Where Did Christianity Come From?
Firstly, it should be known that Christianity would not exist if it weren’t for the Jewish people. I know this concept flies in the face of the anti-Semitic discourses that has filled the mouths of church leaders for centuries. But it’s true: The Christian values, that some contemporary Christians hold dear, are rooted in theology that was practiced by the Israelites for thousands of years (before Christianity was ever a thought). Their contributions are the cornerstone of the very faith.
Secondly, a more frightening truth… For a very few, it’s essential for anti-Semites to separate Jesus from His Jewish roots. If they are allowed to do that, then divisiveness can become fashionable, which allows anti-Semitism to become an optional Christian choice. If Jesus can be separated from His Jewish roots, then some Christians can continue to praise some Jewish patriarchs of the past such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while snubbing the Goldbergs across the street.
Moreover, In stating this, we’re not intending to be antagonistic. We’re simply stating a position that some antagonists identify with. If you are inclined to read on, you may be compelled to identify with parts of this troublesome statement as well.
With this said, my personal opinion (Dr. C. Matthew Hudson Jr.), if we Christians would correctly view the Jewish people as our kinsmen, everything that they are would become like our allegorically extended sibling, and would warrant loving them unconditionally.
Adolf Hitler knew he needed to destroy the Jewish roots of Jesus in the minds of the German people. Out of his demented mind came the Mischlinge Regulation, which legally defined a Jew as someone with two Jewish parents. Hitler did this for two reasons: One, he had to absolve Jesus of being Jewish by recognizing Jesus was born exclusively of the Virgin Mary. Nazis would never have enthusiastically murdered 6 million of their own relatives.
Second, Hitler feared he was partly Jewish. in fact, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, John Toland records that Hitler’s father’s birth certificate declared him to be “illegitimate.” The space for the father’s name on his birth certificate was left blank, generating a mystery that remains unsolved.
The subsequent report, gathered from “all possible sources,” greatly disturbed Hitler. Because of Mary’s immaculate conception, Jesus had just one Jewish parent-which allowed Hitler to make hating Jews “the will of God.”
As Christians, who are we? What are we? And what are the principles of our faith that makes us different from other monotheistic religions (ex. Judaism and Islam), and where did the come from?
Simply stated, Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Saying that, some of us think that going to church occasionally or simply believing in God makes us a Christian. But the Bible presents a different perspective and definition of a Christian. A Christian is someone whose behavior and heart reflects Jesus Christ. Followers of Jesus were first called “Christians” in Antioch.
The core Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God, and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. These principles and beliefs were codified at the Council of Nicea. Let’s discuss…
THE COUNCIL OF NICEA
The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now the Bursa province, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the Church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, although previous councils, including the first Church council, the Council of Jerusalem, had met before to settle matters of dispute. It was presided over by Hosius, bishop of Corduba who was in communion with the See of Rome.
Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the nature of Jesus Christ and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed, establishing uniform observance of the date of Easter, and promulgation of early canon law.
Like other historical events, the Council of Nicea could be understood and explained from many various points of view. The irony of it all is that HISTORY is always seen as HIS-story. Below, we’ve introduced an interesting academic points of view. Because we created Interfaith Library to be informative and non-biased, we’re leaving our independent view points, regarding the specific details about The Nicean Creed, aside.
What we will say, however, is that the Nicene Creed is a Symbol of faith widely used in Christian liturgy. The First Council of Nicaea was assembled because there was an issue in the church regarding how its followers believed in Christ. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople, and the amended form is referred to as the Nicene or the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.
The Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches use this profession of faith with the verbs in the original plural (“we believe”) form, but the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches convert those verbs to the singular (“I believe”). The Anglican and many Protestant denominations generally use the singular form, but sometimes use the plural. Again, there is no uniformity here, either.
Although I, Dr. C. Matthew Hudson Jr. am a devout Christian, I have to point out that this creed wasn’t a doctrine that Jesus Christ explicitly taught his followers. It was constituted some 300 years later for the sake of unifying the church. The were main questions, debated and attribution about who Christ was, and this council was convened in order to prevent the church from fracturing. I was important that there was one unifying position regarding who Christ was.
The main significance of the Nicene Creed was that it established much of what is now known as orthodox Christian teaching on the subject of God and the Trinity. It remains the only statement of faith that is accepted by all major parts of the Christian faith.
With this said, some may question, “Is the Trinity Doctrine a doctrine that Christ intended for us to believe in?” As a Christian scholar and teacher, I orate that the Trinity Doctrine is from the spirit of the message that Christ conveyed.
Although the developed doctrine of the Trinity is not explicit in the books that constitute the New Testament, the New Testament contains a number of Trinitarian formulas, including Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Corinthians 12:4-5, Ephesians 4:4-6, 1 Peter 1:2 and Revelation 1:4-5.
Notice Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God ….” This originally was written by Moses as God inspired him. Moses wrote in Hebrew. The Hebrew word translated “God” is Elohim—a noun or name, plural in form, but normally singular in grammatical usage. It is the same sort of word as family, church, group—one family consisting of two or more members—one church composed of many members—one group of several persons.
It is referring to precisely the same Persons, making up or composing the one God, as we found in John 1:1—the Word and God—and each of those two Persons is God.
In other words God is now a Family of Persons, composed so far of only the two—God the Father and Christ the Son. But if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in someone, and he is being led by God’s Spirit, then he is a begotten son of God (Romans 8:14). But, at the time of Christ’s return to Earth in supreme power and glory to set up the Kingdom of God, restoring the government of God, abolished by Lucifer, then all being filled and led by God’s Spirit shall become born sons of God. The God Family will then rule all nations with the government of God restored! Continue reading
The contemporary scholar and staunch defender of the Trinity Doctrine, Dr. James White, explain the doctrine so eloquently during a second part of a Christian-Muslim dialogue.
As has been noted throughout this site, Interfaith Library’s primary intent is to be an objective guide. Our only “value statements” are: (1) religion is interesting; (2) knowledge is good.