Transcription
Okay, good morning. Um, so last class, we talked about the central paradox in Christianity: what Jesus believed is different from what Christianity teaches us about Jesus. Okay, so let's go over, let's review, uh, what Jesus believed, teaches, what Christianity teaches us about Jesus.
Okay, so Jesus, um, remember that Jesus is one of our great spiritual leaders and geniuses, like the Buddha. Um, and there's a three-tiered approach to his religion or philosophy. There's an inner approach, which is the secret teachings, his secret understanding of the world. There's an inner layer, which is what he teaches his disciples. And then there's a public layer, which is what he tells other people in public. In the public layer, we know very well he believes in generosity, in mercy, um, in focusing on, um, being a good and kind person.
In the inner layer, 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.
And then there's a secret layer, 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.
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 preservation 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 misguided, 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 Taoist 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 of 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 crucifixion, 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 anew. 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 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 went to Jerusalem, and he ran afoul 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, named Judas Iscariot, one of his followers. And the Jews brought Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. And at first, Pontius Pilate refused to punish him, but the Jews insisted. And so Pontius Pilate 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 caused 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 reminds us of Socrates.
Now, let me ask you another question. Who else was betrayed by his own followers? Julius Caesar, right? You see how clever this is. The two most famous individuals in world history at this point, Socrates and Julius 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 if you have a very nuanced understanding of Greek history, Roman history, and the Jewish Bible, the Hebrew Bible, right? And in fact, 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 Hellenized Jew, meaning you grew up with a great education and your, in the Roman 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 Hellenized 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. It's a religion about Jesus. And there's a difference.
Okay, now let's talk about the life and 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. But they're all called the poor, why? Because they're focused on, um, a life that denies worldly goods. Okay? They believe this material 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 Ebionites 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 the Just 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, his parents are citizens, which means his parents were very wealthy and part of the Roman elite. Okay? Second thing, you, the second way you get citizenship is by, um, being a soldier for 20 years. And the third way is through service to the emperor. The emperor honors you, uh, 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. For whatever reason, he converted and became 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. 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 the 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 a major contradiction that no one has actually explained to us. Okay? But you'll see a lot of these contradictions in the Bible.
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? The Damascus 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? 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 salvation. But Paul teaches us, no, it is belief 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 different with 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 belief 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, circumcision. So there were many in the Jewish diaspora around the Roman Empire who weren't 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 Jerusalem. So James the Just hears about this from all his Jewish friends and say, "This guy Paul is running 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 Just and Paul start to have a major argument.
Okay? James the Just 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're 20, they're 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 am bringing this religion to everyone, Greek and Jew alike, Greek, Roman, and Jew alike."
Okay? Eventually, this conflict becomes so bitter that James the Just spreads rumors about Paul, and many of Paul's churches now start to abandon him. Because remember, James the Just 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 the Just by offering him money. He also writes letters complaining about James the Just and saying, "Well, just because you're Jesus' brother doesn't mean you know what he actually says, because Jesus talked to me, man. Jesus came to me in a vision. Therefore, I'm the one who really understands Jesus."
Okay? 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 meeting goes well. But then in Jerusalem, the people who don't like Paul recognize him, and they start to mob him. 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, mobbed by, by, by Jews.
Okay? And at this point, okay, Paul is about to be ripped apart by the Jewish mob. But then Roman soldiers come and save him. And Paul does something that's different from Jesus. Paul tells the soldiers, "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, the Roman governor. And the Roman governor, um, doesn't believe that Paul has broken any laws. But there's a Jewish mob out there who want to kill him.
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 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. 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 violating their laws. Paul has returned to Rome to be judged by the Roman Emperor. But 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?
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 assembled, he said to them, "Okay, this is him talking to them. Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs 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 that Abraham and his ancestors will be circumcised themselves as a mark of allegiance to Yahweh, and in 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 handed over to the Romans. When they had examined me, the Romans wanted to release me, okay, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. The Romans 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 a 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."
What Paul is saying is this: Paul is saying, "When I, I want, 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 a Roman citizen." Do you guys understand this? You see how radical this is? This speech is radically different from the story before in the Bible. So 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 I have access to the emperor. You don't."
Okay? And this is how the Bible, this is how the book ends. The Acts of the Apostles. This is how it ends. "He lived there two whole years at his own 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.
Okay, so who is this guy? How can he do this? He's in 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?
Okay, so that's a question. 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. 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." 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 messages, a lot of sayings, but Paul rarely quotes from him. But not only that, 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 our generosity, for our mercy, we can achieve salvation. Paul taught everyone, it's belief in Jesus that will allow you to achieve salvation. And only believe in Jesus. 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 Zoroastrians 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.
