Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #25 - Paul of Tarsus, Messiah of Rome

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #25 - Paul of Tarsus, Messiah of Rome

Okay, good morning. So last class we talked about a central paradox in Christianity. What Jesus believes is different from what Christianity teaches us about Jesus. Okay, so let's go over, let's review what Jesus believes, teach, and what Christianity teaches us about Jesus, okay? So Jesus, remember that Jesus is one of the are great spiritual leaders and geniuses like the Buddha and there's a three-tier approach to his religion or philosophy. There's an inner approach which is a secret teachings his secret understanding of the world. There's an inner

leer 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, in focusing on being a good and kind person. 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 from all his apostles. Okay? 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 has been controlled by a monster. And that's why you should 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 causing them to feel anger. and self-hatred.

So Jesus has this great metaphor. And what he says is that the pursuit 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. So that's how he feels about the pursuit of wealth. It is poisonous.

It will only lead to your ulterior. demise and that's why it's important to focus instead on our humanity on our connection of others that's why it's important to be compassionate and you should be most be compassionate towards the rich because you know ones who are most guided who are the ones who are most misguided and diluted okay so that's the Jesus and again his teachings are no different from say Buddhist teachings or Hindu teachings or Zoroastrianum 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 all right in the Bible Jesus is a son of God and there's a conflict between God and humanity remember we humans committed the original sin. We disobeyed him and ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil, and therefore God banished us from paradise. And ever since, we've been living in misery. God expects us to acknowledge our failings and ask for forgiveness. But because we are ignorant and misguided and sinful, we refuse to apologize. Therefore, Jesus has to return, has to come to earth and sacrifice himself in the crucification has to

crucify himself in order to atone for our sins and to wash us of 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 a 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? So there are a lot of contradictions in this story that you don't have in the first Jesus' teachings. 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 did we get from here to here? Okay. So a lot of 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 on the provinces, and he was building a large following, he was healing people, he was spreading the kingdom of God message, and he was very popular, and he was very safe. But then 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 a name Judas Ascariot, 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 Pontus 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? Do 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 remains 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, 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. If you are a Hellenized Jew, meaning you grew up with a great education and you're the Roman Empire, you have access to all three major sets of knowledge. The Hebrew Bible, Greek philosophy, and Roman history. 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 Bible. the New Testament about a third of the New Testament which is a Christian Bible either is 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 Christiani again is not by Jesus it's not a religion by Jesus Jesus it's a religion about Jesus and there's a difference okay now let's talk about the life and times of Paul because it's a very interesting story okay and again everything I'm telling you comes from the Bible a book called Acts of the Apostles which is about what happens

after Jesus dies okay so after Jesus dies his brother James the just becomes leader of his movement okay and they're often called the poor in but they're all called the poor. Why? Because they're focused on a life that denies worldly goods. They believe this mature reality we live in, it's evil, and we have to focus on the spiritual life. And that's why they demand poverty, okay? That's why they themselves are poor, and they demand everyone who believes in them are also poor. And the word for them is called Ibnites. And this is important because the eminites will eventually leave Jerusalem, where they are now, and go to Arabia, where they will help down the religion of Islam. Okay?

So I want you guys to keep this in mind. Okay, so James Adjust 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're 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. I'll talk about Paul. 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 part of the case with Paul okay he tells us in the Bible I'm born a Roman citizen therefore my parents are citizens which means his parents were were very wealthy and part of the Roman elites okay second thing you know the second way you get citizenship is

by being a soldier for 20 years. And the third way is through service to the emperor. The emperor honors you with citizenship if you have shown devotion and service. So it's very hard to be a Roman citizen, but Paul is a Roman citizen. And as a woman citizen, he grew up secular. He grew up learning Greek rhetoric.

He learned Socrates, Plato, Homer, all that, okay? For whatever reason, he converts and becomes a Pharisee. Okay, remember, Pharisees are Jewish priests who eventually will become rabbis. And as a Pharisee, he's very fanatical. We know that if you convert, you actually become very fanatical. Okay? And as a Pharisee, he was tasked with destroying the Jesus movement. And that kind of makes no sense, because we just said that if James suggests and the followers of Jesus are in Jerusalem,

that means they're being protected and honored by the Pharisees right so this is actually a major contradiction and no one has actually explained to us okay but you'll see a lot of these contradictions in the Bible okay anyway the story continues is a Pharisee and he's fanatical about destroying the Jesus movement because it is heresy it is Jesus thinks of himself as a Messiah and he's not okay eventually Paul decides to go to Damascus to destroy the Jesus movement in Damascus. But on the road there, he sees the light. Okay, he sees the light. And it's Jesus talking to him and 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 ever 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 in the organization of Christianity.

