Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Vicomte13
Catholic or Orthodox, and those traditions are as old as Christianity itself

No, not really. The early Christians were known as Ebionites or Nazarenes. They still practice their faith today. You can find them from Israel to India. They still speak the language of Jesus, Aramaic-Syriac. Many are descendants of the disciples and relatives of Christ. They practice a different Christianity than the newer Roman and Orthodox churches.

And where is that?

Shrinagar, Kashmir.
Was a great place to visit when I was there in the sixties, but I don't think I'd want to go there today.

Is the guy in the tomb Jesus Christ? I don't know, but hundreds of thousands of the world's oldest Christian church think so.

Have you ever read the Gospel of Thomas?

Yes I have and no I don't think it was written by Thomas the brother of Jesus.

I am flummoxed at what you're talking about.
Completely confused


Christianity has many houses. Some want our nation to conform to a dogma that they themselves can't agree on. They want America to be a Christian nation. Ireland is a Christian nation and the Christians there can't stop murdering each other. Do they want the same for America?
. .
207 posted on 10/07/2005 10:44:12 PM PDT by radioman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 203 | View Replies ]


To: radioman

Ok, I understand.

Yes, there are indeed many Christian sects, and Christian sects have been murdering each other for centuries.

So have the non-religious devotees of government.

And so have bad-tempered individuals living alone on the moors and in the hills.

Now, when you say "the world's oldest Christian Church", you're taking a side in an historical debate. There were divisions in the early Church, and there are still today. This is nothing new. However, one of the important early divisions was the one that became the Catholic one, and that was calling itself "catholic" before the end of the first century.

Some early Christians trod the path of which you speak, but theirs is not the "oldest Christian church". It is as old as its Catholic twin, born at the same time. So, when you suggest that the Catholic church is "newer", that is not true. Likewise, when you point to "the language of Jesus", that makes two assumptions. One is that Jesus had only one language. There's no very good reason to believe that. The other is that one particular language is holier or more authentic than another. And there's no basis to believe that at all.

It is fine to have your religious preferences, and if you want to take up the cause of one of the very earliest Christian sects, nobody is going to stop you. However, you overstate the case when you call it "older" and the Catholic "newer". They were siblings, born at the same time. And the one grew and took over the Earth, and the other did not have the same growth and career. That difference in relative success may say something about the will of God, or it may say nothing at all about it.


208 posted on 10/08/2005 6:16:58 AM PDT by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 207 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson