After reading the book, I realized I’m following much more of the Bible as a Muslim than an average Christard zealot does.

whoa, I didn't know there were Churches that don't follow Paul. he's one of my biggest issues with Christianity.

I felt like Christianity suffered a lot from so many gentiles streaming in early on without becoming Jews, and by the time it became the religion of Rome it blended with Sol Invictus, Greek Platonism and other Roman mythology, and became incomprehensible. Jesus was Jewish, the Disciples were all Jews, all the context of his teachings only make sense in a context the fresh converts lacked.

I kinda wonder about an alternate universe where a sect of Jews accept Jesus as Moshiach but not as literally God. there'd be no trinity, the parables would go into the Talmud, he'd be seen as a rebbe like Hillel I guess.

Pretty sure his Roman.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

- Matthew 5:17 KJV

To be a follower of Jesus, which is what the disciples originally called themselves, you would need to observe the law... IE, follow the original kosher laws and such.

The real (historical) reasons why Christians don't follow Jesus's religious traditions, come from an ease of assimilation. The Catholic church assimilated pagans into the religion, and it was easier to do so by telling them they don't have to change their current traditions, and that they just have to celebrate Easter, for example, for the birth of Christ and not as a celebration of the goddess of war, love, and fertility.

There are movements that try to go back to this core belief, though. Jews for Jesus and Messianic Judaism are two such movements, where they celebrate Judaism nearly in its entirety, while also believing Jesus was their savior and following his teachings. Truly an interesting, seemingly contradictory, mix of views.

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I am fully aware that there are disagreements on whether or not Catholicism is Christianity or even whether it's a monotheistic or polytheistic religion, and, as such, whether the Catholic assimilations of pagans were relevant to Christianity as a whole. But, honestly, I couldn't care less. In the wise words of Shepherd Book, "I don’t care what you believe in, just believe in it".

But like...would Jesus have been cool with that?

Abrahamic religions generally frown upon non-procreative sex. Not to justify their hate, but they generally see sex for pleasure as inherently sinful.

If you wanna follow Jesus (according to the best of our information about him), you can't be a Trinitarian quasi polytheist who thinks faith, salvation and works are all disjointed and independent. But Paulian doctrines are nothing but that, and the way for a Roman Empire to convert Jesus' message of accountability and righteousness and his Abrahamic monotheism to something more palatable and in-line with their existing beliefs. This includes but is not limited to: a pantheon of three (with a "human God" as one of those three), "consumption of blood and flesh" rituals, the Day of Judgment no longer being one of actual judgment because if you "believe" "Jesus is God" you're automatically saved, whatever Paulian "grace" was...

The Roman Empire is the grandaddy of all Western imperialistic doctrines and my informed guess is that Paul, who didn't actually know Jesus and even in the Bible he gets told off by Jesus' actual followers, was nothing more than an agent of destabilisation and an infiltrator, perhaps sent by the Romans themselves but if not at least used by them to create what we know now as "Roman Catholicism", which is nothing but a deformed, unrecognisable husk of the teachings of big J. Whether this happened this way or more organically is up to debate, whether Jesus' teachings and Christendom are fundamentally different is not, though, that just requires some basic reading comprehension skills.

Yeah. Jesus was explicitly clear that he came specifically for the Jews and that his offer was for them. The only gospel story that even hints at anything is is the story of the Gentile woman who wanted him to hear her daughter; he told her that he came for the Jews, and she replied that even the dogs may eat scraps from the master's table. Jesus was "amazed by her faith" and healed her daughter, but that's the end of the story.

It's only after Jesus' death that Peter had a vision that he interpreted to mean that Gentiles could be accepted as following Jesus too, and then Paul really leaned into it. Most of the rest of the New Testament is written by Paul or one of his disciples.

Was it though? Like back then?

theoretically, Muslims and Jews should be closer. both believe in one god, rather than a trinity. both reject icons. both follow the dietary laws. both Jews and Arabs descend from Abraham.

maybe the closer you are the more you have to fight about 🤷‍♀️

You can't be Muslim and think anything or anyone else is Divine in any way like Him, be it a son or an accompanying "god". The Oneness of God is a core, undeniable part of Islam (any branch, any sect, etc., because it's based on a singular book that's accessible to all, the Qur'an, and that's like THE main tenet of it). But yes, prophet Isa, big J, is of course a big part of the history of the religion! I don't mean to be mean to Christians but listen, even in the Bible Jesus is shown praying (why would "God" pray?!), asking for intercession, and even denying being called 'good' because "only the Father is good" (because all of these hard categories belong only to God, He's the superlative of all the good traits, our unreachable goal, since there's "good and bad" in all of us, a bit of vice not just virtue). Jesus was a man who believed in God and asked Him for help and his prayer mentions it strongly!

But yeah, Jesus is/should be seen as big for every Muslim regardless of whether you know his message or not simply because, even if it didn't take complete root and the message was shared to the world already changed and corrupted by the Romans, it did perhaps prepare the world, through Western colonization, for virtue and monotheism (if you believe you'll meet the Creator and be judged for your decisions in life you kind of have a bigger motivation to act right! lol), and that's a crazy way to get there but hey, the Lord works in mysterious ways. And then people can adopt Islam, which basically takes any man, saints, St. Peter and the keys, etc, all of that nonsense out of the equation entirely and tells you: "your life is and the universe are gifts from your Creator that you will never be able to repay (of course, who here can make a universe?!), enjoy them but walk the straight path, and you will meet Him again on the Day of Judgment and if you were even slightly decent (at the very least very repentant while you're alive still), you get an even better second, eternal life (why not? He already made a universe once at least!).

No year "exists", we made up the entire concept of keeping track of "years" in the first place.

Christianity wasn’t a thing until 200 years after his death.

Also…Teenjus!

IIRC it was other people abusing temples to set up markets there, he didn't have problems with the church itself.