Is Christianity in its original form?

Question

The council of Nicea established the cardinal doctrine of Christianity, Trinity (by Athanesius of Alexandria)

The council also changed the birthday of Prophet Jesus to 25 December to match the birthday of Sun-God Mithras, and shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

The year was 325 A.D. according to the Roman calendar. A council was convened by order of Constantine, the Roman emperor. He had been a leader in the cult known as Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun) and now wanted to unite the Christian sects in the empire under his existing church; the Universal Church of Rome. Many changes to the religion of Christianity were about to take place at that council, including:

Formulation for wording concerning the Trinity based on Anthanias (description of the formulation is mentioned below)
Changing Verses of Bible
Eliminating certain verses and books from the Bible
Declaring Arian's "unitarian" (belief in the Unity of God) as heresy
Changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday
Changing the date of Jesus' birthday to December 25th
Introduction of Easter (pagan worship called "Feast of Ishtar")
Church of Roman "officially" became the "Universal Church of the Holy Roman Empire" (the word 'Catholic' means 'universal'

Answer 1

Definitly not in its original form.
It was supposed to keep the words and deeds of "the christ" pure and unchanged until the Jewish peoples reconised that Jesus was the promised messiah.
In try to optain converts from other religions the Christian Church has made a very bad mix of different Ideas that have covered over the true message of Jesus"the Christ"

Answer 2

Let me answer this from a Unitarian-Universalist perspective. We do not accept the views of the Catholic Church or early Western Church, as our religion was a reaction to Catholic orthodoxy and law. We don't have a religious authority and work through the community and our governing bodies instead. We must have a mechanism for social change and advocacy in place as this is a cornerstone of Universalism. The two churches merged in the late 1800s.

The view on the Orthodox Church is that it is the original Eastern Orthodox Church. We consider it to be an offshoot of Roman Catholicism. It is simply a mixture of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox tradition, but it is not a part of our religion. I am not saying you can't study its philosophy or guiding principles, but truly believe it would be considered heretical to be a member of the Orthodox or Catholic Church and then attend our chuch as a full member at the same time. This applies to other religions as well. You can visit but you can't join without renunciation of other sects or religions. At least in the more traditional view, that applies. Only with Orthodox and Catholic belief is it considered heretical. In other situations, it is hypocritical or unorthodox. Why? Because we are banned from a belief in the Holy Trinity. That is the first reason and there are others.

The beliefs of the Nazarites, Jews, early Protestant reformers, the Universalist Church, Buddhism, secular humanism and Gnostic Christians are of special value to us.

Answer 3

As it was established by Constintine and the council of Nicea, then yes, Christianity is still in its original form.

If you mean the period of time between Yeshua's teachings and Constantine, then no, its completly different.

What had started out as a return to God's Torah and away from the reforms of the Pharisees became muddied as Gentiles converted yet didn't learn Torah.

The Sabbath wasn't changed from Saturday to Sunday, it was changed from the lunar calendar Sabbath to the Julian/Roman calendar Sunday.

The time of birth for Yeshua was during the Feast of Tabernacles, aka Sukkot, to the pagan-based winter solstice.

Answer 4

I would say that there are 3 religions closest to its original form. They would be Roman Catholicism, Episcopalian (Anglican), & the Orthodox churches. These have remained closest to the moral teachings & traditions. Of those 3, the Orthodox churches have changed the least in regards to rites & traditions. However, the Episcopalian & Orthodox religions no longer recognize the pope as the head of their churches. Thats a pretty major change given that Jesus made St. Peter the head of the church & his leadership continued in apostolic succession by the appointment of bishops to preserve the teachings of God. The Apostles chose these men & declared that when they died, successors were to be chosen. St Peter, as head of the church, was to be succeeded from these men.

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" is a wonderful source and if you are Catholic it is well worth the cost.
The council made changes in traditions but the important thing is that no changes were made re faith or morals.

Re the date in which we celebrate the Lord's birth, does it really matter since the date of his actual birth is unknown. Using that date brought many pagans into the Church.

Re the sabbath: The sabbath has always been Saturday for Catholics. However, they celebrated the Lord's day on Sunday based upon apostolic tradition. I suspect that the Mass is also celebrated now on the sabbath for practical reasons due to the extreme shortage of priests.

The catholic church has never changed the important basics of the faith which are matters of faith & morals.

Answer 5

...as well as many other things, including creating Easter from the Pagan Ostara, and All Hallow's Eve (later to be known as Halloween, and further revised to All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day) from the Pagan Samhain.

The Trinity concept was also taken from Pagan belief.

Because of these things (and others) I would have to say: no. No Christian denomination in practice today is the same as it was when Jesus' first followers formed the true religion shortly after his resurrection.

For what it's worth, and for everything that I have sought to learn about various Christian sects, if there is any Christian denomination that is closest to the truth of the original foundation of Christianity, I believe it would be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They reject the idea of the Trinity, recognize the origins of the holidays other Christian sects celebrate, and respect differences of religion, the way Jesus was said to be tolerant and respectful of everyone. I have also found that, in comparison to Christians of other denominations, Mormons are much more conscious of their doctrines and what they practice. They are less like sheep than any other branch of Christians I have had the pleasure of learning about.

Just my two cents...

Answer 6

No I don't think so. Christianity has definately altered from its original form as it did over the years. You'd have to go back to the time after Jesus...During this time would probably be the closest period of original christianity. For the first 1400 years, Catholics was the only church. During this time, the Pope was the basic rule of Law and also during this time the church became very corrupt such as charging a hefty sum to say your dead relative was in heaven. The main difference between Catholics back then was the bible was read in Latin. That changed when King James thought the bible should be translated. A lot of people believe he translated it to benefit his rule. It's a shame if he did.

Answer 7

Absolutely not - Christianity has definitely been modified over the years. The original Christians were a sect of Judaism, as Jesus was Hebrew. It wasn't until the time of the Emperor Constantine that Christians distinguished themselves from the Jews.

Answer 8

Christianity in it's original form .. say AD 60 or so was mostly just a new sect of Judaism, and true they don't know the real birth date of Jesus.. so I guess no harm in picking one. The early Jewish Christians practiced the Sabbath 7th day (of course that was on the Jewish lunar calendar), so we don't know which day is the 7th that was used back in King David's time.. The early non Jewish Christians worshiped on the 1st day of the week ..(See writings of Paul)..

Answer 9

The Council at Nicea is said to have codified what had been made obvious to church leaders up until that time concerning a trinitarian understanding of God.

Beyond that, however, the essential elements of what makes Christianity what it is has remained, and I don't think that is affected in any way by what day one chooses to celebrate an aspect of that Christian faith.

Answer 10

not really

first of all the exact day Jesus was born is unimportant

second as far as the Sabbath, you can blame Jesus for moving it.. Jesus appeared on th Sunday and appeared a week later on Sunday the apostles order collections on Sunday , eutichus was raised on Sunday, the last book of the Bible was given on Sunday and the Holy Spirit came on Sunday and frankly an extraordinary list of events happening on Sunday

as far as the Sabbath goes Jesus is the boss... if He wants Sunday as the Lord's day and faith as an ultimate Sabbath so be it. Truthfully, I would not consider the day one uses for the Lords day as an essential anyhow there are more important issues and Christians can yet disagree on some things in good conscience