Pauline Letters to the church.

[DeistPaladin]

The Pauline epistles were letters to the church from Paul telling them what to do on orders from god.

Weren't the church members praying already? Wasn't god already talking to them?

It does seem strange that the churches needed such advice considering that, only several years prior, god-incarnate was walking the earth telling everyone what's what. However, it does seem like the early Christians split off into numerous and radically different factions with varying theological ideas so diverse as to make modern Christian vs. Islam seem like petty nit-picking.

Echoes of this early struggle are found in the Bible itself.

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

It is believed that John was addressing the issue of the Docetic Christians, those who believed that Jesus was but an apparition. Apparently, Jesus didn't make much clear to his followers and needed Paul to clean up after him.