay that's the first thing second thing that s Paul is he's focused on um organization and structure okay Jesus and his followers were very egalitarian they didn't believe in organization they didn't believe in hierarchy they didn't believe in structure but Paul insists only if you have hierarchy and organization and structure will you have the ability to fully promote Jesus's message to the people okay so he's building churches around um the Roman Empire for Paul What mattered first and foremost was to convert as many people as possible because believe in Jesus meant salvation so we have a duty to save as many people as possible okay so it's important to make compromises for example circum circumcision so there were many in the Jewish diaspora around the Roman Empire who W circumcised why because the fathers were Greek and the mothers were Jewish and Paul felt it was very important to bring these people into the religion and so he basically said you know what if you're not if you're 20 years old and you're not circumcised don't worry about it what the law doesn't matter what matters is your faith in Jesus okay so these are the three radical changes that Paul makes to the religion that's being um developed around Jesus okay and as you can imagine this is pissing off Jewish people especially back in j Jem so James the just hears about this from all his Jewish friends and say this is Guy Paul gr around the Roman Empire and teaching everyone that it's not important to follow Jewish law and Customs it's not important to be Jewish what's important is to believe in Jesus and so James the Jud and Paul start to have a major argument okay James just is is running Paul and says Paul what's going on why are you telling people you don't have to follow Jewish law and Paul writes back and says what matters is not the letter of the law what matters is the spirit of the law if Jesus has come and he's the Savior then believing in him is what matters and we need to get as many people to believe in Jesus as possible okay so for example Gentiles non-jews want to believe in Jesus but they 20 they 30 to 40 how can they circumcise themselves I'm just trying to open up the religion I'm the Apostle to the Gentiles okay so Paul names himself Apostle to the Gentiles the non-jews I am liberating this religion for all I bringing this religion to everyone Greek and Jew alike Greek Roman and Jew alike all right eventually this conflict becomes so bitter that James Su just spreads rumors about Paul and many of Paul's churches now start to abandon him okay because remember James J is Jesus's brother okay so there's an authority it's James the just not Paul and Paul becomes very angry Paul tries many many um tricks for example he he tries to bribe James a just by offering him money okay he also writes letters complaining about James a just and saying well just because you're Jesus brother doesn't mean you know what he actually says because Jesus talk to me man Jesus came to me in a vision therefore I'm the one who really understands Jesus all right eventually Paul decides you know what this conflict is so bad everyone's leaving me that I have to go to Jerusalem and sort things out with James okay so he goes to Jerusalem and he meets with James and at first the meaning goes well but then in Jerusalem the people who don't like Paul recognize him and they start to mob him okay they want to kill this guy and what's really interesting about how this is written is it's very similar to the Jesus story where Jesus is being uh mobed by by by Jews okay and at this point okay Paul is about to be ripped apart by the Jewish mom but then Roman soldiers come and save him and Paul does something that's different from Jesus Paul tells soldiers I I am a Roman citizen and the soldiers are like oh wow okay then we must protect you we must ensure that you get fair treatment okay and so Paul is brought to the Jew the Roman governor and the Roman Governor um doesn't believe that Paul has broken any laws but there's Jewish mob out there who want to kill him okay so now Paul says to the governor let me talk to the Roman Emperor I will make my case before the Roman Emperor and the governor is like well then I have no choice I no longer have the authority to judge you myself you as a Roman citizen have the right to talk to the Roman Emperor so therefore I will send Soldiers with you to Rome to be judged by the Roman Emperor himself okay and so if you actually read the Bible these two stories between Jesus and Paul you will see how how many parallels and similarities there are okay but the difference is this the difference is Paul is a Roman citizen Jesus is not therefore Jesus was killed because he was not a Roman citizen okay does that make sense if Jesus were a Roman citizen he could preach all he wants okay he could say whatever he wants but he wasn't and therefore he was killed so then Paul goes back to Rome and this is how the Acts of the Apostles ends okay let's read it together because the way it is written is extremely fascinating okay when we come into Rome Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier who was guarding him this makes no sense Paul is a criminal the Jews are accusing Paul of violing their laws Paul has returned to Rome to be judged by the Roman Emperor but this is what this is what the Bible says Paul was allowed to live by himself and he was being guarded by a soldier who was protecting him that's a contradiction what's