History & Origins of Christianity and her Doctrines - A Collection

History & Origins of Christianity and her Doctrines - A Collection:

This upload focuses on the history and origins of Christianity and her doctrines. It contains the following 18 titles:

- Bigg - The Origins of Christianity (1909)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 1, Origins to Constantine (2006)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 2, Constantine to c. 600 (2007)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 4, Christianity in Western Europe 1100–1500 (2009)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 5, Eastern Christianity (2006)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 6, Reform and Expansion, 1500–1660 (2007)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 7, Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution, 1660–1815 (2006)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 8, World Christianities, 1815–1914 (2006)

- Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 9, World Christianities, 1914–2000 (2006)

- Hurtado - At the Origins of Christian Worship (1999)

- Johnson - Among the Gentiles; Greco Roman Religion and Christianity (2009)

- Robertson - A Short History Of Christianity (1902)

- Stephenson - The History of Christianity, Vol. I (1919)

- Stephenson - The History of Christianity, Vol. II (1919)

- Taylor - Christians and the Holy Places; The Myth of Jewish-Christian Origins (1993)

- Tuthill - Origin and Development of the Christian Dogma (1888)

- Wernle - Beginnings of Christianity, Vol. I (1903)

- Wernle - Beginnings of Christianity, Vol. II (1904)

On reading any of the books about the history of Christianity and her doctrines, one reaches the same conclusion: that Jesus has nothing to do with the "Christian" religion as has been practiced for the last 1800 years. Once the idea of the divinity of Jesus was introduced, Christianity progressively departed away from the teachings of Jesus.

Interestingly, the Qur'an told us about the above fact more than 1400 years ago. In Sura #5, Verses 116-118 we read the following:

5:116 When God says, ‘Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to people, “Take me and my mother as two gods alongside God”?’ he will say, ‘May You be exalted! I would never say what I had no right to say–if I had said such a thing You would have known it: You know all that is within me, though I do not know what is within You, You alone have full knowledge of things unseen–

5:117 I told them only what You commanded me to: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.” I was a witness over them during my time among them. Ever since You took my soul, You alone have been the watcher over them: You are witness to all things

5:118 and if You punish them, they are Your servants; if You forgive them, You are the Almighty, the Wise.’

The above verses are rich with information and meanings. Here are some of what these verses tell us:

a- The verses describe a session that will take place in the hereafter (in the Day of Judgment); in this session God brings Jesus to question him and to give him the chance to defend himself against the claims that he told people to worship him and to take him as a god or son of god.

b- We read here a clear rejection to the divinity of Jesus and in effect a rejection to all the doctrines that were built around it: that Jesus was a god or the son of God, the incarnation, the trinity, the atonement, etc.

c- These verses summarize the whole history of Christianity and her doctrines as far as the relation of Jesus to this religion is concerned. We read here that Jesus absolves himself from the actions of the Christians who came after his time and from the doctrines that were developed by them. He washes his hands of them.

d- When God questions Jesus about his actions, He knows the answer. But the denial has to come from Jesus himself. The verses demonstrate the complete submission of Jesus to his Lord. Jesus' answer is not a simple "no". Instead, he asserts he was only one prophet of many prophets that God sent to people with a clear message to deliver, and as such he would never ask his people to exalt him to the rank of gods. Here, Jesus admits his own shortcomings as a human; his limited life duration, and his limited influence and authority. He begs the mercy of his Lord by repeating the attributes of God and His dominance over His creatures.

e- Many non-Muslims who deny the prophethood of Muhammad claim that he wrote (or invented) the Qur'an.

Let us first recall that Prophet Muhammad was an illiterate who could not read or write. The Qur'an was revealed over a period of more than 20 years between the years AD 610-632, i.e. about 1400 years ago.

The style of the above verses, their richness with meanings, that they contain a clear and firm position towards the prevalent Christian doctrine at that time concerning the divinity of Jesus, and the setup of a questioning session in the Day of Judgment between God and Jesus clearly nullify any possibility that they could be of human origin. These verses could only be of divine revelation. There are simply no books or scripture comparable to the Qur'an written by any human (Arab or non-Arab) at the time of Muhammad, or before his time, or even after his time. And actually God in the Qur'an challenges the unbelievers in several places to produce a single Sura or few verses comparable to what is in the Qur'an.