What was the main difference between Paul's religion and the message of Jesus?
Paul's religious creed fundamentally is in his concept of the death of Jesus as saving mankind from sin. Instead of seeing Jesus as a messiah of the Jewish human savior, he saw him as a God-like diety whose atoning death by violence was necessary to release his devotees for immortal life and attain salvation. This view of Jesus' death seems to have come to Paul in his Damascus vision.