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- Paul was not establishing a new religion; he believed that his generation was the last before the end time when this age would be transformed. However, as time passed and Jesus did not return, the second century Church Fathers turned to Paul's writings to validate what would ultimately be the creation of Christian dogma.
www.worldhistory.org/Paul_the_Apostle/
Paul's beliefs were strongly rooted in the earliest Jewish Christianity, but they deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant and in his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Law.
May 11, 2022 · Pauline Christianity is a term applied to what some perceive as the religious teaching unique to Paul’s writings and distinct from the gospel of Jesus. That is, Jesus taught one thing, and Paul taught something completely different.
Nov 17, 2023 · Discover the striking differences between Paul and Jesus in their teachings and beliefs. Uncover the theological disparities as we examine their distinct approaches to salvation and the development of Christianity.
- Overview
- Monotheism
- Christology
- Faith in Christ
- The body of Christ
Paul, like other Jews, was a monotheist who believed that the God of Israel was the only true God. But he also believed that the universe had multiple levels and was filled with spiritual beings. Paul’s universe included regions below the earth (Philippians 2:10); “the third heaven” or “Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:1–4); and beings he called angels,...
Paul, like other Jews, was a monotheist who believed that the God of Israel was the only true God. But he also believed that the universe had multiple levels and was filled with spiritual beings. Paul’s universe included regions below the earth (Philippians 2:10); “the third heaven” or “Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:1–4); and beings he called angels,...
Originally, Jesus had only one name, “Jesus”; he was referred to as “Jesus from Nazareth” (Matthew 21:11), “Joseph’s son” (Luke 4:22), or “Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” (John 1:45) when greater precision was necessary. During his lifetime his disciples may have begun to think of him as the Messiah (“Christ” in Greek translation), the anointed one who would restore the fortunes of Israel. After his death and resurrection, his followers regularly referred to him as the Messiah (Acts 2:36: “God made him both Lord and Messiah”). At some point, his adherents also began to refer to him as “Son of God.” Paul employed both “Christ” and “Son of God” freely, and he is also responsible for the widespread use of “Christ” as if it were Jesus’ name rather than his title. Paul sometimes shows knowledge that “the Christ” was a title, not a name, but more commonly he referred to Jesus as “Jesus Christ,” “Christ Jesus,” or even “Christ,” as in Romans 6:4: “Christ was raised from the dead.” In all these cases, “Christ” is used as if it were part of Jesus’ name.
Various Jewish groups, however, expected different kings or messiahs or even none at all, and these titles therefore did not have precise meanings when the Christians started using them. “Son of God” in the Hebrew Bible is used metaphorically (God is the father, human beings are his children), and this usage continued in postbiblical Jewish literature. The Jewish people in general could be called “sons of God,” and the singular “son of God” could be applied to individuals who were especially close to God. Since neither “messiah” nor “son of God” automatically conveys a specific meaning, the significance of these terms must be determined by studying how each author uses them.
What Paul meant by “Christ” and “Son of God” cannot be known with certainty. He seems not to have defined the person of Jesus metaphysically (for example, that he was half human and half divine). In Philippians 2:6–11 Paul states that Christ Jesus was preexistent and came to earth: he “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” This sounds as if Jesus was a heavenly being who only appeared to be human. In Romans 1:1–6, however, Paul writes that God declared Jesus to be “Son of God” by raising him from the dead. This sounds as if Jesus was a human being who was “adopted.” Although both views—that Jesus was not really human and that he was not really divine—would have a long life in Christianity, the church decided by the middle of the 5th century that Jesus was both entirely divine and entirely human. This solution, however, seems not to have been in Paul’s mind, and it took centuries of debate to evolve.
Paul’s thought concerning Jesus’ work—as opposed to Jesus’ person—is much clearer. God, according to Paul, sent Jesus to save the entire world. As noted above, Paul paid special attention to Jesus’ death and resurrection. His death, in the first place, was a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of everyone. Early Christians, influenced by the ancient theory that one death could serve as a substitute for others, believed that Jesus died on the cross so that believers would escape eternal destruction. For Paul, however, Jesus’ death allowed believers to escape not only the consequences of transgression but also the power of sin that leads to transgression. The believer was baptized “into Christ,” becoming “one” with him (Galatians 3:27–28). This meant that through Christ’s death, the baptized believer has mystically or metaphorically died and thus died to the power of sin that reigned in the world (Romans 6:3–4). Death with Christ gave “newness of life” in the present and guaranteed being raised with him in the future (6:4–5). Christ’s death, then, defeated sin in both senses: his blood brought atonement for transgression, and his death allowed those who were “united with him” to escape the power of sin.
