This letter is Hall’s most sustained comparison of Peter’s literal, historical Christianity and Paul’s mystical, philosophical Christianity—arguing that the entire future of Christian theology was shaped by the tension between these two irreconcilable interpretations of Christ.

Hall opens by describing the earliest bishops and pastors of the Christian Church as sincere but unschooled men—devout, courageous, and deeply committed, yet lacking the philosophical training needed to define doctrines about the nature of Christ, the Trinity, the Virgin, or the Holy Ghost. These early leaders were forced to make decisions on matters “beyond the ken of the most able jurist,” and their conclusions became dogma for centuries. Hall emphasizes that the primitive Church quickly split into two camps: one viewing Jesus as a holy man raised up among the Jews, the other viewing Christ as God incarnate, containing within his body the entire Trinity. These two views never reconciled. Islam, Hall notes, arose from the first view—Mohammed reportedly saying that Jesus was a good man whose disciples “made a god of him.” The second view became orthodoxy: Christ as the Creator walking beside the Sea of Galilee, God crucified by His own creation. Hall stresses that this division—human Jesus vs. divine Christ—became the central conflict shaping Christian theology.

Hall then contrasts Peter and Paul as the archetypal representatives of these two interpretations. Peter, the “rock,” is the literalist: unquestioning, devoted, accepting every miracle and every detail of the Gospel as historical fact. To Peter, heaven and hell are places, angels and demons herd spirits, and Christ is God in the flesh. Peter’s Christianity is simple, emotional, and unphilosophical—faith without inquiry. Paul, by contrast, never met Jesus and thus was not overwhelmed by his personality. He saw “as one afar off,” bringing education, perspective, and philosophical insight. Paul discovered the “mystery in the spirit,” realizing that Christ is a principle, not a man, and that the true teaching is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Hall argues that early orthodoxy deliberately corrupted Paul’s writings to obscure his mystical meaning, resulting in contradictions within the epistles. Yet even in their damaged form, Paul’s letters reveal a profound metaphysical doctrine rooted in Greek philosophy, Gnosticism, and the Mystery traditions. Paul’s Christ is the Logos—the divine foundation of the world—while Jesus is the witness to that principle. Peter’s Christ is God made flesh; Paul’s Christ is flesh made God.

The second half of the letter expands this contrast into a broader critique of Christian history. Hall argues that Christianity absorbed Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Buddhist, Pythagorean, and Gnostic ideas, though later theologians tried to conceal these origins to preserve the illusion of Christian uniqueness. He describes how the Church evolved through councils, schisms, and doctrinal battles, eventually becoming a political empire under Constantine. The ante‑Nicene fathers wrote apologetically; the post‑Nicene fathers wrote dogmatically, demanding conformity and defining heresy. Hall traces how the Church gained temporal power, ruled kings, and shaped medieval Europe—only to lose its authority during the Reformation when scientific discovery, exploration, and education shifted human attention from the invisible world to the physical one. As man became “matter‑conscious,” theology lost its grip, and the Church fractured into countless sects.

Hall concludes by arguing that Christianity must be reformed through honest scholarship, new translations from the earliest Greek manuscripts, and a willingness to admit uncertainty. He insists that Christianity contains profound philosophical foundations—astronomy, cosmology, Mystery symbolism—but these have been obscured by literalism and dogma. The conflict between Peter and Paul remains unresolved: one represents faith without philosophy; the other represents philosophy without literalism. Hall urges readers to rediscover the mystical meaning beneath Christian tradition, to reconcile Christianity with the great philosophies of the world, and to restore the spiritual vitality that dogma has long suppressed.