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How did Jesus’ message of inner freedom become a rulebook of belief and obedience? Professor Jiang argues the two are opposites, and that the bridge between them was Paul. Where Jesus pointed inward, Paul built a top-down religion — one that fit empire far better than a freed slave. It is a bold, controversial reading of the New Testament’s most influential writer.
Full Video Transcript
So let’s review last class. We discussed the mission of Jesus. Who is Jesus? Jesus was a
messenger from the monad who reminded us that there’s a divine spark in us. And how you activate
the divine spark is by focusing on Jesus and repeating his words. Jesus was like Zarathustra,
like plato like homer like the yahweh is a poor prophet and so if you just repeated his sayings
if you repeat his poetry then you could activate that spark within you and glow okay and this
explains why it became so popular it also explains to us why the romans had to kill him because at
At this time, the Roman Empire, the main currency, the main economy is based on slavery.
Most people were slaves.
If they’re not slaves, they were poor.
And here’s Jesus who’s come to remind you that you don’t have to be a slave.
You are free to do whatever you want.
There’s a higher power than the Roman Empire, and it is the divine.
It is the universe.
And so people start to defy their masters.
and they were no longer afraid of death and this is why the Romans had to kill Jesus because Jesus
was stealing from them right slaves are property if you let slaves run away if you free slaves
that destroys the wealth of the Romans remember that Jesus when he was killed he was killed
along with two thieves he was crucified and so Jesus was killed because he was a thief he was
stealing from the romans now the question then is okay um how do we have from jesus to the catholic
church jesus teaches us that we are free to believe whatever we want that we just listen
to our hearts we will be in touch with the monad again and we have nothing to fear the catholic
church the church teaches us that you believe in jesus and that’s all they do in order to achieve
redemption and salvation jesus came to die for our sins so therefore we are now slaves to jesus
these are two opposite ideas okay the reason why is the idea of the divine spark is the greatest
threat to roman empire so romans had to somehow imprison the spark and make it an economic
commodity okay and so that’s why they create the catholic church the catholic church is a prison
in order to control that divine spark, to hide it from you.
And the main architect of the Catholic Church, his name is Paul, okay?
And most people agree that Paul, and not Jesus, is the real founder of Christianity.
So let’s discuss Paul.
So Paul has a very interesting background.
He is a Jew, but he grew up in Greek culture.
He was very well-educated.
He was very wealthy.
and this and so we say he’s a hellenized hellenized jew and it’s probably working
for the roman empire as a spy or an agent now in that time your education was mainly in rhetoric
okay or the word we use for this is sophistry so let me explain to you who the sophists were
because they’re very important so back in classical athens there’s a major debate between
socrates a philosopher as well as a sophist okay philosophy so what’s interesting is that they both
come from the same word which is sophia which is greek foreign knowledge the philosophers are
people who love knowledge what they believe is that there is an eternal truth and that we must
try to achieve this eternal truth right remember plato’s allegory the cave how you escape from the
cave and into the light okay that’s what philosophy is trying to do trying to help you uh
liberate yourself into the light sophists believe something else surface believe that eternal truth
does not exist why because words are reality philosophers believe that words are an illusion
but sophists believe that words are a reality unto themselves and so what’s important is to
is to learn how to master language
in order to construct reality, okay?
So, Sophist gives us the word sophistry,
which is basically trickery, okay?
So, in order to defeat the threat of the divine spark,
what Paul does is he pulls a trick,
and it’s the greatest trick ever.
The trick is this.
Jesus says, listen to my words,
and you will find the divine spark in you.
Paul says is believe in Jesus and you’ll be saved, okay?
So he changes the focus from the words of Jesus
to the person of Jesus himself, all right?
And so what Paul’s gonna do is he’s gonna construct
a new religion called Christianity by synchronizing,
synthesizing the three major cultures of that time,
of that time. The Roman culture, the Greek culture, and the Jewish culture, okay? So remember, the
Jewish culture is the Bible. And what Paul tells us is that Jesus is the promised Messiah. At this
time in history, the Bible was heavily influenced by the Persians, right? Remember, the Persians
were monotheists. They believed in good and evil, the Asher and the Druze, okay? And so the Bible
began to reflect the Persian belief, especially in the idea of eschatology,
the end of the world. And what Jews believed is, they’re not afraid of the
Romans, because eventually the Messiah will return, or sorry, not return, the
Messiah will come to lead them to war against the Romans, and because the
Messiah is anointed by God, they will triumph, okay? So the Jews are waiting
the messiah of war in order for them to reclaim the davidic kingdom okay the kingdom of david
what paul does that’s very clever is that he uses this eschatology but he says that jesus is not the
messiah of war he’s the messiah of peace okay and therefore we jews should not resist the romans okay
So that’s the first major culture that Paul uses.
The second major culture that Paul uses is the Greek culture.
So the Greeks have something called the mystery schools.
And these are just cults.
And it’s important you know these mystery schools
because they will become the basis of secret societies today.
And in these mystery schools, there’s lots of different ones.
but paul chooses a mystery school that worships dionysus okay dionysus is the greek god of
creativity wine um and the story of dionysus is he is born of a virgin mother his father is zeus
and then dionysus is killed by the enemies of zeus and zeus finds him and resurrects him okay
It’s important because this becomes the story of Jesus.
And how the people worship Dionysus is they have a ritual meal
where they actually believe they’re eating the body of Dionysus
and they’re absorbing his energy.
And they’re becoming one with Dionysus.
They’re coming communion with Dionysus.
And the Christians have the same ritual.
And this is what’s called the Eucharist, Thanksgiving, or Communion.
All Christians practice this today.
So that’s the second major culture.
The third major culture that is the most important, of course, is the Roman culture.
So the Roman social structure is called the paterfamilias.
And how the system works is, at the very top, there’s one patriarch.
This is where we get the word patriarchy, right?
And then he has lots of children, right?
Sons.
And also he has slaves as well.
So it’s a very top-down system, right?
The patriarch is at the very top.
In this system, the patriarch is always right.
He is God.
Here you have slaves.
Now what the patriarch will do is he will identify very promising slaves.
Slaves with talent.
He will turn them into clients.
so clients are just business people so he freezes slaves and they become his clients
so now they’re able to conduct business on his behalf and in this way he will create a business
empire okay so this is the idea of the roman empire so rather than one system the roman empire
is actually a system a platform where dozens of families control the empire together and what
happens is these families control particular province okay so it’s more like a franchise model
rather than a strict hierarchy this is important because paul will take the system and from the
system he will copy it to create the church all right so the church is exactly the same as a
patafeminist where at the very top you have a person a bishop and everyone and then he might
have some um cardinals but then everyone else is just followers okay or disciples so it marries
this system this is important because now what you can do is you can easily switch from the current
system to the new system devised by paul now why would the romans want to do this because if you
think about it this is the perfect solution to the problem of jesus as a patriarch your main concern
is getting your slaves to work hard, right?
You want to suck the energy out of them.
But now with Jesus, slaves are like,
why should I work for you?
Paul solves this problem by saying,
oh, follow Jesus and you’ll be saved, okay?
So in this way, what happens is
Paul’s formulation of Jesus
causes slaves to work even harder, right?