going on here okay but then it gets more interesting next paragraph three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews what this makes no sense the Jews consider him a criminal yet he has the power and authority to call all the major Jewish local leaders of Rome into his house for a meeting who gave him this power from the perspective of Jews he is a criminal he's asking people to break the laws of Moses what's going on here then when they had assemble he said to them okay this is him talking to them brothers though had done nothing against our people or the cousins or ancestors okay so he's denying any wrongdoing right but he clearly committed wrong because circumcision guys and we talked about this circumcision is how Jews know they are chosen people there's a covenant between Abraham and Yahweh God the Covenant is the Abraham and his anwers will circumcised themselves as a mark of allegiance to Yahweh and return Yahweh will give them the promised land okay so circumcision is core to what it means to be Jewish in fact it's the main feature of being Jewish and here Paul tells people oh you don't you don't have to circumcise yourself so he's clearly breaking the customs and laws of their ancestors and he's saying nope I didn't do anything wrong okay and again these are Jewish leaders who know for a fact Paul is guilty of this but the people but the Jews don't speak up and he and Paul continues yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and over the Romans when they had examined me the Romans want to release me okay because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case the Romans want wanted to let me go but the Jews insisted that I be killed so it's the Romans who saved me right but the Jews objected I was compelled to appeal to the emperor Okay so when the Jews wanted to kill me I told the governor listen there's higher authority than you and it's the emperor and I want to go speak to the emperor the governor had no choice but to send guards soldiers to take me to Rome to be Tried by the emperor and now okay this is the most important sentence even though I had no charge to bring against my nation okay what Paul is saying is this Paul is saying when I I want I I could go talk to the emperor but if I talk to the emperor then it's because I accuse my people the Jews of a crime against a Roman citizen you understand so what he's doing it's very clever is he's making a real threat to the Jewish leaders of Rome if you mess with me I'm going to go direct to the emperor and accuse you guys of attacking Roman citizen do you guys understand this you see how radical this is this this speech is radly different from the story before in the Bible so G Paul is accusing the Jews of committing a crime whereas before the Jews were accusing Paul of committing a crime and what Paul is saying is like I'm right because access to the emperor you don't okay and this is how the Bible this is how the book ends okay the Acts of the Apostles This Is How It Ends he lived there two whole years at his expense he's clearly very wealthy right proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance no one could touch this guy this is how the story of Paul ends he's in Rome he can do whatever he wants and no one can touch him all right so who is this guy how can he do this he's a Jerusalem the mob's trying to kill him the Roman soldiers come and save him he and he goes back to Rome and he tells the Jewish leaders there hey guys don't mess with me and they leave him alone and some even convert who is this guy Paul all right so that's a question so any any questions so far all right so again there are a lot of questions in the story of Paul that don't make any sense okay the first thing that doesn't make sense is like who is this guy right he has all this power and money and he can do whatever he wants and no one can touch him all right so that's the first big question second big question is um why does he convert right his conversion story doesn't make any sense we're like okay well because he saw Jesus okay that's fine but guess what guys after Jesus talks to him Jesus sort of disappears from the story and you would think that if Jesus was so important to Paul Paul would quote from Jesus right but he doesn't quote from Jesus Jesus has a lot of message a lot of sayings but Paul rarely quotes from him okay but not only that we we already said that the message of Jesus the message of Paul are very different Jesus believed the kingdom of God was within us for for our generosity for our Mercy we can achieve salvation Paul taught everyone it's believe in Jesus that will allow you to achieve salvation and only believe in Jesus you you can do as much good as you want but if you don't believe in Jesus you'll be damned to hell so all those Buddhists all those Hindus all those zians who are doing good in the world too bad they will be burned in hell and that goes against a lot of the teachings of Jesus okay so he did convert but he's not spreading the Gospel of Jesus all right all right um another question then is why is he focusing on organization okay why is he focusing on organization the heart of religion is spiritual truth right but Paul doesn't really care about that he cares about the organization the church who's in charge how many members we're attracting how we can appeal to them more how how do we resolve internal political disputes within the church that's what he cares about that's very