HOW WAS CHRISTIANITY HIJACKED?

 Dr Muhammad Solaiman 

 The plots against Jesus 

According to the New Testament, there had been conspiracies to kill Jesus (peace be upon him, PBUH) and abrupt his mission. These attempts started after his birth when Herod, the Jewish king of Judea, who was appointed by the Romans, tried to kill Jesus (PBUH). After starting his ministry, the majority of the Jews did not accept Jesus (PBUH), as their awaited Messiah, and they tried to accuse him of blasphemy of God and to kill him. However, the most profound conspiracy on Jesus’ message was after his ascension to heaven. This post-ascension conspiracy went through three stages.

The first stage was initiated by Paul, the Pharisee Jew who used to persecute, torture and kill Jesus’ followers. Paul claimed his conversion to Christianity, appointed himself an apostle of Jesus (PBUH) and in introducing a new Pauline Christianity. According to Paul, Jesus (PBUH), is the divine son of God who was sent  as an offering for our sins and he freed us from the law.

The second stage, was when the sun worshiper Roman Emperor Constantine was inclined to the distorted Pauline Christianity and propagated it in his empire.

The third stage was when the Church, which betrayed Jesus (PBUH) and agreed to enable Constantine to unify his Empire on the distorted Pauline Christianity.

 Jesus’ Christianity 

Jesus was a prophet of God. Like all prophets, he emphasised that God is One and explicitly clarified that his mission was to fulfil the Law of God (Matthew 5:17). People contemporary to  Jesus (PBUH) recognised him as a servant and prophet of God, supported by miracles. Nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus (PBUH) state that he was God or a divine son of God and nowhere in the Bible did Jesus ask his followers to worship him or to abrogate the Law of God.

 Jesus preached one God

Jesus (PBUH) never implied that he was divine as a part of the Trinity

“The most important one” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one’” (Mark, 12:29).

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John, 17:3).

 Jesus was sent to fulfil the law of God 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (the Old Testament) or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Matthew, 5:17).

“I tell you the truth: until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke or a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew, 5:18).

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity> of “Father <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_the_Father>, Son and the Spirit <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit>”. Instead, he emphasised that God is one.

“And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke, 16:17).

 Jesus never mentioned an original sin 

Jesus never mentioned an original sin of Adam and he was sent to emancipate us from this sin. Instead in the Gospels, he talked about God as the forgiving, and merciful God, who forgives us if we forgive one another.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm, 103:8)

“The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself” (Ezekiel, 18:20).

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew, 6:14).

“Forgive and you will be forgiven” (Luke, 6:37).

 Jesus never peached his divinity 

 How would God have a God? 

According to John (20:17), Jesus (PBUH) said:

“I’m ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).

This raises the question how could Jesus as a son of God and God have a God and why his followers were not considered divine though God is their father?

 Jesus preached the supremacy of God: 

“I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).

“Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone” (Mark 10:18).

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all” (John 10:29).

 Jesus lacked knowledge and authority: 

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).

“For I [Jesus] have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken” (John 12:49).

 Jesus was a prophet: 

Jesus, like all prophets, was sent by God to guide people to His Straight Path. Therefore, he was recognised as a prophet of God by people at his time.

“Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household’” (Matthew 13:57).

“And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee’” (Matthew 21:11).

 Jesus was a servant and a messenger of God: 

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus” (Acts, 3:13).

“I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the One who sent him” (John 13:16).

“Here is my servant (Jesus) whom I have chosen” (Matthew 12:18).

 Jesus did his miracles by the Will of God: 

Jesus did his miracles by the Will of God. In Mark (8:22-26), he was not able to heal a blind man in his first attempt. Would God or a son of God fail to heal a blind man from the first attempt?

“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22).

“But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

 The term ‘Son’ of God is a metaphor: 

The term son of God, in the Bible, is used as a metaphor.Therefore, the Bible is full of sons of God. In the Old Testament, angels, pious people, and the kings of Israel are called “sons of God.” In the New Testament, Adam, Jesus Christ and his followers are “sons of God.”