Because the idea is before you have to work
in order to stay alive.
now they work in order to go to heaven for all eternity right so the deal now is work as a slave
for a few decades but then you can enjoy an eternity of joy in paradise pretty good deal right
and so this causes the slaves to be more obedient and to work harder okay also what’s more important
is now the patriarch switches from like king to a god right it’s private wealth
now becomes spiritual authority not only that but because he has spiritual
authority he can expand more rapidly outwards okay so before to get slaves
you have to buy slaves now you just have to convert people into your religion so
a much faster way to create wealth and this is important because what you learn next class is
this is a system that the romans will use to um take over the barbarians okay so next class you’ll
learn about the barbarian invasions basically the golfs and how because of the system they were now
able to assimilate these barbarians into the culture and maintain a social hierarchy okay
And so, in other words, Jesus was talking to slaves, but Paul was talking to patriarchs.
And so, these patriarchs would convert, and when they convert, they took the entire system with them.
That explains the rapid growth of Christianity.
Also, what’s important is, the religion that the patriarchs practice is not the one that the slaves practice.
The slaves practice Christianity, but the patriarchs practice the mystery cults, okay?
Why? Because this is the way that the patriarchs work together, and this becomes a basis for
secret societies. So while the ordinary person worships a new religion called Christianity,
the patriarchs themselves, in secret, still practice their Greek mystery cults. And this
system that we still have even today right okay so um this system now is able to spread really
quickly because as you can see from the system those who convert are more advantage than those
who do not convert at this time in history most do not convert but those who convert are able to see
more rapid wealth generation they will see more power generation and they’re able to expand much
faster. And so this is a secret of Christianity, okay? And that’s my main argument to you today.
Any questions before I go into the specifics? Is this clear to you guys? All right, let’s do the
PowerPoint, okay? Okay, today we do the rise of the Catholic Church, okay? So again, what Paul’s
going to do is he’s going to negate the power of Jesus. He’s going to imprison, sorry, he’s going
to imprison the divine spark in the church all right so this is paul and there’s a lot of
mythology around paul how is a martyr who went around the world in order to spread christianity
okay we don’t know if it’s true or not if you’re catholic you believe it’s true
the other thing about paul that’s really important is that if you read the new testament
a third is either written by paul or about paul okay there’s more about paul in the new testament
than there is about jesus and that’s why that’s why we say that paul is a true founder of
christianity christianity is a religion about jesus but not by jesus it’s by paul and what’s
really important for you to appreciate is what jesus taught and what paul taught are very
different in fact they’re opposite jesus taught that the divine spark is within you so you want
to save yourself if you want to go to the kingdom you must do so yourself but paul says no jesus
came to us in order to redeem us from our sins the original sin of disobedience to god way back in
the garden of eden if you believe in jesus you’ll be saved it doesn’t matter what you do but you
you you can do as much good as you want but if you do not believe in jesus you will burn in hell
okay that’s why you must believe in jesus and that’s also why we must get everyone to believe
in jesus because by getting them to believe in jesus we are literally saving them from eternal
damnation as you can see this is a really good business model because now you can expand really
quickly okay second thing that jesus taught is he cannot save you you can only save yourself
he can guide you he can give you some poetry that you can decipher but you must seek truth yourself
and what paul taught is don’t think for yourself just do what everyone else does he believed
the most important thing is for the church to be cohesive okay for everyone to obey the word
of jesus which is really the word of paul and the third thing is and this is the most this is
really important jesus teaches us the rich cannot enter heaven why because in heaven you must focus
on your own spiritual rejuvenation but the rich only care about the here and now they only care
about the material acquisition and as such they become blind to the spiritual needs and so they
do they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven remember jesus tells the story of how the god
has prepared a great feast for us but the rich won’t go because you’re too busy making money
paul teaches us no no no guys it’s the rich which will lead us to the kingdom why because the rich
can finance the spreading of christianity what matters is metrics that help us spread
christianity how many souls are we saving by measuring how many how many people we’re converting
okay how cohesive is our church that’s all care paul cares about paul is a business person okay
jesus is a prophet but paul is a business person and so it is paul really that
is the spiritual god of christianity okay not jesus another thing that you need to appreciate
is at this time in history maybe the year 40 50 there are lots of different christianities
because jesus taught us that the kingdom of heaven is within you right so it’s all very diverse it’s
all very democratic and what’s really important is a lot of the early leaders are women okay
uh people like mary madeleine um they tend to be wealthy and they tend to be very um charismatic
as well but by the time you hit paul christianity it’s anti-woman it’s a strict hierarchy and it’s
orthodoxy okay so in other words you may you may have heard that early christians were persecuted
guess what guys they’re being persecuted by paul okay they’re being christian being persecuted by
the romans they’re being persecuted by paul and at this time in history the catholic church okay
paul paul and christianity it’s only a very small minority because for most people um the christian
of jesus is much more appealing than christianity of paul jesus taught freedom empowerment liberation
paul taught obedience discipline sacrifice okay so jesus is far more appealing but because paul
is being supported by the roman empire he wins okay what paul will do is not only persecute
other christianities but he will quickly spread his christianity with the help of the roman empire
Alright, so as you can see, what’s going to happen is, in the year 30, when Jesus dies,
it’s a very small group of people, but it spreads really quickly, okay?
And Paul will build foundations for this great empire that, in about the year 300, reaches its peak.
In about the year 300, what will happen is, Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
And this is the beginning of the Catholic Church.
but it’s paul that built the foundation for this growth okay um so as you can see um jesus he’s
spreading his poetry and because his poetry is easy to memorize this his poetry spreading really
quickly throughout the empire okay but uh what happened is that once paul builds the structure
of christianity the church system based on the pattern pattern familiar system of romans it
spread even quicker and eventually these two christianities will come into conflict and
eventually paul’s system will win out until it conquers the entire roman empire okay all right
so um scholars agree that paul is the founder of christianity but there are three mysteries to paul
that scholars can’t really answer okay the first question is why would someone like paul who is
illiterate and wealthy hellenized jew why would he join a movement of illiterate jewish peasants
okay no no the scholars don’t really have an answer for this second question is we know that
paul was a fanatical pharisee okay he was hunting christians but then he converts to become a
a fanatical father of Jesus.
Why would he do that?
The third mystery is,
and this is the most important is,
he spends his entire life
promoting Christianity around the Roman Empire.
Where did he get the money to do this?
Because not only did he go,
but he also had secretaries who went with him
to take notes.
Where does the money come from?
So if you just do some basic game theory analysis,
he’s clearly a spy, okay?
Clearly a spy.
He’s an agent of a power.
