Secret History #23: The Organization of Evil

So let's review. Last class we discussed the mission of Jesus. Who is Jesus? Jesus was a messenger from the monad who reminded us that there's a divine spark in us.

And how you activate the divine spark is by focusing on Jesus and repeating his words. Jesus was like Zarathustra, like Plato, like Homer, like the Yahweh, a poet prophet. And so if you just repeated his sayings, if you repeat his poetry, then you could activate that spark within you and you could glow. Okay? And this explains why he became so popular. It also explains to us why the Romans had to kill him. Because at this time in the Roman Empire, the main currency, the main economy, is based on slavery. Most people were slaves.

If they're not slaves they were poor. And here is Jesus who's come to remind you that you don't have to be a slave. You are free to do whatever you want. There's a higher power than the Roman Empire and it is the divine. It is the universe. And so people start to defy their masters and they were no longer afraid of death. And this is why the Romans had to kill Jesus, because Jesus was stealing from them. Right? Slaves are property. If you let slaves run away, if you free slaves, that destroys the wealth of the Romans.

Remember that Jesus, when he was killed, he was killed along with two thieves. He was crucified, and so Jesus was killed because he was a thief. He was stealing from the Romans. Now the question then is, okay, how do we get from Jesus to the Catholic Church? Jesus teaches us that we are free to believe whatever we want. That we just listen to our hearts. We will be in touch with the monad again and we have nothing to fear. The Catholic Church, the church teaches us that you believe in Jesus and that's all you have to do in order to achieve redemption and salvation.

Jesus came to die for our sins. So therefore, we are now slaves to Jesus. These are two opposite ideas. Okay. The reason why is the idea of the divine spark is the greatest threat to the Roman Empire. So the Romans had to somehow imprison the spark and make it an economic commodity. Okay? And so that's why they created the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is a prison in order to control that divine spark, to hide it from you. And the main architect of the Catholic Church, his name is Paul. Okay?

And most people agree that Paul and not Jesus is the real founder of Christianity. So let's discuss Paul. So Paul has a very interesting background. He is a Jew, but he grew up in Greek culture. He was very well educated. He was very wealthy. And so we say he's a Hellenized Jew and is probably working for the Roman Empire as a spy or an agent.

In that time your education was mainly in rhetoric. Okay. The word we use for this is sophistry. So let me explain to you who the sophists were because they're very important. So back in classical Athens there's a major debate between Socrates, a philosopher, as well as the sophist philosophy. So what's interesting is that they both come from the same word, which is sophia, which is Greek for wisdom. The philosophers are people who love knowledge. What they believe is that there's an eternal truth and that we must try to achieve this eternal truth.

Right? Remember Plato's allegory of the cave? How you escape from the cave and into the light. Okay? That's what philosophy is trying to do. Trying to help you liberate yourself into the light. Sophists believe something else. Sophists believe that eternal truth does not exist. Why? Because words are reality. Philosophers believe that words are an illusion. But sophists believe that words are a reality unto themselves. And so what's important is to learn how to use language in order to construct reality. Okay. So sophist gives us the word sophistry, which is basically trickery.

Okay. So in order to defeat the threat of the divine spark, what Paul does is he pulls a trick and it's the greatest trick ever. The trick is this. Jesus says, "Listen to my words and you will find the divine spark in you." What Paul says is, "Believe in Jesus and you'll be saved." Okay. So he changes the focus from the words of Jesus to the person of Jesus himself. All right? And so what Paul's going to do is he's going to construct a new religion called Christianity by synchronizing the three major cultures of that time.

The Roman culture, the Greek culture and the Jewish culture. Okay. So remember the Jewish culture is the Bible and what Paul tells us is that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

At this time in history the Bible is heavily influenced by the Persians, right? Remember the Persians were monotheists. They believed in good and evil, the Asher and the Jews. Okay? And so the Bible began to reflect the Persian belief, especially in the idea of the end of the world. And what Jews believed is they're not afraid of the Romans because eventually the Messiah will return, or sorry, not return, the Messiah will come to lead them to war against the Romans and because the Messiah is anointed by God they will triumph.