For instance, in the following verses, Jacob (Isreal) and David are called the sons of God. Nonetheless, nobody ever thought that Jacob or David were divine.

“Thus says the Lord: Israel (Jacob) is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22).

“You (David) are my son; today I have become your father’” (Psalms 2:7).

 Pauline Christianity 

 Paul’s vision 

Paul was a contemporary of Jesus (PBUH), however, he never met him. Instead, he was working in concert with the high priest (Acts 9:2), in torturing and killing Christians.

According to the Book of Acts, on his way to Damascus, to arrest the prominent members of the Jerusalem Church, Paul experienced a vision of Jesus (PBUH) that changed him from a persecutor into a believer. Furthermore, he appointed himself as an apostle of the Gentiles.

 Contradictions in the story of Paul’s vision 

There are three contradictory stories of the conversion of Paul to Christianity as found in the Book of Acts in the New Testament.

“Now as he journeyed, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were travelling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one” (Acts 9:3-6).

“Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. … But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus“ (Acts 22:9-11, NIV).

“At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language…” (Acts 26:13-14).

As noticed, there are three contradictory stories about seeing the light, hearing the voice of Jesus and falling on the ground. This raises questions:

1) Did only Paul saw the light (9:3-6) or Paul and the travelers (22:9-11; 26:13-14) and if so, why did the light blind only Paul?

2) Who heard the voice of Jesus? Was it only Paul (22:9-11) or Paul and the travellers (9:3-6; 26:13-14)?

3) Who fell on the ground? Was it only Paul (9:3-6) or Paul and the travellers (26:13-14)?

 What did Paul preach? 

As mentioned above, like all prophets, Jesus (PBUH) preached the oneness of God and emphasised on the obedience of the law of God. However, on the contrary, Paul preached Jesus’ divinity, original sin and he abrogated the law of God.

 1) Jesus’ divinity as God and the Son of God: 

“Who (Jesus), although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6).

“Who (Jesus) was declared <https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom.1.3-4>s the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3-4).

 2) Salvation through faith in Jesus and not works of God’s Law: 

“For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans, 6:14).

“Because through Jesus Christ the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans, 8:2).

“Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God” (Hebrews, 6:1).

 3) Original sin: 

Paul propagated the concept of the original sin and the atonement of sins through the suffering and death of Jesus (PBUH). Original Sin means that God condemns us for a sin we never committed, and He expiated it by sacrificing Himself for the sin He originally condemned us with.

“For as by one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s (Jesus’) obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans, 5:19).

It is no where in the Gospels that Jesus (PBUH) mentioned anything bout his divinity, an original sin or the abrogation of the law of God.

Isn’t it obvious that Paul preached a different religion, contradictory to the teachings of Jesus Christ and all previous prophets (PBUT)?

 The role of Constantine 

 Constantine’s Conversion to Christianity 

The Roman Emperor, Constantine, was a sun worshiper. In AD 311 Constantine with 40,000 soldiers rode toward Rome to confront Maxentius. Constantine claimed to have had a vision of a bright cross with the words ‘by this sign conquer.’  When he awoke next morning, he ordered his soldiers to mark their shields with the cross. After his victory, Constantine claimed his conversion to Christianity in AD 312.

Constantine’s conversion is implausible

After his claimed conversion to Christianity and according to the custom of Rome, Constantine became the Head of the Church, i.e. “the Pontiff Maximus”, which is now the title of the Pope of the Vatican.

