John Larke

The Way to Christianity: the Historical Origins of Christianity John Larke

The earliest Christians wrote their own history to justify their faith and claim a direct line of "authoritive" teachings based on the words of Jesus. As a result a good deal of what they compiled was belief rewritten as though it was history. Remarkably after almost two millennia, it is possible to recover the authentic origins of Christianity, based exclusively on the historical sources rather than belief. This shows that the beginnings of Christianity lie in two quite disparate religious groups, one of which was exclusively Jewish, whilst the other was predominantly gentile. The spiritual leadership of the Jewish sect, which became known as "The Way", was provided by a succession of holy -men from the same extended family, which included Jesus. The central prophesy of The Way was the imminent arrival of the "Kingdom of God ". When, with God's help, the Jewish Nation would overcome Roman occupation and permanently rid itself of foreign domination. The kingdom of God was exclusively Jewish and the Gentile world played no part in it. After the death of Paul of Tarsus his followers lost their Jewish inheritance and began to see Jesus in ways that were profoundly heretical within Judaism yet wholly acceptable within the Pagan world. In particular they claimed that Jesus was the divine "Son of God", rather than a " Son of God" in a Jewish sense, where a deeply religious Jewish man, who did the will of God, could be regarded as a true " Son of God".