Do Christians today realize that their faith is not the original Christianity?

The early 2nd and 3rd century Christianity is not the same Christianity of today, even the gospels are vastly different, and were classed as heretical by the later Christians.  The one thing that state static was Jesus, his original followers the Jewish-Christians also called the Ebionites were classed as heretics.  It is sheer hypocrisy to impose the stigma of heretic on the followers of Jesus, but not Jesus himself.  One must remember that these supposed heretic followers knew the teachings of Jesus, as pointed to in the New Testament.  Such as the teachings (Matthew 7:28-29), and the Sermon on the Mount of Olives (Matthew Ch’s. 5-6, and 7).  Yet, the later church saw fit to condemn the original followers of Jesus!  Not only that, the later church also destroyed the early Christian sects.

Most of these ancient forms of Christianity are unknown to people in the world today, since they eventually came to be reformed or stamped out.  As a result, the sacred texts that some ancient Christians used to support their religious perspectives came to be proscribed, destroyed, or forgotten – in one way or another lost.  Many of these texts claimed to be written by Jesus’ closest followers.  Opponents of these texts claimed they had been forged…  In the second and third centuries, there were Christians who believed that Jesus’ death brought about the salvation of the world.  There were other Christians who thought that Jesus’ death had nothing to do with the salvation of the world.  There were yet other Christians who said that Jesus never died.

How could some of these views even be considered Christian?  Or, to put the question differently: how could people who considered themselves Christian hold such views?  Why did they not consult their Scriptures to see that there were not 365 gods, or that the true God had created the world, or that Jesus had died?  Why didn’t they just read the New Testament?

It is because there was no New Testament.  To be sure, the books that were eventually collected into the New Testament had been written by the second century.  But they had not yet been gathered into a widely recognized and authoritative “canon” of Scripture.[1]  And there were other books written as well, with equally impressive pedigrees — other Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses claiming to be written by the earthly apostles of Jesus.

[1]The term “canon” comes from a Greek word that means “measuring rod” or “straight edge.”  It came to refer to a “standard,” and then to a “standard collection of writings.”  What do you say, to part or all of the post?

Gwen Pugh (Mrs), pp. Jero Jones.