Many people protest that one should not condemn "all Christians" because of the sins of a few (that, by the way, consistently happen to be the official representatives and authorities of Christianity, not mere followers), and claim that there are "many good Christians" for whose sake one should not "criticize Christianity". But what is Christianity? What is today presented as Christianity should be called "Paulianity" instead. Much of the "undesirable" teachings of Jesus were eliminated by the Church by declaring them "heresies" and "apocrypha", but still in the canonic version of the Gospels we can see how blatant and brazen the joke is. Jesus Christ was born a Jew, and his preaching was destined to the Jews only (Matthew 15.24: "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel)", meant to correct the mistakes of their understanding about God, and not to other peoples. The idea of a Christianity seeking to convert other peoples to its faith and to exert a political control over the world did not come from Jesus, who was totally contrary to these things, as we see from many quotes even from the Church's Gospels. Christianity as we know it today has nothing to do with Jesus' teachings, and in fact it is quite opposite to what Jesus taught. So much that several commentators and historians have noted that, if Jesus himself were to appear again today, he would instantly and completely disown Christianity. Let us now make a brief list of the original teachings of Jesus as still contained in the "authorized" Gospels: (note: Mt stands for Matthew, Mk for Mark, Lk for Luke, Jh for John) : - only preach to Jews and never attempt to convert any other people from other faiths (Mt 15.24) - carefully and faithfully follow the Hebraic law (Mt 5.17) - be completely non-violent even to aggressors (Mt 5.39,42, 5.5, Mk 19.18-23, Lk 6.27,36, 9.56); everyone is a child of God so people can show their love for God by loving one's neighbor - be always peaceful, merciful and just, help others make peace (Mt 5.5,6,7,9,44) - do not accumulate material assets (Mt 6.19, Mk 10.23, Lk 6.20, 6.24, 12.15) - do not judge others (Mt 7.1, Lk 6.37,41) - give charity and lend money and goods to everyone without expecting anything in return (Lk 6.30,35) - strictly avoid hypocrisy and deceit, especially in the name of religion (Mt 5.13, 7.21, 21.13, 23.24-26, 29, Mk 7.6, 12.3,39-40, Lk 4.23, Lk 6.41,46, 11.46,52, 12.1, 14.34) - spiritual life is a private matter and does not need official representatives or religious authorities (Mt 6.9, 21.13, 23.8, Mk 7.6, 11.7) - there is no need of animal sacrifices or temples (churches), because God only accepts love in the heart of His worshiper (Jh 4.23-24) or in "spirit and truth". Jesus was especially critical of the Pharisees and scribes, who had claimed monopoly over religion and were actually hypocrites, subtracting money and assets from poor people, imposing difficult rules to others (but not following themselves), who say "Lord, Lord" but do not follow God's instructions and rather teach invented doctrines to innocent and ignorant people by passing them off as God's orders (Mk 7.6). Therefore Jesus curses them, "woe to you! you have taken away the key of knowledge, you entered not yourselves and hindered those who wanted to enter" (Lk 11.52). He demanded that the truth be openly given: "there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known" (Lk 12.2) These false priests "lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers" (Lk 11.46). The same tendency was obviously shown by some of Jesus' first followers, as he tells them, "why do you call me lord, lord, and do not do the things which I say?" (Lk 6.46). He also warned them, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Lk 12.1), "if salt loses flavor, how will it be seasoned? it is neither fit for the land not yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out" (Lk 14.34). The main instruction to Jesus to his disciple was to go around Palestine and in other places where the Jews lived, heal people by imposing their hands, and preach truth and nonviolence. He recommended not to disturb people from other religions, because "he that is not against us is for us" (Lk 9.50). So how did Christianity change so much and become exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to be? The first two people to betray Jesus' orders and hijack his movement were Peter and Paul, still considered the "main apostles" by the Church. Jesus knew Peter well. He rebuked him when Peter attacked a soldier with a sword, cutting off his ear, when Jesus was arrested. Since the arrest night was the official end of Jesus' career as a preacher in Palestine, one should wonder why Peter was still so violent and aggressive, in spite of all Jesus' preaching about non violence all along. It seems then that Peter's nickname as Cepha, "stone", must have referred to his stubbornness and dullness, described even in the "authorized" Gospels. Shortly before his arrest, Jesus had predicted that Peter would betray him three times before the morning, and the Gospel confirms that it actually happened. From other original documents (those which were not approved by the Church) we learn that Peter was also very envious of the prominent position of Mary Magdalene among Jesus' followers. After Jesus' crucifixion, Peter fled from Jerusalem and the Church says he went to Rome, where he was killed after several years. Peter is famous for having killed two members of his Christian community, Ananias and his wife Sepphira, because they had not given him the entire price of their own property that they had sold when they joined the community. A fisherman by birth, Peter appropriated all the wealth of the people who joined his Christian group, and lived enjoying life at the most, even against the most basic rule of vegetarianism that was rigorously followed by all members of the community. Once in Joppe Paul caught him gorging on a big plate of fish and meat, including pork meat that was doubly