A Question To Christens

[SoMe1]

I see that the christens around believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and they believe in the Three (God, The Sun and the holly sprit) My Question is, was their any Christianity before Jesus was sent? What do the Christians believe in? Was there any Christianity before he came or did it start only after he was brought to earth?

[mimosa]

SoMe1,

As there's no-one else about, I'll try to reply, although I could not call myself a Christian.

At the risk of interminable repetition...Christians believe in the one-ness of God, that there is only one and only ever has been one. The Trinity is a Christian explanation of the nature of God, not a suggestion that there are three (any more than there are 99 Gods in Islam!). This is why the Christians are considered 'mu'mineen' in Islam. But let's not start all that again!

It's an interesting bit of theological debate. I suppose that as Christ was a Jew, the parents who raised him were Jews, and Jews are the only recorded montheistic religion (apart from Sun-worshippers!) before Christianity, then Christians must have been Jews before they were Christians.

The same question applies elsewhere: According to the Bible, manking has always known God. But what did believers in God call themselves before they had split into different tribes and races on different continents and one chose to call themselves the Jews, the 'nation of Israel'. And why did every other descendant of Adam (i.e. most of the World's population) 'forget' God and start worshipping the sun, rocks, trees, mountain tops or each other?

For instance, in the Arabian peninsula before the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), the only monotheists were Jews and Christians (more of the former than the latter I think). Most people were still animists and pagans. So what religion, if any, were Mohammed's parents?

Good thread, SoMe1......more questions than answers so far though!

[Sun]

Mimosa Posted:
(any more than there are 99 Gods in Islam!).

Its attributes Mimosa Not Gods :)

[mimosa]

I know Sunny......

[Bimzoori]

Originally posted by mimosa


At the risk of interminable repetition...Christians believe in the one-ness of God, that there is only one and only ever has been one. The Trinity is a Christian explanation of the nature of God, not a suggestion that there are three (any more than there are 99 Gods in Islam!). This is why the Christians are considered 'mu'mineen' in Islam. But let's not start all that again!


Interesting thread..

Can you please elaborate more on the above issue, as I get confused sometimes..and also, do all major sects believe the same thing with regards this issue?
I mean, Ok, Christians believe in the oneness of God, but how come they pray to Jesus sometimes?

[SoMe1]

mimosa


Thanks for making that clear, so you are saying that there was nothing as Christens before Christ came? And they were all jews ? And all of them just worshiped one god? Supposedly being Allah?

[MoonChild]

Originally posted by SoMe1
mimosa


Thanks for making that clear, so you are saying that there was nothing as Christens before Christ came? And they were all jews ? And all of them just worshiped one god? Supposedly being Allah?

1. A Christian is defined as someone who believes in Jesus as The Christ, so no there were no Christians before Jesus.- just as there were no Muslims before Mohammed.
2. Jesus was a Jew and the first Christians were Jews who were convinced that Jesus was the Christ of prophecy. Those first Christians immediately began converting non-Jews as well.
3. The Jews believed in one god (by definition). Non-Jews believed all sorts of things before their conversion - in particular the Greeks and the Romans were polytheist. Interestingly, the New Testament doesn't go into the details of how polytheists were convinced not only of the One God concept but Jesus as the savior, since they had no previous concept of being "lost", as the jews did...
4. Allah is the One God, as is Jehovah by a different name. So, yes, the One God can be called Allah even though that word didn't exist at the time :)

hope this helps clarify...

[mimosa]

Just a quick point of detail......the Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew languages all have the same root. The first two are far older than the third, which in any case was not the standard vernacular at the time of Christ - he spoke a form of Aramaic (only spoken in a couple of villages in Syria today, although the Samaritan language has similar roots, and is still spoken by the Samaritan people who now number but a couple of thousand and live in a village above Nablus).

Hebrew was the language of the temple. The modern version probably bears little resemblence.

The word 'Allah' probably existed long before the word 'Jehovah' or 'Yahweh' as it is is Hebrew. The word islam probably existed too, although obviously without its modern context.

[MoonChild]

Oops you're right. I didn't think that one through very well!! ...the dangers of posting during a work break :)