The Pharisees, of whom Saul was a part before his so-called conversion, were still using the sacrificial system as a means for atonement on the high holy days and for other reasons as specified in the Old Testament for the Levitical priesthood at the time Jesus arrived on the scene. The Romans finally destroyed the Second Temple not long after Jesus was crucified. God had had enough. As we live and breathe today, the rabbinical Jews are in the process of genetically engineering red heifers for slaughter. According to them, the ashes of red heifers are the only means of true purification, compounding sin upon sin. This is all well and good, providing that they can ever regain control of the Temple Mount, which is seriously doubtful at this point in time. This is what they call getting ready for the Messiah. They didn't recognize him the first time, so how are they going to recognize him the second time? No amount of red heifers will ever clean the blood from their hands.

I have long questioned Paul's zeal because he was a former member of the Sanhedrin, the high Jewish council which put Jesus on the cross to begin with. Jesus held up the mirror of God to their faces and showed them to be the hypocrites that they were. It was Paul who created the mythology about Jesus' divinity. It was Paul who came up with the concept of Jesus being the propitiation, the Passover Lamb, because of what the Old Testament says in Exodus and Leviticus. Paul himself said that he was a Jew of the Jews, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was Saul of Tarsus, of the tribe of Benjamin, and was a rabbi in his own right. HE WAS A PRODUCT OF THE SAME MENTALITY THAT PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS. This cannot be stressed enough.

I believe that Pauline Christianity is a product of Saul's extreme ignorance, fear for his immortal soul, a horrifying guilty conscience, and hatred of women because of a poor relationship with his mother. I have always suspected that, based on what Paul deemed to be a woman's proper place (aside from being raised as an Orthodox Jew, which means that women are nothing), that he had homosexual tendencies, which is an abomination as decreed by God, because he also spoke out against marriage. I am in good company when I say this. The original twelve also believed that Paul had no idea what he was talking about, and that he had no place among them. I believe that Paul created the mythology of Jesus, that he deified the man because he was trying to atone for all the murders he committed in the name of the Lord, killing children of God who acknowledged the true Messiah of their generation. It's laughable because Orthodox Jewish tradition teaches that the Messiah will not be divine (and they have had their share of pretenders over the years). Saul aka Paul was a very confused lad indeed. Is it any wonder that the other disciples laughed at him? Picture Saul running around like a chicken without a head, trying to make right what he grievously did wrong, grasping at straws, and I think you will understand.

Again, God is not a hypocrite. Some say that Paul's discipleship and influence upon the Church is a result of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness. I beg to differ. In fact, I do differ. I disagree vehemently because when I compare what Saul practiced to what Paul taught, I do not see much of a difference. What I do see is a dead tree, a person who never knew what God's face really looked like along with the rest of his ilk, which bore, and continues to bear, dead fruit.

Jesus said "A house divided cannot stand," when the Pharisees accused him of Satanism when he cast out demons. Jesus, however, did not practice their form of Judaism. Instead, it was vicariously forced upon him by Paul and called Christianity. Paul still did not understand what Jesus and his sect was all about, even after supposedly being blinded and regaining his sight. Paul defiled the whole point of the crucifixion with his blood bath mentality. Jesus was not of the Levitical priesthood, which wrote the Old Testament. Jesus was of the priesthood of Melchizedek, which Paul talked about often enough in the New Testament and declared it to be a mystery, which is was not, and is still not. It is alive and well, and living today for those who want to know what the real face of God looks like through His living, breathing, and very real, Messiahship throughout the world.

Jesus was clear on Pharisaic Judaism, and it has been inflicted upon him anyway. He and John the Baptist both called them "brood of vipers." Paul said that Jesus was better than the law, but read what Jesus himself said: "Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)