The question for us though is,
who is he working for the easy answer seems to be the roman empire but in fact you could also
make the argument he’s working for the jewish leaders okay the jewish priests as well okay so
we’ll go over this all right so what we’re going to do is we’re going to read the bible now okay
now one thing about the bible that um is very confusing is the bible says that the jews killed
Jesus. And as we discussed last class, the Jews would not kill Jesus for a variety of reasons,
okay? But the main reason is Jews don’t kill each other. I’m sorry, Jews do not turn each other over
to the Roman authorities. If you commit blasphemy, if you insult their God, they kill you by stoning
you, okay? They don’t have a habit of turning people over to the Roman authorities. So we know
the Romans killed him, and it’s most likely the Romans killed him because Jesus was a threat
to their social structure but the bible says that nope it was the jews who killed um jesus so emma
could you read please okay so this is from john the gospel of john then pilate took jesus pilate
pontius pilate is the roman governor who orders jesus execution okay yeah pontius pilate then
pilate took jesus and had him flogged and the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on
his head and they dressed him in a purple robe they kept coming up to him saying hail king of
the jews and striking him on the face pellet went out again and said to them look i am bringing him
out to you to let you know that i can find no case against him okay so what’s happening is
jesus is arrested by the jewish priest and they accuse him of blasphemy or pretending to be god
and they bring him to pontius pilate governor and says you must execute this man because he has
in sort of our religion and so punish pilot interrogates jesus and he doesn’t really think
he did anything wrong okay but to to appease the priest he beats he whips jesus and now he’s like
you know what i whipped this guy i punished him now can you please go away okay keep on going
pilot went out again and said to them look i am bringing him out to you to let you know that i
can final case against him so jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe
Pilate said to them here is the man when the chief priests and the police saw him they shouted
crucify him crucify him Pilate said to them take him yourselves and crucify him I find no case
against him the Jews answered him we have a law and according to the law he ought to die because
he had claimed to be the son of the son of God okay so do you understand what’s going on okay
the Bible claims the Jews killed Jesus all right so um this this shows us that the Bible is not
that reliable all right okay so let’s go into the story of paul um alan can you please okay so so
let me give you the context okay this is from the acts of the apostles and it’s mainly about paul
and he became a follower of jesus and at this time paul is persecuting christians we don’t
know why he’s persecuting christians we don’t know what why the jews hate the christians but
But Paul is going around persecuting the Christians as a Pharisee.
And then on the way to persecuting more Christians on the road to Damascus,
a light seizes him.
And it’s Jesus telling him,
Paul, why are you persecuting me and my followers?
And then that converts Paul.
It makes no sense as a story, okay?
But this is what Christians believe.
Okay, can you read, Alan?
Meanwhile, Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogue.
Synagogue.
Synagogues.
The synagogue is a place of worship for Diaspora Jews
because Jews worship the temple, right?
But the temple’s in Jerusalem.
So if you’re outside Jerusalem,
then you go to synagogue,
which is basically a Jewish church.
Synagogues in Damascus,
so that if he found any who belonged to the way,
men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Now, as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed
around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? he asked.
Who are you, Lord?
The reply came, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but
saw no one.
Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing.
So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor dreamed.
Okay, so this is a miracle, right?
This guy hated Christians, and now, because he was blinded, he loves Christians.
What you will notice is, this is very similar to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Because remember, Paul is trained in Greek culture.
So he knows about Plato.
And this is a model of the allegory of the cave where you’re in darkness
and suddenly you go out and you’re blinded by the light.
And then you see the truth, okay?
Another thing that’s important is that clearly Jesus favors Paul.
What’s interesting is that if you read Paul’s letters,
and we all read his letters, if you read Paul’s story,
he doesn’t really talk about Jesus that much.
He doesn’t even quote Jesus.
okay so that’s kind of weird if you know you’re a father of jesus but you really don’t quote jesus
and jesus has a lot of quotations you really don’t talk about jesus that much and he doesn’t
want to refer to the story that much in um uh in in his letters the other thing that i will
note is that you read jesus okay jesus doesn’t really talk about good and evil doesn’t really
talk about the bible um doesn’t really talk himself a lot himself as a son of god but paul
will talk about this a lot okay all right so again paul’s amazing because he’ll go on three different
voyages missionary journeys around the roman empire in order to spread the gospel of jesus
this is very very hard work it’s also expensive work because you can see how he’s going from
different cities he’s going to synagogues and he’s preaching the gospel okay um what what’s important
to first understand is that as paul is doing this he’s winning a lot of converts because he’s
but he’s coming in conflict with james the just remember james the just is the brother of jesus
who inherits the movement james the just is in jerusalem and paul is going around and spreading
the gospel of jesus and so james and james just hears about this and people are saying to him
paul’s saying jesus is god is jesus god and jesus is like of course he’s not god he’s my brother
man and so so there’s all this conflict and eventually what will happen is it forces paul
to confront james adjust in jerusalem according to the bible the main conflict is one of ideology
okay so the bible says that james the judge and paul both agreed that jesus is god the son of god
who’s come to our planet to redeem us but james just believes what’s important is to maintain
the faith within the jewish tradition whereas paul wants to expand this tradition outside the jewish
tradition to encompass the greeks as well and the romans as well okay the gene the gentiles and
that’s where the conflict arises and so the main point of conflict is one of circumcision make
Remember, Jews circumcise themselves, but the Greeks and Romans do not circumcise themselves.
This is important because in this time, most of these cities are Greek cities.
Greek cities have a place called gymnasium where men go to play sports.
But you play sports naked.
So if you’re a Jewish man, they know automatically you’re Jewish.
So circumcision is a huge point of division between the Gentiles and the Jews.
And Paul’s point is that if you want to convert, you don’t have to circumcise.
and so the jews are complaining to jesus and says hey paul is subverting our tradition he’s saying
that jewish man uh he’s saying that greek man can come and and follow religion religion while being
without being circumcised okay and so there’s a lot of conflict between jesus just and paul
so paul actually goes to jerusalem and he confronts um uh jesus just and then and they
They come to an agreement with each other, okay?
So when Paul goes to Jerusalem, people recognize him.
And so the Amal wants to kill him, okay?
Can you read, Amber?
Up to this point, they listened to him.
But then they shouted, away with such a fellow from the earth,
for he shall not be allowed to live.
And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks
and tossing dust into the air,
the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks
and ordered him to be examined by flogging
to find out the reason for this outcry against him.
But when they had tied him up with songs,
Paul said to the centurion who was standing by,
Is it illegal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?
When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him,
What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.
The tribune came to ask Paul,
Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?
And he said, Yes.
The tribune answered,
It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.
Paul said, But I was born a citizen.
Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him,
and the tribune also was afraid,
for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.
So certain things to notice about this writing.
First of all, you can see it’s very anti-Jewish.
The Jews just want to kill Paul for no particular reason.
Paul is speaking the truth, and the Jews want to kill him.
It’s a Jewish mob. That’s the first thing.
Second thing is that it’s very pro-Roman, right?
It’s the Roman soldier come and save Paul from the mob.
And this story is very similar, in fact, to the story of Jesus.
So Jesus was arrested, and the mob wants to kill him, right?
And the Romans want to save Jesus, but they cannot stop the mob.
But Paul, it’s the same situation with Paul,
But what saves Paul is this, he is a Roman citizen, okay?
So that’s what saves him.
Rome saves Paul.
God can’t save Jesus, but Rome saves Paul, okay?
So this is propaganda.
And this propaganda written, of course, for Hellenized Jews like Paul
who are waving between loyalty to Rome or loyalty to the Jewish tradition.
And what Paul says is, the solution is to become a Christian
because now you can become both.
You can now become like me, loyal to the Jewish tradition,
but also loyal to Rome, okay?
All right, Alan, can you read, please?
When we came into Roman, Paul was allowed to…
Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry.
I need to set this up, okay?
So the Romans say to Paul,
why do the Jews want to kill you?
And Paul says, because they think I’m insulting their religion.
And Paul says, I’m a Roman citizen,
so I want an audience with the emperor.
Only emperor can decide my fate.”
So the Romans sent him with a soldier escort back to Rome, okay?
And this is how the Acts of the Apostles ends.
Okay, can you read, Allen?
When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself
with the soldiers who were guarding him.
Three days later, he called together the local leaders of the Jews.
