« first day (4859 days earlier)      last day (141 days later) » 

Rusi
Rusi
06:06
@GratefulDisciple I've not seen this fully yet, but from what I've seen so far it looks like a very good high level view of the enormous FERTILE DIVERSITY that Christianity had prior to the Nicene massacres
Was Jesus the Founder of Christianity?
►
 
12 hours later…
GratefulDisciple
GratefulDisciple
18:28
@Rusi Just watched the first 2-3 minutes myself, but it's no news to anyone who studied theology in a seminary. In the first 3 minutes he only mentioned a handful early ones: Gnosticism (the 365 gods), Marcionism (OT is evil book, Jesus was never born), Docetism (Jesus didn't have human body, never died), and Apollinarism (Jesus didn't have a human soul).
But there have been many more un "orthodox" positions. The original word "heresy" simply meant those who walk another way; it didn't have the heavy censure it does today. So yes, over the first few centuries, the early church fathers dismiss those "heresy" one by one when measured by the "rule of faith" and part of the same process is canonization. The single rule is simple: preserving the teaching of the apostles that have been handed down (Latin traditio means handing down).
List of Christian heresies
A heresy is a belief or doctrine that is considered to be false or erroneous by one or more Christian denominations, i.e. what is believed to be contrary to the teaching of Christianity. Heresies have been a major source of division and conflict within Christendom throughout its history. Christian churches have responded to heresies in a variety of ways, including through theological debate, excommunication, and even violence. This is a list of some of the Christian heresies that have been condemned by one or more Christian Churches. == 2nd century == == 3rd century == == 4th century ...
I wouldn't call it "massacres"; it didn't go to that level, but yes, some authorities used heavy handed measures, like exile or dispossession, but no hanging or beheading or burning at the stake (yet). Even if there were, it was isolated and it's probably the pagans, like Hypatia, not fellow Christians. But if you have references, please share.
As for the video title "Was Jesus the Founder of Christianity?" where the answer is most likely "No", I have a feeling it's not a new theory either, the latest being the theory of Bart Ehrman, an ex evangelical pastor that Mr. Williams quoted. None of this is shocking to an average amateur apologist like myself. If you have specific claims that you want an answer for, I can help, or you can post to Christianity.SE under the tag apologetics.
I stopped around minute 4:00 when he started talking about Adoptionism, which in today's scene is largely the position of Jehovah Witnesses, which is quite a significant movement today, although non-orthodox. The other is of course LDS / Mormonism who are not Adoptionist, but soemthing else (cannot think of the name now).
 
5 hours later…
GratefulDisciple
GratefulDisciple
23:13
@Rusi I decided to continue listening to the video (partly because I enjoy listening to British accent, hehehe) up to minute 12. So it turns out he is focusing only on the Ebionites (Jewish adoptionist) who believes Jesus is a mere man selected by God during his baptism, who require following the entirety of the Jewish law, and consider Paul an arch heretic.
He then cited a book by James D.G. Dunn (Unity and Diversity in the New Testament), a figure I heard a lot in the New Perspective on Paul movement starting in the 1970s. It has been 50 years now, and more and more Christians update their view of how the Jews viewed the covenant without rejecting Trinitarianism that Paul also taught.

« first day (4859 days earlier)      last day (141 days later) »