Who were the first Christians?

Who were the first Christians?
Also what were the first few churches developed?

Was Catholicism first?

Oh this will be good.

I'm actually not shitposting.
are you saying that in a "not a bad topic but it invites thread derailment"

The Apostles were first. They spread it to communities throughout the Roman Empire. Churches grew in size and bishops were appointed. Over time certain important bishops were designated metropolitans and had de facto authority over others in the area. Then some metropolitans were designated Patriarchs, with the five chief patriarchates of the Empire having joint control (Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Rome). The Monophysites and Nestorians were declared heretics in the 300s, and so the "orthodox" (Chalcedonian) church only covered Europe and the Eastern Roman Empire, with the Church of the East and Ethiopia being shunned. The bishops of Rome and Constantinople had frequent disagreements about who should be the supreme patriarch; concerns about unleavened vs leavened bread at communion or Latin mass vs Greek mass, as well as many others, finally prompted the bishops to excommunicate each other. The Bishop of Rome took the title of Pontifex Maximus, saying that since Peter's see (diocese) was Rome that the bishop of Rome had primacy all along, and the Catholic Church was born. The bishop of Constantinople did not claim a similar authority, but rather obeyed the Roman emperor and served as a religious guide. To this day, each Orthodox nation has its own Patriarch who is theoretically in charge of his own nation's flock (e. g. Russia, Bulgaria, etc.). The bishop of Constantinople (the Ecumenical Patriarch) has some authority over them but mainly serves as the leader of those who don't have a patriach and those who live in his patriachate.

The Cathlodox was first, then the Schism happened and the two once identical sides of the church started becoming more obvious in differences.

Then the Reformation fucked everything up and set a precident to say "as long as you aren't Catholic, whatever you think your church should believe is hunky-dory be it that medicine is evil, that you can get rid of sins by shaking your fingers, or that Jesus is either the Angel Michael or the brother of Satan.

This is super broad and probably has a few errors, but it's a good starting point to your learning the history of the church.

>Reformation
you mean
>JOHN CALVIN

you're welcome for clearing that up

Calvin, Swingli, Luther, Henry the 8th... All Reformers technically.

I mean he was the fuckup

Predestination is such a meme

The first Christians were Jesus' initial disciples who would have been predominantly Hebrews because Jesus' earthly ministry centered around Jerusalem. However after the Ascension, Christianity spread into Samaria then from Samaria to Antioch and finally all across the Mediterranean. The Apostle Paul was instrumental in establishing churches in the Mediterranean world especially in Greece. It is interesting to note that Christianity spread in precisely the order that was prophecied by the risen Jesus in Acts 1:8 i.e. first in Jerusalem, then all of Judea, then to Samaria and the ends of the earth.

Read pic related.

>Was Catholicism first?
Of course, it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church whose first Pope is Saint Peter.

We are all the first Christians because everything comes from God. Identity of religion is man made, the followers of the Christ simply followed Him, with more knowledge of His teaching than the Gospels give to us.

>God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

In this next first, Christ says He will build His church (community of followers) on THIS rock. The Rock is Peter calling Yeshua the Christ, Peter is not the Rock. This rock that does not perish is Yeshua being the Christ and the Son of God. We don't worship Peter, we worship Christ and God.

>In the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 16: 15-19, Christ asked the Apostles,"Who do you sayI am?"It was Simon Peter who answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied,"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Catholic is supposed to mean universal. How it became a group of exclusive members is a long story, as well as the religion itself. Christ taught God's message, and many of councils edited the Christ's teachings for social and political benefits.


>The wordcatholic(with lowercase c; derived via Late Latin catholicus, from theGreekadjective kαθολιkός (katholikos),meaning"universal") comes from theGreekphrase kαθόλου (katholou),meaning"on the whole", "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of theGreekwords kατάmeaning"about" and ...

There were two groups of early Christians.

The first group consisted of Jews in Judea that had James the Just as their leader. They rejected the idea that Jesus was eternal or pre-existent, as well as that he was God; they rejected the idea of his crucifixion being a "sacrifice" for all mankind. To them, Jesus was simply a great teacher/prophet, and the Messiah (in the Jewish sense). These Christians were driven to Arabia by the instability during the Jewish revolts and later Church persecutions, where they became known as 'Ebionites', and possibly contributed to Islam.

The second group is the one that 'won': this second group was comprised of Hellenes and Romans in Asia Minor who converted after hearing the (rather distorted) message of Paul of Tarsos, who preached something very different than that which the original Jesus and his immediate Judean followers/successors had believed/taught.