Constantine has been considered a great saint by both Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics. However, you might be shocked to know the following facts about Constantine:

1. He was baptised on his deathbed in AD 337 (i.e. 25 years after his conversion).
2. After his conversion, he did not make Christianity the state religion of Rome and pagans continued to celebrate their festivals.
3. He continued to display sun gods like Sol Invictus on coins till AD 224.
4. After his victory instead of depicting Christian symbols on his Arch of victory which was erected in AD 215, he depicted the sun gods Sol, Apollo and Hercules.
5. He substituted the Sabbath (Saturday) with Sunday as the day of worship throughout the Roman Empire. Notice that Sunday was the day dedicated to honouring the sun gods.
6. He substituted the Passover, observed by Jesus (PBUH) (Matthew 26:2; Luke 22:8) with Easter, the pagan festival of fertility named after the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar (5).
7. He killed both his eldest son, Crispus and his wife Fausta without a trial and deleted their names from all official documents across the empire.

 Constantine’s call for the Council of Nicea 

Constantine noticed that there were disputes and little agreement amongst Christians about Jesus’ nature, beliefs, teachings, and scripts. As a smart politician, he realised that these disagreements could threaten the unity of his Empire. Therefore, Constantine called for the Council of Nicaea in 325, and invited bishops from around the Empire to work out an official doctrine that can unify Christians. The Council was attended by more than 250 bishops.

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

“Constantine himself presided, actively guiding the discussions, and personally proposed… the crucial formula expressing the relation of Christ to God in the creed issued by the council… Overawed by the emperor, the bishops, with two exceptions only, signed the creed, many of them much against their inclination” (1971 edition, Vol. 6, ‘Constantine’, p. 386).

To satisfy Constantine, who was inclined to the divinity of Jesus, the bishops endorsed the divinity of Jesus (PBUH) in the Creed of the Council of Nicaea and they overwhelmingly voted for the deity of Jesus (PBUH).

 How did the Church betray Jesus? 

 The Church accepted the story of Paul’s conversion 

The Church accepted the story of the conversion of Paul to Christianity and propagated his distorted Christianity, even though:

1) Paul was an enemy of Jesus, who never met him and tortured his followers.

2) Paul’s vision was inconsistent.

3) The story of Paul’s conversion was told by him and on his authority without any known witnesses.

4) There is no proof that Jesus (PBUH) appointed Paul as his apostle.

5) Paul’s theology was completely different and contradictory to Jesus’ theology. How could Paul then be the apostle of Jesus (PBUH)?

6) Paul avoided the Apostles of Jesus for years. When the apostles knew about Paul and met him, they had conflicts with him.

7) The four Gospels, which were written after Paul’s Epistles, never mention anything about him. How could they miss the most pioneering apostle of Jesus?

 The Church created a legend of Paul 

As demonstrated above, Pauline Christianity is completely contradictory to the teaching of Jesus (PBUH). Pauline Christianity also contradicts the teachings of the Old Testament, which were conveyed by all the prophets of God, like Noah, Abraham, and Moses (PBUT). All the prophets of God preached the law of the one God and they never preached anything about a divine son of God, a Trinity  or the original sin.

However, still, the Church of Constantine accepted Pauline Christianity and ironically considered Paul the best interpreter of Jesus! How, and his teachings mismatch those of Jesus (PBUH).

 The concession of the Church to Constantine 

The Church appeased Constantine by:

1)    Voting for the divinity of Jesus Christ at the Council of Nicea.

2)    Substituting the Sabbath to Sunday, which is the day of the sun god Sol.

3)    Changing the Birthdate of Jesus from autumn to the 25^th of December, which is the date of birth of the popular pagan sun gods of the Roman Empire like Mithras and Sol.

4)    Portraying Jesus (PBUH) like the pagan sun gods. For instance, Jesus (PBUH) was portrayed with sun discs on his head like Sol and Mithras and with a crock like Osiris.

5)    Executing Jesus’ true followers of heresy and destroying their scripts.

6)    Including the Epistles of Paul in the New Testament.

 Compiling a Bible compatible with Pauline Christianity 

The Church included 13 Epistles of Paul and the Book of Acts which was written by Paul’s friend Luke, among the 27 books of the New Testament. The Church also chose the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who were not eyewitnesses of Jesus (PBUH) and who wrote their Gospels after more than forty years after Jesus’ ascension.

