Long after the death of the apostles the Christianity of Paul and the
Messiahism of Peter were Platonized by the Alexandrian eclectics in a
semi-gnostic manner, which gave birth to the fourth gospel, according to
John, and the two epistles of John the Elder, not the apostle, about
A.D. 160, of which the Synoptics have no idea. They had only the
Christianity of Paul and of Peter before them. An original Peter gospel,
Paul's epistles, and the different traditions of the various
congregations were their sources, which they attempted to blend into one
system. All the gospel writers lived in the second century; were not
acquainted with the particulars of the story; had an imperfect knowledge
of the Jews, their laws and doctrines; wrote in favor of the Romans,
whom they wished to convert, and against the Jews, whom they could not
convert.
The third century inherited four distinct systems of Christianity: that
of Jesus with the pure theocracy, that of Peter with the Messiah and his
second advent, that of Paul with the Son of God and the approaching end
of all flesh, and that of John with the Logos and the self-aggrandizing
demi-god or man-god on earth. The difficulties and dissensions arising
from the attempts at uniting all these contradictory systems in one,
ended with the Council of Nice, in the beginning of the fourth century,
and the establishment of an orthodox creed, the excommunication of the
Jewish Christians, and the establishment of the Church as a state
institution. Then the sword and the pyre established doctrines.
On comparison you will find that Jesus became the Saviour of the
Gentiles by the exertion of Paul; that the means which Peter and Paul
adopted for momentary purposes have been turned into main dogmas; that
the religion which Jesus taught and believed is partly laid aside, and
the rest is unimportant in Christology, but he himself has been adopted
in place of his religion; and that the entire New Testament has no
knowledge of the Trinity and the orthodox creed. On comparison you will
discover that, if any of our modern congregations are Christian, the
apostolic congregation of Jerusalem was heretic. If the pope is a
Christian, Paul was not. If the orthodox creed tells what one must
believe in order to be a Christian, then Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew. If
the religion and the theocracy which Jesus preached are to become the
universal religion, all dogmas must fall, and God alone be all in all.
Man must become his own priest, prince, and prophet. Justice must govern
the nations, love must construe the law, virtue and righteousness must
lead to satisfaction and happiness, and man's consciousness of God,
immortality, morals, and moral responsibility must be his catechism, his
guiding star, his protecting angel in life and death. No dogmas; truth,
in the name of God!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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