Okay. So the Jews are waiting for the Messiah of war in order for them to reclaim the Davidic kingdom. Okay, the kingdom of... What Paul does that's very clever is that he uses this eschatology, but he says that Jesus is not the Messiah of war. He's the Messiah of peace. Okay? And therefore, we Jews should not resist the Romans. Okay. So that's the first major culture that Paul uses. The second major culture that Paul uses is the Greek culture. So the Greeks have something called the mystery schools. And these are just cults.

And it's important you know these mystery schools because they will become the basis of secret societies today. And in these mystery schools, there's lots of different ones, but Paul chooses a mystery school that worships... Okay, Dionysus is the Greek god of creativity, wine. And the story of Dionysus is he is born of a virgin. His father is Zeus. And then Dionysus is killed by the enemies of Zeus and Zeus finds him and resurrects him. Okay, it's important because this becomes the story of Jesus. And how the people worship Dionysus is they have a ritual meal where they actually believe they're eating the body of Dionysus and they're absorbing his energy and they're becoming one with Dionysus.

They're coming into communion with Dionysus and the Christians have the same ritual. Okay. And this is what's called the Eucharist, thanksgiving or communion. Okay. And all Christians practice this today. Okay. So that's the second major culture. The third major culture, which is the most important of course, is the Roman culture.

So the Roman social structure is called the patter... Okay. And how the system works is at the very top there's one patriarch. This is where we get the word patriarchy, right? And then he has lots of children, right? Sons and also has slaves as well. So it's a very top-down system, right? The patriarch is at the very top. In the system, the patriarch is always right. He is God. Here you have slaves. Now what the patriarch will do is he will identify very promising slaves, slaves with talent, and will turn them into clients.

So clients are just business people. So he frees the slaves and they become his clients. So now they're able to conduct business on his behalf and in this way he will create a business empire. Okay. So this is the idea of the Roman Empire. So rather than one system, the Roman Empire is actually a system, a platform where dozens of families control the empire together. And what happens is these families control a particular province. Okay? So it's more like a franchise model rather than a strict hierarchy. This is important because Paul will take the system and from the system he will copy it to create the church.

All right. So the church is exactly the same as a paraphras where at the very top you have a person, a bishop, and then he might have some, but then everyone else is just followers, okay, or disciples. So it mirrors the system. This is important because now what you can do is you can easily switch from the current system to the new system devised by Paul. Now why would the Romans want to do this? Because if you think about it, this is the perfect solution to the problem of Jesus.

As a patriarch, your main concern is getting your slaves to work hard, right? You want to suck the energy out of them. But now with Jesus, slaves are like, "Why should I work for you?" Paul solves this problem by saying, "Oh, follow Jesus and you'll be saved." Okay? So in this way, what happens is Paul's formulation of Jesus causes slaves to work even harder, right? Because the idea is before, you have to work in order to stay alive. Now they work in order to go to heaven for all of eternity, right?

So the deal now is work as a slave for a few decades, but then you can enjoy an eternity of joy and paradise. Pretty good deal, right? And so this causes the slaves to be more obedient and to work harder. Okay. Also, what's more important is now the patriarch switches from a king to a god, right? His private wealth now becomes spiritual authority.

Not only that, but because he has spiritual authority, he can expand more rapidly outwards. Okay? So, before, to get slaves, you have to buy slaves. Now you just have to convert people into your religion. So it's a much faster way to create wealth. And this is important because what you learn next class is this is a system that the Romans will use to take over the barbarians. Okay. So next class you'll learn about the barbarian invasions, basically the Goths, and how because of the system they were now able to assimilate these barbarians into the culture and maintain a social hierarchy.

Okay? And so in other words Jesus was talking to slaves but Paul was talking to patriarchs. And so these patriarchs would convert and when they convert they took the entire system with them. That explains the rapid growth of... Okay. Also what's important is the religion that the patriarchs practice is not the one that the slaves practice. The slaves practice Christianity but they practice the mystery cults. Okay? Why? Because this is the way that they work together and this becomes a basis for secret societies.

So while the ordinary person worships a new religion called Christianity, the patriarchs themselves in secret still practice their Greek mystery cults. This is a system that we still have even... All right. Okay. So this system now is able to spread really quickly because as you can see from the system, those who convert have more advantage than those who do not convert. At this time in history most do not convert but those who convert are able to see more rapid wealth generation. They're able to see more power generation and they're able to expand much faster.

And so this is a secret of Christianity. Okay? And that's my main argument to you. Any questions before I go into the specifics? Is this clear to you guys? All right. Let's do the PowerPoint.