However, although, all possible means were used by the Church to confiscate and burn all the other records or gospels of Jesus followers, still, every now and then, gospels hidden in caves in clay pots are discovered. These unearthed gospels are usually different to the four canonical Gospels. Among these Gospels is the Gospel of Barnabas, which negates the divinity and crucifixion of Jesus (PBUH) and consider Paul as an imposter Apostle.

The theologians of the Church have been careful to always claim that God inspired the writing of the Gospels and superintended and preserved them. However, this is very unlikely because the Gospels are full of contradictions (See some example the following Table). Would God inspire a contradictory Scripture?

After the Nicea Council in AD 325, Emperor Constantine superintended the burning of the records of Arius. Arius denied that Jesus was a deity and he was exiled. Arius based his teachings on Isaiah, 46:9:  “I, the LORD, am Deity alone”.

Two roundels on the East side of the Arch of victory of Emperor Constantine showing sacrifices to the sun-gods Apollo (left) and Hercules (right).

After his conversion to Christianity in 212, Emperor Constantine continued to put the images of the sun god Sol on his coins (left) and he depicted an image of Sol driving a sun chariot on his Arch of victory in Rom (right).

There are staggering differences and contradictions in the Bible. The following are some contradictions in just the occasion of Jesus’ resurrection (PBUH).
Incidence	Mark	Matthew	Luke	John
Who first saw the risen Jesus and where?	Mary Magdalene (16:9). No location	Mary Magdalene and another Mary. At the tomb (28:1-9)	Cleopas and an unnamed man. Near Emmaus (24:13-18)	Mary Magdalene. At the tomb (20:10-14)
Who arrived first to the empty tomb?	Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother and Salome (15:5)	Mary Magdalene and another Mary. (28:1)	Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, Joanna and others (24:10)	Mary Magdalene (20:1)
What did they see?	A young man dressed in a white robe (16:5)	An angel (28:2)	Two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning (24:4)	Two angels in white (20:12)
What was their reaction?	They were astonished and afraid, so they kept quiet (16:8)	They ran away filled with joy (28:8)	They left and told the disciples (24:9)	Mary Magdalene told the disciples the body was stolen (20:1-2)

 

 Jesus according to Islam 

Jesus (PBUH) was He was born to a virgin mother and was supported with miracles. He ws a prophet of God sent to preach One God and to fulfil His law.

“In their (the prophets) footsteps, We sent Jesus son of Mary, fulfilling the Torah that preceded him; and We gave him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and light, and confirming the Torah that preceded him, and guidance and counsel for the righteous” (Qur’an 5:46).

” (Jesus) A messenger to the Children of Israel: ‘I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I make for you out of clay the figure of a bird; then I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by God’s leave. And I heal the blind and the leprous, and I revive the dead, by God’s leave. And I inform you concerning what you eat, and what you store in your homes. In that is a sign for you, if you are believers'” (Qur’an 3: 49).

“O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion, and do not say about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, is the Messenger of God, and His Word that He conveyed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and do not say, “Three.” Refrain—it is better for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him—that He should have a son. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and the earth, and God is a sufficient Protector” (Qur’an 4:171).

 Conclusion 

After Jesus’ ascension, the torturing and killing Jesus’ followers failed to put them off Christianity. Therefore, Paul, who was  Pharisee Jew, used tricks to destroy Christianity from within. He claimed his conversion to Christianity, appointed himself an apostle of Jesus preached a new Pauline Christianity.

The distorted Pauline Christianity, appealed to the pagan Roman Emperor, Constantine, who unified his Empire on it with the help of his Church.

If one asks his heart and uses his rational, he will definitely realise that he has been misled to follow a Pauline Christianity and not  Jesus’ Christianity.

“O mankind, “there has come to you a conclusive proof from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. So those who believe in God and hold fast to Him – He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path” (Qur’an 4: 172-175).