Conspiracy theorists

Here's a short list of " Crazy Conspiracy Theories" that have come true
-The US government spying on american citizens via phone
-The US government spying on american citizens via email
-The CIA's long list of experiments on the US and Foreign citizens
-The CIA arming rebel groups to cause insurrections among foreign governments
-The FBI agent who found out that the Twin towers would be attacked and was fired by his superiors
-The Iran COntra affair and the CIA's Importation of Cocaine
-The disinformation campaign against Canabis to support private prisons, alcohol, and big pharma
-The US Governments assisnation of MLK, JFK and Malcolm X to discourage social Change

 

Vaccines are a conspiracy? Oh, well I don't take them anyways.

 

I don't think size has anything to do with it. Business was done with the US because they owned the products that my old company wanted to sell. For a number of people in the US Christianity is a big business.

The thing is with history we can only present hypotheses and theories since we can't have a conversation with those who lived centuries ago, so we may not fully know how such people thought. So I can't fully know how the early Christians thought about everything and I might be wrong with some of my theories. But the fact that the early church was in a different culture and time I think it's fair to say they would of seen things differently.

I'm no expert, I have not study any of these issues and there are certain example that I struggle to understand.

But here are some examples I can think of:

Persecution and Oppression
While some historians doubt the fact the early church was persecuted from what I know I think it's likely they were persecuted. Most Christians in the West have no idea what what it's like to be really be persecuted. So since scripture talks about persecution and Christians aren't being persecuted then persecution has to be invented. So someone laughs at a Christian it's persecution, if someone gets annoyed with a Christian they claim there being persecuted but then we have the early church who were being attacked, imprisoned and killed. I think it's likely the early church weren't wanting the oppression they were experiencing but nowadays western christians have a persecution complex. There seems to be this desire among christians to be persecuted, so they look for anything that may indicate someone or something that doesn't like their faith. We have the issue of the 'war on Christmas' and Starbucks cups but the early church had to deal with the possibility that the Romans might set their heads on fire.

Scripture says, 'Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God'. But the thing is we're the ones that are trusting in our equivalent of chariots and horses. If our armies adopted some of the military tactics of the Israelites we would be horrified. I've heard Christians say we need to say away from such verses. Such verses are far too radical for us. But that's the thing, the Christians weren't the ones in power, they were the ones being oppressed.

Antichrist and the Rapture
Generally what the western church views as the Antichrist is probably different to how the early church viewed it. First of all there wasn't one Antichrist, there were many. For many in Christianity they mix up the Beast and the Antichrists. They are completely different people according to scripture. Also, a study of the code seems to reveal Nero as being the antichrist, and if the actual code reveals him to be Antichrist then that changes how one should view Revelation. The trouble is most Christians don't understand koine Greek but those reading the letter did and also knew the koine Greek alphabet and could work out the code. With Revelation there so much excitement from westerners due to what they've been taught by the church and the media so there's not much straight forward thinking regarding it. 666 isn't an evil number, it's just a code.

The rapture is a word of western invention. It's not mentioned in scripture at all since it came about in the 1830s. While it was thought up by a British Bible Teacher the rapture theology has been spread by many American ministries. It's been teached so much that most Christians automatically embrace it as the only way to view the subject of the end times. I think it's likely the early church didn't believe in the rapture. Furthermore I think the second coming probably did happen during the lifetime of the early church. If it didn't the gospel writers misheard Jesus, added words to Jesus or Jesus lied about his second coming.

Prosperity Gospel
With Joel Osteen being mentioned this has to come up. While Osteen isn't as hardcore in his teaching of prosperity compared to someone like Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis or Kennith Copland he does teach it. The prosperity gospel is clearly an American invention since it was brought about by two Americans (E.W. Kenyon and Kenneth Hagin). I think it was something that not only the early church didn't believe but also the likes of Luther, Calvin and Wyclef would reject it. The thought that Jesus was a millionaire or that Jesus died so Christians can become wealthy seems to go against the teachings of Christianity.

Hell and Justification
I mentioned earlier that some things I struggle to understand and this is it. I think I've been so indoctrinated by the medieval interpretation of scripture that it's hard to shake. Eternal conscious torment seems to come straight from Medieval England. Scripture is vague in how we should interpret the descriptions of hell but the Medieval English Church wasn't. The church back then was so powerful and hell's eternal conscious torment was the weapon they used to hold onto their power.

Onto justification. I think it's fair to say Martin Luther had a deep hatred of two groups of people: the Catholic Church and the Jews and I think it's possible his interpretation of justification could of been influenced by such hatred. Europe has a history of antisemitism and the religion of Europe was started by Jews. So what do Jew haters do when they follow a faith started by a Jew? They try to distance themselves from Jewishness in Christianity. We see that with publication of Jews and Their Lies and the historical accounts of Jews becoming scapegoats. If a crime was committed a Jew did it. Synagogues were burnt down by Christians because Jews were 'Christ killers'. So why did Martin Luther really preach justification? Was it just to get back at the catholic church? How much of it had to do with bring further separation from Christianity's Jewish roots? I don't know for sure but I think Christian Europe's embrace of antisemitism has been infected our understanding of Christianity. So when the new perspective argues that we don't know much about Christianity's jewish influence I sit up and take notice.
The question is what is Christianity? Is it knowing you can’t earn God’s favour or an understand that you must be transformed by the Holy Spirit. What is the influencence of such beliefs? What role does antisemitism play? What role does Jewish culture play?

The debate between reformers and the new perspective is confusing. It's hard for me to completely understand it but as I said I think the new perspective are onto something.

Here a debate on it:

Some would say quite a lot.

I would say at the very least he changed Christianity's relationship with power. Those in the early christianity didn't have much regard for those in power within Christianity. Christianity was for the weak and powerless, not for those had the power. When Constantine decided to go with Christianity he got Christianity to become the oppressors rather the oppressed. Instead of trusting in God, the church started trusting in horses and chariots.