Bart Ehrman - Different forms of early Christian doctrine and beliefs - Lost Christianities

The Varieties of Ancient Christianity

"The wide diversity of early Christianity may be seen above all in the theological beliefs embraced by people who understood themselves to be followers of Jesus. In the second and third centuries there were, of course, Christians who believed in one God. But there were others who insisted that there were two. Some said there were thirty. Others claimed there were 365. In the second and third centuries there were Christians who believed that God had created the world. But others believed that this world had been created by a subordinate, ignorant divinity. (Why else would the world be filled
with such misery and hardship?) Yet other Christians thought it was worse than that, that this world was a cosmic mistake created by a malevolent divinity as a place of imprisonment, to trap humans and subject them to pain and suffering. In the second and third centuries there were Christians who  believed that the Jewish Scripture (the Christian “Old Testament”) was inspired by the one true God. Others believed it was inspired by the God of the Jews, who was not the one true God. Others believed it was inspired by an evil deity. Others believed it was not inspired.

In the second and third centuries there were Christians who believed that Jesus was both divine and human, God and man. There were other Christians who argued that he was completely divine and not human at all. (For them, divinity and humanity were incommensurate entities: God can no more be a
man than a man can be a rock.) There were others who insisted that Jesus was a full flesh-and-blood human, adopted by God to be his son but not himself divine. There were yet other Christians who claimed that Jesus Christ was two things: a full flesh-and-blood human, Jesus, and a fully divine being, Christ, who had temporarily inhabited Jesus’ body during his ministry and left him prior to his death, inspiring his teachings and miracles but avoiding the suffering in its aftermath.

In the second and third centuries there were Christians who believed that Jesus’ death brought about the salvation of the world. There were other Christians who thought that Jesus’ death had nothing to do with the salvation of the world. There were yet other Christians who said that Jesus never died. How could some of these views even be considered Christian? Or to put the question differently, how could people who considered themselves Christian hold such views? Why did they not consult their Scriptures to see that there were not 365 gods, or that the true God had created the world, or that Jesus had died? Why didn’t they just read the New Testament?

It is because there was no New Testament. To be sure, the books that were eventually collected into the New Testament had been written by the second century. But they had not yet been gathered into a widely recognized and authoritative canon of Scripture. And there were other books written as well, with equally impressive pedigrees—other Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses claiming to be written by the earthly apostles of Jesus. "

The above extract is taken from Bart Ehrman's book, Lost Christianities (Pages 2-3).

In a nutshell, it is difficult to identify whether the Christianity that exists today is the true Christianity or better put - religion preached by Jesus peace be upon him and his followers.

CL Edwards - Exposed as another FAKE Ex Muslim

Assalamalaikum Warehmatullahi Wabarakatuhu,

CL Edwards is one of the apologists doing the rounds on ABN SAT and has debated prominent Muslims such as Shadid Lewis in recent times. He is active on YouTube and Facebook proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to Muslims, in particular. I had the opportunity to speak to him recently on his Facebook page. It initiated with him posting a video where one of the sub sects of Islam was seen performing certain actions contrary to the teachings of Islam.

Below is a snapshot of the video that CL posted including his comments on the video itself.

To be honest, most Muslims including myself are skeptical about CL's claims of being an ex Muslim. The portrayal on his twitter page shows him to be an Ex Salafi Muslim with an appearance of a devout Muslim as confirmed by his friend, David Wood on his website. See below:

In light of the above, my contention is that a devout Salafi should know the names and practices of the different sub sects of the people in the video that CL shared on his Facebook page. Salafis keep close track of all other sects and denominations as they adhere to a strict form of Islam distancing themselves from additions and innovations into the religion. The practices in the video are regarded as an innovation and treated with disdain by Salafi Muslims.

So, I questioned him on the sect of Islam in his video post. His response was somewhat strange albeit it was supposed to be a simple answer for an Ex Salafi Muslim.

Shouldn't he have known the sect already by name? Barelwis who follow the concept of pir and fakir? He just responded with what the writer of the initial video wrote in the first place.

I followed it up with another question.

And it got worse for him as he kept responding to the comments. No straightforward answer forthcoming with resorting to answering a question with a question - a clear indication of him avoiding the question.

He failed to answer basic questions about salah, deen and the name of the sect in his video post thus far. Now he throws in a few blows in the opposite direction totally unrelated to the topic. Notice he still hasn't answered basic questions.

  

Futile in my efforts to get a respond from CL Edwards, I decided to end the conversation with the following post.

It is clear that CL Edwards was NEVER an Ex Salafi Muslim let alone a Muslim. His association with deceptive apologists such as David Wood and Sam Shamoun who have publicly advertised CL Edward's ex Muslim affiliation only adds more weight to the claim.

He could not answer basic questions on Islam. His tactics of avoiding the question and writing in the manner that he did is what we have come to expect from Christian Evangelicals. It has become the norm.

Stay vigilant and stay alert. Alot of Ex Muslims have been exposed to be frauds. More prominent frauds include Ergun Caner, Walid Shoebat and Nabeel Qureshi. We can safely put CL Edwards into that category. He knows in his heart and his affair lies with the One who created him. But we have to make naive Muslims and Christians aware of their tactics.

If a person, is a known liar, what more reason do we have to listen to him? None.

Wsalam,
Shehzad
(darkness2noor)