What happened after the Messiah left? What church or group championed the truth up until this present time? Lets look at some history, and later some prophesy. We know that Yashua foretold the coming destruction of Jerusalem and Israel that would take place in 69 or 70 AD, so too did the prophets. Lets take a look at the Roman point of view. First up, is the Roman historian Tacitus.
Tacitus on the Jews 110 CE:
"Some say that the Jews were fugitives from the island of Crete, who settled on the nearest coast of Africa about the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the power of Jupiter. Evidence of this is sought in the name. There is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida; the neighboring tribe, the Idaei, came to be called Judaei by a barbarous lengthening of the national name. Others assert that in the reign of Isis the overflowing population of Egypt, led by Hierosolymus and Judas, discharged itself into the neighboring countries. Many, again, say that they were a race of Ethiopian origin, who in the time of king Cepheus were driven by fear and hatred of their neighbors to seek a new dwelling-place. Others describe them as an Assyrian horde who, not having sufficient territory, took possession of part of Egypt, and founded cities of their own in what is called the Hebrew country, lying on the borders of Syria. Others, again, assign a very distinguished origin to the Jews, alleging that they were the Solymi, a nation celebrated in the poems of Homer, who called the city which they founded Hierosolyma after their own name. Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods."
Tacitus does not hide his disdain for the Hebrew people, calling them a "race detested by the Gods". This in part surely came from frustrations in trying to get the Hebrews to accept Hellenism and Roman rule. He goes on to lament their religious practices that make them so different:
"...This worship, however introduced, is upheld by its antiquity; all their other customs, which are at once perverse and disgusting, owe their strength to their very badness. The most degraded out of other races, scorning their national beliefs, brought to them their contributions and presents. This augmented the wealth of the Jews, as also did the fact, that among themselves they are inflexibly honest and ever ready to shew compassion, though they regard the rest of mankind with all the hatred of enemies. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though, as a nation, they are singularly prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; among themselves nothing is unlawful. Circumcision was adopted by them as a mark of difference from other men. Those who come over to their religion adopt the practice, and have this lesson first instilled into them, to despise all gods, to disown their country, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren. Still they provide for the increase of their numbers. It is a crime among them to kill any newly-born infant. They hold that the souls of all who perish in battle or by the hands of the executioner are immortal. Hence a passion for propagating their race and a contempt for death."
And further:
"Quite different is their faith about things divine. The Egyptians worship many animals and images of monstrous form; the Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence. They call those profane who make representations of God in human shape out of perishable materials. They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay. They therefore do not allow any images to stand in their cities, much less in their temples. This flattery is not paid to their kings, nor this honor to our Emperors. From the fact, however, that their priests used to chant to the music of flutes and cymbals, and to wear garlands of ivy, and that a golden vine was found in the temple, some have thought that they worshiped father Liber, the conqueror of the East, though their institutions do not by any means harmonize with the theory; for Liber established a festive and cheerful worship, while the Jewish religion is tasteless and mean."
You likely have never seen or read anything about the Roman opinion of the "Jews" until today. Rome was at variance with the Hebrew race from the start, and there were several violent uprisings and rebellions before and after the time of Yashua.
This is important, because after Rome finally destroyed Jerusalem and Israel, they began to severely persecute any Hebrews that remained, causing a mass exodus by the Hebrews from the land of Canaan. However, "the Cult of the Way" (that would eventually be named "Christianity" ), was spreading quickly throughout many Roman territories. After ruthless pececutions of these new belivers failed to stop its spread, Rome, and the Emporor Constitne decided to sabotage it, and take control of this movement. The Roman Catholic church was born. However, the following creed was mandated:
The Constantine Creed
"I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifices of lambs of the Hebrews, and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspirations, purifications, sanctifications, and propitiations, and fasts and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants, and observances and synagogues, absolutely everything Jewish, every Law, rite and custom and if afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let the trembling of Cain and the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge myself liable. And may I be an anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with Satan and the devils."
(Stefano Assemani, Acta Sanctorium Martyrum Orientalium at Occidentalium, Vol. 1, Rome 1748, page 105)
Rome finally corrupted the Hebrew religion by
- Driving the Hebrew people out of Canaan, and filling the vacuum
- Getting people to believe that the "Jews" were forsaken by God because of the Crucifixion
- Getting people to believe that the Law was "done away with"
- changing the calendars of the world to the new Gregorian calendar, thus confusing the Sabbath
- Replacing the Sabbath with Sunday worship
- Creating images to worship, and grafting in the observance of pagan holidays
- Causing Christians to believe that anything "Jewish" was of the Devil.
- Dividing the One God of the Hebrews into 3 persons.
- Setting up a "Pope" to be"vicer" or" in place of" God.
- Destroying and altering Hebrew scriptures, changing Hebrew names to negate their meanings.
- Removing The Name of God from translated scriptures, and replacing it with "LORD".
These things were solidified by the First Counsel of Nicea.
"The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the Church. Most significantly, it resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent local and regional councils of Bishops (Synods) to create statements of belief and canons of doctrinal orthodoxy—the intent being to define unity of beliefs for the whole of Christendom.
Derived from Greek (Ancient Greek: οἰκουμένη oikouménē "the inhabited one"), "ecumenical" means "worldwide" but generally is assumed to be limited to the known inhabited Earth, (Danker 2000, pp. 699-670) and at this time in history is synonymous with the Roman Empire; the earliest extant uses of the term for a council are Eusebius' Life of Constantine around 338, which states "he convoked an Ecumenical Council" (Ancient Greek: σύνοδον οἰκουμενικὴν συνεκρότει sýnodon oikoumenikḕn synekrótei) and the Letter in 382 to Pope Damasus I and the Latin bishops from the First Council of Constantinople.
One purpose of the council was to resolve disagreements arising from within the Church of Alexandria over the nature of the Son in his relationship to the Father: in particular, whether the Son had been 'begotten' by the Father from his own being, and therefore having no beginning, or else created out of nothing, and therefore having a beginning. St. Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius took the first position; the popular presbyter Arius, from whom the term Arianism comes, took the second. The council decided against the Arians overwhelmingly (of the estimated 250–318 attendees, all but two agreed to sign the creed and these two, along with Arius, were banished to Illyria).
Another result of the council was an agreement on when to celebrate Easter, the most important feast of the ecclesiastical calendar, decreed in an epistle to the Church of Alexandria in which is simply stated:
" We also send you the good news of the settlement concerning the holy pasch, namely that in answer to your prayers this question also has been resolved. All the brethren in the East who have hitherto followed the Jewish practice will henceforth observe the custom of the Romans and of yourselves and of all of us who from ancient times have kept Easter together with you."
Historically significant as the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, the Council was the first occasion where the technical aspects of Christology were discussed. Through it a precedent was set for subsequent general councils to adopt creeds and canons. This council is generally considered the beginning of the period of the First seven Ecumenical Councils in the History of Christianity." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
In 1512 Christopher Marcellus said this to Pope Julius II:
"Take care that we lose not that salvation, that life and breath which thou hast given us, for thou art our shepherd, thou art our physician, thou art our governor, thou art our husbandman, thou art finally another God on earth"
In 2004, Bishop Patrick Dunn of Auckland said:
"It seems that Pope John Paul II now presides over the universal Church from his place upon Christ's cross."
The Gloss of Extravagantes of Pope John XXII:
"But to believe that our Lord God the Pope the establisher of said decretal, and of this, could not decree, as he did decree, should be accounted heretical"