Okay. Today we do the rise of the Catholic Church. Okay. So again, what Paul's going to do is he's going to negate the power of Jesus. He's going to imprison, sorry, he's going to imprison the divine spark in the church. All right. So this is Paul and there's a lot of mythology around Paul, how he's a martyr who went around the world in order to spread Christianity. Okay? We don't know if it's true or not. If you're Catholic, you believe it's true. The other thing about Paul that's really important is that if you read the New Testament, a third is either written by Paul or about Paul.

Okay, there's more about Paul in the New Testament than there is about Jesus. That's why we say that Paul is the true founder of Christianity. Christianity is a religion about Jesus, but not by Jesus. It's by... And what's really important for you to appreciate is what Jesus taught and what Paul taught are very different. In fact, they're opposite. Jesus taught that the divine spark is within you. So if you want to save yourself, if you want to go to the kingdom, you must do so yourself. But Paul says, "No, Jesus came to us in order to redeem us from our sins, the original sin of disobedience to God way back in the Garden of Eden.

If you believe in Jesus, you'll be saved. Doesn't matter what you do, you can do as much good as you want, but if you do not believe in Jesus, you will burn in hell." Okay? That's why you must believe in Jesus. And that's also why we must get everyone to believe in Jesus, because by getting everyone to believe in Jesus, we are literally saving them from eternal damnation. As you can see, this is a really good business model because now you can expand really quickly. Okay. Second thing that Jesus taught is he cannot save you.

You can only save yourself. He can guide you. We can give you some poetry that you can decipher, but you must seek truth yourself. And what Paul taught is don't think for yourself, just do what everyone else does. He believed the most important thing is for the church to be cohesive. Okay? For everyone to obey the word of Jesus, which is really the word of Paul. And the third thing is, and this is really important, Jesus teaches us the rich cannot enter heaven. Why? Because to enter heaven, you must focus on your own spiritual rejuvenation.

But the rich only care about the here and now. They only care about material acquisition and as such they become blind to the spiritual needs and so they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Remember Jesus tells the story of how God has prepared a great feast for us, but the rich won't go because they're too busy making money. Paul teaches us, "No, no, no guys, it's the rich who will lead us to the kingdom." Why? Because the rich can finance the spreading of Christianity. What matters is metrics that help us spread Christianity.

How many souls are we saving by measuring how many people we're converting? Okay, how cohesive is our church? That's all Paul cares about. Paul is a business person. Okay, Jesus is a prophet, but Paul is a business person. And so it is Paul really that is the spiritual god of Christianity, okay? Not Jesus. Another thing that you need to appreciate is at this time in history, maybe the year 40, 50, there are lots of different Christianities because Jesus taught us that the kingdom of heaven is within you, right? So it's all very diverse, it's all very democratic, and what's really important is a lot of the early leaders are women, okay, people like Mary Magdalene. They tend to be wealthy and they tend to be very charismatic. But by the time you hit Paul's Christianity, it's anti-woman.

It's a strict hierarchy and it's orthodoxy. Okay? So, in other words, you may have heard that early Christians were persecuted. Guess what, guys? They're being persecuted by Paul. Okay? Christians are being persecuted by the Romans. They're being persecuted by Paul. And at this time in history, the Catholic Church, okay, Paul and Christianity, it's only a very small minority because for most people the Christianity of Jesus is much more appealing than the Christianity of Paul. Jesus taught freedom, empowerment, liberation. Paul taught obedience, sacrifice. Okay? So Jesus is far more appealing.

But because Paul is being supported by the Roman Empire, he wins. Okay. What Paul will do is not only persecute other Christianities, but he will quickly spread his Christianity with the help of the Roman Empire.

All right. So, as you can see, what's going to happen is in the year 30 when Jesus dies, it's a very small group of people, but it spreads really quickly. Okay. And Paul built the foundations for this great empire that in about the year 300 reaches its peak. Okay. In about the year 300, what will happen is Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire. And this is the beginning of the Catholic Church. But it's Paul that built the foundation for this growth.

Okay. So as you can see Jesus is spreading his poetry, and because his poetry is easy to memorize, his poetry is spreading really quickly throughout the empire. Okay. But what will happen is that once Paul builds the structure of Christianity, the church system based on the pattern system of the Romans, it will spread even quicker and eventually these two Christianities will come into conflict and eventually Paul's system will win out until it conquers the entire Roman Empire. Okay.

All right. So scholars agree that Paul is the founder of Christianity. But there are three mysteries to Paul that scholars can't really answer. Okay. The first question: why would someone like Paul, who is a literate and wealthy Jew, why would he join a movement of illiterate Jewish peasants? Okay. No. The scholars don't really have an answer for this. Second question is we know that Paul was a fanatical Pharisee. Okay, he was hunting Christians but then he converts to become a fanatical follower of Jesus. Why would he do that?

Okay. The third mystery, and this is the most important, is he spends his entire life promoting Christianity around the Roman Empire. Where did he get the money to do this? Because not only did he go, but he also had secretaries who went with him to take notes. Where does the money come from? Okay, so if you just do some basic game theory analysis, he's clearly a spy. Okay, clearly a spy. He's an agent of a power. The question for us though is who is he working for? The easy answer seems to be the Roman Empire.

But in fact, you could also make the argument he's working for the Jewish leaders. Okay, the Jewish priests as well. Okay, so we'll go over this. All right, so what we're going to do is we're going to read the Bible now. Okay. Now, one thing about the Bible that is very confusing is the Bible says that the Jews killed Jesus. And as we discussed last class, the Jews would not kill Jesus for a variety of reasons. Okay. But the main reason is Jews don't kill each other. Well, I'm sorry.

Jews do not turn each other over to the Roman authorities. If you commit blasphemy, if you insult their god, they kill you by stoning you. Okay? They don't have a habit of turning people over to the Roman authorities. So, we know the Romans killed him. And it's most likely the Romans killed him because Jesus was a threat to their social structure. But the Bible says that, nope, it was the Jews who killed Jesus. So Emmer, could you read please?

We don't know why the Jews hate the Christians, but Paul is going around persecuting the Christians as a Pharisee. And then on the way to persecuting more Christians, on the road to Damascus, a light seizes him and it's Jesus telling him, "Paul, why are you persecuting me and my followers?" And then that converts Paul. It makes no sense as a story. Okay, but this is what Christians believe. Okay, can you read, Alan? "Meanwhile, Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues.

Saul got up from the ground and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank."

He doesn't even quote Jesus. Okay? So, that's kind of weird. You know, you're a father of Jesus, but you really don't quote Jesus. And Jesus has a lot of quotations. He really doesn't talk about Jesus that much. And he doesn't really refer to the story that much in his letters. The other thing that I will note is that if you read Jesus, okay, Jesus doesn't really talk about good and evil, doesn't really talk about the Bible, doesn't really talk of himself as a son of God, but Paul will talk about this a lot.

Okay? All right. So again, Paul's amazing because he'll go on three different voyages, missionary journeys around the Roman Empire in order to spread the gospel of Jesus. This is very, very hard work. It's also expensive work, okay? Because you can see how he's going to different cities, he's going to synagogues, and he's preaching. What's important for us to understand is that as Paul is doing this he's winning a lot of converts, but he's come in contact with James the Just. Remember James the Just is the brother of Jesus who inherits the movement.

James the Just is in Jerusalem and Paul is going around and spreading the gospel of Jesus. And so James the Just hears about this and people are saying to him, Paul's saying Jesus is God. Is Jesus God? And James is like, of course, he's not God. He's my brother, man. And so there's all this conflict and eventually what will happen is it forces Paul to confront James the Just in Jerusalem. According to the Bible, the main conflict is one of ideology. Okay? So the Bible says that James the Just and Paul both agree that Jesus is God, the son of God who's come to our planet to redeem us.

But James the Just believes what's important is to maintain the faith within the Jewish tradition. Whereas Paul wants to expand this tradition outside the Jewish tradition to encompass the Greeks as well and the Romans as well. Okay, the Gentiles. And that's where the conflict arises. And so the main point of conflict is one of circumcision, because remember Jews circumcise themselves but the Greeks and Romans do not circumcise themselves. This is important because in this time most of these cities are Greek cities. Greek cities have a place called a gymnasium where men go to play sports, but you play sports naked.