When they had assembled, he said to them,
Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people
or the customs of our ancestors,
yet i was arrested in jerusalem and handled over to the romans when they had examined me the romans
wanted to release me because there were no reasons for the death penalty in my case but when the
jews objected i was compelled to appeal to the emperor even though i had no charge to bring
against my nation okay this is really interesting okay this is changing the story before paul said
that he wants to return to rome in order to face judgment from the emperor and what paul’s saying
now is you jews attacked me and if i wanted to i could complete the emperor and bring charges
against you jews okay so he’s changing the story he’s showing how powerful he is okay keep on going
for this reason therefore i had asked to see you and speak with you since it is for the sake of
the hope of israel that i am bound with this chain okay so he’s saying listen those guys in
jerusalem harass me and so i’ve come back to rome and i want to speak to you jewish leaders and
let’s see let’s see if we can work together because you piss me off in rome i can unleash
the empire on you okay so he’s now threatening these jewish elders come on going they replied
We have received no letter from Judah about you, and none of the brothers coming here
has reported or spoken anything evil about you. But we would like to hear from you what you think,
for with regard to this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”
Okay, so what they’re saying is, it’s all misunderstanding, Paul, okay? We don’t know
what’s going on. Why don’t you tell us what’s going on? Keep on going.
after they had set a day to meet with him they came to him at his longings in great numbers okay
so basically all the jewish leaders have to come because they they understand that paul represents
the empire okay keep on going from morning until evening he explained the matter to them
testifying to the kingdom of god and trying to convince them about jesus both for from the law
of moses and from the prophets so again what paul’s saying is that jesus is the fulfillment
of the bible his fulfillment of prophecy he is the messiah keep on going some were convinced
by what he had just what he had said while others refused to believe okay so now some of these jewish
leaders are being converted by paul they are now moving towards the christian faith that’s how
powerful paul is okay keep on going so they disagree with each other and as they were leaving
paul made one further statement the holy spirit was right in saying to your ancestor through the
prophet Isaiah. Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their
ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, and they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I will hear them.
Let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles.
They will listen.
Okay, so he’s saying, so he’s convincing some Jewish leaders to convert, right?
But not all convert.
And so Paul gets pissed off and says, you Jews are so stubborn.
You don’t get it, man.
Okay, but don’t worry.
If you don’t get it, the Gentiles, the Greeks and Romans will get it.
We will win eventually.
Okay, keep on going.
He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him,
proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without
hirons. Okay, so something I will point out is this. It looks like Paul is an agent of Rome,
okay? It looks like he represents the empire. But why would he write in such a way as to be
so blatant. And so you can also argue that Paul could be a double agent. He pretends to be an
agent, a spy for Rome, but he’s actually working for the Jewish leadership. Why would the Jewish
support Paul? Because by spreading Christianity, he’s spreading the Bible. And the Bible says that
Jews are God’s chosen people. So he’s elevating the status of Jews in Rome. So it’s not as simple
as it looks from this if you just read it it seems like paul is a spy for rome but you think much
more deeply about what he’s doing why would he be so blatant and tell people how i represent the
empire well maybe because he’s being a real maybe because he’s being a double agent right the thing
that you have to remember what spies is they have no loyalties they are double agents they are triple
agents okay they’re always switching loyalties back and forth okay so now what i want to do is
i want to go into the actual thinking and writing of paul this is romans which is one of his major
letters and in these letters what he’s going to do is he’s going to articulate to you this new
philosophy of christianity okay these these letters become the basis for the catholic church okay so
can you read amber please circumcision indeed is a value is a value if you obey the law
but if you break the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision so if those who are
uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law will not their uncircumcision be regarded as
circumcision okay so stop so this is paul and what you can see is he’s a master of rhetoric
okay the Jews are very clear if you are Jewish you must be circumcised because
circumcision is a is the sign of a covenant between our people and God if
you’re not circumcised you’re not Jewish and what Paul says no what matters is
your heart what matters is your spirit you have faith in God that’s what
matters okay keep on going then those who are physically uncircumcised but
keep the law will condemn you that that have the written code and circumcision
but break the law. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision
is something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real
circumcision is a matter of the heart. It is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives
praise not from others, but from God. Then what advantage has the Jews? Okay, so do you guys
understand? This is rhetoric, right? This is sophistry, where it’s changing the definition
of the word we’re changing the idea of the word circumcision is a covenant between the jews and
god and what paul says what matters is not the physical act what matters is the faith
in god okay that’s a covenant all right and as such you do not have to be uh um circumcised okay
Can you read it, Alan?
by his blood. Effective through faith, he did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed. It was to prove at the present time
that he himself is righteous, and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
Okay, so Jews believe what’s important is to follow the laws, okay, to be circumcised,
to rest on the Sabbath, to only marry within the tribe.
And what Paul says is, what’s important is your belief in Jesus.
Your belief that Jesus came in order to redeem us from our sins, the original sin.
That’s what matters now.
Before it was these laws, before it was these actions,
and now what matters is what you truly believe.
There’s only belief in Jesus that can save you.
You can do as many good works as you want.
You can follow as many laws as you want.
Does that matter?
The key is faith in Jesus.
Okay?
Alright.
Okay.
Can you read?
And so, brothers and sisters,
I could not speak to you as spiritual people,
but rather as people of the flesh,
as infants in Christ.
I fed you with milk, not solid food,
for you were not ready for solid food.
Even now you are still not ready,
for you are still of the flesh.
For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you,
are you not of the flesh and behaving accordingly, according to human inclinations?
For when one says, I belong to Paul, and another, I belong to Apollos,
are you not merely human?
Okay, so what Paul is doing is he’s going around and corrupting the teachings of Jesus.
And other people are calling him out and saying, Paul, this is not what Jesus taught.
Okay, and so what Paul’s saying is, guys, guys, we shouldn’t argue, okay?
Because who’s right? Jesus is right.
It’s not what you say, it’s not what I say, it’s what Jesus says.
So this again is sophistry, it’s rhetoric.
He’s positioning himself above the debate.
Rather than engaging in debate directly and saying like, what did Jesus actually teach
and what are the true teachings, Paul’s saying what’s important is to obey Jesus.
What’s important is obedience, not debate.
Keep on going.
What then is Apollos?
What is Paul?
Okay, so Paul is evil, okay?
Everyone’s saying to Paul,
Paul, you’re corrupting the teachings of Jesus.
And Paul’s saying, no, what matters is
we spread the message of Jesus.
And everyone’s saying, but what’s the message of Jesus?
Paul’s saying, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is the growth of Jesus.
Okay, this is sophistry.
I’m going.
According to the grace of God given to me,
like a skilled master builder,
I laid a foundation and someone else is building on it.
Each builder must choose with care how to build on it.
For no one can lay any foundation
other than the one that has been laid.
That foundation is Jesus Christ.
Now, if anyone builds on the foundation
with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
the work of each builder will become visible.
For the day will disclose it
because it will be revealed with fire
and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.
If what has been built onto the foundation survives,
the builder will receive a reward.
If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss.
the builder would be saved, but only us through fire.
Okay, so what Paul’s saying is this,
we’re all going to work together
to spread the message of Jesus.
You may believe Jesus says one thing,
I believe another thing, but let’s not argue, okay?
Let’s just keep on spreading the word of Jesus
and we’ll see which person has the biggest church
and we’ll know who’s right, okay?
So he’s using the metric of business success,
of wealth, of material acquisition
to justify his faith in Jesus, okay?
And this is the opposite of what Jesus taught.
And some people are saying, Paul, this is not what Jesus taught us.
