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You can contact Mark at [email protected]
Original Christianity
This web is a look at primitive, original Christianity, how it developed over time into innumerable denominations and divisions and how original Christiianity compares to current practices. It is a resource for looking systematically at the beliefs and practices in the original Christian church, numerous movements and churches since, the modern Christian church, with discussion about how all these changes happened and especially focusing on how well each of these compares to scripture.
Why? Click to Read More...
"Jesus Christ is Lord" is the common belief of billions of Christians. But there are tens of thousands of denominations. While ancient denominations like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claim to be the original and consequently "true" church, innumerable churches and denominations have started citing error in these ancient bastions and/or the leading of the spirit to reform the church and restore the church.
There are numerous disputed issues. Cessation doctrine (prophecy and the gifts of the spirit ended with the apostles), infant baptism, the inerrancy of Scripture, the form of Church government, the role of women in the church, and currently, the acceptance of homosexuality are just some of the many disputed doctrines that cause the Christian body to be so divided.
The Reformation movement performed an invaluable service. But instead of simply reforming the church or simply working to create one more correct alternative church the Reformation movement worked to increase the number of disputes over scripture and consequently the number of splits has increased exponentially.
The problem with looking at all the denominations is that it can become confusing to just compare this church or denomination to that one. The complexity of looking at all the theological implications can become overwhelming. For many busy people that means just making the best, less than fully educated decision they can, and staying with the church of their heritage or finding a church where they feel they can grow. Just finding the information can be an overwhelming task. Putting it into some understandable framework is an even more complicated task.
This web site, rather than trying to just compare all the current positions on the differences goes back to the beginning (primitive, original Christianity) and evaluates Christianity starting at that point. This includes looking at the gospel accounts, but also includes looking at early church documents as well as other ancient documents, both secular and religious. (There is also a section on Philosophy because its profound impact on Christian theological development.) The articles have numerous references to works both in print and online.
Next the web site looks at the developments in Christianity from original Christianity forward to see how the church developed over time comparing each development with what we know about original Christianity. The goals are:
- To trace the development of the church from start to now to see how the church at large wound up with all these competing churches/denominations today, and
- To equip people with the knowledge of original Christianity to enable people to make an informed decision on what is the true faith and practice of the church Jesus Christ started.
For an overview of the articles by category, go to the Table of Contents Page.
This is a work in progress. My prayer is that sharing my journey is helpful to you and that together we can grow in the faith that Jesus Christ made available some two thousand years ago.
Also Please Pardon our Dust. There are hundreds of posts and some of them still have typos. If you find typos You can contact Mark at [email protected] Please be so kind as to mention the name of the post as well as to copy and paste the section with errors. Thank you and God Bless You.
- Indoctrination, Brainwashing and Deception in Everything from Santa Clause to Christianity Part 1
- Scripture on Determining which Writings are Scripture
- The Lesson of the Downfall of Solomon
- T 1.11.1 Generally the Old (Elders) are the Wisest, Cherish and Honor Them, Although Old Fools can be the Most Foolish of All
- A Review of Biblical Interpretation
- All Scripture is for our Learning But All Scripture is not Addressed to Everyone: Administrations
- T 1.11 Tradition in Original Christianity, Part 11, Avoid the Philosophies and the Wisdom of the World
- T 1.10.1 Tradition in Original Christianity, Not Only Is Jesus Called God In Scripture, But So are Moses, Judges, Magistrates, The Adversary, And Devil Spirits, But All Are Subject to the Father
- T 1.10 Tradition in Original Christianity, Part 10, The Apostles taught the Father alone was God, one of the Most Hidden Truths in Christianity Today
- John 1 – The meaning of the Logos; The Slippery Slope of Applying Mathematical Precision to Language Expressions
- 11.76 The Waldenses, Why Believers Complied With Roman Catholic Doctrine, Bans on Reading the Bible, The Inquisition and other Repressive Measures
- Montanism
- Basic Christianity (23)
- Biblical Translation And Interpretation (24)
- Division Intro (2)
- Divisions (29)
- End Times (2)
- Grammar and Logic (4)
- Heresies (5)
- Homosexualtiy (4)
- Introduction (6)
- Jesus' Teaching and Miracles (17)
- Koine (Biblical) Greek (26)
- Liturgy (6)
- Miscellaneous (8)
- Modern Christianity (12)
- Movements (52)
- Objections to Restoring New Testament Christianity (2)
- Original Christianity (28)
- Outside Criticism of Christianity (1)
- Philosophy (18)
- Prayers (2)
- Preface (1)
- Prophecy (3)
- Roman Catholicism (6)
- Sermons (15)
- Spirit (4)
- The Law and The Prophets (4)
- Tradition (26)
- Trinity (4)
- Uncategorized (1)
- Worship Experiences (2)
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Tradition in Scripture
We are taught by the Apostles to follow their tradition:
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. (2Th 2:15 ESV)
We are warned against following human tradition:
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Col 2:8 ESV)
Phiosophy and human tradition go hand in hand as dangers that rob believers and take believers captive and away from Christ according to the scriptures. And this includes matters of faith as seen in the next section of verses.
The Jews began establishing their religious tradition right after the giving of the law. The Law is called the Torah. The tradition is known as the Oral Law or Talmud. It was only oral for many centuries but evetually was writtten down.
Jesus confronted the Jewish religious leaders because the tradition they established worked against the word of God. Jesus says here that men made commandments that were not in scripture and made them the rule over actual scripture:
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders. They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?” He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.” He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. (Mar 7:3-9 WEB)
Different churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church began creating their own traditions that included numerous elements different than the apostles tradition right after the passing of the apostles.
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