'Before Nicea' - Early Followers of Jesus Christ

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Hashi_Al-Eritre

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As you all know Muslims have always claimed to Jesus Christ as a Prophet and Messenger in Islam. The question then arrises, who followed his true message during and after his time?

A unique pdf to shed some light on the early followers of Jesus Christ:

salafimanhaj.com/non/pdf/SalafiManhaj_BeforeNicea.pdf
(rightclick and save as)
 
What’s new? Please much of this has been discussed and refuted before in other threads. You need only to refer to those than to go through the whole process again.

Peace
 
Food for Thought
… We have a great deal of historical information about Jesus’ first century followers, but we have no evidence at all of any Muslims. Defenders of Islam will most likely claim here that Christianity wiped out all the records of Jesus’ non-Christian followers but such a view is absurd. We have both Christian and non-Christian sources that report early Christian beliefs, yet none of these sources mention the existence of any Muslim-Christians. At the very least, we can say with absolute certainty that jesus’ death was well-known among ancient authorities and that Jesus’ earliest followers - including Peter, James and John- came to believe that Jesus had died on the cross for their sins and that he had risen from the dead.
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There even several ancient non-Christian sources that report Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus, Jesus was crucified during the reign of Pontius Pilate. Lucian of Samosata, a Greek satirist, states, “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day- the distinguished personage who introduced their noverl rites, and was crucified of that account.” Even the Jewish Talmud reports the crucifixion of Jesus.

Hence, the most reasonable interpretation of the data is that the Quran is wrong when it says (1) that Jesus never died and (2) that Jesus’ early followers were Muslims. Even if we grant such an outlandish assumption, this still presents Muslims with an enormous problem: What happened to these first-century Muslims? Why was Islam replaced by belief in Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead? Why didnt Jesus’ 33 years of preaching amount to anything that lasted?

Muslims will most likely respond to these questions by arguing, once again, that Christianity corrupted Jesus’ message and that the Christian church erased all memory of Jesus’ Islamic teachings. However, no true Muslim should accept this position, for it conceals the true Quranic account of what happened :

**The Quran states that Allah deceived people into believing that Jesus’ had died on the cross. **According to the Quran, Jesus was able to convert at least some Jews to Islam. But we know from history that Jesus’ early followers became convinced of his death and resurrection. Hence, the obvious reason that there were no Muslims after Jesus ascended into heaven is that all of Jesus’ followers came to believe that he died on the cross and rose from the dead. And where did they get this idea? According to Islam, the idea that Jesus died on the cross was started by Allah : "That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus The son of Mary, The Messenger of Allah” - But they killed him not, Nor crucified him, But so it was made To appear to them, And those who differ therein are full of doubts, With no (certain) knowledge, But only conjecture to follow, For a surety They killed him not- Nay, Allah raised him Unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise…
 
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Even if we allow that Allah’s only goal was to deceive the people who wanted to kill Jesus, it is clear that the disciples also fell for Allah’s deception. So who is responsible for the Christian belief that Jesus died on the cross? If Islam is correct, God started this idea when he decided to trick Jesus’ enemies into thinking that they had killed Jesus. This leads to even more problems. If the deception of the disciples was *unintentional, *
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then we must conclude that God didnt realize that he was about to start the largest false religion in the world. If it was *intentional, *then God is in the business of starting false religions. Therefore, the God of Islam is either dreadfully ignorant or maluciously deceptive also means that Jesus was the greatest failure in the history of the prophets. He spent 33 years preaching (again, he began preaching Islamic theology at birth), yet shortly after his death, the Children of Israel were divided into two board camps. Those who believe his message became Christians, all of who were guilty of the worst sin imaginable (shirik), while those rejected his message were guilty of rejecting one of God’s greatest messengers. Thus, whether people believed in Jesus or rejected him, everyone would ultimately be condemned and cast into the hellfire. It is strange, then, that Muslims consider Jesus to be one of the greatest prophets ever. It seems that he should have been able to win at least one lasting convert to Islam. But he didn’t. Further, a true prophet of Islam should have warned his followers not to turn away from Islam by falling for God’s deception. But Jesus never got that message across. Indeed, millions of people from around the world now refused to accept islam because they believe that Jesus died on cross for their sins, a teaching that goes back to a deceptive God and an incompetent Messiah… Answering Islam - David Wood. Edited by me
 
Im interested to hear what comments (or constructive criticisms) christians on this forum have in regards to this book. Im not here to debate but just wanna hear what some have to say after reading it. The book was written in 1998 by two former christians named Paul Addae and Tim Bowes. Its a bit of a read but very well researched. The authors restricted to quoting christian scholars and theologians in discussing the historical development of christianity.
 
There are MANY books written BEFORE Nicea that IF READ show that theose Christians believed as today’s Catholics (and Orthodox). The Faith has not changed. There are books like FAITH of the EARLY FATHERS, the Apostolic Fathers, On Apostolic Preaching by St Iranaues… these are NECESARY books for any Christian and ANYONE HONESTLY wanting to know the Faith of the EARLIEST Christians. You can find many of these resources here… thedavincicodedemolished.com/Ancient-Christianity.html
 
Here are works by the early Church Fathers, many who were ante-Nicene Fathers as well: newadvent.org/fathers/ Were their thoguhts Islamic? Hardly the case. None of them ever as much as even harboured the notion of Jesus as mere prophet, nor thought of any comng “prophet” after Christ.
 
Islam often bases its notions of Christianity of pre-Nicene heresies. It might be useful to review the great heresies.

Not so long ago, the West assumed that Islam was a dying religion. Hilaire Belloc would not have agreed:

“I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic, but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past: one might say that they are blinded by it.” Source = Hilaire Belloc

Belloc would not have been surprised by this article. from This Rock magazine.

“According to the Qur’an, all the prophets going back to Abraham preached a simple monotheism called Islam (submission). Jesus, called “Isa” in the Qur’an, is only a prophet and not God. He too preached Islam and even prophesied the coming of Mohammed as the final prophet. The Qur’an teaches that Jesus was not crucified and will not be resurrected until the Day of Resurrection at the end of time.” Terry L. Frazier, This Rock

An Islamic Story:

“I converted to Christianity without telling my family. To my shame, I gave them to understand that Greg converted to Islam when he married me. I simply couldn’t tell them about my conversion or that Greg and I were to have a Catholic marriage and a Catholic family life together. For them, to be a Christian is to be less than human. It is to be a dog, something vile, something filthy, the lowest of the low. I did tell them later, and I was happy to hear that my youngest brother had converted to Christianity six years after I had. Source
 
Hashi Al-Eritre:
As you all know Muslims have always claimed to Jesus Christ as a Prophet and Messenger in Islam. The question then arrises, who followed his true message during and after his time?

A unique pdf to shed some light on the early followers of Jesus Christ:

salafimanhaj.com/non/pdf/SalafiManhaj_BeforeNicea.pdf
(rightclick and save as)
Click to expand...
A Mosaic Floor of a 3rd century church has been uncovered in northern Israel near the biblical Armageddon. It may be the remains of the oldest church of Christianity. It was found when ground was being cleared to build a prison to house 1200 Palestininan prisoners. Mosaics clearely showed that a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous donated money to build the church in the memory “of the God, Jesus Christ.”
 
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