There is LITERALLY no evidence of this. The fact of the matter is that Paul's epistles are the earliest Christian documents we have, and anything about Christianity prior to their writing is conjecture and pious tradition. This notion that Paul is somehow contrary to early Christianity is a fantastical invention.

That's where you're wrong.

The notion that what Paul preached was in accordance with what James and the original twelve preached in Judea is a pious and fantastical invention. One can see discrepancies in Paul's account: for example, the incident at Antioch, which is itself recorded in his epistles, and which points to a conflict between Paul and James. The fact that Paul also claimed to have received a truer and more faithful message from his "Jesus visions" also points to an attempt at discrediting the apostles who knew Yeshua in life.

Paul is an overall shady character, with a number of discrepancies in his account that throw doubt over his story. Plus, we DO have writings from the Ebionites, as well as from others who catalogued them: they revered James, and considered Paul to be an apostate and even possessed.

There are other documents undiscovered, and other documents destroyed. Paul is not contrary to Christianity, but Paul is also not Christ.

Even here, Paul is a heretic to people the same way Christ is a heretic to people. We have to look at what they teach for our self.

>The fact that Paul also claimed to have received a truer and more faithful message from his "Jesus visions" also points to an attempt at discrediting the apostles who knew Yeshua in life.
actually says that he recieved his gospel from revelation just like every other apostle before him. James wasn't actually Jesus's brother, just some other nut like paul. "brother of christ" was commonly used to refer to christians in general. or perhaps you think that when Paul refers to 500 brothers seeing the risen christ he was saying Jesus had 500 brothers

I don't believe in this shit at all, but you're still wrong.

Paul claimed that he had spoken and consulted with the risen Christ in visions and revelations, as opposed to the original twelve apostles who communed with Yeshua for the most part in a more mundane manner. The implication was that Jesus would have supposedly imparted more information to Paul, since his mission on Earth was 'done' and he had no need for secrecy or discretion anymore, unlike that which he had supposedly exercised when speaking to the original twelve disciples.

You know the early Christians was a Baptist.
And the Nazarenes they was a Baptists.
And the Albigensians, they was a Baptists too.
And the Hussites.

>James the Just

>rejected the idea that Jesus was eternal or pre-existent, as well as that he was God

>7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

- James 4:7-10

>Humble yourselves before the Lord

>Lord

>kυρίου

>believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ

- James 2:1

>Lord Jesus Christ

>Lord

>kυρίου

>he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord; used a. universally, of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner

>Lord Jesus Christ

the answer is Gnosticism

first there were Gnostics, Jesus learned from them and then founded the messianic Christian movement, as did Mary Magdalene who became the leader of the more purely Gnostic sect/variety of the early Christians

the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary of Nazareth does mirror the virgin birth of Yaldabaoth by Sophia, Jesus being the yang to Yaldabaoth's yin

women were key to Jesus's movement, all his financial backers were wealthy widows and he was raised by a woman who was likely a mystic herself, his closest disciple who he was known to spend alone time with and kiss somewhere on her body was a woman

(((Gnosticism)))

The first Christians are Jewish followers of Jesus. However with an influx of Gentile followers disputes between the Jews and Gentiles got to a point where the Jerusalem council(often called the first ecumenical council) is held to settle these disputes. Disputes usually involve whether or not Gentile converts must abide by the Mosaic Law. The consensus reached of course is that Gentiles don't need to and the Jews can keep their ways.

In due time, the Jewish Christians were pushed out by the growing Gentile population in the church.

Don't forget to also add other groups like the Docetists that existed alongside the Early Christians.

Doctrinal wise, the proto-orthodox branch of them all would be classified as being Binatarian though I guess there's a trinatarian deity in formulation early on such as in Irenaeus(also considered the first systematic theologian if I recall).

The structure of the early church can be said to be somewhat Episcopal in nature where in main centers such as Rome, there would be a college of Presbyters who lead. In some cases like in Ignatius of Antioch, we see a monoepiscopate(rule under one bishop)

I will continue briefly on a few core topics regarding the Early Christians in subsequent posts

(((Yeshua bar Maryam)))

(((Yahweh)))

(((Israel)))

seriously though Gnosticism had it's origins in the Hellenic mystery schools rather than the Judaean temples, it likely predates (((Yahwehist monotheism)))

First churches were a blend of religious architecture from both Hellenic and far eastern sources. When Christianity picked up in the 300s the architecture features more grandiose motifs like basilical naves and whatnot (a motif usually reserved for roman public buildings)

Near eastern sources* mb

weren't the first churches just people's houses?

The Apostles, who Christ instructed to establish the Church. Thus the Orthodox Church was made. The Roman Catholic Papal supremacy heresy officially broke from the Church about 1000 years later.

(((mystery schools)))