Right now, they're not called Christian. They're still Jews. And Jesus and his followers are considered a branch of 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, nope. It is believed in Jesus as a savior that will offer you salvation. The good works don't matter. It's the belief in faith in Jesus that matters, okay? That's the first thing. Second thing that Stephen Love Paul is he's focused on organization and structure. 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. organization and structure, where you have the ability to fully promote Jesus' message to the people. So he's putting churches around the Roman Empire. For Paul, what mattered first and foremost was to convert as many people as possible. Because believe in Jesus met salvation.

So we have a duty to save as many people as possible. 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 their 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?

But if you're not, if you're 20 years old and you're not circumcised, don't worry about it. The law doesn't matter. What matters is your faith in Jesus. So these are the three radical changes that Paul makes to the religion that's being developed around Jesus. 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 grow around the world 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. James is saying, it's running upon 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, the 40. How can they circumcise themselves?

I'm just trying to open up the religion. I am 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. All right? Eventually, this conflict becomes so bitter that James suggests spread rumors about Paul,

and many of Paul's churches now start to abandon him, okay? Because remember, James or Just is Jesus' brother, okay? So if there's an authority, it's James of Just, not Paul. And Paul becomes very angry. Paul tries many, many tricks. For example, he tries to bribe James of Just by offering him money, okay? He also writes letters complaining about James of Just and saying, well, just because you're Jesus' brother doesn't mean you know what he actually says.

Because Jesus, Jesus, talk to me, man. Jesus came to me in a vision. Therefore, I'm the one who really understands Jesus. 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. So he goes to Jerusalem, and he meets with James, and at first the meaning goes well. But then, in Jerusalem, the people who don't like Paul recognize him. and they start to mob him, okay, they want to kill this guy.

And what's really interesting about how this is written is it's very similar to the Jesus story, where Jesus is being mobbed 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 Roman soldiers, 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 Jewish the Roman governor and the Roman governor doesn't believe that Paul has broken in laws but there's a Jewish mob out there who want to kill him okay so now Paul says to the 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 read the Bible these two stories between Jesus and

Paul you will see how how many parallels and similarities there are okay the is this the difference is Paul is a Roman citizen Jesus is not therefore Jesus was killed because he was not a Roman citizen okay does that make sense if Jesus were a Roman citizen he could preach all he wants okay he could say whatever he wants but he wasn't and therefore he was killed so then Paul goes back to Rome and this is how the acts of the Apostles ends okay let's read together because the way it is written is extremely fascinating. 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. what the Bible says. Paul was allowed to live by himself and 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 Semble, he said to them, okay? This is him talking to them. Brothers, though had done nothing against our people,

or the cousins or our ancestors. So he's denying any wrongdoing. But he clearly committed it wrong because circumcision, guys, and we talked about this, circumcision is how Jews know there are chosen people. There's a covenant between Abraham and Yahweh, God. The covenant is... Abraham and his ancestors were circumcised themselves

as a mark of allegiance to Yahweh. In return, Yahweh will give them a problem. commerce 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 have you don't have to circumcise yourself so he's clearly breaking the customs and laws of their ancestors 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 put in Paul continues yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and then over the Romans when they had examined me the Romans want to release me okay because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case the Romans want to let me go but the Jews insisted that I be killed so there'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 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, and it's very clever, is he's making a real threat to the Jewish leaders of Rome. If you mess with me, I'm no threat to the emperor and accuse you guys of attacking Roman citizen.

Do you 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 committing a crime. And what Paul is saying is, like, I'm right because he's access to the emperor, and you don't. And this is how the Bible, this is how the book ends, okay? The Acts of Apostles, this is how it ends.

He lived there two whole years at his, expense he's clearly very wealthy right proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boneness and about hindrance no one could touch this guy this is how the story of Paul ends he's in Rome he can do whatever he wants and no one can touch him all right so who is this guy how can he do this he's in Jerusalem the mob's trying to kill him the Roman soldiers come and save him and he goes back to Rome and he tells the Jewish leaders there hey guys don't mess with me and they leave him alone and some even convert who is

this guy Paul all right so that's a question so any any questions so far so again there are a lot of questions in the story of Paul that don't make any sense okay the first thing that doesn't make sense is like who is this guy right he's has all this power and money, and he can do whatever he wants, and no one can touch him. So that's the first big question. Second big question is, why does he convert? His conversion story doesn't make any sense. We're like, okay, well, because he saw Jesus.

Okay, that's fine. But guess what, guys, after Jesus talks to him, Jesus sort of disappears from the story. And you would think that if Jesus was so important to Paul, Paul would quote from Jesus, right? But he doesn't quote from Jesus. Jesus has a lot of message, a lot of sayings, but Paul rarely quotes from him. But knowing 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 believing 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 organizations who are doing good in the world, too bad. they will be burned in hell and that goes against a lot of the teachings of Jesus okay so he did convert but he's not spreading the gospel of Jesus all right all right um the other question then is why is he focusing on organization okay why is he focused 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 to resolve internal political disputes within the church that's what he cares about that's very odd okay and then the last question then is why does why does he get in trouble with the Jews and why the Romans save him okay so these are questions now let's first go over the Christian explanation and the Christian explanation is Paul was part of the divine plan okay so Jesus brought truth into the world right the truth of Jesus that's what Jesus teaches but it was Paul who created the structure in the organization that

allowed Christian to spread okay so An analogy or a comparison is a sort of McDonald's. McDonald's. You guys don't know McDonald's, right? Well, guess what? In 1950s, McDonald's was one restaurant in California. It had amazing hamburgers. And it really had the best hamburgers.

And a man named Ray Kroc visited this restaurant and it was being run by the McDonald Brothers. McDonald's, that's why it's called McDonald's, okay? When Ray Crock says to the brothers, you know why, you guys have an amazing restaurant, let me scale it out, let me convince others to open McDonald's around America and the world. This is called the franchise model, okay? The franchise model, the franchise model. And so the brother said, yeah, sure, and what Rick Hock 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 Crock said to everyone, if you open McDonald's, you will get rich and you will live the American dream. Paul said to everyone, if you believe in Jesus, you will achieve salvation. And because Ray Crock was such an amazing salesperson,

McDonald's eventually became the largest restaurant empire in the world, right? Same thing with Paul. Because Paul was just a convincing salesman, Christianity became a businessman. the most dominant religion in the world. So this is all part of God's plan. It's very similar to the story of McDonald's.

Here's a 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.

So, even though this is the Christian believe that both are part of the divine plan, and Paul was doing, Paul was basically Jesus' business manager, okay? Problemly 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. Okay? He saw a business opportunity. Everyone loved Jesus. Jesus had gotten viral, right? He had gotten viral. And he was a mean 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 all around the Roman Empire to spread the message. He was fanatical about it, okay? And opportunists 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 Roman citizens, He's probably wealthy himself. He doesn't really need this money. Also, what's important first to understand is, Paul comes from a very well-educated background. He's very wealthy.

He speaks Greek. He writes Greek beautifully. He's classily educated. He doesn't want to deal with James the Just, who is not well-educated. He doesn't want to deal with these people. So why is he dealing with these people? all right so I don't really buy this explanation another explanation is sequel

conspiracy the idea here is Paul and maybe many who supported him hated the Roman Empire and they believe Christianity would be a weapon that would eventually destroy the Roman Empire which is what happened historically that's three 300, 40 years in the future. How did Paul know that? And also, what does Paul have against the Roman Empire, really? Right? 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. So take this with a grain of salt. But I believe he was a spy for the Roman Empire. All right. Okay.

There's a spy. Okay, so let 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 goal is false and so they refused the authority of the empire this has led to many wars okay from 167 to 160 BCE there's something called the Maccabian revolt against the Seleucid Empire that last seven years killed a lot of people okay and then there'll be the Romans and the Jews will fight three major wars. From 66 to 73 C.E., 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, right? No, no, no. It makes them even more angry so that two more wars are fought, from 115 to 117, And then the third world 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. Remember, 216, BC. Hannibal invades Italy. And he destroys all the Roman archers. armies against him in the battle of Kenai he has killed at least 20% of the Roman adult male population and a third of the Senate and at this point the Romans should have

surrendered and talk peace right but the Romans are fanatical they refuse to surrender and eventually they're able to destroy Carthage okay so now the Romans see the Jews, who again, 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 awls the Romans. They understand, the Romans above all understand how powerful fanatism is. Finanism is the ultimate weapon. It cannot be defeated. And because there's a diaspora, a Jewish diaspora, you can be able to be able to be able to

never be rooted out okay you're gonna destroy Jerusalem which is what they did but they're 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 okay so you have to somehow destroy this fanatism if you are to win this war against the Jews and there are three central beliefs underlying this Jewish fanaticism. The first is the idea of purity. Why is it that if the Jews are God chosen people,

they're always being pushed around by these larger empires, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans? And the answer is because we Jews have not been pure enough. enough we have not been loyal enough to Yahweh so it is only through purity that will allow us to eventually triumph over our enemies okay otherwise we will continue to be bullied by others second is the idea of persecution complex the persecution the entire world is against us because we are God chosen people and

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. Second belief. And then there's a third belief, which is the coming of the Messiah. Don't worry about today, okay? This pain, this suffering, this persecution, it's all part of the divine plan.

