What Happened to Original Christianity?

Why is the Christianity we read about in the pages of the Bible so different from modern Christianity? Was original Christianity lost? Or does God’s Church still exist today?

The Bible describes the miraculous growth of the early Church of God.

After Christ’s resurrection, the first apostles boldly preached the gospel they had received from Jesus, and God’s Church grew rapidly as many turned to God. The early Christian community was united together in purpose and heart (Acts 2:41–47). How exciting it would have been to be part of the original Church!

But toward the end of the New Testament period, we see a very different picture. In the letters from the apostles, we find many serious warnings about false teachers and false doctrines (Acts 20:29–31, 2 Corinthians 11, 2 Peter 2, Jude). False teachers had already begun to infiltrate God’s Church and they were teaching ideas that were very different from the teachings of Jesus. We even read of a Church leader who refused to accept the Apostle John, and who was putting true members out of the Church (3 John)!

The situation grew even worse after all of Christ’s original apostles died. In more and more congregations, false teachers gained control. These false ministers rejected the fundamental beliefs of God’s Church and created an entirely new religion. What did they call it?

Christianity.

That’s right.

Most of what is called Christianity today is radically different than the original Christianity taught by Jesus Christ and His apostles.

That is a bold claim. But the facts are plainly recorded in the pages of your Bible and in the records of history. If this claim is true, there should be plenty of evidence to prove absolutely that it is true. And if it is false, you should be able to easily prove, from the Bible, that it is false.

So which way is it? Does modern Christianity match the teachings of Christ and the apostles, or is it a counterfeit?

This is one of the most important questions you will ever ask. You need to know the answer. Your very life may depend on it.

You have probably always assumed that modern Christianity is the real thing. But if traditional Christianity isn’t the real Christianity of the Bible, then it can only offer deception, confusion, and ultimately death.

Don’t sit on the fence. If you believe the Bible, you’re obligated to follow the example of the first believers who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). You can’t be a Christian—a follower of Christ—if you don’t know what Christ taught, can you?

This article will show three important teachings of original Christianity that have been lost. Open your Bible and check it out. Is modern Christianity the religion of Jesus Christ, or not?

Does God have two religions?

A common view today is that the Bible reveals two different religions. Now people might not say it exactly this way, but it is fundamentally, what they believe.

First, they say, God gave a religion to Israel that included a bunch of rules and regulations about how they lived and worshipped God. Then Jesus Christ showed up, put an end to that religion, and started something completely new, called Christianity, which is based on faith instead of law.

If you agree with this view, you already admit that modern Christianity is a new religion. And indeed it is. You just haven’t heard the real story about who started it, and when it began. Jesus Christ is not the one who started this new religion.

Jesus Christ didn’t put an end to His Father’s religion and start something completely new. God only has one religion. There is only one way to salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), and that way has not changed down through time.

I’m not saying that modern Judaism is the original, true religion of the Bible. Even in the time of Christ, the Jews had already made many changes and additions to the rules God gave to Israel. After Christ established His Church, Judaism made even more changes in order to separate itself from the followers of Jesus Christ. They even added a curse against heretics (which included the early Christians) into their prayers.

What I am saying is exactly what the Bible says: That the faithful believers in the Hebrew Scriptures worshipped the same God, had the same faith, and the same religion as the apostles and the early Church. Moses, Abraham, and other followers of God were saved by faith, just as we are (Romans 4; Hebrews 11). Certainly, when Jesus came, He revealed things that were not previously understood. But He didn’t start a whole new religion!

Let’s prove it straight from your Bible.

Who was the God of Israel?

The Bible plainly says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). No one has seen the God the Father at any time.

But in Genesis 18, you can read how the Lord (Yehovah) appeared to Abraham with two angels. Who did Abraham see?

Jesus Christ said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). They replied, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” (verse 57). So who was the Lord whom Abraham saw?

Now take a look at this: When God made a covenant with Israel, “Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:9, 10). Who is the “God of Israel,” who they saw?

You can find the answer in 1 Corinthians 10:4. It says, speaking about the Israelites who came out of Egypt, “they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” So who was the God of Israel? What does it say?

