Did Jesus or Paul found Christianity?

Some critics of Christianity, notably Muslims, say that our religion should be called "Paulism" because of the changes that Saint Paul brought about in the original teachings of Jesus. Is the charge valid? What do you think about the contributions of Paul?

 

Christ Jesus of course. While Paul was instrumental in the spreading of the Gospels, to say he had more impact than Christ himself is absurd. I think if he would've swayed away from the original teachings of our Lord we would've seen an early rift of epic proportions.

 

If you want to look at it from a historical standpoint, Jesus started the movement, which formed into a "christ cult" during the first century after his death and Paul helped spread and refine the christ cult into somethign more regognizable as the "Centrist" church of the 4th Century.

From a theological standpoint, the Christ founded the new religion and used Paul to spread it.

 

What if jesus is Paul or the names are swapped,
cant tell, can you?
That's the problem with the bible, you dont know who wrote what and who is who anyway.

 

You can very well tell who was who in the Bible. Paul and Jesus were VERY different people.

 

This is quite irrelevant anyways. We may not know the exact person who wrote the pseudo-Pauline epistles, or the gospels, but we do know the community and the time when they were writing (or at least we can make assumptions due to evidence found within the text). And with the clues found within the text we can see to what occasions the letters were written and try to apply that to our lives.

PS- If you read names, figureing out who is who is just about as easy as following along in a Dr Suess story.

 

How is that irrelevant to the entire faith?
You dont care who the son of god actually was? Interesting.

Peace.

 

Did Jesus or Paul found Christianity?

Paul. Jesus was Jewish.



Peace, Love, Christ's Light, ya'll

 

My "irrelevant" comment was directed at the statement you posted that implied that it is of utmost importance to know who wrote specific texts, but i say it is irrelevant because the message still exists...

 

Exactly.
The messages, not the facts.

 

there are no hidden messages in the Bible.. it's not here to trick you. it's all there in black and white. why do people try to change it with their interpretations to make it cater to their own beliefs?

 

Black and white?

1 Timothy 1:8
"But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully." (NAS)

This translation is pretty well literal from the greek.

 

jesus being so bright , i wonder he didn't write .
or maybe he's like me and just doodled in random
notebooks alot of anythingness unto obscure occasions ..
and too ,strange
equations .
all my books worthy of lostness .

 

What's Revelations about then?

 

there, that is better...

sorry for my editing

 

Wow. I can't believe I did that. I'm usually more aware than that.

 

Paul founded Christianity, based on the teachings of Jesus.

My problem is, that the Bible makes Jesus' teachings as confusing as can be.

The Bible should just be 8 words long instead of wasting all that paper.

"Love all, and pursuit your own personal truths."

Peace and Love, John.

 

If you remove the writings of Paul (aka Saul) from the NT, there aint much left, and the jesus words are few and far between.

PS ~ I'm ex-xtian

 

As am I.

I could not find what I was looking for in Christianity. I've always seen the flaws in the religions, but because I felt the fear of Hell, I controlled myself. Well, I broke free, it's time to see what else is out there.

And boy let me tell you, I feel as if I've been living blind my whole life.

Take a loot at my sig fellas.

Peace and Love, John.

 

Well, there are Acts, James,Jude,the four canonical gospels, Peter, Revelations, etc. That's not chopped liver.