According to Paul, all humans, no matter how hard they try, are enslaved by sin (Romans 7:14–21). The strength of sin’s power explains why the traditional Jewish view, that transgression should be followed by repentance and that repentance results in forgiveness, plays a very small role in Paul’s letters. In the seven undisputed letters, the word “forgiveness” does not appear, “forgive” appears six times (Romans 4:7; 2 Corinthians 2:5–10), and “repent” and “repentance” appear only three times (Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9–10). Mere repentance is not enough to permit escape from the overwhelming power of sin. The escape, rather, requires being “buried with” Christ through baptism.
While “buried with” and being “baptized into” are the most graphic terms describing the individual’s escape from sin, the most common word for this conversion is “faith”—that is, faith in Christ. The language of faith is ubiquitous in Paul’s letters and has a great range of meaning. The verb “to put one’s faith in” or “to believe” (the same Greek word, pisteuein, may be translated both ways) appears 49 times in the undisputed letters, while the noun “faith” (or “belief”) appears 93 times. Occasionally the verb means “to believe that” something is true (Romans 10:9: “believe in your heart that God raised [Christ]”), but in 1 Thessalonians it means “steadfastness.” Paul feared that the Thessalonians were wavering under persecution, and so he sent Timothy to strengthen their faith. Timothy reported back that their faith was strong (1 Thessalonians 3:1–13). Most frequently, however, the verb means “to put one’s entire confidence and trust in Christ,” as in Galatians 2:20: “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”
In Galatians and Romans the phrase “be justified by faith in Christ, not by doing the works of the law” is used to oppose the view of some Christian missionaries that Paul’s Gentile converts should become Jewish by accepting circumcision and Jewish law. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, the first of the Hebrew patriarchs, and it was traditionally required of all Gentiles who wished to worship the God of Israel. Thus, Paul’s rivals held that his converts were not yet among the people of God. Paul’s view, however, was that his Gentile converts could join the people of God in the last days without becoming Jewish, and he argued vociferously that faith in Christ was the only requirement for Gentiles. This is the meaning of “justification” or “righteousness” by faith, not by law, in Galatians and Romans. (“Righteousness” and “justification” translate the same Greek word, dikaiosynē.)
In later Christianity it was sometimes supposed that “works of the law” are “good deeds” and that Paul thus set faith in opposition to good works. This is not the meaning of the debate about “works of the law” in Paul’s letters, however. He was entirely in favour of good deeds, as the emphasis on perfect behaviour shows, and he did not regard good works as being opposed to “faith.” On the contrary, faith produced good deeds as “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22). The question was whether his Gentile converts would have to accept those parts of the Jewish law that separated Jew from Gentile. Paul opposed making these aspects of the law mandatory for his Gentile converts.
Paul regarded his converts not only as individuals who had been freed from sin but also as organic members of the collective body of Christ. The idea of the body of Christ probably also explains why, in his view, it is difficult to sin so badly as to lose one’s place in the people of God. Only the worst forms of denial of Christ can remove an organic member from the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is also important in Paul’s discussions of behaviour. A part of the body of Christ, for example, should not be joined to a prostitute (1 Corinthians 6:15). Since those who partake of the Lord’s Supper participate in the body and blood of Christ, they cannot also participate in the meat and drink at an idol’s table (1 Corinthians 10:14–22). Besides avoiding the deeds of the flesh, members of the body of Christ receive love as their greatest spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 13).
Those who are in Christ will be transformed into a spiritual body like Christ’s when he returns, but they are already being “transformed” and “renewed” (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:16); the “life of Jesus” is already being made visible in their mortal flesh (4:11). Paul thought that membership in the body of Christ really changed people, so that they would live accordingly. He thought that his converts were dead to sin and alive to God and that conduct flowed naturally from people, varying according to who they really were. Those who are under sin naturally commit sins—“those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8)—but those who are in Christ produce “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22; compare Philippians 1:11; Romans 8:2–11).
This absolutist ethical view—those in Christ are to be morally perfect; those not in Christ are extremely sinful—was not always true in practice, and Paul was often alarmed and offended when he discovered that the behaviour of his converts was not what he expected. It was in this context that he predicted suffering and even death or postmortem punishment for transgressions (1 Corinthians 11:30–32; 3:15; 5:4–5). Paul’s passionate extremism, however, was doubtless often attractive and persuasive. He made people believe that they could really change for the better, and this must often have happened.
Aug 3, 2018 · Saul was a Pharisee and a murderer who persecuted the church... but a remarkable transformation took place and he became Paul, a significant and influential spiritual leader in the Christian...
These views of Paul are paralleled by the views of Biblical law in Christianity. Paul redefined the people of Israel, those he calls the "true Israel" and the "true circumcision" as those who had faith in the heavenly Christ, thus excluding those he called "Israel after the flesh" from his new covenant.
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St. Paul the Apostle (born 4 bce?, Tarsus in Cilicia [now in Turkey]—died c. 62–64 ce, Rome [Italy]) was one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity.