Paul, whose existence also is in doubt for some, was charged with expanding Christianity, yet he never met Jesus. His entire relationship with Christ came in a "vision," which we would today call a hallucination followed by a reservation in a padded cell.
But I'm exploring the existence of the Christ, so for now we'll give it the benefit of the doubt that Paul lived. Feel free to do the research, though, because many Christian scholars reject most of his epistles and they question whether he actually wrote them and they doubt he even existed.
But again, we'll say he did exist and did write the 13 epistles, which predate the four gospels. Given the facts surrounding these writings, it is understood that they were written by someone who lived in Jerusalem when Christ was teaching there.
If the son of god was in the same town as Paul, performing miracles, and if the details of Christ's life were known throughout the first century of Christianity, wouldn't it be obvious that Paul, an apostle, should have known about him? But Paul admits he never saw Jesus, and his epistles prove that he knew nothing about Jesus' life, works or teachings. There's no mention of Christ's virgin birth. And why is that? Maybe it's because that myth hadn't been invented yet.
Most of the gospels focus on Christ's "miracles," yet again Paul makes zero mention of them in his epistles. There is no logical reason that Paul would be privvy to these miraculous achievements and not even breathe a word of them in writings that were supposed to document those times. Again, why is that? Maybe because those "miracles" never happened and those stories hadn't been fabricated yet.
How about the greatest sermon ever given? Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is the most famous sermon ever given, and is still referred to and quoted today, right? Certainly an apostle and contemporary would know about this teaching. Hmmm, Paul says nothing of it. Christ invents the lord's prayer during this sermon and Paul never heard of it.
To quote Marshall J. Gauvin's 1922 piece:
"Paul, the greatest writer of early Christianity, the man who did more than any other to establish the Christian religion in the world—that is, if the Epistles may be trusted—is absolutely ignorant of the teaching of Christ. In all of his 13 Epistles he does not quote a single saying of Jesus.
Paul was a missionary. He was out for converts. Is it thinkable that if the teachings of Christ had been known to him, he would not have made use of them in his propaganda? Can you believe that a Christian missionary would go to China and labor for many years to win converts to the religion of Christ, and never once mention the Sermon on the Mount, never whisper a word about the Lord's Prayer, never tell the story of one of the parables, and remain as silent as the grave about the precepts of his master? What have the churches been teaching throughout the Christian centuries if not these very things? Are not the churches of today continually preaching about the virgin birth, the miracles, the parables and the precepts of Jesus? And do not these features constitute Christianity? Is there any life of Christ, apart from these things? Why, then, does Paul know nothing of them? There is but one answer: The virgin-born, miracle-working, preaching Christ was unknown to the world in Paul's day. That is to say, he had not yet been invented!"
Paul invented Jesus from his vision en route to Damascus. He was merely a figment of Paul's imagination. Only years later was Christ the person invented in the gospels. He was given a holy ghost for a father and a virgin for a mother. He was made to preach, to perform astounding miracles, to die a violent death though innocent, and to rise in triumph from the grave and ascend again to heaven. If Jesus really existed, Paul certainly would have known of him and his work, yet he didn't. There's only one explanation for this.
In Part III, I will explore the supposed crucifixion.
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