Paul’s like, no, no, no, we’re going to see who wins out in the end, okay?
Keep on going.
Do not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you.
If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.
For God’s temple is holy and you are the temple.
Do not deceive yourself.
If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
for it is written he catches the wise in their craftiness and again the lord knows the thought
thoughts of the wise that they are futile so let no one boast about human leaders for all things
are yours whether paul or apollos or cephas or the world of life or death or the present or the
future all belong to you and you belong to christ and christ belongs to god okay so he’s very clever
he’s saying yes Jesus taught us that God’s Spirit dwells in you what this
means isn’t that you have free will what it means is you don’t have free will
because you must do the work of God which is to spread the message of God
which is to extend the power of God in this world okay so you see how this is
sophistry right he’s tricking people he’s deceiving people Jesus taught you
the light is within you and therefore you are you know God you just trust
yourself, and that’s good. And then what Paul says, no, you are a tool of God. Okay, keep on going.
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is
required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me, it is a very small thing that I
should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. Okay, okay, all right.
So let’s keep on going. Alan, can you read, please? When you’re a slave in court, do not be concerned
about it. Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever.
For whoever was caught in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as
whoever was freed when caught as a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price. Do not become slave
of human masters. In whatever condition you were caught, brothers and sisters, there remain with
God. Okay, so Paul’s being very clever again, okay? Because this message is appealing to slaves.
Jesus taught the slaves, you’re free.
And the slaves, say to Paul, we’re free, right?
And Paul says, you are free, but you’re a slave to God.
Do you understand?
Okay?
Therefore, no human can be a master of you because you’re all slaves to God.
He’s confusing people, okay?
Can you keep on reading?
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all,
so that I might win more of them.
To the Jews I become as a Jew, in order to win Jews,
To those under the law, I become as one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, though I am not free from God’s law, but I am under Christ’s law, so that I might win those outside the law.
To the weak I become weak, so that I might win the weak.
I become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessing.
Do not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize.
Run in such a way that you may win it.
Athletes exercise self-control in all things.
they do it to receive a perishable wealth,
but we an imperishable one,
so I do not run aimlessly,
nor do I box as though beating the air.
But I punish my body and enslave it,
so that after proclaiming to others,
I myself should not be disqualified.
Okay, so it’s almost like a pep rally, right?
He’s a business person, he’s telling his workers,
Go out and sell those damn hamburgers, man.
I don’t care what you do.
I don’t care how many lies you tell.
Go sell those hamburgers.
Pretend they’re healthy, okay?
Pretend you love hamburgers.
Just pretend.
What matters is you go sell those hamburgers.
And guess what, man?
Whoever sells those hamburgers gets a car, okay?
But this is better than a car
because this is, the reward is heaven.
Eternal paradise, guys.
So go out and sell those hamburgers, all right?
All right, can you read the highlighted part, Amber?
Now in the following instructions, I do not commend you
because when you come together,
it is not for the better, but for the worse.
For to begin with, when you come together as a church,
I hear that there are divisions among you.
And to some extent, I believe it.
Indeed, there have to be faction among you
for only so will it become clear
who among you are genuine.
When you come together,
it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.
For when the time comes to eat,
each of you goes ahead with your own supper,
and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.
What, do you not have homes to eat and drink in?
Or do you show contempt for the church of God
and humiliate those who have nothing?
What should I say to you?
Should I commend you?
In this matter, I do not commend you.
Okay, so what he’s saying is this.
When you come to a church,
it’s very important that you obey the ritual, okay?
The ritual is communion, the Eucharist.
And we must remember this is a ritual
where you must follow the exact protocols.
If you do not, then there’s no point in coming to church.
So the church is not a place to discuss Jesus,
not to debate Jesus, but to worship Jesus.
Okay, keep on going.
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.
And the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying,
This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.
Examine yourselves and only then eat the bread and drink of the cup.
For all who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves.
For this reason, many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
But if we judge ourselves, we will not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined,
so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together,
it will not be for your condemnation.
about about the other things I will give instruction when when I come okay so
this is really important which was the most important ritual in Christianity
called the Eucharist Thanksgiving okay and in this it’s basically they eat some
bread and they drink some wine and they believe it is the flesh and blood of
Jesus so Jesus is entering them okay this and as you can imagine what they’re
doing really is negating divine spark in you divine spark is free it’s individual
independent when you partake in the body of jesus you become one with everyone else okay that negates
your individuality that it negates a spark within you and you become just a church itself okay and
that’s the idea of the eucharist to destroy your individuality all right and so when christians
do this they literally believe the bread they’re eating is the body of christ of jesus so jesus is
entering into you and taking you over okay it’s possession by jesus yes can we see this as a way
that they abuse or exploit jesus because they’re just eating their body although the body of jesus
is hollow uh no no the idea here is that jesus is your master okay and when you partake in jesus
you become a part of jesus and therefore you must obey exactly what he wants okay all right so this
is confusing because it’s cannibalism okay but um as i told you before this is actually a very
common thing among the greek mystery cults where they come together and they believe that when they
eat food they’re actually eating the body of dionysus and dionysus his energy is up is being
consumed into you okay what’s important for us to appreciate is like these mystery cults are demonic
okay so what else they do is they will have ritual sacrifices where they will tear people apart and
consume the flesh okay so this is from a painting from the eubates play describing one of these
mystery codes um okay so they will actually tear a person’s body apart to replicate the death of
dynasties and they consume the body part all right and guess what guys the secret society still do
the slave okay so but but what’s important to understand is this actually has a long tradition
so if you go back to 15 000 years to europe in the magdalenean age um cannibalism was actually
very common it was common for religious purposes so maybe there’s someone that you love and he died
what you would do is you consume his body when he died in order to remember him forever okay so that
you would have an eternal communion with him because his soul would go into the spirit world
but if you had his body right he would always communicate with you and that’s the idea of
commemorating jesus like in such a way when you consume jesus jesus is always with you he is now
taking possession over your body you are now just a body for jesus okay does that make sense you’ve
lost your individuality you’ve lost your freedom you are now completely possessed by jesus when you
um are when you engage in the eucharist okay yes so the so during that time nobody found that like
this is disobeying the original the original belief of jesus like paul is just using our
peoples to obey yeah that’s a really good question okay most people at this time think paul is just
evil okay he’s like this is not what jesus taught us jesus taught us to believe in ourselves jesus
would never teach us this demonic thing of sacrifice okay jesus came to teach us like
i don’t sacrifice human sacrifice it’s all evil okay he got rid of that but again so at this time
in history paul’s church paul’s followers are only limited amount okay very few people but he doesn’t
care because he’s building the found the blueprint for an empire doesn’t make sense okay so the
romans forces religion on everyone now everyone has to obey this you understand if you actually
from first principles try to convince people the catholic church is right you can’t really convince
that many people but guess what guys doesn’t matter because most people are born into the
catholic church so they are born believing this stuff okay so they can’t really think for
themselves all right but also remember cannibalism is very common throughout history so these are the
Aztecs who will engage in canonism in order to prepare for war, in order to sacrifice
others for their gods. Again, this is the Magdalenean culture and we found
lots of places where they engage in canonism during funerals. And as you can see, it’s very
common. It’s very common throughout the world at this time. And it makes sense if you think about
right if this person is someone you love and he was very special to you and you want him to still
help you in life to guide you in life then you consume his body a part of his body then he’ll
stay with you forever okay and this is a way to build group cohesion in this time well this is
the ice age so it’s very hard to survive and um but of course not everyone practices this as well
okay uh the red are those who practice cannibalism during funerals the blue are just those who just
bury the body and don’t practice cannibalism um so what you’re not taught is among the elite
this sort of stuff goes on a lot so this is 19th century in victorian britain and this is you know
the british empire and guess what guys what they like to do is they like to uh steal mummies from
egypt and eat these mummies because they believe that these mummies had some magic qualities okay
so this goes back to the 19th century and you think to yourself oh you know what in the 12th
century we are so much more advanced we don’t do this crap anymore right unfortunately this is
albert einstein’s brain albert einstein before he died said please please whatever you do do not
dissect my brain okay i know i know you think i’m a greatest genius in the world and you want to
know how my brain works but i’m telling you right now my brain is no different from your brain
please whatever you do do not dissect my brain so of course a doctor steals his brain and cuts it
into different pieces okay now let me ask you this question let’s just say this doctor were to take
his brain and make some medicine out of it okay if he takes his brain cuts up into like 100 different
parts and then he takes this medicine and he sells it to rich people for a million dollars
could he find a hundred rich people who would pay a million dollars to eat his brain yes okay so
I was like, I’m telling you, the rich are insane, all right?