odd okay and then the last question then is why does why does he get in trouble with the Jews and why do the Romans save him okay so these are questions now let's first go over for the Christian explanation and the Christian explanation is Paul was part of divine plan okay so Jesus brought truth into the world right the truth of Jesus that's what Jesus teaches but it was Paul who created the structure in the organization that allowed Christianity to spread okay so um a analogy or or a comparison is the story McDonald's McDonald's you guys don't know McDonald's right well guess what in 1950s McDonald's was one restaurant in California it had amazing hamburgers and um it really had the best hamburgers and a man named Ray visited this restaurant and it was being run by McDonald brothers that's why it's called McDonald's okay and Ray Croc says to the to the brothers you know what you guys have an amazing restaurant let me scale it out let me convince others St McDonald's around America and the world this is called the franchise model OKAY the franchise model the franchise model and so the brother said yeah sure and what what R Co did was he drove everywhere like Paul and he had these meetings like Paul where he convinced people of the American dream like Paul Ray Croc said to everyone if you open McDonald's you will get rich and you will live the American dream right Paul said to everyone if you believe in Jesus you will achieve salvation and because Rick was such a amazing salesperson McDonald's eventually became uh the the largest restaurant Empire in the world right same thing with Paul because Paul was just a convicting salesman Christianity became the most dominant religion in the world so this is all part of God's plan okay it's very similar to the story of McDonald's here's the problem guys Jesus was not selling hamburgers in fact Jesus hated hamburgers right the central message of Jesus Is wealth is is wrong business is wrong hierarchy is wrong what matters is the spiritual truth in your heart all right so even though this is a Christian belief that both are part of the divine plan and Paul was doing Paul was basically Jesus's business manager okay problem is Jesus didn't want a business manager and J believe that it was our own individual responsibility to discover our own truths through him okay so what are some other explanations for Paul okay all right so I mean the most basic answer for people who hate Paul is he was just an opportunist a charlatan okay he saw business opportunity everyone loved Jesus Jesus was had gotone viral right he had gotone viral and he and he was a meme now around the world and so he wanted to take advantage of that he wanted to monetize that the problem with this is he worked really hard man he Trav around all he traveled all around the Roman Empire to spread the message he was fanatical about it okay and opportunists are are are not fanatical they're kind of lazy so I don't really buy this idea that he was opportunist he really believed in what he was doing he was driven by a sense of mission okay and also guys remember if he's a Roman citizen and his parents are are Roman citizens then he's probably wal for himself he doesn't really need this money also what's important for us to understand is Paul comes from a very well educated background he's very wealthy he speaks Greek he writes Greek beautifully he's classically educated he doesn't want to deal with James the just who is not well educated right he doesn't he doesn't want to deal with these people so why is he dealing with these people right so I don't really buy this explanation another explanation is secret conspiracy the idea here is Paul and maybe many who supported him hated the Roman Empire and they believe Christianity would be a weapon that would eventually destroy the Roman Empire which is what happened historically that's 3 34 years in the future how could Paul know that and also what does Paul have against the Roman Empire really right he's he's beneficiary of the Roman Empire he's wealthy his parents are wealthy all right so another explanation which by the way I've never heard before but which I do believe all right so take this with a grain of salt but I believe he was a spy for the Roman Empire all right okay there's a spy okay so let let me explain the idea here what is he doing and all right so the Jews have always been a problem for Empires both the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire why because the Greeks and the Romans are pagans they celebrate pagan gods but the Jews believe that their God is the only God and every other God is false and so they refused the authority of the Empire this is led to many Wars okay from 167 to 16 BCE there's something called the meban revolt against the saluan empire the last s years killed a lot of people okay and then there'll be the Romans and the Jews will fight three major Wars from 66 73 CE this is around the time of Paul the first war will be fought the Romans will burn the temple down and ban all Jews from Jerusalem and the Romans think through this aggression the the Jews will be cowled they'll be scared right no no no it makes them even more Angry so that two more Wars are fought from 115 to 117 and then the third war will be from 132 to 136 okay so the Jews are fanatical that's what G gives the Jews power they're a poor province of the Roman Empire but they're fanatical and guess what Romans respect fanaticism okay remember 216 BC Hannibal invades Italy and he destroys all the Roman armies uh again who who are against him in the Battle of Kai he has killed at least 20% of the Roman adult male population and a third of the Senate and at this point the Romans should have surrendered and talk peace right but the Romans are fanatical they refuse to surrender and eventually they're able to destroy carage okay so now the Romans see the Jews who again it's it's a poor small province in the Roman Empire and they continue to Rebel so this fanaticism of the Jews it both scares and it alls the Romans okay they they understand the Romans above all understand how powerful fism is fism is the Ultimate Weapon it cannot be defeated and because there's a diaspora a Jewish diaspora can never be rooted out okay you can destroy Jerusalem which is what they did but they're Jews all around the world so you can never destroy this fism and because of the long history of the Jews this phm only grows through persecution and through suffering okay so you have to somehow destroy this fanaticism if you are to win this war against the Jews and there are three Central beliefs underlying this Jewish fanaticism all right the first is the idea of Purity why is it that if the Jews are God's chosen people they're always being pushed around by these larger Empires like the syrians the Babylonians the Persians the Greeks and the Romans and the answer is because we Jews have not been pure enough we have not been loyal enough to Yahweh so it is only through Purity that will allow us to eventually triumph over over our enemies okay otherwise we will continue to be bullied by others second is the idea of persecution complex the pers Christian complex the entire world is against us because we are God's chosen people and therefore we must stand United and stay pure who the Jews really hated were the Jews who assimilated like Paul right they hated these people because they were traitors to the nation of Israel right second belief and then there's a third belief which is the coming of the Messiah don't worry about today okay this pain this suffering this persecution it's all part of the divine plan it's testing us it is making us strong event the Messiah the anointed one will come from heaven and lead us into a final battle against all enemies the Roman Empire and we will destroy them and then we will establish the nation of God the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth okay and so these are the three major beliefs that underpin Jewish fanm and it makes the Jews almost Invincible because it makes them fear they're not afraid to die dying is part of divine plan suffering is all part of the process of achieving the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth it's the responsibility to die for the faith okay all right so now that that we understand this Jewish fanm we can Now understand why Paul is doing what he's doing right think about this Purity means absolute obedience to the law of Moses right but what Paul's saying is no guys circumcision circumcision is we don't we don't have to enforce circumcision because we want more non-jews into our religion okay why circumcision such a big deal well because circumcision is basically what um separates the Jews into a different group of people in in any Community why because in most cities there's a place called gymnasium gymnasium is really the heart and center of life in the community it's it's it's where PE where men go to do Sports and Athletics like wrestle and run okay the female of genium is everyone goes in naked right and why is this a problem because if you're Jewish people know right away You're Jewish therefore it's hard for you to go into gymnasium because you're being ridiculed by the Greeks therefore there's no way for the Jews to associate with the Greeks and other people okay does that make sense that's why circumcision is so important once you out once you say to the Jewish people you don't need to be circumcised you just have to have faith in Jesus it's easier for them to assimilate into the larger culture around them right pers persecution complex Jews are being persecuted why because they're not Roman citizens right let's go back to the story of Jesus why did he get persecuted why did he die because he was not a Roman citizen if he were a Roman citizen then P pilate would have protected him from the Jews who wanted to kill him just like how the Roman soldiers protected Paul from those Jews wanted to kill him so guys focus on being a Roman citizen and you can believe anything you want you will no longer be persecuted you'll be part of the Roman Empire right and the last thing is the coming of the Messiah right Jews believe the Messiah is going to come and lead them into final Victory against all their enemies especially the Roman Empire but what Paul is saying is this that Mah has already come he's Jesus and Jesus taught a message of Eternal salvation Eternal salvation to recognize The Evil Within you and to become a better person so if you are if you want to be saved you must believe that we are born evil and Jesus has come to cleanse us of our Evil Jesus was a prophet of Peace he had nothing against the Roman Empire he he was fighting against evil in the world okay so if these three things are true then fism will be destroyed now obviously you're a fanatic you don't believe any of this crap okay but Paul's message was not for fanatical Jews they were still a