Vincent Arthur Holmes-Gore's Christ or Paul

Reverend Vincent Arthur Holmes-Gore was a serious Christian scholar besides a pastor. His writings include "The Thorn in the Flesh," Theology  Vol. 32 (1936) 111ff.; "The Ascension of the Apocalyptic Hope. The Significance of Acts 1:6-8," Theology Vol. 32 (1936) 356ff.; "The Parable of the Tares," Theology Vol. 35 (1937); These We Have Not Loved (1941)(Christian-basis to vegetarianism); The Human Soul (1942, reprint 1989); The Churches of St. Thomas and All Saints Lymington (Gloucester: 1947); and "New Morals for Old: Being an Attempt to Restate and Defend the Christian Ideal of Marriage," Journal of Theological Studies (1949) 1ff.

Rev. Holmes-Gore said in Christ or Paul : A Re-Examination of Paul's Influence on Christianity (C.W. Daniel: 1946) at page 93 that Paul has misled many:

Let the reader contrast the true Christian standard with that of Paul and he will see the terrible betrayal of all that the Master taught.... For the surest way to betray a great Teacher is to misrepresent his message.... That is what Paul and his followers did, and because the Church has followed Paul in his error it has failed lamentably to redeem the world....The teachings given by the blessed Master Christ, which the disciples John and Peter and James, the brother of the Master, tried in vain to defend and preserve intact were as utterly opposed to the Pauline Gospel as the light is opposed to the darkness.

Holmes-Gore in Christ or Paul continues at pages 95-97:

"The triumph of Paul's Gospel is all the more remarkable in view of the Master's repeated warnings that false teachers would arise immediately after his 'going away'. Thus we read in Matthew: 'Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing. but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them.... Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit...Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.'"

"This warning fits Paul. who taught that entry into the kingdom of Heaven depends upon faith, i.e. by calling Jesus "Lord. Lord', and did not teach the pure way of life by which alone man can enter the kingdom. And if we apply to Paul the test 'by their fruits ye shall know them' it is abundantly clear that he was a false prophet. We have seen that it was he who founded the Pauline Church in spite of the true Apostles' opposition. It was he who formulated its doctrines...." 

"The Christianity which the nations claim to follow is the religion of Paul who is admittedly the chief and almost the only theologian that the Church recognizes. Because of his betrayal of the Master's teachings the vision of true Christianity has been so dimmed that men have been able to defend war and a host of other evils, such as flesh eating and slavery, on the authority of the Bible. Had the teachings of the Master come down to us in their true form such misinterpretation would have been unthinkable." 

"We may well grieve that Christians have failed to give more heed to the Master's warnings against false prophets...."

Vincent Holmes-Gore in Christ or Paul at pages 93-96 powerfully finds the source of Paul's success in not a holy one:

"The powers of evil which failed to defeat the Master's mission by bringing about the crucifixion, partly achieved their object by working through Paul and his friends to alter the teachings and give them a false interpretation. 

"It is clear from his own Epistles that Paul was the victim of evil forces and received his visions from an unreliable source, for in II Corinthians, he says: .... 'I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.... And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations... there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me....' Thus, Paul admits that his visions and revelations came to him from... a very unreliable source.... 

"Various other sayings of Paul suggest that it was some kind of possession by the powers of evil.... Thus he speaks of having to wrestle against something not physical.... This passage and the reference to the 'thorn in the flesh' as the 'messenger of Satan' sent to buffet him show that Paul was the victim of the evil powers, and it is therefore easy to understand how, WITHOUT REALIZING IT OR EVER INTENDING IT, he became a vehicle of those influences which were determined to betray the Master's teachings and defeat His mission.

"It is evident that when the principalities and powers failed to exterminate Christianity by accomplishing the Master's crucifixion through agents such as Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate, they tried another way of accomplishing their object. When they saw that the Gospel could not be exterminated they devised a more cunning means of rendering it ineffective. They used false teachers, of whom Paul is the most famous, to popularize the Gospel and rob it of its power to redeem mankind.... Thus did the evil powers use Paul as their Chief Apostle to defeat the very religion which he believed he was especially chosen to promote."