forbidden by Jesus and by the Hebrew law, too. Questioned about his behavior, he replied that he had received a special "order" from an angel who had explained him that he was not an ordinary man from the mass of people, but a privileged leader, so the rules of ethics didn't apply to him. The other "main apostle" of the Church is Paul. His real name was Saul, a "Pharisee son of Pharisees". He considered the teachings of Christ as revolutionary and dangerous for the political control of the state. As we have already mentioned, Hebraism was mainly organized as a state religion (theocracy) to control people with fear of a revengeful and jealous God, and subject them to the absolute authority of the corrupted priests. Since these corrupted priests of Jesus' times could not stop Jesus' preaching based on non-violence, truth, simplicity and love, and on the complete separation between spirituality and political power, Saul of Tarsus was assigned to the task of infiltrating into the group of Christ's followers and hijack their spiritual movement. Paul was an educated Jew of the priestly class, and heavily Romanized. He had assumed the name of Paulus, a Roman name meaning "small", and claimed "Roman citizenship" to get protection from Roman soldiers. It is common knowledge that in the beginning Saul was a great enemy of Christ and his early followers; he had many of them arrested and executed simply because they refused to give up their spiritual life. But the more Christians he had arrested and killed, the more people seemed to be interested in the new sect. One day, though, he had a brilliant idea: why not infiltrating into the enemy camp to neutralize their revolutionary ideas? So he joined the community, telling the gullible ignorant neophytes that he had seen a miraculous vision and heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him from the sky while he was traveling to Damascus. The voice kindly asked him not to persecute Christians any more. So Saul, from active persecutor of Christians, had suddenly decided to become a Christian himself, and moreover, he wanted to become the main leader of the Christians and give them a new doctrine. He claimed that he was the only genuine representative of Jesus and everybody should follow him only. Of course the leaders of the community didn't believe him and they kicked him out, but Paul was very expert in politics and had the full support of the Pharisee priests and the Romans. Within a few years James was killed, John and other leaders arrested and the other original followers scattered in hiding. However, he realized he had made a bad name for himself in Jerusalem by fighting against the early Christians, so he started traveling around and advertising himself as a great apostle, playing politics and changing the original teachings so that he could get more followers. Thus, Paul embarked on his creation of a "new Christianity" based on an active campaign of conversions of "heathens", the establishment of a material and political power for religious authorities, and the creation of a priestly class as opposed to the common congregation. contd..
The changes introduced by Paul were: 1. Jesus had gone to heaven, but he would be coming back very soon, within the lifetime of his contemporaries. This "second coming" of Jesus would announce the "end of the world", a "universal" judgment day and a new mystical kingdom of God when all the dead people would come back to life. To prepare for this day, the world had to be "purified" and everyone had to become "Christian" (a totally new idea, because until then the followers of Jesus simply considered themselves as Jews). The more "Christians" one would make, the more merits he would get for the "judgment day". 2. Non-Jews could and should become Christians and there was no need for them to follow the Hebrew laws; furthermore, non-Jews who became Christians could also keep whatever beliefs they wanted or were attached to, and "integrate" them into their "new" Christianity. Since the original community of Jesus' followers (who rejected Paul) did not accept non-Jews, Paul could create a larger movement with his "newcomers". 3. All the Christian communities must form a "political" union or "centralization of power" (allowing better political control), with the nomination of "bishops" who became the official and legal authorities of each community (while previously all members were considered equal). 4. There must be an "official" doctrine or written collection of teachings for the new Christianity. So Paul collected whatever writings he found useful, and personally wrote a great number of letters with his peculiar teachings, which are today considered by the Church as a fundamental part of the Bible. 5. There are no strict ethical rules to be followed by Christians. Paul taught that one could actually eat and drink anything, possess money and properties, work in the government, have a regular job etc (while the original followers of Jesus were only serving as healers and physicians without asking for any fees, just accepting food and shelter). 6. Not all Christians are same. While Jesus welcomed everyone on the same level of brotherhood, Paul believed in slavery and social oppression. A slave named Onesimus, who heard that the Christians were sheltering the poor and oppressed, ran away to Paul and Paul turned him in to his former owner, to sure death as this was the punishment for runaway slaves. Also women should never get any respect or position in society; they can only serve men: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (1 Tim.2:11-15) By Mataji devi
I think the progress most christians did was just legit in my opinion. It's not enough to simply get a chamber to live and food to eat, what if you get old? Even though it's definitely good that the christians didn't support all Pauls opinions. I think that slavery and oppression is strictly against any kind of humble religion like christianity should be. So all in all it's a good progress in my opinion.