My wife tells me that when I die, it’s possible
they might want to dissect my brain as well.
So, please don’t do so, okay?
Because my brain’s no different from anyone else’s brain.
You won’t find the secret of my creativity with my brain.
All right?
All right, so, yup.
Allen, can you read, please?
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member,
but of many.
If the foot would say, because I am not a band,
I do not belong to the body,
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
And if the air would say, because I’m not an eye,
I do not belong to the body,
that would not make it any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing,
where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God arranging the member of the body, each one of them, as he choose,
if all were a single members, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many members, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor against the head to the feet,
I have no need of you.
On the contrary, the members of the body that seems to be weaker are indispensable.
And those members of the body that we think less honorable, we close with greater honor.
And our less respectable members are treated with greater respect,
whereas our more respectable members do not need this.
But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member,
that there may be no dissension within the body,
but the members may have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all suffers together.
With it, if one member is honored,
all rejoice together with it.
Okay, so what he’s saying is this.
When you consume the body of Christ,
you’ve all consumed a part of him, right?
And so we need to come together as a people,
as a church to form the whole body of Jesus and that means that you must do what others tell you
to do okay this requires complete obedience if we are to resurrect Jesus in our church does that
make sense guys okay keep on going now you are the body of Christ and individually member of it
and God has appointed in the church first uh postlets second prophets third teachers then
of power, then gifts of healing, form of assistance, form of leadership, various kinds of tongues,
are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, do all work miracles, do all possess
gifts of healing, do all speak in tongues, do all interpret, but strive for the greater
gifts, as I will show you a still more excellent way.
Okay, so do you understand what’s going on, okay?
No matter who you are, no matter what you do,
what’s important is your sacrifice to Jesus,
to obey him completely, okay?
So this is all ordained by Jesus.
All right, Amber, can you read the yellow, please?
Love is patient, love is kind.
Love is not envious, rebustful, arrogant, or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable and resentful.
It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoice in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends, but as for prophecies, they will come to an end.
As for tongues, they will cease.
As for knowledge, it will come to an end.
For we all know only in part, and we prophecy only in part.
But when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child.
I thought like a child.
I reasoned like a child.
when I became an adult I put an end to childish ways for now we see in a mirror dimly but then
we will see face to face now I know only in part then I will know fully even as I have been fully
known and now faith hope and love abide these three and the greatest of these is love okay so
you understand Paul that’s sophistry so you think the word is love great love we love Jesus the word
actually means obedience right if you join the church what is required for you is complete
obedience to jesus to understand that you are now a slave to jesus remember when we commit the
original sin when we did evil we became slaves to the devil when jesus killed us it’s because he
sorry when jesus died it was to ransom him us from the devil so now we are slaves to jesus
and therefore we must obey him completely okay no argument no opinion no individuality
individually just complete obedience to jesus so you can see the power of this right he changes
he switches his words he’s saying that slavery is now love okay when a human master enslaves you
that’s evil but when jesus enslaves you it’s good because now it’s love it’s because jesus loves you
that’s why he enslaves you but now because he loves you you must obey him completely and that
That means never ever question the authority of the church.
Never ever do that because that’s evil.
Okay.
All right, can you read it, Allen?
What I’m saying, brothers and sisters, is this.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
nor does a perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I will tell you a mystery.
We will not all die, but we will all be changed.
In the moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
At the last trumpet, for the trumpet went sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When this perishable body puts on imperishability and this mortal body puts on immortality,
then the saying that is written will be fulfilled.
Death has been swallowed up in victory, where, O death, is your victory, where, O death, is your sting.
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us a victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast and movable, always excelling in the works of the Lord,
because you know that in the Lord your labor is not to vain.
So this is why you must obey Him completely, because now you are guaranteed access to heaven,
eternal paradise, okay?
Pretty good deal, right?
Be a slave for 40 years, 50 years,
be the best hardworking slave for the next 40, 50 years,
and then you have eternal paradise,
because that is Jesus’ promise to you, okay?
The defeat of death.
Yes?
I think according to the original belief of Jesus,
which Jesus led us to pursue our divine spark, right?
That’s the real way to have it,
but doing this, I think after people die,
they will find out that they cannot really go to heaven,
Because they are slaves.
Yeah, no one cares, right?
It doesn’t matter because you’re dead, right?
Because the entire point of the system
is to extract as much energy out of you as possible
while you’re alive, right?
Because Paul’s real customers are the patriarchs.
It’s the patriarchs who are paying for this,
and the patriarchs who will force their slaves
to convert to this religion, okay?
So maybe the slaves don’t buy this,
but their children will,
because your children will be brainwashed into this, okay?
And this explains why the Catholic Church is the most powerful organization today.
So, now that we’ve gone into how he actually thinks,
let’s go over to his psychology, okay?
So, what motivated Paul to do what he did?
Because he worked really hard.
And so, there are three possible explanations.
The first explanation is, he was a Roman agent,
and his mission was to destroy Mesodic Judaism from within.
What we’ll learn next class is that Judaism is a huge problem for the Romans.
And so, while the Jews are praying for a Messiah of war,
Paul says, no, no, Jesus is a Messiah of peace, okay?
So, he’s trying to subvert the Jews from within.
But you could also argue that Paul was actually a Jewish spy
who’s trying to subvert the Roman Empire by spreading the Jewish faith, okay?
You could also argue that.
I would argue it’s both. Both are true, right?
So, I think that what really happened is
Paul had a messianic calling to create his own religion empire okay he wanted to become God
himself so there’s a famous joke the joke goes like this God and Satan are having an argument
God says my people the humans have found religion therefore you’ve lost and Satan says well I’ll
just organize it okay I’ll create churches out of it and that’s what Paul did Jesus came to tell
the truth and paul says i’ll use this truth and i’ll make an empire out of it okay all right so
there’s an analogy here this is his name is ray croft and he created the empire mcdonald’s okay
how did he do so he took an idea mcdonald’s and he went around america and he created mcdonald’s
okay so mcdonald’s is like it’s like the church if you go to mcdonald’s anywhere in the world it’s
it’s almost the same building, same menu, okay?
So it follows a very similar pattern
to Paul’s building of the church.