"The triumph of Paul's Gospel is all the more remarkable in view of the Master's repeated warnings that false teachers would arise immediately after his 'going away'. Thus we read in Matthew: 'Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them.... Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.... Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom, of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.'

"This warning fits Paul, who taught that entry into the kingdom of Heaven depends upon faith, i.e. by calling Jesus "Lord, Lord", and did not teach the pure way of life by which alone man can enter the kingdom. And if we apply to Paul the test 'by their fruits ye shall know them' it is abundantly clear that he was a false prophet. We have seen that it was he who founded the Pauline Church in spite of the true Apostles' opposition. It was he who formulated its doctrines....

"The Christianity which the nations claim to follow is the religion of Paul, who is admittedly the chief and almost the only theologian that the Church recognizes. Because of his betrayal of the Master's teachings, the vision of true Christianity has been so dimmed that men have been able to defend war and a host of other evils, such as flesh eating and slavery, on the authority of the Bible. Had the teachings of the Master come down to us in their true form such misinterpretation would have been unthinkable....

"We may well grieve that Christians have failed to give more heed to the Master's warnings against false prophets...."

An additional quote from page 7 of Christ or Paul is:

"The time is perhaps coming when the Church will have to make up its mind whether its teaching shall be based upon the teachings of Jesus or upon the Christianity of Paul...."(Christ or Paul, at 7.)

The work Christ or Paul exists in only four libraries of the world, according to World Catalog. So it is properly to be viewed as a rare book. See World Catalog link. END PS. I finally tracked down a copy in 2019, and added the pagenumbers for the quotes taken from others.

Christian Vegetarianism

Holmes-Gore wished to revive vegetarianism which was popular in the early church. This has some historical support.

Apostle Matthew was himself a non-meat vegetarian as seen in the words of Clement of Alexandria: "Accordingly, the apostle Matthew partook of seeds, and nuts, and vegetables, without flesh" (The Instructor). If we add to this the witness of Eusebius, who quotes Hegesippus and writes of James, the brother of Yeshua/Jesus, and first leader of the New Covenant Church: "He drank no wine or strong drink, nor did he eat meat."

Holmes-Gore had this to say in These we have not Loved (The C.W. Daniel Company, Ltd., 1942) Preface, at pages 26, 30 in defense of vegetarianism:

“There is a close connection in our minds between the notions of civilisation and gentleness. The ideal civilised man is a gentleman, kind and courteous, unselfish and a respecter of others’ rights and feelings – the antithesis of the savage, to whom might is right and no one’s feelings matter but his own.

“Wherever the presence and love and transcendent reality of God have been vividly apprehended, there has resulted an attitude of reverence towards the mystery of life as an expression of divine love, an attitude of brotherhood and fellow-feeling with all that can feel – in due order and proportion, of course, beginning with God’s rational creatures, but not stopping short of His other sentient creatures.”

Interestingly, the USDA's Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee advocates Americans substantially reduce meat while making our diet primarily of fruit and green vegetables, and to a lesser extent nuts. Perhaps Matthew, James and Holmes-Gore are on to something. Every five years, the recommended dietary goals are promulgated by the USDA. This report takes a major turn toward advocating healthy lifestyles, including diet, that will lower the burden on the US health care system by prevention. The members of the panel are summarized at Foodnavigator at this link -- showing they are a very reputable cross-section of numerous fields of medicine.

In fact, Dr. Ettlestyn and Dr. Campbell -- first class medical doctors / researchers -- confirm that we can reduce cancer, heart diseases, diabetes type 2, and a host of other illnesses by changing to this lifestyle. Their explanations are in the engaging documentary Forks Over Knives which you can find at the official website - http://www.forksoverknives.com/ 

Dr. Campbell says studies on mice prove a certain cancer in their bodies is turned off by eating less than 10% of daily protein from meat and dairy.

The demographic studies on human populations in China reveal where meat and dairy are not available they have virtually no evidence of cancer or heart disease. So this confirms even further that a plant-based diet, with minimal meat / dairy, is the healthiest.