MERGED: The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Part 1) & (Part 2)

[DeistPaladin]

Bullshit. Paul was part of the early Church writing to the church in Corinth some 20 years after the cross..it was a church, so obviously a Christian Church would be based on the teachings of Jesus.

Everyone, read along with me in your Bibles and turn to...

1John 4:1-3
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Now turn to...

2John verse 7
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

These verses refer to the "Docetic" Christians, an early group of Christians for whom Jesus was an apparition. They believe the material world was evil and so thus God, a being that could not be evil, could only assume a spiritual form.

As an aside, one would think that John, supposedly a disciple of Jesus writing about Christians that lived within his lifetime, would have dismissed the Docetics as crazy and in denial of obvious recent events. One would think he could refer the Docetics to relatives and neighbors of Jesus who could attest that he was a real person, whatever they may have thought of his claims of divinity. But no, John uses the language of faith ("believe" and "confess") and condemns the Docetics not as crazy but as blasphemers.

Back to the main point, an examination of the REAL history of Christianity indicates a messy theology with differences between the Docetic, Marcionite and Ebionite sects making the distinction between modern Christianity and Islam look like petty hair-splitting. Protestants, much like Muslims, love to believe in the dreamscape of a "pure" and simple church led by Jesus, one that was corrupted in later years. In reality, there were so many Christianities that the "true orthodox" teachings that Christians take for granted today only came about by Roman authority post Nicaea (325 CE).

So apparently Jesus not only wrote nothing down, unlike Moses*, Paul* and other religious figures in Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions, but apparently he made nothing clear in his teachings.

* Yeah, I know, half of "Paul's" letters are considered "inauthentic" and Moses is a dubious character of history but at least we have attributed writings to these people.