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brent13a wrote:
“While Pauline Christianity is FAR from what Jesus originally professed to his disciples, Mormonism is so beyond even Pauline Christianity that it’s indistinguishable from any pagan cult I’ve ever read about.”

FAR, huh? Care to expand on that?

FAR, huh? Care to expand on that?

I don't know where to start.
For one, Jesus never labeled himself a 'christian'.
His disciples never labeled themselves as 'christians'.
The first gathering of followers in Jerusalem after Jesus' execution were not 'christians' and never would have labeled themselves as such.
They were all jews, or proselytes.
Like I stated above, Jesus taught from Torah/Tanakh as did his followers and their immediate descendants. They did not bring a brand 'new testament', Jesus brought a renewed testament, just like the prophet Jeremiah describes.
Christianity & the 'christian church' (while later existing parallel to the assemblies in Jerusalem) was a development wholly separate from the disciples and what they taught from Jesus.
There was no "collaboration" between Jerusalem and Antioch, no melding, and no constant crossing of paths until the 4th & 5th centuries. In the 4th and 5th centuries Rome became the predominant religious power and all the descendant groups from Jerusalem and the original disciples (Nazoreans, Ebionites, Elcasaites, Mattheans, Johannites, etc) were labeled heretics, the evil Judaizers.
It did not matter they had direct lineage and providence back to Jesus and the original disciples.
Greek Gentile christianity has ruled ever since, utilizing Paul's Greek writings to obscure and misdirect Jesus' Words and his original teachings.

Before you label me batsht crazy and a cultist have you ever asked yourself how Jesus and his disciples and their immediate descendants got along teaching without any of Paul's writings? How did they originate the movement without any of Paul's writings? How did they continue the movement if they never had Paul's collected epistles?

It doesn't matter to most people, but it does to me. It matters a lot to me. It matters to me how the originals of the originals followed what Jesus taught and professed. When you stray from that you get crap like Mormonism and Scientology.

FAR, huh? Care to expand on that?

If you really care to see I'm not entirely full of it or are even a bit interested I'd say start looking at some stuff from Geza Vermes and Gerd Ludemann and go from there.