Paul was able to succeed because he spread a religion.
Ray Kroc succeeded because he also spread a religion
as well, all right?
So what he did was not convince people to eat hamburgers.
He didn’t need to do that.
What he needed to do was convince small business owners
to invest in McDonald’s, to buy the franchise on McDonald’s
by spreading the idea of the gospel of wealth.
If you invest in me, if you open a McDonald’s,
you’ll become wealthy, and that is paradise, okay?
So basically, Ray Kroc and Paul were doing the same thing.
All right, so Paul has this business idea.
Let’s just take Jesus and turn him into an empire.
And so he’s gonna make different sales pitches
to different people, okay?
So we’re gonna imagine, okay,
and this is a thought experiment, it didn’t really happen.
we imagine paul making a pitch to the roman patriarchs right he’s saying why should you
invest in me because one we will cause debate and division within the jewish diaspora okay so some
will convert but some will not but who cares because now they’re fighting each other not
fighting us because number one number two is we will make their messiah of war into messiah of
peace okay and that will weaken their resolve and the third is we can now spiritually enslave
the people okay and they’ll work harder for us so that’s a self-pitch of paul to the romans but
there’s also such which he can make to the jewish leaders as well let us spread our faith to the
gentiles and elevate our status as a chosen people okay let us make our torah and jewish
divine in the eyes of the world and guess what it worked right even today everyone thinks that
jewish is the holy city in the world let us make ourselves the service of the empire and ally with
the Roman patriarchy so that we can subvert them from within, all right?
And it worked.
Now, not all Jews did this, but a lot did follow Paul into Christianity.
Christianity is a platform for the Jews and the Romans to work together.
All right, but now Paul is going to make a sales pitch to the Greeks and the Jews, okay?
And this is what he says.
A few decades of obedience for a turning of Jordan Paradise, right?
That’s number one.
Number two is, it’s true to join.
You don’t have to get circumcised, okay?
And the third is, Jesus will return any day now, so hurry up before it’s too late.
Guys, 50% off today.
Do it now.
50% off.
That’s literally his message.
And that’s why he’s so successful.
50% off.
So this is Augustine.
This is after the Catholic Church becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
And what Augustine will do is he will write a book called City of God.
And he will put the Catholic Church above Rome.
okay because rome is just a temporal earthly city but jerusalem is the vine city he’s saying like
the catholic church is now jerusalem we don’t need the roman empire anymore because now we have the
catholic church okay the catholic church is a community of believers as long as you believe
in jesus you’ll be saved so obviously it’s gonna take paul’s ideas and systemize it to create the
catholic church okay so emma can you read please it was in secret that the first human beings began
to be evil and the result was that they slipped into open disobedience okay so this is really
important jesus said there’s divine spark in us right other sense yes if there’s a divine spark
but it’s from satan guys it’s not from god it’s from satan that’s why we cannot trust the divine
spark because we’re evil keep on going for they will not have arrived at the evil act if an evil
would have not preceded it now could anything but pride have been the start of the evil will
For pride is the start of every kind of sin.
So, you know, Jesus says to follow your own heart, right?
And Augustine says, no, no, no.
That leads to pride.
And pride is evil.
Pride means you want to be better than God.
Pride means you want to kill God.
Therefore, it is inherently evil.
Therefore, the heart inside you comes from Satan.
Okay? Keep on going.
And what does pride accept along for a preserved kind of exaltation?
for it is a preserved kind of exaltation to abandon the basis on which the mind should be firmly fixed
and to become, as it were, based on oneself and so remain.
This happens when a man is too pleased with himself
and the man is self-complacent when he deserts that changeless good
in which, rather than in himself, he ought to have found his satisfaction.
This desertion is voluntary, for if the will had remained unshaken
in his love of the higher changeless good,
which shed on it light to see
and kindled in it fire to love.
It would not have been diverted from this love
to follow its own pleasure,
and the wool would not have been so darkened and chilled
and consequent as to let the woman believe
that the serpent had spoken to the truth
and the man to put his wife’s will above God’s commandment
and to suppose that his was a…
Venial.
venial transgression when he refused to desert his life’s companion uh companion even though
the refusal entailed companionship is instant okay so we are we exist to obey god all right
jesus taught us that we exist in order to be creative in order to seek truth for ourselves
but often paul teaches us that we exist in order to obey god why because we cannot trust ourselves
I have a question. So, does that mean the believers of the Catholic Church should not take pride in their identity as a part of the church?
Or does that also mean that they cannot find satisfaction in partaking in the great mission of the Catholic Church?
church okay so the catholic church uh has certain teachings okay the first teaching is the idea of
original sin which is we are born evil it is christ that redeems us that’s number one number
two is we cannot think for ourselves because we will be led astray by the devil we must listen to
the priest we should not read the bible for ourselves because we’ll get confused by it okay
Okay? Alright? And that’s what leads to Protestant Reformation.
So, what does that mean?
And the priests are the representatives of God on earth.
The Pope has supreme authority. Okay? Yes?
So, if the Pope tells you to take pride in being a part of the church, you can’t be… like, you are allowed?
The Pope is the Word of God. Whatever the Pope says is the Word of God, okay?
Okay, okay.
Okay, it’s that simple.
So, I have a question.
Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.
uh like if you if we really like try to pursue the original jesus to believe that is to pursue our uh
divine spark but pride is a thing that we cannot avoid right yes you will make mistakes right yeah
so jesus says it’s okay it’s okay to make mistakes it’s okay to screw up you’ll be forgiven whereas
the catholic church says it’s not okay to screw up oh yeah do you understand all right okay can you
Can you read out loud?
Thus the evil act,
the transgression of eating the forbidden fruit,
was committed only when those who did it were already evil.
That bad fruit could only have come from a bad tree.
Okay, so we’re born evil, okay?
It’s that simple.
Keep on going.
Further, the badness of the tree
came about contrary to nature,
because without the fault in the will,
which is against nature,
it certainly could not have happened.
But only a nature created out of nothing
could have been destroyed by a fault.
Consequently, although the world drives its existence
as nature from its creation by God,
its failing away from its true being
is due to its creation out of nothing.
So why are we evil?
Why can’t we trust ourselves?
Why can we be easily swayed by Satan?
The reason why is the Bible tells us
that we are created out of dust.
We’re created out of nothing, okay?
other words we are a failed science experiment okay that’s why we suck that’s why we must believe
in the church all right so this is the augustine all right um can you read yet man did not fall
away to the extent of losing all being but when he had turned towards himself his being was less real
than when he adhered to him who exists in a supreme degree and so to abandon god and to
exist in oneself that is to please oneself is not immediately to lose all being but it is to come
near to nothingness that is why the proud are given another name in holy scripture they are
called self-pleasers now it is good to lift up your heart and to exalt your thoughts yet not in
the self-worship of pride but in the worship of god this is a sign of obedience and obedience can
belong only to the humble so you must obey the church completely okay because divine spark in you
it’s out of nothingness it can only lead you to evil okay so the only way the only solution now
is you can be still obey the church completely and i think that kind of answered my question too
yeah yeah like for because i think i believe in the original no no it doesn’t matter what you
believe i don’t care what you believe i only care about what the catholic church is teaching you
okay can we also see we’re not having an argument about what who’s right who’s wrong yeah i don’t
want that okay i want you to understand what the catholic church is teaching you like can we can
we also see the like people eat the fruit from that tree also as a mistake that we can just like
the original jesus believe that we can be forgiven jesus thought that what he did was correct all
All right. Okay. All right. So, Alan, can you read, please?
