When Donald Trump boasts of his billions while claiming to be a good Christian, he's not thinking of Jesus. Jesus damned the rich: "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven." Jesus told the rich man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. Trump and his evangelical followers confuse Jesus with Paul, who invented the gospel of prosperity, telling his flock that if they gave to his collection, God would enrich them both financially and spiritually. Paul's resurrected Christ often contradicted the teachings of Jesus. Like Trump and his followers, Christianity has opted for Paul's teachings, and he is revered almost as much as his resurrected Christ.
New Testament scholars are people of faith--blind faith. We include a case study of one of the world's most famous scholars, who touts his lofty principles. Yet on Paul's behalf, he repeatedly sacrifices both his principles and his reason. For example, he asserts that Paul was always an observant Jew. But Paul ate pork from swine sacrificed to pagan gods, and called the Bible a "curse" that was "worth dung." Paul violated the most fundamental tenets of Judaism, not to mention the Apostolic Decree. Yet this scholar is far less faith-based than his colleagues.
When facts conflict with faith, professional Christians either convert them or consign them to purgatory. For example, Paul repeatedly complained of his poverty. But when he reached Rome, he purchased housing that only the elite could afford. This fact is beyond dispute, so it is suppressed. Paul said he slaved night and day to support himself. But artisans like Paul earned a subsistence wage, and could not possibly have earned enough to pay for Paul's costly mission. This basic fact of economic life is almost always suppressed. Some well-known scholars, like Bruce Chilton, even assert that tent-makers like Paul got rich from their labors. Furthermore, while Paul told his church in Thessalonica that he slaved to make ends meet, he thanked his church in Philippi for repeatedly sending him money in Thessalonica. Somehow, these scholars manage to ignore this incriminating evidence. Similarly, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul claimed to support himself. But in his second letter to the Corinthians, he was forced to admit he "stole" money from his church in Philippi. Again, these scholars ignore it. They even assert Paul would never dissemble, and that his claims must always be accepted.
In the ancient world, writing letters was very expensive, and even businessmen earning far more than Paul could not afford it. That's probably why Luke never mentioned Paul's letters, and why, for almost two thousand years, scholars avoided the subject. But over a decade ago, E. Randolph Richards devoted a chapter of his book to the cost of Paul's letters. Faced with a series of unpleasant facts, he falsified them, and fraudulently eliminated over 90% of Paul's costs. For example, he transformed secretarial wages from 35 denarii per 100 lines of text, to 25 denarii per 10,000 lines. His colleagues remained silent, and his evangelical publisher refused to issue corrections, much less pull the fraudulent work.
There are many damaging facts, fully documented, and readily confirmed--no divine revelations required. They paint an entirely different portrait of Paul than the photoshopped versions you've seen. Jesus said the truth shall set you free. Professional Christians can't handle the truth. Get the facts.