Okay, okay. 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.
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 a 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 and the organization that allowed Christianity to spread.
Okay? So, um, an analogy or a comparison is the story of McDonald's. McDonald's, you guys don't know McDonald's, right? Well, guess what? In the 1950s, McDonald's was one restaurant in California. It had amazing hamburgers, and it really had the best hamburgers. And a man named Ray visited this restaurant, and it was being run by the McDonald brothers, that's why it's called McDonald's. Okay? And Ray Kroc says to the brothers, "You know what? You guys have an amazing restaurant. Let me scale it out. Let me convince others to start McDonald's around America and the world." This is called the franchise model. Okay? The franchise model. The franchise model. And so the brothers said, "Yeah, sure." And what, what Ray Kroc 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 Kroc 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 Ray Kroc was such an 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 convincing 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 wrong, business is wrong, hierarchy is wrong. What matters is the spiritual truth in your heart. 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. Problem is, Jesus didn't want a business manager. And Jesus believed 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. He saw a business opportunity. Everyone loved Jesus. Jesus had gone viral. He had gone viral, 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 traveled around, he traveled all around the Roman Empire to spread the message. He was fanatical about it. Okay? And opportunists are, are not fanatical, they're kind of lazy. So I don't really buy this idea that he was an opportunist. He really believed in what he was doing. He was driven by a sense of mission. And also, guys, remember, if he's a Roman citizen and his parents are, are Roman citizens, then he's probably wealthy 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 believed Christianity would be a weapon that would eventually destroy the Roman Empire, which is what happened historically. That's 300, 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 a 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. He's a spy.
So 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 has led to many wars. From 167 to 16 BCE, there's something called the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. The last seven years killed a lot of people. And then there'll be the Romans, and the Jews will fight three major wars from 66 to 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 Jews will be cowed, they'll be scared. 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 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. Again, who, who are against him in the Battle of Cannae, 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 talked peace. Right? But the Romans are fanatical. They refuse to surrender, and eventually, they're able to destroy Carthage.
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. They, they understand. The Romans, above all, understand how powerful fanaticism is. Fanaticism is the ultimate weapon. It cannot be defeated. And because there's a diaspora, a Jewish diaspora, it can never be rooted out. You can destroy Jerusalem, which is what they did, but there are Jews all around the world. So you can never destroy this fanaticism. And because of the long history of the Jews, this fanaticism only grows through persecution and through suffering.
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. Otherwise, we will continue to be bullied by others.
Second is the idea of persecution complex. The persecution 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. This pain, this suffering, this persecution, it's all part of the divine plan. It's testing us. It is making us strong. Eventually, 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 fanaticism, and it makes the Jews almost invincible because it makes them fearless. They're not afraid to die. Dying is part of the divine plan. Suffering is all part of the process of achieving the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It's their responsibility to die for the faith.
Okay? All right, so now that that we understand this Jewish fanaticism, 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 is 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." Why is circumcision such a big deal? Well, because circumcision is basically what, um, separates the Jews into a different group of people in any community. Why? Because in most cities, there's a place called a gymnasium. A gymnasium is really the heart and center of life in the community. It's, it's where people, where men go to do sports and athletics, like wrestle and run. The female of gymnasium 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 the 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 say, 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?
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 Pilate would have protected him from the Jews who wanted to kill him, just like how the Roman soldiers protected Paul from those Jews who 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 Messiah 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 fanaticism will be destroyed. Now, obviously, if 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 was 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 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 an 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 radically changes the meaning of faith and religion.
Okay? 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. He introduces the idea of miracles. Now, if something can't be explained, it's because it's a miracle. Okay? And this is a new idea that didn't really 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 story's 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. 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. Okay? So that is my central argument about Paul. Are there any questions about any of this? Yes. Um, okay. Uh, you have a question about Islam. Can, can we, can we save Islam for later on? Okay? Yeah, so, but I'll answer Islam. That'll be like next week. Okay? Um, okay, that's a great question. Like, who wrote The Acts of the Apostles? Okay? So, um, we don't know who wrote 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. The Gospel of Luke, which is one of the four main gospels of the Bible. Why? Because, um, the Acts of the Apostles is the continuation of the story of Jesus found in Luke. Okay? So if Luke wrote Luke, he's also the person who wrote Acts of the Apostles. The first thing we know. Second thing that we know is the Luke gospel was written maybe between 80 and 90 CE. Okay? So this is 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 Acts of the 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 believe 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 a 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 belief in one God. What I will show you next class is, um, monotheism, it is, it's a radical reconception of reality. And, and that, and that's what I, I will teach you next class. Right?