Aaron Abke: Should We Follow Only Jesus' Teachings?

Aaron Abke critically examines the role of the Apostle Paul in shaping modern Christianity, arguing that Paul's teachings often diverge from the original message of Jesus. He questions why Christianity has placed so much emphasis on Paul's writings, which he describes as often self-focused and contradictory to Jesus' message of repentance, love, and action. Abke suggests that believers should prioritize Jesus' teachings alone for spiritual guidance, challenging the notion that Paul's interpretations are necessary for salvation.

This discussion raises important questions about the authenticity and direction of Christian doctrine.

Transcript

I don't believe Paul was all bad. I don't believe he was a plant. I don't believe he was an intentional deceiver. Not at all. I think Paul has a lot of good qualities. Paul meant well. Paul wrote a lot of good things. I wouldn't say he wrote a lot of good things. He wrote some good things. Most of his writings to me are more or less just like confusing word salad and really intense self-monologuing. He talks about himself nonstop in his writings, And that's one of the ways that scholars know which epistles Paul didn't actually write himself, But his later disciples wrote in his name, Is that his use of personal pronouns is exponentially lower. They say he wrote about seven of the 13 epistles in his name. I, Paul, Writing to you, Only seven of those are actually written by Paul. One of the easy ways to find out is to just count how many personal pronouns. In seven of those, There's Galatians, Ephesians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Philippians, Et cetera. His use of personal pronouns is nuts. It's like 18 or 19 personal pronouns per 1, 000 words. When you compare that to the book of Hebrews, For example, It's like three personal pronouns per 1, 000 words. It's like a 1, 500% increase in personal pronouns. He actually uses more personal pronouns in the first chapter of Romans than the entire book of Hebrews combined. There you go. That's one way to know, Oh, This wasn't written by the same guy. The other way to know is that when you're getting to Paul's organic writings, He's very flamboyant. He doesn't hold back his fantastical Gnostic secret visions and secret mysteries. He's word vomiting these at you. He is not holding back on what he believes on these things. End time rapture, Jesus will come on the clouds, A trumpet sound will caught up in the air. Then when you get to the other epistles that were written in his name, When you study the scholarship of it, It's very clear that his later followers are trying to really neuter him and domesticate him on these embarrassing topics that were completely failed prophecies. Paul was very clear that he believed this whole fantastical event, Which he called the arrival, By the way, Was his name for it. The arrival of Jesus. He said it definitely was going to happen in his lifetime. He was very adamant that this could be any second now. If you're a slave, Don't even worry about trying to get free because it doesn't matter because Jesus is coming back. He said, Don't get a new job. If you need a job, Just stay jobless because Jesus is coming back any second. He's telling people in his writings in very real world scenarios, Don't get married, Don't get a job, Don't stop being a slave because none of it matters. Jesus is coming back any second now and the trumpet will sound, We'll be caught up in the air, We'll be transformed into spiritual bodies. He gets into this really dramatic kind of vision of this rapture event that never happened. His later disciples are like, How do we just casually get rid of this from Paul's writings? They write in Paul's voice and they repeat his ideas and his teachings, But they leave out all his rapture stuff, All his crazy loony end time stuff. Some of his other teachings even about the ontological nature of Jesus was a little bit bizarre for them. Paul would brag about his suffering a lot and say, I have filled up in my body the suffering that was lacking in the suffering of Christ. And you read it and you're like, Whoa, Are you saying that Jesus' suffering was incomplete and that you fulfilled it? Like you're like a second Christ, Like Christ 2. 