The Seven Churches in Asia Minor ALL forsook Paul but Jesus did not blame them for doing so. Paul is arguably the first corrupter of Jesus' vegan Christianity.
In Revelation 1:20 KJV, Jesus mentions "seven golden candlesticks" as the seven churches in Asia Minor:- "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."
The Seven Candlesticks ALL Deserted Paul & Jesus Did NOT Blame them
As admitted by Paul himself and as known to all his contemporaries, these seven churches all deserted him:- "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes" (2 Timothy 1:15 KJV).
However, when Jesus appraised these seven churches one by one in Revelation 2-3, He did not admonish them for forsaking Paul at all.
Jesus Instead Praised the Church at Ephesus
On the contrary, Jesus praised the church at Ephesus for testing "them which say they are apostles, and are not" (Rev. 2:2 KJV). Compare the seven churches mentioned in Paul's epistles (Galatia, Rome, Colossae [Philemon], Philippi, Ephesus, Corinthian, and Thessalonica) and the seven candlestick-churches of Revelation (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea), and we will find they are completely different, except for Ephesus.
However, Jesus not only NEVER censured the Ephesians for not listening to Paul's preaching, but also commended them:- "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars" (Rev. 2:2 KJV). In the entire Bible, the only person who had preached in Ephesus and had been rejected by the Ephesians as put on record was Paul (or his camp).
The First Corrupter of Jesus' Teachings
According to US President Thomas Jefferson, St. Paul was the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus" (Washington 1854). As pointed out by Albert Schweitzer (1910) in The Quest for the Historical Jesus, Paul perverted the discourse of Jesus and "displace[d]" it. Here, we will briefly consider Paul's blasphemy as far as veganism is directly concerned (For more details, please read Chen [2021]):-
1. Eating Food Sacrificed to Idols
In I Corinthians 8:4-13, Paul argues that eating meat offered to an idol is not immoral, because “an idol is nothing at all” (I Cor. 8:4 NIV). “Food,” he asserts, “does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do” (I Cor. 8:8 NIV). "To the pure, all things are pure" (Titus 1:15 NIV).
On the other hand, in the letter to the church of Thyatira, Jesus rebukes them for tolerating a prophetess who "seduce[s] my servants to ... eat things sacrificed unto idols" (Revelation 2:20 KJV). And The Jerusalem Council led by James the Just, Jesus' natural brother, wrote to Gentile converts the Council's "decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals" (Acts 21:25 NIV).
2. Eating Animal Flesh
"Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV), advises Paul. For two thousand years, this has (mis)led numerous Christians to think that it is alright to slaughter innocent animals and eat their flesh.
Paul even defames vegans as weaklings in terms of faith:- "One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables" (Romans 14:2 NIV).
In contrast, Jesus warns against meat-eating:- “Be on guard, so that your hearts do not become heavy with the eating of flesh" (Luke 21:34, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe — Old Syriac-Aramaic Manuscript of the New Testament Gospels). And He admonishes the Pharisees, quoting Hosea 6:6, "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13 CSB).
Article Link: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/paul-the-fake-apostle-against-jesus-vegan-church-the-seven-churches-deserted-paul-by-dr-chapman Amen!
References:
Chen, Chapman (2021). "How St. Paul Perverted Jesus' Vegan Teachings." HKBNews:
Dec 31. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/how-st-paul-perverted-jesus-vegan-teachings-by-chapman-chen-hkbnews
End Times Truther Wing Wong (2021)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncKBeKv897Q&list=PLKbCCN5yYnTVZzE6MBKZMl7uscYXZDsEp)
Tabor, James (2012). Paul and Jesus. How the Apostle Transformed Christianity.. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Voskuilen, Thijs (2005) "Operation Messiah: Did Christianity Start as a Roman Psychological Counterinsurgency Operation?", Small Wars & Insurgencies, 16:2, 192-215, DOI: 10.1080/09592310500079940