(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
Paul of Tarsus was known originally as Saul of Tarsus, then as Saint
Paul the Apostle. He is considered by many Christians to be the most
important disciple of Jesus and the most important figure in the
development of Christianity. The Apostle Paul was a Jew from Greece of
that time and he made great efforts in his epistles to the Romans to
show that God is for all the people, and not only for the Jews. God was
a good-hearted divinity and the Greek philosophers had prepared people
for this idea. He told of a theraputic theology, telling of a Kingdom
of God within us all.
Paul is recognized by many
Catholics and all Eastern Orthodox Christians as a saint. Paul did much
to advance Christianity among the gentiles and is considered one of the
primary sources of early Church doctrine. His Epistles form a
fundamental section of the New Testament and it is believed by some in
the Christian community that it was Paul that first made Christianity a
new religion and not a sect of Judaism.
Paul had several major impacts on the nature of the Christian religion.
First was the concept that the death and resurrection of Jesus
superseded the value of the Mosaic law, a belief that is often
expressed as “Jesus died for our sins.” Related to this interpretation
of the resurrection we find next his concepts of faith, which he
explains through his explanation of Abraham. He also addresses
righteousness and the forgiveness for sins, using language that
Augustine of Hippo later elaborated on in his formulation of original
sin.
Paul’s epistles are the earliest extant Christian texts written. In the
New Testament his writings clearly express the doctrine that salvation
is not achieved by conforming to Mosaic law, but through faith in Jesus
Christ. Paul was also one of the first Christians to expound the
doctrine of Christ’s divinity to the public.