So if you're a Jewish man they know automatically you're Jewish. So circumcision is a huge point of division between the Gentiles and the Jews. And Paul's point is that if you want to convert, you don't have to... And so the Jews are complaining to James, saying, "Hey, Paul is subverting our tradition. He's saying that Greek men can come and follow the religion without being circumcised." Okay? And so there's a lot of conflict between James the Just and Paul. So Paul actually goes to Jerusalem and he confronts James the Just and they come to an agreement with each other.

Okay. So but when Paul goes to Jerusalem people recognize him and so the Amal wants to kill him. Okay. Can you read, Amber? "Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, 'Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.' And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks and ordered him to be examined by flogging to find out the reason for this outcry against him.

But when they had tied him up with thongs, sorry, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?" When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, "What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen." The tribune came to ask Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" And he said, "Yes." The tribune answered, "It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship." Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him.

And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

But Paul, it's the same situation with Paul. But what saves Paul is this. He is a Roman citizen. Okay? So that's what saves him. Rome saves Paul. God can't save Jesus but Rome saves Paul. Okay. So this is propaganda and this propaganda is written of course for Hellenized Jews like Paul who are wavering between loyalty to Rome or loyalty to the Jewish tradition. And what Paul says is the solution is to become a Christian because now you can be both. You can now become like me, loyal to the Jewish tradition but also loyal to Rome.

Okay. All right. Alan, can you read please?

Okay, this is really interesting. Okay, this is a change in the story. Before, Paul said that he wants to return to Rome in order to face judgment from the emperor. And what Paul's saying now is you Jews attacked me and if I wanted to, I could complain to the emperor and bring charges against you Jews. Okay, so he's showing you the story. He's showing how powerful he is. Okay, keep on going. "For this reason, therefore, I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the sake of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."

So he's elevating the status of Jews in Rome. Okay? So it's not as simple as it looks. From this, if you just read it, it seems like Paul is a spy for Rome. But if you think much more deeply about what he's doing, why would he be so blatant and tell people, "Ha, I represent the empire"? Well, maybe because he's being a real... Maybe because he's being a double agent, right? The thing that you have to remember about spies is they have no loyalties. They are double agents or triple agents.

Okay? They're always switching loyalties back and forth. Okay. So now what I want to do is I want to go into the actual thinking and writing of Paul. This is Romans, which is one of his major letters. And in these letters, what he's going to do is he's going to articulate to you this new philosophy of Christianity. Okay? These letters become the basis for the Catholic Church. Okay? So, can you read, Amber, please?

It was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus."

You can follow as many laws as you want. Does not matter. The key is faith in Jesus. All right. Okay. Can you read?

Paul's saying what's important is to obey Jesus. Okay. What's important is obedience, not debate. Keep on going.

If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

Paul's like, "No, no, no. We're going to see who wins out in the end." Okay, keep on going.

For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

And then what Paul says, no, you are a tool of God. Okay. Keep on going.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law, so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air, but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified."

All right. All right. Can you read the highlighted part, Amber?

What, do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you in this matter? Certainly not! I do not commend you.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

Okay? And that's the idea of the Eucharist, to destroy your individuality. All right? And so when Christians do this, they literally believe the bread they're eating is the body of Christ, of Jesus. So Jesus is entering into you and taking you over. Okay? Okay. It's possession by Jesus. Yes.

Okay. So, what else they do is they will have ritual sacrifices where they will tear people apart and consume the flesh. Okay. So, this is from a painting from the Euripides play describing one of these mystery cults. Okay. So, they will actually tear a person's body apart to replicate the death of Dionysus and they consume the body parts. All right. And guess what, guys, the secret societies still do the slay. Okay. So what's important to understand is this actually has a long tradition. So if you go back 15,000 years to Europe, in the Magdalenian age, cannibalism was actually very common.

It was common for religious purposes. So maybe there was someone that you loved and he died. What you would do is you consume his body when he died in order to remember him forever. Okay? So that you would have an eternal communion with him because his soul would go into the spirit world. But if you had his body, right, he would always communicate with you. And that's the idea of commemorating Jesus. In such a way, when you consume Jesus, Jesus is always with you. He is now taking possession over your body.

You are now just a body for Jesus. Okay? Does that make sense? You've lost your individuality. You've lost your freedom. You are now completely possessed by Jesus when you engage in the Eucharist. Okay. Yes.

Does that make sense? Okay. So when the Romans force this religion on everyone, now everyone has to obey this. You understand? If you actually from first principles try to convince people the Catholic church is right, you can't really convince that many people. But guess what, guys, it doesn't matter, because most people are born into the Catholic church so they are born believing this stuff, okay? So they can't really think for themselves. All right. But also remember cannibalism is very common throughout history. So these are the Aztecs, who will engage in cannibalism in order to prepare for war, in order to sacrifice others for the gods.

Okay. Again, this is the Magdalenian culture and we found lots of places where they engage in cannibalism during funerals. Okay? And as you can see, it's very common. It's very common throughout the world at this time. And it makes sense if you think about it, right? If this person is someone you love and he was very special to you and you want him to still help you in life, to guide you in life, and you consume his body, a part of his body, then he'll stay with you forever. Okay? And this is a way to build group cohesion in this time.

Remember, this is the ice age. So it's very hard to... and of course not everyone practices this as well. Okay. The red are those who practice cannibalism during funerals. The blue are just those who bury the body and don't practice cannibalism.

So what you're not taught is among the elite this sort of stuff goes on a lot. So this is 19th century Victorian Britain, and this is, you know, the British Empire. And guess what, guys? What they like to do is they like to steal mummies from Egypt and eat these mummies because they believe that these mummies had some magic qualities. Okay, so this goes back to the 19th century. And you think to yourself, oh, you know what? In the 21st century, we are so much more advanced. We don't do this crap anymore.

Right? Unfortunately, this is Albert Einstein's brain. Albert Einstein before he died said, "Please, please, whatever you do, do not dissect my brain." Okay, I know you think I'm the greatest genius in the world and you want to know how my brain works, but I'm telling you right now, my brain is so different from your brain. Please, whatever you do, do not dissect my brain. So, of course, a doctor steals his brain and cuts it into different pieces. Okay? Now, let me ask you this question. Let's just say this doctor were to take his brain and make a medicine out of it.

Okay? He takes his brain, cuts it up into like 100 different parts. And then he takes this medicine and he sells it to rich people for a million dollars. Could he find 100 rich people who would pay a million dollars to eat his brain? Yes. Okay. So, as I'm telling you, the rich are insane. All right. My wife tells me that when I die, it's possible they might want to dissect my brain as well. So, please don't do so, okay? Because my brain's no different from anyone else's brain. Okay. You won't find the secret of my creativity in my brain.

All right. All right. So, yep. Alan, can you read, please? "Indeed, the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot would say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.

I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part. Then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. And the greatest of these is love.

No argument, no opinion, no individuality, just complete obedience to Jesus. So you can see the power of this, right? He switches these words. He's saying that slavery is now love. Okay? When a human master enslaves you, that's evil. But when Jesus enslaves you, it's good because now it's love. It's because Jesus loves you. That's why he enslaves you. But now, because he loves you, you must obey him completely. And that means never ever question the authority of the church. Never ever do that because that's evil. Okay.

All right. Can you read, Alan? "What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: we will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

All right. So now that we've gone into how he actually thinks, let's go over to his psychology. Okay. So what motivated Paul to do what he did? Because he worked really hard. And so there are three possible explanations. The first explanation is he was a Roman agent and his mission was to destroy Judaism from within. What we'll learn next class is that Judaism is a huge problem for the Romans. And so while the Jews are praying for a messiah of war, Paul says, "No, no, no. Jesus was a messiah of peace." Okay?

So he's trying to subvert the Jews from within. But you could also argue that Paul was actually a Jewish spy who's trying to subvert the Roman Empire by spreading the Jewish faith. Okay, you could also argue that. I would argue it's both. Both are true, right? The real... So I think that what really happened is Paul had a calling to create his own religious empire. Okay? He wanted to become God himself. So there's a famous joke. The joke goes like this. God and Satan are having an argument. God says, "My people, the humans, have found religion.

Therefore, you've lost." And Satan says, "Well, I'll just organize it, okay? I'll create churches out of it." And that's what Paul did. Jesus came to tell us the truth. And Paul says, "I'll use this truth and I'll make an empire out of it." Okay? All right. So, there's an analogy here. His name is Ray Kroc, and he created the Mc-empire, McDonald's. Okay. How did he do it? So he took an idea, McDonald's, and he went around America and he created McDonald's. Okay, so McDonald's is like the church.

If you go to McDonald's anywhere in the world, it's almost the same building, same menu. Okay, so it follows a very similar pattern to Paul's building of the church. Paul was able to succeed because he spread a religion. Ray Kroc succeeded because he also spread a religion as well. All right. So what he did was not convince people to eat hamburgers. He didn't need to do that. What he needed to do was convince small business owners to invest in McDonald's, to buy the franchise of McDonald's, by spreading the idea of the gospel of wealth.

If you invest in me, if you open a McDonald's, you'll become wealthy and that is paradise. Okay. So, basically, Ray Kroc and Paul were doing the same... All right. So, Paul has this business idea. Let's just take Jesus and turn him into an empire. And so, he's going to make different sales pitches to different people. Okay? So, we're going to imagine, okay, and this is just a thought experiment. It didn't really happen. We're going to imagine Paul making a pitch to the Roman patriarchs, right? He's saying, "Why should you invest in me?" Because one, we will cause debate and division within the Jewish diaspora.

Okay? So, some will convert, but some will not. But who cares? Because now they're fighting each other, not fighting us. Okay? That's number one. Number two is we will make their messiah of war into a messiah of peace. Okay? And that will weaken their resolve. And the third is we can now spiritually enslave the people. Okay? And they'll work harder for us. So that's a sales pitch of Paul to the Romans. But there's also a sales pitch he can make to the Jewish leaders as well.

Let us spread our faith to the Gentiles and elevate our status as a chosen people. Okay? Let us make our Torah in Jerusalem divine in the eyes of the world. And guess what? It worked. Right? Even today, everyone thinks that Jerusalem is the holy city in the world. Let us make ourselves a service of the empire and ally with a Roman patriarchy so that we can subvert them from within. All right. And it worked. Now, not all Jews did this, but a lot did follow Paul into Christianity. Christianity is a platform for the Jews and the Romans to work together.

All right. But now Paul is going to make a sales pitch to the Greeks and the Jews. Okay. And this is what he says. A few decades of obedience for turning to join paradise. Right? That's number one. Number two is you don't have to get circumcised. Okay. And the third is Jesus will return any day now. So hurry up before it's too late, guys. 50% off today. All right. DO IT NOW. 50% OFF. All right. That's literally his message.

All right. And that's why he's so successful. 50% off. All right. So, this is Augustine, okay? And this is after the Catholic Church becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire. And what Augustine will do is he will write a book called City of God and he will put the Catholic Church above Rome. Okay? Because Rome is just a temporal earthly city but Jerusalem is the divine city. He's saying that the Catholic Church is now Jerusalem. We don't need the Roman Empire anymore because now we have the Catholic Church. Okay?

The Catholic Church is a community of believers. As long as you believe in Jesus, you'll be saved. So obviously he's going to take Paul's ideas and systemize them to create the Catholic Church. Okay? So Emma, can you read please?

And the will would not have been so darkened and chilled in consequence as to let the woman believe that the serpent had spoken the truth, and the man to put his wife's will above God's commandment and to suppose that he was committing a venial transgression when he refused to desert his life's companion, even though the refusal entailed companionship in sin."

This is a sign of obedience, and obedience can belong only to the humble. So you must obey the church completely. Okay? Because the divine spark in you, it's out of nothingness. It can only lead you to evil. Okay? So the only solution now is to obey the church.

In one city, love of God has been given first place. In the other, love of self.

The Catholic Church grows, the Roman Empire makes it the official religion, because it does three things. Okay? And we discussed this. The first is that now you're better able to exploit your slaves. They're now more hardworking because before, if they were lazy, they might get whipped, right? But if they're lazy now, they will burn in hell for all of eternity. That's number one. Number two is this is really important. You have all this gold, right? The problem with all this gold is people can steal it. People can kill you for it, right?

But now you have spiritual authority. Now you represent God. Now you're head of a church, right? And therefore people can't kill you because if they kill you, God will come and kill them. Okay, it's a pretty good deal, right? Before you were a king, but now you're a god. What a great deal. And the last thing of course is now what you can do is you can now expand and expand and expand your empire. Okay.

So let me explain why this is relevant today. Okay? Because now that the Catholic Church is around, these of Rome can continue on to today through the Catholic Church, right? Does that make sense to you guys? Because now they can store their power in the Catholic Church. If you put your gold in the Catholic Church, no one's going to come and steal it, right? Because they don't want to incur the wrath of God. That's why the Catholic Church will give rise to people called the black nobility.