0, Really weird stuff. So his disciples were like, We got to tone this guy down a little bit because people be thinking he crazy. And there's a lot of writings of people criticizing Paul from the historical context, Looking back in time, Being like, This stuff doesn't make sense. So it wasn't like it was easy for them to make Paul's gospel into a religion, But really they just had to pluck the main tenants of it, Right? Which is salvation by confession and mental belief. You got to confess Jesus and say that you believe he was resurrected. And it's like kind of funny to consider the idea that Jesus would care more that we believed he was resurrected than follow his teachings. And also like he told people not a few times, Do not call me your Lord and not do what I say. I don't know who you are, He said, But Lord, Lord, We cast out demons in your name, But Lord, Lord, We healed the sick in your name. And he says, Not everybody who calls me Lord enters the kingdom. And he said, When I was hungry, You didn't feed me. When I was thirsty, You didn't give me a drink. So get away from me. Check this out. You who practice wickedness, He says, For when I was hungry, You didn't feed me. And then he says, Away from me, Go to where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, Which means suffering, Right? So Jesus says, It is wickedness to confess me and not follow my commandments. And he, I mean, That's as clear as it gets, Right? Don't call me Lord and not do what I say. And Christianity is basically the religion of calling Jesus Lord and not doing what he says. I mean, That is not an exaggeration to say that. And it doesn't make me happy to say it. I'm not, I'm not cynical or in condemnation of Christianity at all. I love Christianity. I love the Christian faith. Like if you only knew how much I love Christianity and Christians, I think Christians are amazing people with wonderful hearts for God, But it's the doctrines I'm criticizing. It's the, It's the way we've gone astray from the teachings of the master. And I think Amrit, I've noticed this kind of funny position that I inadvertently put Christians into when I have these conversations or debates with them. Since I've been posting this stuff, I get a lot of criticism from, You know, Angry Christians who are very much like big Paul fans, And they don't like that. I'm pointing out Paul's flaws and stuff. And, Uh, I've noticed that I kind of put Christians in an interesting spot because my only message, I just have one message. Jesus's words alone are sufficient for salvation. We don't need anybody else's words. We don't need other hands in the pot of Jesus's gospel. We don't need to read Jesus through the lens of Paul or anybody else. Jesus's words only are good enough and should be the only words we've actually follow. If we believe, And I certainly believe this, But everybody has to decide for themselves if they believe this, That Jesus really did demonstrate the true way to God and embodied it and taught it well. And his teachings do lead you to eternal life, The kingdom of heaven, Knowing God within yourself. If you believe that, Then you should say, Okay, Then I'm a follower of Jesus. And if I even think that somebody else's teachings might oppose Jesus's, I throw them out right away. That's how dedicated I am to Jesus. And it's like really hard to call that heresy. You know what I mean? And so like they call, They will call me heretical and I'll just be like, Hey, Just to confirm, I just want to know what you mean by that. You think it's heresy that I say we should follow only Jesus's words and not Paul's. And sometimes they'll say yes, Because Paul, He revealed Jesus. Almost, You know, He's basically on the same level, But a lot of times they'll say, Well, No, I mean, I don't think that's heresy, But it's what you say about Paul being a false apostle is heresy. Like, Wait, But aren't you a follower of Jesus? Not Paul. Why does it matter what anybody calls Paul? You're not a follower of Paul. And it's like, Oh, I'd never thought about it that way. So it gets the gears turning when you point this out of like, Why do we think we need other teachings other than Jesus's? Do we really believe Jesus taught an incomplete gospel? And then when you get into the topic of Jesus's 12 disciples who absolutely saw Paul as a false prophet and teacher and opposed him, Then you have to ask the question, Who do I think got Jesus's gospel more correct? Because it has to be one of the two. It can't be both, Right? They disagreed with each other. They both repudiated one another. Paul, As we can show, We can read them in a second, Bro. Paul literally calls the disciples of Jesus deceitful workers, False apostles, Messengers of Satan, Hypocrites, On and on and on. He did not like Jesus's disciples, And he didn't think they were legit. He fully believed that they missed Jesus. They couldn't hang with Jesus's real message or whatever. But thankfully now Jesus appears to me in secret visions, And he tells me his real gospel. So you've got to decide, Every Christian has to decide, Who feels more reliable as a source for the true teachings of Jesus? And it's like, Would it not have been his blood brothers and his hand-selected disciples who walked and talked with him and were the first recipients of his message and heard him preach in person and suffered with him and bled with him and died for him, And they didn't get his message correct? But a man named Paul, Who is a Pharisee Jew who never met Jesus, Did get it correct. It's like, For me, Dude, That's a hard sell. 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