can anyone please tell me?

net_traveller
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can anyone please tell me?

what do most mainstream scholars make of christianities claim that it is unchanged from the early 1st century christians i.e. did early christians have any major differences in belief and worship than current christians?


I AM GOD AS YOU
Superfan
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TIME

TIME


net_traveller
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could i get a real answer?

please?


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But they had no electricity

But they had no electricity power plant, not one spaceship .... but then we did , nothing is not changing .... all is in motion ....


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net_traveller wrote:what do

net_traveller wrote:

what do most mainstream scholars make of christianities claim that it is unchanged from the early 1st century christians i.e. did early christians have any major differences in belief and worship than current christians?

Not being most mainstream scholars (indeed, I make no claim of being even one scholar, mainstream or otherwise), I couldn't tell you what they make of it. I do know that what I make of it is utter bunk.

If Christianity were unchanged since the Disciples, what of Paul? He completely changed the theology of Christianity to the point that the sects descended from the Roman Catholic Church are fundamentally Pauline, not Christian. It was, after all, Paul who introduced the idea that 'Christians' are saved 'by faith alone', despite Christ's repeated warnings that men would be judged on their works. Paul also contradicts himself a very large number of times between his letters, but you do have to excuse him there. Collecting the works of any con man over a number of years into one place will do that.

If Christianity were unchanged since the Disciples, then Christian theologians would have nothing to do; the Twelve, after all, were the guy's friends. Wouldn't they have handed down a pretty accurate picture of what he was talking about? So the exalted place that fellows like St. Augustine have would be obliviated. The need for things like the Council of Nicea, or the Council of Chalcedon, convened to discuss, debate, and reach consensus on questions like, 'Was JC God? Was he seperate from God? Did he exist before Creation?' etc would not have existed. Coptic Christianity (such as the Alexandrian and Ethiopian Churches) would not have developed separate from Latin Christianity (or, for that matter, Eastern Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox Christianities). The Schism involving the Avignon Popes would never have developed. The European Crusades (NOT the Crusades against Islam) like the Albigensian Crusade would never have been needed. The Inquisition wouldn't have had to act against Heresy and schismatics.

If Christianity were unchanged since the Disciples, well, then how do you explain the changes in the last 500 years? The Mass is celebrated in the vernacular, where it was once uniformly Latin. One assumes it would not have started off in Latin if it was unchanged since the days when the 'Church' was twelve Jews and their Jewish friends. Buying indulgences would never have been an issue, as it would have been settled by not deviating from the practices of the Twelve. The veneration of Saints would never be an issue between the Catholic and some Protestant sects, since obviously, Saints were venerated prior to the Protestant Reformation, so if things were unchanged, then JC must've said 'and Stephen? You're about to get your ass kicked, too. But don't worry, even when you're dead, everyone will still talk to you, just like they'll talk to me. We got us some crazy-ass friends, beeyotch!' or words to that effect.

If Christianity were unchanged, we would still speak of Seven Celestial Spheres, in which all of the stars and planets orbit the Earth. The Catholic Church would still claim supreme authority over the physical/political world.

Any dogmatic structure of ritual and belief that claims to remain unchanged over two millenia is smoking crack. Central concepts may hold, but the whole of the belief structure? Not bloody likely.

"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons." - The Waco Kid