Okay, these are 13 families from Rome that still run the world today.

All right. That's the power of the Catholic Church. That is the genius of Paul, to create a system that continues even today because it is so powerful and so strategic. Okay, does that make sense? All right, we'll discuss this later on as well, but I present the idea to you today. All right, some questions. Okay, my wife sends me more questions. Okay. This person wants to know what's the difference between the Catholic Church, the Protestants, and the Eastern Orthodox. So the Eastern Orthodox is the church of Augustine. It didn't really change.

The Protestants are those who rebel against the teachings of Paul and Augustine. And the Catholic Church is sort of in between. Okay? But we'll discuss this more as we go along. All right. The Greek mystery schools, are they still around today? And the answer is yes. Of course, they're still around today because they allow the elite to work together. Okay? They allow the elite to trust each other. Okay? And again, they come from the Greek mystery schools. All right?

What do we do with these people? Right? You have these psychopaths who run the world. They don't feel regret. They don't forgive each other. So how do we perceive these people? Okay. And there are different solutions. The first solution is to appreciate the idea of karma. So yes, they are powerful, like in this lifetime, but maybe next lifetime they become slaves. So they can feel for themselves the evil that they've done onto other people. Okay. Another idea is in the world of today, psychopaths will always win.

Only evil will win because that's just the structure of this universe. In this universe that we live in, the devil is always king. Okay? And there's no way around it. So, we're here not to fight these people. We're here to learn wisdom in a world of evil. So, don't worry about them. Just worry about yourself. Okay. The third thing to think about is if you really understood how these people live their lives, you would feel sorry for them. All right? So remember the Iliad where Achilles triumphs over Hector, but rather than feeling joy and happiness, he feels only sadness and he can't even cry.

Okay? He becomes a zombie. And you can make the argument that the wealthy people are like that today. Yeah, they look as though they're happy. They have billions of dollars but they're not happy. Okay? If you actually lived their lives, if you saw the world through their eyes, you would see that they're very unhappy people. So don't hate them. Feel pity for them. Okay. So there are different ways of understanding this. All right. Okay. This is a great question. Okay. I love this question. If the Romans are the ones who killed Jesus, why don't the Jews speak up?

Why don't the Jews say, "We didn't do it, man." Okay, so this is really... but the simple answer is there's an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Jews. Okay, the agreement is this. The Catholic Church needed scapegoats, needed people for other people to hate. Okay? And the Jews agreed in order to practice their religion. Does that make sense? All right? I know this sounds terrible, but the only way for the Jews to survive as a people is if they agree to be scapegoats for Christians. All right? And we'll discuss this later on.

And that's why if you look at Europe for these 2,000 years, what the Christians did to the Jews was just horrific. Okay? And the Jews could not speak up because if they did, the Catholic Church might get rid of them. Okay? This person says, "James the Just, Jesus's brother, he was killed by the Jews, right?" No, no, no. Ask yourself this question. Who is most threatened by James the Just? The answer, of course, is Paul. It was Paul who had him killed. Okay. In 70, the Romans destroyed the temple.

And that time would have been the perfect time to kill James the Just. James was probably protected by the Jews. Okay? But Paul saw him as a threat because as long as James the Just was alive, he's the ultimate authority on Jesus. Right. Paul cannot steal the legacy from James the Just. Therefore, he had to get this guy killed. Okay. Does that make sense?

All right. How do you know if you see the truth and reject a lie? The answer is really simple, guys. How do you know if you love someone? You just do, guys. Okay. I'm sorry. If you don't know you love someone, you probably don't love that person. All right. When you love someone, your heart glows. You feel stronger. You are more energetic. All right? If you are in a relationship, but you become weaker, you feel tired, you lose hope, you probably don't love that person. That person probably doesn't love you.

Okay? It's that simple, guys. How do you know you're in love? You just do. How do you know you see the truth? You just do. All right. You cannot trust a human. The Bible clearly states the one who brings evil to this world stands above all humankind. Therefore, you will find truth... No, no, no, no. This is what Paul says. This is what Augustine said. Augustine says, "You do know." You know in your heart. Okay.

All right. That's it. Any questions, guys? Before we conclude. Okay. Great. So, we'll continue this next class. Okay.