hbk

I have a question about christianity. It doesn't have to be answered by a christian, anyone that knows about christianity can answer. How different christianity of today is from christianity that was 2000 years ago? How different they worship, how different they live? Most christians will say that their religion is still same and there is no change in bible or their religion. Is it right?

Toto

In the first century, Christians probably lived like the followers of David Koresh or some of those hippy communes that formed around a guru. They believed in sharing their wealth, and they thought that the end was coming soon.

Christianity has survived for 2000 years by adapting itself to whatever culture it was in.

mrmoderate

"Christianity" has unfortunately adapted to too many cultural and political demands. Christ however has remained the same.

Christian sects of today need to be completely dismantled and Christianity redefined in the manner it was meant to be taught and practiced.

By the way, Christianity is not the only faith that has changed from it's inception. I cannot think of one religion that too closely resembles it's origin.

hbk

It looks like Islam and Judaism didn't change at all. Jews still believe the same things and muslims still believe the same things. Both religions are pretty old but none had as many changed as christianity did.

Heathen Dawn

Not by a long shot. Look at Qabbalah and Hasidut in Judaism and at Sufism in Islam, how far removed they are from the theology of the Torah and the Qur’an. Judaism particularly has changed a lot. It originally had no afterlife, but now it has. It originally had no concept of omnimax for God, but now it has. The Jewish God has been deanthropomorphised through the ages. Islam has changed less, but that’s because it was already considerably more evolved in its inception than Judaism in its inception.

premjan

Sufism is not technically Islamic. It may owe its derivation as much to Zoroastrianism as to Islam.

Heathen Dawn

It’s an integral part of Islam. It conflicted with the more legalistic strains of Islam in the beginning, but in the 12th century the philosopher Al-Ghazali harmonised Tasawwuf and legalism.

It has lots of influences: Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, to name the more prominent ones.

miata

Jesus made a special point of discouraging the laying of emphasis on outer observances, and, indeed upon hard-and-fast rules and regulations of every kind. What he insisted upon was a certain spirit in one's conduct, knowing that when the spirit is right, the details will take care of themselves. Yet, in spite of this, the history of orthodox Christianity is largely made up of attempts to enforce all sorts of external observances on people.
~ Emmet Fox, American evangelist.

mrmoderate

Judaism was more fractionated at the time that Jesus lived than Christianity is today. Today's Judaism is more a religion of tradition that is allowed to change with the times. Judaism is as far from the Messianic faith of Isaiah as the Heaven's Gate cult is from the teachings of Jesus.

Muslims? C'mon! This is a religion that changed as much in the lifetime of Mohammed as most religions do over centuries. Even the focal point of Islam was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca.

Poor Buddha made it clear in his lifetime that he was never to be immortalized as a religious icon.

Heathen Dawn

Only if you believe Isaiah (in 53, for example) prophesied Jesus as the Messiah.