minority his message were for diaspora Jews like him who were stuck between the Roman Empire and the Jewish faith right they were part of the Jewish diaspora maybe the fathers were Greek and the mothers were Jewish okay and these are a lot of people so Paul's message was for these people you can still be Jewish if you believe in Jesus and once you believe in Jesus then you can now assimilate into the Roman Empire and that's will free you to believe whatever you want okay so this is Paul's Mission now then the question then is why is Paul doing this why would Paul do this and I think the answer is this I don't want to say Paul is opportunist or he's evil I believe he was also a believer in his mission his mission was what to save his people if you want to continue to live within the Roman Empire you have to adapt yourself you have to make compromises you can't wait for the Messiah to come save you you have to save yourself by adapting to the Roman Empire and look there are lots of advantages to the Roman Empire you can become very happy and prosperous if you play by the rules of the Roman Empire like he did okay so in many ways what's odd about Paul is he teaches us that Jesus is a messiah but in his heart and you can tell by his writings he himself believes he's really the Messiah who has come to save his people and that's why he's so fanatical about building the Church of Christianity the church that will eventually become Christianity okay again at this point in history they're not Christians they're still Jews okay but there will be a lot of consequences because Paul is doing this he rally changes the meaning of faith and religion all right because again the story of Jesus doesn't really make any sense and his story doesn't make any sense either okay he's lying he's lying about who he is so he creates A New Concept and he radically changes the concept of Faith okay before faith is what you experience now Faith is something that you must believe right he introduces the idea of Miracles now if something can't can be explain it's because it's a Miracle all right and this is a new idea that didn't really didn't exist before and the use of Miracles is to explain the contradictions or the inconsistencies in the story of the Bible okay so that's one major uh revolution of Paul's teachings another is the idea of tradition tradition is more important than the Bible okay so the stories interpretation of the Bible is now more important than the Bible itself and the Paul's Church will eventually become the Catholic church and one thing about the Catholic church is you are not allowed to read the Bible the Bible is sacred it's forbidden only priests are allowed to read the Bible because the fear is if you read the Bible you might misinterpret the word of God okay you don't have the spiritual power in order to fully interpret the Bible properly okay all right okay so there are lots of major changes to the idea of religion because of Paul's work all right so that is my central argument about Paul are there any questions about any of this yes um okay uh you you have a question about Islam can can we can we save Islam for later on okay yeah so but I'll answer Islam okay that'll be like next week okay um okay that's a great question like who wrote The Acts of Apostles all right so um we don't know who rol The Acts of the Apostles okay but this this is what we do know whoever wrote The Acts of the Apostles was written by the guy who wrote Luke okay the Gospel of Luke which is one of the four main gospels of the Bible why because um the ACT Apostles is is the continuation of the story of Jesus found in Luke okay so if wrote Luke is also a person who wrote Acts of the Apostles the first thing we know second thing that we know is the the Luke gospel was written maybe between 80 and 90 CE okay so this this about 50 to 60 years after the death of Jesus okay um and Paul might still be alive at this time what we also know is this act of Apostles is very Pro Paul okay so what's important to understand is the story I'm telling you is a story that comes from individuals who are trying to promote a positive picture of Paul and why are they doing that because at this point in history there are a lot of people especially Jews who hate Paul they feel that Paul has corrupted their religion especially the teachings of Jesus and and I I I believe it at this point in history because of the way that Paul behaves it's an Open Secret that he's working very closely with the Roman Empire he's either collaborator or he's a spy okay and that's why they had to write the Acts of the Apostles to sort of like apologize or to clean up the image of Paul and again we've seen this throughout history right remember the Bible started out as an apology for King David so this is extremely sympathetic towards Paul and again what what it's shown you is that through a close reading you can see how problematic problematic it is all right okay so does it answer your question all right any more questions okay all right great so let's talk about uh next class okay next class we will talk about uh monotheism the coming of uh monotheism okay because this is a revolution in human history and human thought all right so um there are many scholars who believe that monotheism means believe in one God what I will show you next class is um monotheism it is is it's a radical reconception of reality okay and and that and that's what I I will teach you next class right