Had he discussed this matter with the apostles or taken any of them into his confidence, it would mean a definite setback to his scheme of preaching a modified religion to the Gentiles. The apostles would have very strongly opposed the whole idea, and would have denounced the whole idea as an abomination. There is ample proof provided by the New Testament that the Disciples and the earliest followers of Jesus abhorred the innovations of Paul.
They were deadly against the emancipation granted arbitrarily by him. And certain men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, "Unless you get circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved". (Acts. 15 1) . This caused no little dissension and Paul and Barnabas vehemently disputed the preaching of these men who, apparently had been sent by James, the head of the church at Jerusalem. Consequently, a deputation which included Paul, Barnabas and some others went to Jerusalem to thrash out these matters.
On their way, this deputation stopped at various places and related in detail the conversion of the Gentiles to the congregations. Through his fiery speeches, Paul enlisted support of these congregations who were extremely pleased at the news that the Greeks, the Romans and other nations were accepting the new faith in great numbers. When this deputation at last reached Jerusalem, the elders of the Church received them with great enthusiasm.
James the head of the earliest Church in Christianity and who was also the younger brother of Jesus, had called a meeting of the elders of the church to discuss the innovations of Paul and his companions. We must remember that in this congregation though the elders and the disciples living in Jerusalem were in the majority, yet they found themselves utterly helpless before the onslaught of the fiery speeches and arguments of Paul and his companions. The apostles and the disciples were, almost all of them, from poor families and, therefore, illiterate or semi-literate.
They were no match to Paul and his companions who belonged to the upper class of society and were highly educated, taut, an extrovert, was not only a man of great influence but a gifted orator and skillful debater. He also had the support of clever companions. Through tactful handling and ingenious reasoning they gained the sympathy of their listeners and won their admiration. It was in such an atmosphere that James the bristlier of Jesus had to give his ruling. He had to be judicious. he stood up and said "Therefore, my judgement is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. For from early generations Moses has had in every city those who preach him for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues" (Acts 15 19-21)
The above ruling proves that James succumbed to the general consensus and granted a limited concession in respect of circumcision to the Gentiles only. This ruling was not a charter of general liberties with the law of Moses. On the contrary he advised that the Law of Moses was being read and explained in all the synagogues every week. The details of the law could easily be learnt there. But Paul and his companions took all sorts of liberties.
Adopting the role of a law-giving prophet he abrogated the law. "In reality" said Paul, "the law produces wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there any transgression". (Romans 4: 15) The abrogation of the law of Moses in the Christian Church has been a gradual process. In the beginning Paul started with a few innovations. Later the Gentile element kept on tampering with the books and introducing new ideas so that Christianity was radically changed from Judaism. Innovations introduced by Paul were simply to entice the Gentiles.
He started with cancelling the law of circumcision. But one wrong step led to the next inequity and ultimately it ended into a faith which more resembled pagan beliefs than the revealed teachings of Moses and the later prophets including Jesus, son of Mary. The very first commandment said, "You shall have no other gods before Me". But we all know that the Christian Church believes in two more gods besides the Creator of the universe.
Paul had to incorporate the idea of 'Trinity' into his teachings as all the known religions of his time believed in three gods. The cult of 'Trinity' outside Judaism, was an established fact. The oldest known cult was the one started by Nimrod, the son of Cush. He is reported to have married his own mother Semi-ramis. Thus, it was Nimrod who was probably the first human being to be deified along with his mother-wife Queen Semiramis. His evil act of marrying his own mother was made into a mystery as he was the husband and the son of his own wife as well as he was his own father and his own son. His name means, he rebelled.