Paul uses more personal pronouns than any other author in the New Testament. He turns everything into a spiritual pissing match. He often writes starting off with an extremely humble statement, then ends up with how thankful he is to be greatest of them all.
Paul makes reading the New Testament a chore. To me, he comes of as a deluded, argumentative, extremely bigoted, judgmental egotist who knew little, if anything, about what Jesus taught. He had little contact with anyone that lived with Jesus, then ended up being contentious with the few he did. At least this is the conclusion I've reached from reading the Bible alone. With the aid of the Urantia Book, I've read that Paul had knowledge of Jesus' teachings, but from existing records, he seems to have written little about them. Remember, in Paul's time the four gospels were not written out as we have them now; they did not exist as part of scripture.
Paul went about spreading his personal conversion experience as if it were absolute truth, and unfortunately, this has become the foundation for most of Christendom. For those of us that want to share the true teachings of Jesus, this makes things difficult. I've gone to various local churches and listened to contemporary sermons and what I find is there seems to be a trend away from Paulism. These are not the sermons I heard preached as a young man. These sermons, to a greater or lesser degree, touch on Jesus' original gospel. Thank God. The church needs Jesus. The real one.
For those of us that have read the Urantia Book and the Bible and desire to share the original gospel, Paul's influence has made things difficult, and at the same time have given us the advantage of an existing institution. A river of truth flows through the Christian churches. How does one utilize the churches, stay true to what we believe, and reach out to people lost in a disturbing world?
I believe there is a way to present the gospel and not conflict with many churches evangelistic outreach, a way to join with them and remain honest to the Jesus we Urantia Book reader's have discovered.
