Leo Volont
Registered Senior Member
Mechanism of Salvation
Few Christians bother to reflect upon the fact that they believe in a Mechanism for Salvation that was never taught by Jesus and is only vouched for by Paul, who was not an Apostle. Indeed, we have in Revelation 2:22 the mention that Paul was run out of Asia Minor for teaching this False Doctrine, and we have in Paul’s own letter to Timothy the admission that he was run out of Asia Minor. Then we have in Galatians and Corinthians Paul frankly teaching his congregations to treat the Real Apostles as their enemies. We need to ask ourselves whether we should take our Christian Doctrines from those who were handpicked by Christ Himself, or from Paul the Murderer who opposed them, and for whose ‘calling’ we have nobody’s word but his own.
Paul’s doctrines lay out a Mechanism for Salvation that goes like this: The Murder of Christ was tantamount to a sacrifice that would eternally nullify every sin of anyone who would assent with Belief in the power of that Sacrifice. We are to believe that if we say that Christ being Murdered was a Good Thing, we are thus Saved. Paul, as a member of the Committee that voted to execute Jesus, of course, was anxious that such an abominable act could somehow be rationalized and justified. To stave off feelings of his own abysmal guilt, he turned a Murder into a Sacrifice. But Paul did more than just that to assuage his guilt. Because the Sacrifice was all sufficient, the Law could then be dispensed with. There would be no Moral Criteria to hold anybody to. Just so nobody would continue to believe Righteousness important, Paul would insist that all Men were inherently and naturally sinful, and that Christians of his Congregations were encouraged rather to receive Forgiveness than to strive for Righteousness.
There can be little wonder that the True Apostles were shocked and appalled at such a Doctrine of Condoned Sin, and aggressively went against Paul, ejecting him from Greek Asia Minor and eventually engineering his arrest and execution.
But if we are not Saved by the Murder of Christ, then are we Saved at all, and how? For this we need to go back to the Teachings of Christ. In all of His major Teaching Sermons we find that we will be judged against a Moral Criteria. We hear of the Wide Way of Destruction, which we can easily assign to Paul, and we hear of the Narrow Way of Moral and Spiritual Pursuit. We are urged to Perfection and an Imitation of Christ. At no time did Christ say that such Teachings would be cancelled out because of his Murder. On the contrary, we have several Parables that speak of the Son of the King being murdered, and it being seen not as a Sacrifice but as a Crime.
As a Catholic I have often wondered about the significance of the Crucifix, which comes to us from the Blessed Virgin Mary who was first to turn it into a Religious Icon. Paulists would insist that the Crucifix is symbolic of the Sacrifice which Saves us. However, looking at the History of the last 2000 years, it would be difficult to conclude that God was significantly appeased because the Jews and the Romans Murdered the Messiah. First Jerusalem was destroyed and then the Roman Empire collapsed not so long afterward. So I would think that the Crucifix has been intended to keep the Crime ever before our eyes so that we may be able to form some conception of the extreme penance that would be demanded of us. God did not send a Messiah to be tortured and butchered, but that is what happened. It was a Crime at least as evocative of God’s Curse as Adam taking the Forbidden Fruit. Humanity has had to live down that horrible Crime against God, and History shows that the toll has been terrible.
But I anticipate that Penance need not last forever, and that Christ will come again when finally enough suffering has been endured. Then The Second Coming will give us a Second Chance, and then it is to be hoped we will honor Christ and let him Rule in Glory and lead the World into a Moral and Spiritual reanimation that will truly turn the World into The Kingdom of God. I certainly hope that when the Time Comes nobody will take it into their head to Murder Him again so that we can be Twice as Saved.
Few Christians bother to reflect upon the fact that they believe in a Mechanism for Salvation that was never taught by Jesus and is only vouched for by Paul, who was not an Apostle. Indeed, we have in Revelation 2:22 the mention that Paul was run out of Asia Minor for teaching this False Doctrine, and we have in Paul’s own letter to Timothy the admission that he was run out of Asia Minor. Then we have in Galatians and Corinthians Paul frankly teaching his congregations to treat the Real Apostles as their enemies. We need to ask ourselves whether we should take our Christian Doctrines from those who were handpicked by Christ Himself, or from Paul the Murderer who opposed them, and for whose ‘calling’ we have nobody’s word but his own.
Paul’s doctrines lay out a Mechanism for Salvation that goes like this: The Murder of Christ was tantamount to a sacrifice that would eternally nullify every sin of anyone who would assent with Belief in the power of that Sacrifice. We are to believe that if we say that Christ being Murdered was a Good Thing, we are thus Saved. Paul, as a member of the Committee that voted to execute Jesus, of course, was anxious that such an abominable act could somehow be rationalized and justified. To stave off feelings of his own abysmal guilt, he turned a Murder into a Sacrifice. But Paul did more than just that to assuage his guilt. Because the Sacrifice was all sufficient, the Law could then be dispensed with. There would be no Moral Criteria to hold anybody to. Just so nobody would continue to believe Righteousness important, Paul would insist that all Men were inherently and naturally sinful, and that Christians of his Congregations were encouraged rather to receive Forgiveness than to strive for Righteousness.
There can be little wonder that the True Apostles were shocked and appalled at such a Doctrine of Condoned Sin, and aggressively went against Paul, ejecting him from Greek Asia Minor and eventually engineering his arrest and execution.
But if we are not Saved by the Murder of Christ, then are we Saved at all, and how? For this we need to go back to the Teachings of Christ. In all of His major Teaching Sermons we find that we will be judged against a Moral Criteria. We hear of the Wide Way of Destruction, which we can easily assign to Paul, and we hear of the Narrow Way of Moral and Spiritual Pursuit. We are urged to Perfection and an Imitation of Christ. At no time did Christ say that such Teachings would be cancelled out because of his Murder. On the contrary, we have several Parables that speak of the Son of the King being murdered, and it being seen not as a Sacrifice but as a Crime.
As a Catholic I have often wondered about the significance of the Crucifix, which comes to us from the Blessed Virgin Mary who was first to turn it into a Religious Icon. Paulists would insist that the Crucifix is symbolic of the Sacrifice which Saves us. However, looking at the History of the last 2000 years, it would be difficult to conclude that God was significantly appeased because the Jews and the Romans Murdered the Messiah. First Jerusalem was destroyed and then the Roman Empire collapsed not so long afterward. So I would think that the Crucifix has been intended to keep the Crime ever before our eyes so that we may be able to form some conception of the extreme penance that would be demanded of us. God did not send a Messiah to be tortured and butchered, but that is what happened. It was a Crime at least as evocative of God’s Curse as Adam taking the Forbidden Fruit. Humanity has had to live down that horrible Crime against God, and History shows that the toll has been terrible.
But I anticipate that Penance need not last forever, and that Christ will come again when finally enough suffering has been endured. Then The Second Coming will give us a Second Chance, and then it is to be hoped we will honor Christ and let him Rule in Glory and lead the World into a Moral and Spiritual reanimation that will truly turn the World into The Kingdom of God. I certainly hope that when the Time Comes nobody will take it into their head to Murder Him again so that we can be Twice as Saved.