It's testing us. It is making us strong. 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 king of heaven on earth. Okay? And so these are the three major beliefs that underpin Jewish fanasm, and it makes the Jews almost invincible, because it makes them fearless. They're not afraid to die.

Dying is part of the divine plant. Suffering is all part of the process of achieving the kingdom of earth. It's the responsibility to die for their faith. Okay? All right. So now that we understand this Jewish fanasm, 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 have to enforce circumcision. because we want more non-Jews into our religion. Why circumcision such a big deal? Well, because circumcision is basically what separates the Jews into a different group of people in any community. Why?

Because in most of these, there's a place called Janasium. Genesium is really the heart and center of life in the community. It's where men go to, sports and athletics like wrestle and run okay the thing about the gym is everyone goes in naked right and why this is a problem because if you're Jewish people know right away you're Jewish therefore it's hard for you to go into gym because you'll be 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 circumstances is so important once you say to the Jewish people you don't need to be circumcised you just have that 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 pilot 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 now last thing is they come in the Messiah right Jews believe the Messiah is going to come and lead them into final victory against all their enemies, especially the women empire. But what Paul is saying is this, that my Isaiah has already come. He's Jesus. And Jesus taught a message of eternal salvation, internal salvation,

to recognize the evil within you and to become a better person. So if you want to be safe, you must believe that we are born evil, and Jesus has come to cleanse us of our evil. was a prophet of peace he had nothing against the woman empire he was fighting against evil in the world okay so if these three things are true then fanatism will be destroyed now obviously if you're fanatic you don't believe any of this crap okay but Paul's message was not for fanatical Jews they were still minority his message were for diaspora Jews like him who

who were stuck between the Roman Empire and the Jewish faith. 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 this will free you to believe whatever you want.

Okay? So this is Paul's mission. Now, then the question then is, why is Paul doing this? Why would Paul do this? And I think the answer is this. I don't want to say Paul is opportunist or he's evil. I believe he was also a believer in his mission. His mission was what? To save his people.

If you want to continue to live with 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've played by the rules of the Roman Empire, like he did. So in many ways, what's odd about Paul is

he teaches us that Jesus is the Messiah, But in his heart, and he 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. But there will be a lot of consequences because Paul is doing this. He radically changes the meaning of faith. faith and religion all right because again the story of Jesus doesn't really make any sense and his story doesn't make any sense either okay he's lying he's lying about who he is so he creates a new concept he radically changes the concept of faith okay before faith is what you experience now faith is something that

you must believe right He introduces the idea of miracles now. If somebody can be explained, it's because it's a miracle. And this is a new idea that really didn't exist before. And the use of miracles is to explain the contradictions or the inconsistencies in the story of the Bible. So that's one major revolution of Paul's teachings. Another is the idea of tradition. Tradition is more important in 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 okay so there are lots of major changes to the idea of religion because of Paul's work all right so that is my central argument about Paul or are there any questions about any of this yes okay you have a question about about Islam can we can we save Islam for later on yeah so but I'll answer it when Islam okay that'll be like next week okay okay that's a great question like who wrote

the acts of the apostles all right so um we don't know who wrote the acts of apostles okay but this this is what we do know whoever wrote the acts of apostles was written by the guy who wrote Luke okay the gospel of Luke which is one of the four main gospels of the Bible why because the Acts of Apostles is the continuation of the story of Jesus found in Luke. So if I wrote Luke

is also a person who wrote Acts of Apostles. That's the first thing we know. The second thing that we know is the Luke Gospel was written maybe between 80 and 90 C.E. Okay? So this is about 50 to 60 years after the death of Jesus.

Okay? And Paul might still be alive at this time. What we also know is this actual 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 I believe at this point in history, because of the way that Paul behaves, it's an open secret.

And he's working very closely with the Roman Empire. He's either a collaborator or he's a spy. And that's why they have to write the acts of 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 we're showing you is that through a close reading, you can see how problematic, problematic it is. So does that answer your question?

All right. Any more questions? Okay. All right, great. So let's talk about next class, okay? Next class, we will talk about modifications. because monotheism, because this is a revolution in human history and human thought. So there are many scholars who believe that monotheism means believe in one God.

What I will show you next class is monotheism is a radical reconception of reality. And that's why I will teach you next class. I will teach you next class.