The First Christians were mainly of Jewish decent and Christianity began as a Jewish sect. Jesus was a thoroughly dedicated practicing Jew who never suggested the launch of a new religion. Jesus lived and died a dedicated Jew. The disciples, led by James, the brother of Jesus, and Peter, continued to maintain their Jewish identities but made Rabbi Jesus the centerpiece of their Jewish practices
It wasn’t until Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, initiated a rift between his brand of Jewish Christianity and the teachings of the Jerusalem-based disciples of Jesus.
That divide eventually drifted toward increasing separation of Christianity and Judaism. But Jewish converts to the new Jewish Christianity as taught by the apostles of Jesus, continued to worship in synagogues, a practice that was still proliferating as late as the fourth century
Eventually the Jewish Christianity as set up by the apostles of Jesus fizzled out and the Christianity of Paul took precedence.
As Gentiles starting converting to Paul’s form of Christianity, (For he was an apostle to the Gentiles only) the basis of conversion was on the teachings of Paul and not the teachings of the 12 apostles of Jesus. The teaching of both were very different. (Which I will point out later in another post)
The Gentiles Christians had no necessity to get a hold of the Hebrew Scriptures, learn the language and read it in order to be baptized as a Christian of Paul’s teachings. Paul taught that the “Law” referring to the Mosiac Law was not necessary for salvation. Thus no need to get familiar with the Father of Jesus.
Thus many Gentiles who became Christian just accepted Jesus’s Father, Jehovah as being a God of Love, Wisdom, Justice, and all the other qualities inherent in an Almighty God.
Most Gentiles also never had access to the Hebrew or Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Had they been able to read about the father of Jesus and his personality, it would have given many gentiles a pause to dedicating themselves to such a God that is characterized by bouts of anger and unrestrained killing of innocent people and animals.
As time went on and more people from different nations who were UN-familiar with the Old Testament, and had no idea that the Old Testament God killed 70, 000 of his own faithful, loyal worshipers just because some King pissed him off because he took a census count.
And the same God also brought a Global flood that killed billions of innocent animals and all human-kind except 8 individuals, when there were better solutions to the problem of evil.
A pause with some mediation and critical thinking would have revealed to any reasonable person that it would have been very easy for an ALL WISE God to just close the gate, and put a stop to all the bad Angels from materializing in human form and causing havoc on the earth.
And instead of killing the billions of animals and all the humans world wide, why not send 10 or 20 thousand Angels who have the power to kill 185,000 heavily armed solders in one night, and just selectively kill the evil people causing ruin on the earth?
But most Gentile Christians never got the opportunity to become familiar with the God of Jesus.
They just took it for granted, (like most Christians Today) that the father of Jesus was just as loving and as reasonable as Jesus Himself. After all, Jesus did say; “If you have seen me, you have seen the father”
Reading both the OT and the NT would contradict that statement.
As a matter of fact, Christians Were Denied Access to Their Bible for about 1,000 Years for this very reason.
To find out about the father of Jesus, was to lose membership in the Christianity of Paul, which of course translates into the loss of donations.. Thus gentile Christians were denied access to the complete bible for some 1000 years plus.
And this is one reason why now in the age of the internet, and everyone has access to a bible, more and more Christians are calling it quits. Because they finally got the opportunity to READ the OLD TESTAMENT, and found out what kind of person the Father of Jesus REALLY IS.
Now it's becoming more obvious to readers of the Old Testament, that the idea of the Father of Jesus being a Wise, Loving, and a Just God, was nothing more that a Huge House of Cards built on an "Emotional Idea" instead of reality.
Decree of the Council of Toulouse (1229 C.E.): “We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.”
Ruling of the Council of Tarragona of 1234 C.E.: “No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned...”
Proclamations at the Ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415 C.E.: Oxford professor, and theologian John Wycliffe, was the first (1380 C.E.) to translate the New Testament into English to “...helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which they know best Christ’s sentence.” For this “heresy” Wycliffe was posthumously condemned by Arundel, the archbishop of Canterbury. By the Council’s decree “Wycliffe’s bones were exhumed and publicly burned and the ashes were thrown into the Swift River.”
Fate of William Tyndale in 1536 C.E.: William Tyndale was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. According to Tyndale, the Church forbid owning or reading the Bible to control and restrict the teachings and to enhance their own power and importance.