Jesus Christ was their God.

Why have you never heard this explained before?

Now read Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Do you believe that? Do you really believe what is written in your Bible? If so, can you believe that Jesus Christ—who is the same yesterday, today, and forever—gave one religion to Israel, and then gave a completely new religion to His Church? It doesn’t match up.

Even if God the Father was the one who spoke to Israel, the Bible says that the Father and Son are in complete agreement with one another. Jesus said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30), and “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).

Jesus, the God of Israel, who does not change, did not change His mind and create a new religion. What He taught while He was on earth is entirely consistent with what He revealed through His prophets to the Israelites. He didn’t accidentally give the Israelites the wrong religion, and then come back to fix His mistake.

Jesus Christ taught obedience to God’s Law

As you’ll see in a moment, Jesus knew that a counterfeit Christianity would arise that would teach against God’s law. So when He taught people, He made it absolutely clear that Christians must obey God and His law.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

You may have heard it explained that this means Christ “fulfilled the law for you,” so you don’t need to worry about obeying it! First notice that the verse above does not say Christ fulfilled the law “for you.” No, it says that Christ came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets—and that is exactly what He did. He fulfilled the prophecies about Him written in the Law and the Prophets, which are the Hebrew Scriptures.

If you continue reading, you’ll also see that Jesus explained exactly what He meant: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (verse 18).

Are heaven and earth still here? Then Jesus has not abrogated a single letter or pen stroke of the Hebrew Scriptures.

So what are we supposed to do with God’s commandments recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures? “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19).

Could Jesus have said it any more clearly? He said He didn’t come to get rid of the Old Testament scriptures and that we still need to obey and teach God’s commandments.

Theologians have written thousands of pages trying to explain away these plain statements of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the plain statements of Jesus Christ contradict their false doctrine that claims Christ abolished the Old Testament law.

The Bible says that the true Church of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). Both the New Testament and the Old Testament Scriptures form the foundation of God’s Church. Together they are the Word of God, directly inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). Jesus said we must live by every word of God (Matthew 4:4), not only half of them! But modern Christianity refuses to accept the direct statements of Jesus Christ and the inspired words of the apostles and the Old Testament prophets.

As the prophet Isaiah wrote, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). Likewise, the apostle John wrote: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).

How clear can it get? Jesus and the apostles taught that true Christians must obey God’s law, not reject it.

So why do so many people believe that Jesus Christ got rid of the law? The Apostle Peter said that the Apostle Paul wrote “some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Some of the things that Paul wrote about the law are hard to understand. But if you study these scriptures carefully, you will see that Paul did never believed or taught that God’s law was abolished. See How Did Jesus Fulfill the Law? to learn more.

What holy days did the original Church keep?

Have you ever wondered what Easter bunnies and colored eggs have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Why do people decorate Christmas trees and tell made up stories about Santa Claus? What does all this stuff have to do with real Christianity?

Nothing. Search the Bible from beginning to end and it isn’t there. These are not the holidays of the original Church. The early Church kept the holy days from the Bible, not man-made holidays with traditions that originated in paganism. These are well-known facts, which you can find in any encyclopedia.

The Biblical feasts aren’t just “Jewish feasts.” They are God’s feasts (Leviticus 23:2). Notice that the apostle Paul—the apostle sent to the Gentiles—instructed the non-Jewish members of God’s Church to keep the feasts (1 Corinthians 5:8). The Bible also clearly says that when Jesus Christ returns, the whole world will be required to keep God’s feasts (Zechariah 14:16-19).

And what about the Sabbath? When was the Sabbath replaced with Sunday? You won’t find it in the Bible, because the change didn’t happen until after the Bible was written.

Consider the following facts:

Jesus kept the Sabbath and other holy days mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (Luke 4:16, 31; John 7:14).
After Jesus was crucified, His followers continued to keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Luke 23:56).
Paul continued to keep the Sabbath, and teach both Jews and non-Jews on the Sabbath, not Sunday (Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4).
Paul wrote that, “There remains therefore a Sabbath-keeping [Greek: sabbatismos] for the people of God” (Romans 4:9). Most translation replace the word “Sabbath-keeping” with the word “rest” in order to hide the meaning of this verse, but you can check any Greek dictionary to find the correct translation.
Of the few times Sunday is mentioned in the scriptures, it is never described as a day of rest or public worship. The account of the disciples gathering for a meal in Acts 20:7 actually occurred on a Saturday night (the early Church, just like the Jews, recognized sunset as the beginning of each day). The instruction in 1 Corinthians 16:2 refers to storing up food items at home, not a weekly collection of money during a church service, as some wrongly assume.

So when and why did the day of Christian worship change from Saturday to Sunday?

Why newcomers changed everything

In the century that followed Christ’s ministry, there were several violent conflicts between the Romans and the Jews. The first war broke out in 66 AD. The last conflict was the Bar Kokhba Revolt, which the Romans crushed by 136 AD. During this last war the Romans killed more than half a million Jews, and sold many into captivity. During this tumultuous period there was widespread hatred of the Jews among the Romans.

Because the early Christians kept the same Sabbath and holy days as the Jews, the Romans usually treated them as Jews. During this period when anything connected with the Jews was despised, new leaders in the Christian community began to reinterpret the scriptures and develop an entirely new theology in order to distinguish Christianity from the Jews. These men systematically got rid of every sign that would identify them as Jews, including the Sabbath and the Biblical feasts. This is a fact of history. You can read the Epistle of Barnabas (written about 130 AD), the first apology of Justin Martyr (written about 155 AD), and the writings of other “Church Fathers” for yourself. You will find that after all of the original apostles had died, these new leaders who hated the Jews rejected every element of Christ’s teachings that would make them look “Jewish.”

These false teachers got rid of the Sabbath and holy days of the original Church and replaced them with new days of worship. In an age when Romans hated Jews, this new, modified Christianity was more acceptable and popular, and spread more quickly than genuine Christianity.

How real Christianity became a heresy

Although a new, false Christianity began to spread rapidly after the Roman-Jewish wars, true Christianity never disappeared. In the second century, during the Quartodeciman controversy, members of God’s Church were criticized for continuing to keep the Passover on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. These Sabbath-keeping Christians were often called Nazarenes by both Jews (Act 24:5) and by Christians who had abandoned the practices of the early Church.

In the 4th century, we come to a turning point. In 303 AD the four emperors of Rome launched a campaign to eliminate Christianity from the Roman empire. But while this persecution raged, a war broke out among the emperors. Constantine, the son of one of the emperors, fought his way to victory over all his rivals. Constantine believed that the Christian God had helped him achieve victory, and he brought an end to the persecution. Naturally, many Christians saw Constantine as a hero who had been sent by God.

In 325 AD Constantine issued an edict establishing Christianity as the favored religion of the empire. This is great news, right?

Not quite.

Just what was Christianity after all? Which version of Christianity was the religion that Rome would support?

Constantine was aware that Christians had many disputes among themselves, so that same year (in 325 AD) he called the Council of Nicaea to settle the Christians’ doctrinal disagreements. The leaders who held to the original teachings of Jesus Christ did not participate. The majority of the council formulated and adopted the Nicene Creed, which has from that time until now defined “orthodox” Christianity. The beliefs of all other branches of Christianity—including the “Nazarenes” who continued to practice the original form of Christianity—were declared to be heresies.

“Orthodox” Christianity and the Roman Empire had been joined together, and for the next 1260 years the true Church of God had to flee from the persecution of the Roman Church (Revelation 12:6).

The god of this age, who deceives the whole world

The Bible describes Satan the devil as “the God of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) “who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

Think about that. If Satan has deceived the whole world, do you really believe that there are more than two billion Christians who aren’t deceived?

In fact, the whole world has been tricked by Satan’s counterfeit Christianity. The Bible describes the leaders of this religion as “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 13-15).

So there you have it. A no-nonsense overview about what happened to original Christianity.

The real question is, what are you going to do about it?

“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19).

Will you let the devil deceive you? Or will you open your Bible and find out what it really says?

Read the Whole Original Christianity Series

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