This is why humility is highly prized in the city of God
and especially enjoyed on the city of God during the time of its pilgrimage in this world.
And it receives particular emphasis in the character of Christ, the king of the city.
We are also taught by the sacred scriptures that the thought of exaltation,
the country of humility, exercise supreme dominion in Christ’s adversary.
The devil, this is assuredly the greatest difference that thunders the two cities in which we are speaking.
The one is a community of devout men, the other a company of the irreligious,
and each has its own angels attached to it.
In one city, love of God has been given first place, in the other, love of self.
Okay, so it’s that simple, okay?
If you obey, you are doing the work of God.
If you disobey, you’re doing the work of the devil.
It’s that simple, okay?
All right, can you keep on reading?
And this will end the, yeah.
In the heavenly city, then, there will be freedom of will.
It will be one and the same freedom in all.
And in the visible and the separate individuals,
it will be freed from all evil and filled with all good,
enjoying unfailingly the delight of internal joys,
forgetting all offenses, forgetting all punishment.
So when we have freedom, okay?
We’re slaves now, but when will we have freedom?
When we’re with God.
Because only when we’re with God can we know what is good, okay?
And then we have complete freedom.
But what he means by freedom, of course, is complete obedience.
Now we won’t even think about disobeying God, okay?
That’s what freedom is.
All right, so the Catholic Church grows, the Roman Empire makes it the official religion
because it does three things, okay?
And we discussed this.
The first is that now you’re better to exploit your slaves.
They’re now more hardworking because before, if they were lazy, they might get whipped, right?
But they’re lazy now, they will burn in hell for all of eternity.
That’s number one.
Number two is, this is really important.
You have all this gold, right?
The problem with all this gold is
people can steal it.
People can kill you for it, right?
But now you have spiritual authority.
Now you represent God.
Now you’re head of a church, right?
And therefore, people can’t kill you
because if they kill you,
God will come and kill them, okay?
It’s a pretty good deal, right?
Before you were a king,
but now you’re a god.
What a great deal.
And the last thing, of course,
is now what you can do
is you can now expand
and expand and expand your empire okay um so let me explain why this is relevant today okay because
now that the catholic church is around these dynasties of rome can continue on to today
through the catholic church right does that make sense to you guys because now they can store their
power in the catholic church if you put your golden catholic church no one’s going to come
and steal it right because they don’t want to incur the wrath of god that’s that’s why the
catholic church will give rise to some to some people called the black nobility okay these are
13 families from rome that still run the world today okay we’ll discuss this later on all right
we’ll discuss how the catholic church and the black nobility work together something you need
to understand is what a lot of catholic church to dominate is this alliance between black nobility
and jews guess what guys it still happens today okay the third thing is what allows for the system
to work are the secret societies where for rituals these powerful people are bound together okay
and so these three ideas the black nobility the alliance between black nobility and the jews and
the third of secret societies is the power structure we have today all right that’s the
power of the catholic church that is the genius of paul to create a system that continues even
today because it is so powerful and um so strategic okay does that make sense all right
and we’ll discuss this later on as well but i present the idea to you today all right some
questions okay um my wife sends me more questions okay um this person wants to know what’s the
What’s the difference between the Catholic Church, the Protestants, and the Eastern Orthodox?
So the Eastern Orthodox is the Church of Augustine.
It didn’t really change.
The Protestants are those who rebelled against the teachings of Paul and Augustine, and the
Catholic Church is sort of in between, but we’ll discuss this more as we go along.
Alright, the Greek Mystery Schools, are they still around today?
And the answer is yes, of course they’re still around today, because they allowed the elite
to work together, okay?
They allow the elite to trust each other, okay?
And again, they come from the Greek mystery schools.
All right, psychopaths.
What do we do with these people, right?
You have these psychopaths who run the world.
They don’t feel regret.
They don’t forgive each other.
So how do we perceive these people, okay?
And there are different solutions.
The first solution is to appreciate the idea of karma.
So yes, they are powerful in this lifetime,
but in the next lifetime, they become slaves.
So they can feel for themselves the evil
that they’ve done onto other people, okay?
Another idea is in the world of today,
psychopaths will always war.
Only evil will war,
because that’s just the structure of this universe.
In this universe that we live in,
the devil is always king, okay?
And there’s no way around it.
So we’re here not to fight these people,
we’re here to learn wisdom in a world of evil.
So don’t worry about them, just worry about yourself, okay?
The third thing to think about is,
if you really understood how these people lived their lives,
you would feel sorry for them, all right?
So remember the Iliad where Achilles triumphs over Hector,
but rather than feeling joy and happiness,
he feels only sadness and he can’t even cry, okay?
He becomes a zombie.
And you can make the argument that
the wealthy people are like that today.
Yeah, they look like as though they’re happy,
they have billions of dollars, but they’re not happy, okay?
If you actually lived their lives,
if you see the world through their eyes,
you would see that they’re very unhappy people.
So don’t hate them, feel pity for them, okay?
So there are different ways of understanding this.
All right, okay, this is a great question.
Okay, I love this question.
If the Romans are the ones who killed Jesus,
why don’t the Jews don’t speak up?
Why don’t the Jews say, we didn’t do it, man?
Okay, so this is really complicated.
But the simple answer is there’s an agreement
between the Catholic Church and the Jews, okay?
And the agreement is this.
The Catholic Church needed scapegoats,
needed people for other people to hate, okay?
And the Jews agreed in order to practice their religion.
Does that make sense?
All right, I know this sounds terrible,
But the only way for the Jews to survive as a people
is if they agree to be scapegoats for Christians.
And we’ll discuss this later on.
And that’s why if you look at Europe for the past 2,000
years, what the Christians did to the Jews was just horrific.
And the Jews could not speak up because if they did,
the Catholic Church might get rid of them.
This person says, James the Just, Jesus’ brother,
He was killed by the Jews, right?
No, no, no.
Ask yourself this question.
Who is most threatened by James the Just?
The answer, of course, is Paul.
It was Paul who had him killed, okay?
In 70, the Romans destroyed the temple.
And that time would have been the perfect time to kill James the Just.
James the Just was probably protected by the Jews.
But Paul saw him as a threat.
Because as long as James the Just was alive,
he’s ultimately a thorn in Jesus, right?
Paul could not steal the legacy from James the Just,
therefore he had to get this guy killed, okay?
Does that make sense?
All right, how do you know if you see the truth
and reject the lie?
The answer is really simple, guys.
How do you know if you love someone?
You just do, guys, okay, I’m sorry.
If you don’t know you love someone,
you probably don’t love that person, all right?
When you love someone, your heart glows,
you feel stronger, you are more energetic, all right?
If you are in a relationship, but you become weaker,
you feel tired, you lose hope,
you probably don’t love that person.
That person probably doesn’t love you, okay?
It’s that simple, guys.
If you, how do you know you’re in love?
You just do.
How do you know you see the truth?
You just do, all right?
You cannot trust a human.
The Bible clearly states,
the one who brings evil to this world
stands above all of humankind.
Therefore, you will find the truth.
No, no, no, no, no.
This is what Paul says.
This is what Augustine says.
You do know, you know in your heart, okay?
All right, that’s it.
Any questions, guys, before we conclude?
Okay, great, so we’ll continue this next class, okay?
Source: Predictive History